The interview was arranged through a recruiter. The hiring manager failed to call, so I sent an email to him, the recruiter and another person at the recruiting firm stating I was no longer interested. The hiring manager and the recruiter then said the hiring manager was in a meeting and asked to reschedule. NOPE. Here is something I learned very early in my career - DO NOT SCHEDULE MEETINGS THAT RUN INTO EACH OTHER.

The interview process was, as I had read, a bit more cumbersome than one would expect. There was an initial interview with both the sales manager and branch manager together, then a follow-up during which I had to give a presentation on material I was given (to test my "stage presence" and comprehension ability). Following that, there were two phone interviews, one of which was much more in depth (quite enjoyable, actually) before I was done with the process and received an offer. None of the interviews were onerous, few of the questions were redundant, and I was able to get a very good feel for the people for whom I would be working during the process, so I knew it would be a good fit from my perspective; my interviewers knew that I was interviewing them, too, and were very forthcoming in offering information and explaining how thing actually worked in the real world, versus just giving me an idealized picture that was all rosy. I accepted the position because I liked what I heard and now that I am into the rather extensive training, I am eager to start selling.