I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Paychex (Chesapeake, VA) in Jul 2016
Interview
Reached out via Linkedin to the district sales manager and got a message back immediately asking for a phone conversation. Spoke with him on the phone, quite informal phone interview but immediately had a rapport. Call lasted about 20 minutes and set up a face to face with him and the area VP via webcast.
Attended 2nd interview face to face and spoke for over an hour. Seemed to go over very well and hiring manager really seemed to like me and put off other candidates for me. Got to the webcast with the VP, another hit! Went extremely well and they moved me on to a field ride the very next day with a newly hired rep. I was extremely flexible with all their demands and tried to accommodate them.
Went on the field ride, spent the entire day in the field and got to know the ins and outs of daily responsibilities as well as company culture. At the end of the field ride, met briefly with the hiring manager again. Provided them with a 30-60-90 day business plan, 3 glowing references, a brag book etc. The manager told me it would be at least another week before getting back to me or any decisions were made. Granted he had 2 vacant areas! I come from a pharma/medical sales background and believe he was hesitant to hire me in fears of me leaving after investing the time and money in training.
3 weeks have passed since my field ride. I have sent a handwritten thank you, a follow up call in which we spoke on the phone and he still seemed highly interested in my candidacy. Since our phone conversation....2+ weeks....nothing! I find it extremely unprofessional and inconsiderate that a follow up on his behalf has not taken place. I spent almost 2 full days of my time with paychex and they can't even bother to tell me yay or nay! I say NAY! Good luck paychex!
Phone Interview with HR
In Person Interview with Direct District Sales Manager and if that goes well,
In Person Interview with the Zone Manager who will give recommendation to DSM.
Ride Day with Rep
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What experience do you have?
How do you handle rejection?
The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Paychex
Interview
Literally the longest and most painful interview process imaginable. I will count how many interviews I had to go through. 1) I got a call from the recruiter and we did a short meet and greet and she asked me a few basic questions. 2) Then I got invited to do a video interview. Asked more in depth sales related questions 3) invited to do a face to face interview with two managers 4) invited to do a ride along where I had to miss a day of work which is really inconvenient for most people and the rep I did my ride along with wasn’t even going to take me out to lunch or pay for me! We didn’t eat lunch until 3:30 because he was so stressed about “hunting” new business. 5) another follow up phone interview with the manager about my ride along 6) an interview with one of the higher up managers out of the Rochester office. I was told this would be the final interview and that they’d make a decision. Two weeks went by and heard nothing. 6) got an email from the recruiter that two OTHER managers wanted to interview me over the phone. At this point, after seeing what the sales rep had to go through on my ride along, and the extensive and unnecessary method of interviews, I declined. I have been through interview processes for multiple sales jobs such as Pharmaceuticals, and the MAX amount of interviews they do is 3, so I can’t really believe Paychex needs to do that many “to make sure they find the right fit” like come on! Not to mention, the sales rep I went out with, drove like 100 miles a day on his own car. His $500 reimbursement was not even enough to cover his fuel charges and insurance he told me! After all this I realized this is not a company I would want to work for.
The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at Paychex in Jan 2017
Interview
The interview process is a lot. Two phone interviews, a web recording a test and three in person interviews. It makes it really tough when you have another job and they aren't flexible around your current work schedule. This sucks because if your burning bridges with your current company and then don't get offered the job you're screwed.