7 Things Top GTM Interviewers Are Doing In 2025 To Land Offers

Almost a year ago, we launched the recruiting practice at VibeScaling.

Since then, we've made countless placements at some of the hottest AI-natives this year, including Parallel, Factory, Basis, Hebbia, Pylon, AthenaHQ, Attention, Mach9, Formal, and many others.

What separates us is/why you should read below:

1) we are former sales/GTM operators turned recruiters

2) we have an extensive, elite, and unique candidate pool - whether through our events in NYC (video here) and SF (video here), this GTMBA blog, which is over 2k strong now, or our vast talent advisor network, where we get fed pre-backchanneled candidates the second they’re potentially interested in their next move

We're on a texting basis with these hiring teams, and it's been fascinating to hear the different feedback for why candidates do or don't get roles.

Since I figure this would be relevant to our readers, here are 7 tips I'd recommend if you want to crush your interview process.

1) Respond back, fast

They'll judge you if you’re slow to respond - how you interview is how you sell.

Some of these top-performing teams are former bankers, consultants, or operators who put fast response time at a premium.

Doing this gives you leverage from the beginning. You want them thinking "this person is a stud" from day one.

Control the controllables, and this one is easy.

2) Send thank yous and follow-ups

This still matters to some hiring managers.

And it's not like you get penalized if you send it - so just send them if you're serious & cover your bases.

We've heard this from multiple hiring managers - remember, interview like you sell. If you don't send these, they'll assume you don't send customer follow-ups either.

3) Bring high energy

The rare exception might be if you're selling a super technical product, but in most cases, people want people who give them energy.

We've heard this a few times now- while it might not be the right thing to index on, people have charisma bias.

They want candidates with executive presence polish, and a component of that is usually good energy and charisma.

4) Show that you want it

You need to make it seem like everyone is the prettiest girl at the dance.

Don't be overly eager, of course - but when things are trending well, let them know this feels like the right opportunity.

Send a good "why" email at the end, saying you'd be inclined to accept if given the opportunity. Have other options in the mix, but you want this for XYZ reasons.

5) Keep "tell me about yourself" to 2 minutes max

Something we've heard (less frequently, but still) - these go too long.

Keep this to 90 seconds to 2 minutes max, with a good tie into why your experience makes it a strong skill/will alignment for the role.

Having this buttoned up helps with a good first impression, which is important (see leverage above).

6) Be structured in your responses

As a former consultant, I want to give you all a hack: people love structured thinkers.

You get bonus points for structuring your answers with "I want this role for 3 reasons: X, Y, and Z" and then going into it.

Structure signals smart thinking and it separates you as a candidate, believe it or not.

Stripe back in the day used to heavily index on this, and I've seen this hold true for many companies.

7) Make it easy on yourself

If given a vague prompt for a presentation round, pick the easiest customer they sell to. Make it so it's easy on your chances.

Another tip: make up hypothetical things they told you in call one (and this round is call 2) that help make it a fit for the product you're pitching.

If you bomb the pitch, they'll think you suck at sales (which is probably not the case) - so stack the deck in your favor.

For more unconventional tactics on standing out in the recruiting process, check out Julian's article on 5 Things He Did to Land Multiple AI Startup Offers earlier this year when he landed the role at Windsurf/Codeium with other offers in hand.

Also, if you’re a fast-growing AI-native who is looking to hire, or someone in GTM (BDR/SDR/AE/sales leader) looking to get into the hottest companies, shoot me a DM on LI or reply to this.

Thanks for reading 🫡,

Chris