RAC: The Industrial Equipment Company in These Foolish Things

My second Rate-A-Company. Had a face-to-face interview, so I’m sharing this one RAD-style again. Yep. I’m dating companies.

Name: The Industrial Equipment Company

Introduction Platform: An HR representative reached out to me. I was shocked and made sure to explain to him that my development expertise is a little more on the creative side. He told me that they are actually looking for a person just like me who has experience building brands and working with multiple vendors and managing a lot of product…said that the hiring manager told him that I’m exactly the type of person they need.

Age: Company is around 35 years old

Company Status: Growing VERY well (what commercial building, office, or construction site doesn’t need industrial equipment? And have you seen how much growth has been happening in the US? Not sure how long it will last, but equipment like this always needs to be replaced, too.

The Position: Product Manager. Would be for many thousands of SKUs of things like compressors, portable HVAC equipment, medical and food-grade thingies. Giant metal things I know NOTHING about. Not much development, not much creativity with product, but as I now understand it, after the interview, the creative part would be more with the marketing. Make Industrial Products Sexy Again! MIPSA!

Location: This is where it’s like…ughhhh (even more so than the product). It’s not that the commute is far or anything, and it’s not in a terrible part of town, but it’s a super dumpy building hidden behind an auto body shop and a Carmax. It’s totally industrial, and I understand that, but it just felt kind of depressing. Funny thing is, I followed the map and then got to the general area and I had to kind of drive around a couple of buildings and back through a weird parking lot behind the body shop and nearly said fuuuuck this. But I didn’t. I was like, I’m already here, I might as well go in and see what this is all about.

Length of Interview: Exactly two hours, from 1-3pm.

We Did: I walked into the open office and was greeted by the HR guy who’d called me and talked with me. He stuck his head into an office door to find Hiring Manager. He introduced me to HM and we shook hands and I was led through the depressingly small cubicle farm into a boardroom-type meeting room, which was nice. There were these horrific framed photos on the wall, each depicting several clunky metal machines that I knew were the product, but had no clue as to what they were. The HM sat down and started in with some pleasantries (he had my resume in front of him), and then I recognized him…we’d had a brief overlap in our careers. He’d worked for one of the big corporations I’d worked for and I remembered him! I just didn’t recognize him in this setting! Weird! But I know this is why I was called in for an interview. He knows and understands the processes of the job I was doing for the other company and knows I have the skills to do what they want to accomplish. He explained more about the company and told me that it didn’t matter that I didn’t know anything about the product yet. The job is pure product management with category management peppered in. He told me about the awesome work-life balance (which is good!) and the fact that he’s open about having a side gig that affords him to hone his own creative side. Then he took me to meet with the General Manager and we had a decent conversation, but after a while I just couldn’t get over the fact that he looks exactly like the Dorito Breath Cowboy!! Oh my lord. I couldn’t shake that thought - especially when he smiled. Man. I got the heebie jeebies. But I tried to keep it profesh. He told me that the only concern that they would have with me is if I am not in it for a long-term opportunity. I get it. They don’t want to spend the money only to have me find something much more creative and leave. But I suppose that every company needs to be thinking about this. All-in-all, decent conversations, but I’m not yet convinced.

The Office Looked: See above. Not very good. But the HM also told me that they were going to move into a much nicer building next year. I don’t know if he was saying that just to ease my mind, but whatevs.

I Looked: Well, the HR guy told me that the office is CASUAL and that most people wear jeans and polo shirts and that type of look (think industrial equipment, right?), so I’d actually put on a pretty skirt and some pumps and a nice, flowy top and then I thought I looked TOO dressed up, so I ended up changing my skirt to a pair of “dressy” dark jeans and kept the top and wore my super gorgeous kitten heeled Prada sling backs for just a bit of oomph. Risky move, I know, wearing jeans, but considering I almost canceled (and nearly ghosted in the parking lot!), I guess it was fine.

Convo: Again, the regular job convo, but not a lot about my skills because the HM already knows what those are. It was more them explaining their company, the culture (NO working after 5pm is a plus!) and the benefits (decent, including medical, 401k, automatic 3 weeks vacation, etc.). I still felt a bit like a fish out of water and unsure, but we finally got to the nitty gritty of salary and I asked if there was a range they were looking at for this position and of course there is, but HM wouldn’t tell me, so I told him that a lateral move for me would be $XYZ and of course, he told me that it was above their budget, but because they are a small company, they might be able to shuffle some budget, yada yada.

High Point: Being somewhat pleasantly surprised by the thought of somehow making industrial products sexy-ish.

Low Point: Sadly, the sinking feeling when I drove up to their office

How It Ended: Was told I need to go through all of the motions and fill out their online application, which I will do as soon as I post, and to think about it long and hard.

Chances Are: Y’all. I DON’T KNOW! I am so unsure of how I feel about this company. Yes, there are some awesome-sounding benefits to working here, I’ll get a whole new product skill set, but can my design heart take going someplace that just doesn’t tingle my soul?? I think the thing that might determine it is if they come up with the $$$. And that might tide me over for a while, but I don’t see this being a long term opportunity for me and I know that’s what this company wants. I’m torn!

Company Rating: C. I’m totally in the middle about this place.

Last updated May 26, 2022