The role was presented as a support position for companies using construction software, specifically targeting candidates with a construction background who are transitioning into a construction-based SaaS company. The expectation seemed to be that applicants would use their industry knowledge to better assist clients, which makes sense since it is a very niche role and professionals with both construction experience and SaaS exposure are a very small percentage of the industry.
The company had also changed the job title from “Customer Success Manager” to “Construction Success Manager,” which further suggested that they were specifically seeking candidates with strong construction industry experience rather than traditional sales or marketing professionals.
However, the interview felt very misaligned with that description. The hiring manager approached the interview with the assumption that the candidate was already coming from a marketing or sales background and repeatedly asked questions like, “How would you convince a GC to use this software?” and expected me to actively sell the product during the interview.
One of the interview questions was: “If a subcontractor is actively using Fieldwire for task management and workflow, but the General Contractor is using a different software platform, how would you convince the GC to adopt Fieldwire instead?”
For someone applying from a construction background rather than a sales role, it felt unreasonable to be expected to know the full ins and outs of a specialized software product well enough to pitch and sell it like a salesperson. If the company is truly looking for candidates with construction experience to support clients, the interview should reflect that rather than focusing heavily on sales tactics.
The interview also felt unnecessarily dismissive of candidates coming from a construction background rather than a traditional sales or marketing role. Instead of focusing on transferable industry knowledge and client support skills, the interviewer seemed to undervalue that experience and approached the conversation with a fixed expectation of what the “right” candidate should look like. This created an uncomfortable interview environment and made the process feel less objective and more biased toward candidates from a sales background.
Overall, the interview experience was disappointing. I’ve been through many interviews, and this was one of the most poorly aligned with the actual job description. It seemed like they were less interested in construction experience and more interested in finding someone with a strong marketing or sales background who could sell the product.
