Job title: Business Development Manager
Title of the Exercise: Research/Targeting Customers - Identifying Companies
Overview: Candidate will find three companies that fit the ideal candidate profile that they put together during their take-home exercise.
Candidate Setup:
-
Interviewer will set the candidate up with the verticals that they would like the candidate to go after with the expectation that they will find three companies that fit the ICP.
-
Interviewer will answer any questions they have and give them guidance before having them independently do this research.
-
Interviewer will give the candidate 15 minutes to identify 3 companies before coming back into the room to discuss.
Interviewer Question:
-
What online tools did you use to identify the companies?
-
Walk me through why you identified these three companies?
Job title: Business Development Manager
Title of the Exercise: Campaign Process - Customer Outreach
Overview: Candidate is asked to set-up an outbound email campaign (cadence) for the companies they targeted in their first exercise. Worksheet for Candidate Exercise
Candidate Setup: Interviewer will ask the candidate to create an automated outbound email campaign for one of the companies they targeted in their first exercise. Interview will present the candidate with a printout of the HubSpot workflows page with all action options: 
-
Have the candidate build a campaign cadence on paper using the action items listed on the workflows page.
-
The candidate should select three actions from the campaign for which to write out the text and/or select relevant content (blog posts, white papers, podcasts, press, etc.).
-
After the cadence is built, the candidate should provide options for personalizing each email to a particular recipient.
Candidate is asked to create:
-
A 5-action campaign cadence (including at least 3 messages) on paper using the action items listed on the workflows page.
-
Three messages directed at one target company including selecting relevant content that would be of interest the customer (for example: blog posts, events, white papers, news articles).
-
A timeline for the execution of the campaign.
Interview Questions:
- Walk me through the campaign process that you defined.
Job title: Business Development Manager
Title of the Exercise: Project Management - Campaign Planning
-
Overview: Candidate is asked to plan out their day considering that they have six campaigns that they need to run. Specifically, describe how you plan on preparing and executing on the campaigns, what can you do to customize and personalize. After campaign efforts, describe calling plans. What in addition would you plan on doing to ensure keeping your day filled?
-
Candidate Prep:
-
Interviewer will give the candidate six campaigns that they would like for them to run in one day.
-
Review the campaigns with the candidate and allow them to ask any questions that they may have.
-
-
Interview Questions:
- Walk me through the day you have planned and what campaigns you will focus on.
Job title: Business Development Manager
Title of the Exercise: Technical Acumen - Database Marketplace
Overview: It is important that the candidate understands the value of what a solid database solution is. For this interview, the candidate will be asked to engage in a conversation around the value that a database solution can bring to their customers. It is important that they understand why databases are important and have a baseline understanding of how they work and the marketplace in which they exist.
Set-up: Recruiter will send database resources to the candidate and ask them to read the resources in preparation of having a conversation about databases.
-
Interviewer will open the conversation with the candidate engaging in dialogue around the following areas:
-
Value of a database.
-
How a database operates.
-
What a database feature is and how it works.
-
Value proposition of CockroachDB vs competitors.
-
Interview Question:
-
Imagine using an ATM to deposit a check. Couple of minutes later, use a smartphone to review the account activity and send money overseas to a friend.
-
Steps though the interactions and describe database interactions.
For example: Insert Bank Card into the ATM. Is there a database interaction and what are information to/from the database? -
What properties would be required by database and why are those properties important. For example: Should ATM deposit show up when using smartphone to view account activity and why or why not?
-
Describe another industry and/or process aside from banking where these activities and properties are important?
Job title: Sale Engineer
Title of the Exercise: Sales Process
Overview: Sales Engineers work closely with sellers and should have an in-depth understanding of the sales process and what is required. Specifically around lead generation, project management, competitive situations, and individual expectations.
Set-up: Interviewer will dive into the following areas:
-
Lead Generation
-
Project Management
-
Competitive Situations
-
Individual Expectations
Note: Candidate should come prepared knowing how CRDB is different from other platforms and the benefits the product presents.
Job title: Sale Engineer
Title of the Exercise: Past Experiences with Databases
Overview: Engineering Interview Sequence interview. This conversation is a deep-dive discussion on a candidate’s technical background, specifically, their technical expertise of databases. The candidate is lead through a discussion so the interview can learn from the candidate about things they didn’t know. For example, a candidate should be able to explain what X is and then describe the trade-offs. The interviewer should also learn from the candidate what the technical reasons for the trade-offs are.
Set-up: The interviewer asks the candidate to pick one of the four technical areas:
-
What is feedback on install
-
What is feedback on monitoring
-
What is feedback on elastic scale out / scale in
-
[optional ] What is feedback on performance
Job title: Sale Engineer
Title of the Exercise: Project Management and Product Knowledge
Overview: Candidate will walk the interviewer through the take-home exercise and discuss the 4 objectives.
The objectives of the exercise are:
-
Describe pros/cons of CockroachDB install and monitoring and experience
-
Describe throughput characteristics during the insert workload
-
Describe pros/cons of elasticity and availability
-
SE’s view on architectural constraints of CockroachDB design that resulted in observed pros/cons
Job title: Sale Engineer
Title of the Exercise: Documentation
Overview: Candidate will have to read a lot of documentation. They will have feedback on the docs on how they like Cockroach vs other documentation. In this interview, the candidate will be led through a discussion on the organizational structure of the documentation.
Part 1: Discussion on the organizational structure of the documentation.