BIG CONFLICT OF INTEREST of the "trusted" interviewer "consultant." Be aware of this toxic person. He is not doing company's best interest. I was contacted by a recruiting agent, we both thought I'd have been a great match for the role. I interviewed the day after at the HQ near London Bridge. They are trying to bring all the digital marketing function in house, especially PPC and need somebody to make this happens. I interviewed with a manager who was not a direct employee. He is either their account manager of that external agency or their digital consultant, in the interview there was also a Digital Product Manager, but she was new, I guess their first hire of the new digital team. I have 8 years of experience in the Travel sector in performance digital marketing roles both agency and client side, working for big size companies. The interview should have been a bit more into detailed questions to actually, but the guy preferred to keep it pretty vague. Anytime, I wanted to try to get a bit more into crunching numbers details he kind of avoided that. It made me wonder his real skills. In fact, during the interview it came out that they had already been spending 300-400K per year ( I currently manage half of that per month in my current role). But, they were not happy of the conversions, saying that they were not profitable at all from the digital side. I immediately asked some questions, and it came out that this guy knowing that the majority of the conversions happen from phone calls, he didn't set up call tracking for Paid campaigns. There I understood, that clearly there was a big conflict of interest from his side interviewing me. In the moment I understood why he was so anxious/nervous while interviewing me. So basically, the interview was good for me I clearly showed I could have rocked that role and make their web activity profitable. Plus, not only I have a strong performance digital marketing hands on experience, but also SEO. The guy clearly saw me as a big treat to whatever kind of agreement he has with the company, cause I'd have showed that they were doing it wrong and wasting money. As a result, boom the day after the recruiting agent calls me and tells me there was not a fit. That's clearly a JOKE, the truth is that their "digital consultant" is protecting his a.. and he is not able at all of making PAID digital activities profitable. Once again, in 2017, if you cannot make a lovely, niche and highly sought-after brand as Wendy Wu runs profitable Paid Digital activity, there is clearly something wrong. He asked me: "Oh really? How can you test that PPC is making profits and there's not cannibalization with SEO?" I was speechless, that's a very basic test that needs no tools at all, just logic skills and GA. Another hilarious seriously asked question was: "We have problems of competitors bidding on our Brand Name, do you have any idea of how to solve this?" This was another example of his poor skills. In the travel industry if they bid on your brand term is because they are one of your agents/partner or you do business with them. So simply, picking up the phone and asking them to stop, will work, professional courtesy in the travel industry is high. In the ecommerce you can forget it, but again he should have known. Plus, if you are serious, it's a trademark and you can do it legally through a simply letter of your lawyer. But, first pick up the phone and use the professional courtesy of the travel industry. I checked their Ads before interviewing, they are very basic and they didn't even choose the right Ad extensions.... It's really sad, I loved the Brand and the culture that I could see visiting the HQ. I was a perfect match. Clearly, too perfect for the person that needed to protect his mistakes. Look, there is no shame in doing mistakes or not having enough experience as long as you hire/empower people who can improve those areas. Advice to the Owner, get rid of this toxic "digital consultant." He is a snake. You just lost a great digital marketing manager who had the knowledge of an elephant and the loyalty of a dog! Still love you Wendy Wu Tours! P.s. Good luck to the newly hired digital product manager if she ever reads this.