Base CRM Account Executive Interview Questions
& Process

Interviewing with Base was a breath of fresh air. I am a serious career driven individual and I was tired of all the fluffy BS that typically takes place with startup companies. The team at Base was very upfront with expectations and what the role entailed. I could tell right away this was a serious team. I connected with the hiring manager on Angles List. It was a four step process. There was a phone screen, Google hangouts, skills assessment, then a final interview with CEO. At the time I was located in Atlanta so the whole process was remote. It was clear they were looking for hard working dedicated people who are hungry to be the best. If you are not serious about a career in sales I would probably save your time.

I started with a phone call with the hiring manager, which was pretty standard, covering my background and checking for cultural fit. Then, I had an onsite interview at their San Francisco office with two sales managers. They were really passionate about the company and asked some thought-provoking questions, effectively differentiating the company from competitors for potential hires. I was impressed by their openness and honesty, and I was getting quite excited about potentially joining their sales team. After that, we set up another onsite to meet with an enterprise team leader for a skills assessment. The final step before an offer was supposed to be a 'quick chat' with the CEO. The initial meeting with the enterprise team leader went really well. She was charismatic and candid, giving an unvarnished assessment of the company. The interview felt like a relaxed conversation. However, the 'quick chat' with the CEO took a turn. I had been warned by both the sales managers and the enterprise team leader that the CEO could be 'difficult' and that I shouldn't be discouraged if it didn't go well. I initially dismissed it as just being a tough interviewer. But the conversation quickly shifted from odd to hostile. It felt less like an interview and more like a severe reprimand. He started criticizing my experience, accused me of fabricating my past performance metrics, and claimed I had made poor career choices by moving to the Bay Area and working for a startup. He wouldn't accept my reasons for leaving a major competitor to move to the Bay, insisting I had made a mistake and that if my performance was as good as my numbers suggested, they wouldn't have let me go. He brought this up multiple times during the roughly 20-minute conversation, at times becoming confrontational. He even asked about my other job prospects and made unprofessional, disparaging remarks about those companies. Towards the end, things got really strange as he started asking inappropriate personal questions, like my age and where I lived. The CEO's behavior was so bizarre that I still find it hard to believe it actually happened. Setting aside his decision about my fit for the role, his comments about my career history were completely out of line. Based on other reviews, my experience wasn't an isolated incident. While I understand a CEO wanting to be involved in hiring during an early growth phase, having someone with such poor interpersonal skills can only hurt the company's hiring efforts. It's a real shame because the sales management team I spoke with was truly inspiring.

It was a pretty long process. I had three phone screens first, and then they flew me out to their HQ in California for the final interview. They said they'd pay for my travel, but after I didn't get the job offer with no explanation, they just ghosted me and wouldn't reimburse me for the taxi, which was almost $300. It felt like they were more focused on my age and how I looked than my experience or what I had to say. The phone interviews were good, but the onsite with all the executives was really disappointing.