I interviewed for a Customer Success Manager role at Emarsys (Vienna,Austria) and, unfortunately, found the experience disappointing. The interview was conducted by an HR representative based in the UK, who seemed unfamiliar with the Austrian market and disconnected from the local role requirements, showing zero empathy during the discussion.
Despite having over a decade of experience in customer-facing positions with Fortune 5 companies, the interviewer focused heavily on my undergraduate degree, which felt irrelevant given my professional track record and postgraduate qualifications. When I tried to highlight transferable skills from my past roles (even with same title), these were largely dismissed. Instead, I was told the role at Emarsys had little to do with my experience, which contradicted the nature of customer success positions that typically leverage broad client-facing expertise.
The discussion also felt unstructured and left me uncertain whether the interviewer had a clear understanding of Emarsys’s products or the specific responsibilities of the role. Overall, the process came across as unprepared and unprofessional, which was disappointing given the strong reputation of the company. There wasn’t any possibility to communicate with any of the people hiring for the role.
Decision-making took over two weeks, with an email stating they were still analyzing internal processes, followed shortly by a rejection. While I respect the outcome, I’m disappointed that my time was wasted in such a poorly handled pre-selection process, especially as an experienced professional.
I would recommend that Emarsys ensure interviewers especially HR are better aligned with both the role and the market context, and that conversations with experienced professionals are approached with more preparation, respect for the candidate as well as their experience, clarity, and empathy.
