Cisco Associate Sales Representative (CSAP) interview questions

The end-to-end interview process for Cisco's Sales Associate Program (CSAP) was rigorous. My application was initiated by a referral from within Cisco's sales organization and for the first round, I was tasked with providing a two-minute video response to why I was drawn to career in sales. Approx. two weeks after submitting the video response, came a 30 minute phone/video interview. In my case, my interviewer was a former Associate Sales Rep. that had been through the program and had since progressed into field sales and management. The questions asked in this interview were a mix of situational questions and probing questions aimed at testing knowledge of Cisco. One interviewing tactic I noticed and found relatively challenging was that the questions were often paired together into two-part questions, making it a difficult to discern which was most important to answer. For example: "Why are you drawn to selling technology and to working at Cisco?" The second tricky part to this interview is that you are both phone and video, while the interviewer is phone only. It took a bit of getting used to and nearly through me off at times as the interview ran its course. The third and final round of the interviewing process was by far the most intense, and challenging. For this round, I was flown into Toronto to Cisco's Assessment Center, where all finalist candidates were to spend a full day carrying out four final assessment activities. First, was a short multiple choice technical test - preparation material was provided in advance by Cisco. Second, a face-to-face interview with both management and HR: this interview was much more behavioural and conversational than the phone screen. Third; was a 20 minute role play, mocking a real sales meeting. In 20 minutes, I was responsible for a discovery portion to qualify my client, and also a proposal portion to close my client. This role play was based on a Cisco provided case study. Lastly, we were responsible for delivering a ten minute presentation on a provided topic - in my case, it was the driving force/s behind the trend of Bringing Your Own Device (BYOD) to the workplace. The Assessment Center featured a number of opportunities for candidates to learn more about Cisco, the program, and the position available. Quite frequently former employees that had graduated the CSAP program dropped in to offer their insights and answer questions. An interesting challenge I will note is that Cisco recruitment personnel remain in the room between your assessments, meaning you must be conscious of your behaviour and how you build rapport with the other candidates and CSAP alumni.