1

2

Prepare, Prepare and Prepare Key to any successful job interview for placements is prepare adequately

Six Key Areas This document would be emphasizing more on preparing and answering aspect

Preparation

Answering

Speed of Speech

Address your weakness

Interview the interviewer

Attire

Checklist

Arrange the marksheets, certificates, project reports and any other documents which support your professional resume.

1

Response Approach

3

4

5

6

7

2

Page 2

Page 25

Page 26

Page 26

Page 27

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1 After arrangement of all documents

Segregate the different type of Interview Questions which can be asked

Structured & Unstructured Interviews

Case Interviews

Informational Interviews

Structured Interviews UnStructured Interviews Fixed Set of questions for all candidates

Mostly used for mass

recruitments More like a dialogue

Typical Questions Areas

About yourself

About the company

Job Profile and Subject

area

Assessments

1. Tell me about yourself. 2. Which marketing industry are you most interested

in? Why? 3. What are your goals and how would align them with

our marketing department? 4. Do swot analysis of your self? 5. When would you go the extra mile for any project or

campaign? 6. Why should I hire you? 7. Are you qualified for this position? Why 8. What qualifications do you have that can make you

successful in this career? 9. Determine and Evaluate success? How 10. What do you think it takes to be successful in a

company like ours? 11. How would you contribute to our company? 12. Qualities of successful manager and good leader?

List down. Differentiate between the 2? 13. Creativity or efficiency? Which one is important and

why? 14. What work environment would you prefer? 15. Are you seeking employment in a company of a

certain size? Why? 16. What are your expectations regarding promotions

and salary increases? 17. How do you evaluate the company for which you

hope to work? 18. Do you have a geographic preference? Why? Are

you willing to relocate?

A

B

C

Behavioral Interviews

i ii iii

Mkt- pg 12 IT – pg 20

Fin- pg 22

4

About the

company

1. For OUR COMPANY (exp: Johnson & Johnson), pick one of our products and tell me more about its market segment and target audience. Is there any new advertising campaign running for this product? What are your observations for this product line? What can/should we do to change?

2. What is the latest news item you have read about our company? 3. What do you think a company like ours; need to do for achieving

product visibility in a new market? 4. What was the last years Sales/Profit/new acquisition/new

mergers/new product launch etc for our company? 5. What do you think about our company's website? Does it actually

represent our company's vision statement? 6. Can you tell me the different product verticals/geographies our

company is operating on? 7. Who all do you think are our nearest competitors? 8. Can you draw the value chain for our company product A? Also apply

porters 5 force model for our industry? 9. Where do you think our company is lacking in marketing? 10. What type of sales strategy do you think a company like ours should

adopt?

Job Profile and Subject

area

1. What makes you think that you can be a successful sales professionals/marketing guy /market researcher/Advertising Professionals /PR guy/ Account Manger/Customer Service Manager/Delivery manager?

2. What qualities do think is a must for this job ----- sales professionals/marketing guy /market researcher/Advertising Professionals /PR guy/ Account Manger/Customer Service Manager/Delivery manager?

3. Tell me an incident during you MBA course wherein you used business communication skills and how?

4. If you had to segment the current group of students lined to give the interview, how would you do it.

5. What’s the basic difference between qualitative and quantitative research?

6. Tell me any true case, wherein the market research done for a particular market has come up with insights completely opposite of how the market really is? Why do you think this happens? Is research 100% fullproof? What measures do you think should be taken before implementing the recommendation of professional market research reports?

7. What is the difference between marketing and sales? 8. Is Marketing and sales an ART or SCIENCE? Has technology

made the Marketing/sales profession more of science rather than Art?

B

A

5

Assessment Questions

Questions focus more

on the resume

Projects mentioned in resume 1. Summer 2. Capstone 3. MBA course projects 4. Graduation Projects 5. NGO projects 6. Winter Projects

Date Gaps, Co-circular Activities, and Elaboration of resume

1. What has been your learning from your summer project? Which aspect of marketing/sales/management did you implement or observed in your company?

2. Did you find any difference between management theories in books and what is practiced in companies?

3. Did you find yourself comfortable in the work environment in your internship company? What was it you liked most and disliked most?

4. Did you use any research methodologies in your project? What research tools have you used in your project?

5. What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?

6. What was the outcome of your summer project? Was it implemented?

7. What difference did you find between your graduate level project and the MBA projects?

8. Tell us an aspect of marketing /sales which your internship company should have been implementing but hasn’t done it.

9. Summarize your project in 4 points? 10. Today if you had to the same project

what extra inputs can you give to your internship company? And why?

11. Do projects really help an MBA graduate? Give points to justify your answer?

12. If you had an option of playing a business simulation Vis a Vis an “on the field” project what would you prefer and why?

13. What difference did you between traditional and 21

st century marketing?

1. Why is there a one year gap between your graduation and MBA?

2. On your resume it shows you have actively taken part in co-circular activities. What has been your learning from them? Which all aspects of management can you highlight from co-circular activity section?

3. Do you think participation in co-circular activities helps a management graduate?

4. Can you name few companies which emphasis on co-circular activities for their employees?

5. Which one is better a. Work with Passion b. Work with Sincerity

Elaborate and justify your answer? 6. From your resume show me one

aspect which highlights your leadership skills

7. From your resume show me one aspect which highlights your management skills

8. From your resume show me one aspect which highlights your team handling/ team work skills

C

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Behavioral Interviews

i

Incite and persuasion Skills

Crossing the hurdles

Deciphering Uncertainty

Business Wisdom

Ease Around Top Management

Leadership skills

Problem solving skills

Result oriented skills

Functional and/or Technical Knowledge

Ethics

Learning and grasping skills

Listening

Prioritize

Strategic Abilities

Crossing the hurdles

1. Give me an example of a time when you made the wrong decision. 2. Tell me about a time when you had to identify and obtain the resources necessary to

complete a major task. 3. Tell me about a time when you faced more work than you or your team could

reasonably handle. 4. Give me an example of the most complicated presentation you’ve ever made, what kind

of information were you trying to communicate?

Motivating and persuasion Skills

1. Give me an example of a time when your boss was wrong in his/her assessment of a situation, and how you handled it. 2. Tell me about a time when your decision was contrary to the groups’ decision. 3. Give me an example of a time when you worked in a team and one member wasn’t doing his/her share. 4. Tell me about an especially difficult co-worker with whom you’ve had to work. 5. Give me an example of a time when you played a significant role in organizing a major event involving a number of different groups. 6. Tell me about the toughest persuasive argument you ever had to make. 7. Give me an example of a time when you had to settle or enforce a disagreement about an existing procedure or policy. 8. Tell me about a time when you were directly involved in a significant disagreement about what needed to be done. 9. Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult supervisor, manager, or client.

IQ

Behavioral Interviews

7

Deciphering Uncertainty

1. Tell me about a time when you had to re-write the rules. 2. Describe a situation when you had to make a decision even though you did not have all of

the important information. How did you overcome your lack of information? 3. In some situations inaction is more appropriate than action. Describe a time when you

found yourself in this position. What did you do? 4. Tell me about a situation where you had to face multiple demands or where priorities kept

changing. How did you deal with that? 5. Describe a time when a plan you made had to be modified due to an obstacle or change

that you had not anticipated.

Business Wisdom

1. Tell me about a time when you used your knowledge of your industry, customers, and/or the competitive environment to design a strategy to achieve organizational change.

2. Keeping alert for trends and shifts in the economy can help you make better business decisions. Describe a time you made a much better business decision by picking up an important trend or economic shift.

3. Give me an example of a time when you decided to sacrifice a short-term gain for the sake of longer-term goals.

4. Tell me about a time when you analyzed a complex situation or organizational problem and developed a strategic intervention. How did you go about developing the solution? Talk me through your thought process.

5. Describe a time when you had to make a risky or tough decision that you felt confident would have a positive impact.

6. Tell me about a time when you had to identify and integrate key issues in order to guide a group (or colleague) toward the right decision.

Ease Around Top Management

1. Describe an incident when you thought you were better at dealing with people of a higher level/status person than most. Why?

2. Tell me about your first prolonged interaction with a significant executive. How did you handle that interaction? What was the outcome of that?

3. Give me an example of when you had to deliver bad news to someone more senior than yourself. What did you do to prepare for the delivery of that message? What was the end result?

4. When was the last time you had to prepare and present a proposal of some consequence to top management? How did you manage that situation? What was the outcome of your proposal?

8

Leadership Skills

1. Tell me about a time when you managed a highly sensitive or critical situation. What made it highly sensitive or critical? Why did you choose the course of action you chose?

2. Describe a situation when your leadership skills were rejected. Why were they rejected? 3. Tell me about a time that you had to take charge in a tough situation. What made the

situation tough? 4. Tell me about a time when, as a leader, you were required to exercise leadership during

a period of major change where there was a high level of ambiguity. What was the nature of the change? What was your role during the change process? What factors did you consider as you thought about how to adjust your leadership style to the situation? How did you feel as you were going through the process? What steps did you take to exercise your leadership during this period? What resistance did you encounter and how did you deal with it?

Problem solving skills

1. Give me an example of your analytical thinking skills. 2. What types of problems do people generally come to you for help in solving? 3. Tell me about a time when you were faced with a tough problem and how you solved it. 4. Tell me about a time when you were working as part of a team that had to solve a

problem. What part did you play in contributing to the solution of the problem?

Result oriented skills

1. Tell me about a time when you were faced with multiple obstacles and were able to overcome and implement your initiative.

2. Describe a time when you affected the outcome of a project or situation by assuming a leadership role.

3. Consider a business initiative for your current department and describe a time when you have had a positive or significant impact in achieving this initiative.

4. Tell me about a time when you took the initiative to make a quick and risky decision in order to seize a business opportunity.

5. Tell me about a time when you had to shorten the timeline of an implementation plan and take immediate action in order to meet business objectives.

6. Tell me about a time when you were responsible for overseeing the execution of a project. What did you do to ensure that its goals were reached on time and within budget?

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Functional and/or Technical Knowledge

1. Tell me about a time when your technical knowledge and your ability to share that expertise with others played an important part in achieving an objective. What specific skills or experience did you rely upon?

2. How did you convey a sense of your expertise in an influential (positive) way? 3. How did you incorporate the facets of your expertise and those from external sources? 4. How did you incorporate the expertise of others? 5. Describe a situation when you knew more about the technical aspects of the job than

your boss did. How did you manage the situation? 6. Tell me about a time when you misapplied your technical skills to a problem. 7. What was the situation? What did you do to correct the misapplication? What did you

learn from the situation? 8. Tell me about a time that you felt your technical skills were not up to the level needed to

successfully complete a project or resolve an issue. What did you do to upgrade your skills?

9. Give me an example of a time when you used your expertise to persuade another individual or group to accept or endorse an idea.

1. Tell me about a time when you demonstrated personal integrity in a business situation. What led up to your decision to act in accordance with your beliefs? What challenges, if any, did you face in the process? How did you integrate your personal values with what was needed for the business?

2. Describe a time when you had to rely on personal or professional integrity to achieve a result.

3. Sometimes we are under so much pressure to meet our goals that key values of the organization can be overlooked. Describe a time when you had to go against pressure to meet an expectation or goal in order to stay in line with the company’s key values.

4. Describe a time when you had to present material or implement a process for which you did not feel fully or totally supportive? Did you voice your concern of non-support? How did you do this? With whom did you voice your concerns?

Ethics

IQ

1. Describe the most complex problem or issue you have dealt with on the job. How did you approach the problem? How did you arrive at the solution?

2. Describe a time when you most effectively came up with an idea and then turned it into a concrete plan of action. What alternatives did you consider? How did you decide what approach was most appropriate?

3. Give me an example of time when you were able to share what you had learned in a particular area with others.

4. Tell me about a time when you set a challenging goal for yourself and what you did to achieve it. How did you overcome any obstacles you encountered?

10

Learning and grasping skills

1. Describe the quickest and most challenging mental transition you have had to make. What did you consider while making the transition?

2. Tell me about a time when you took a risk (career/investment/strategy/process).What factors did you consider in taking this risk? What was the outcome?

3. Describe a situation when a change/crisis made what you had been doing irrelevant. How did you shift gears? What was the outcome?

4. Describe a situation in which you had to make a quick decision without all of the facts. 5. Describe a situation in which you had to make a presentation without adequate time to

prepare.

Listening

1. Describe a time when you used good listening skills to help decipher a customer’s problems. What were the key issues you were facing?

2. How did you determine what communication style would be effective in influencing your desired outcome?

3. How did you overcome any resistance that emerged? 4. What cues told you that you were understood and that your point was accepted? 5. Tell me about a time when you accurately interpreted the unspoken concerns of 6. a customer, staff member, or colleague during a conversation. How did you know

there was an underlying concern? How did you respond once you became aware of the underlying concern?

7. Tell me about a time when you used active listening techniques to aid in the coaching of an employee. What techniques did you use?

8. What caused you to choose these techniques over others?

Prioritize

1. What are the top priorities for your business? What have you done to align your responsibilities to those priorities?

2. Give me an example of where setting priorities helped you in completing a business goal. 3. How do you set your priorities at work? What have you done when your priorities didn’t

match with your boss? 4. What have you done when faced with conflicting priorities of equally high importance? 5. Tell me about a team when you had to establish overall direction for a group/team. How

did you achieve their buy-in?

Strategic abilities

1. Describe a situation in which you had to translate a broad or general directive from senior management into individual performance expectations. Explain how you did this and the goals you established.

2. Tell me about the last directive from senior management that failed to achieve its desired goal. Why do you think it failed? What role did you play in the process or failure of the goal?

3. Tell me about a time when you had to communicate a major new directive from senior management to employees. Which communication strategy did you use?

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Behavioral Interviews for Marketing

Knowledge/ Competencies: 1. Tell me about the positives and negatives of the different

distribution channels for selling airline tickets. (Jet Airlines) 2. What are the current industry trends in our area? (Coca-Cola) 3. What are 3 important qualities of a brand manager? Why are

these important? (ConAgra Foods) 4. What changes do you anticipate in the industry in the next 5-10

years? (Eli Lilly) 5. What product are you loyal to and why? (Frito-Lay) 6. Tell me about the market research have you done in the past.

(IMRB) 7. Describe a good product with bad marketing. Describe a not so

good product with great marketing. (Microsoft)

Behavioral – Leadership & Influence:

1. Tell me a time you demonstrated those leadership skills. (3M) 2. Name 3 qualities of an effective leader. (3M) 3. Give me an example of a time you showed initiative and tell why

you did. (Jet Airlines) 4. Give me an example of a project you led. (General Motors) 5. What is your leadership style? Tell me about a time you took

initiative to solve a problem. (Citigroup) 6. Explain to me what project management is. (Dell) 7. When have you demonstrated an initiative and self-drive that is

not rivaled by your peers? (Eli Lilly) 8. Give me an example of when you displayed strategic thinking?

(Big-bazaar) 9. Tell me about a time you influenced someone in a professional

situation. What did you learn from it? (J&J) 10. Tell me about a time when you had to bend the rules to get

something done. (ICICI) 11. Tell me about a time when you had to sell an idea to someone.

(ICICI) 12. How do you motivate people to help you when they are not in

your group? (IDBI)

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ii Case Interviews

Evaluation based on

“conclusions reached”

Marketing Case Interviews:

• Marketing recruiters may also ask case questions as part of the interviewing process in order to test your analytical and communication ability, to see how resourceful and creative you can be, to find out how you perform under pressure, and to test marketing thought process.

• Remember: Marketing case questions may be challenges in the interviewer’s day job.

• Types of case questions include: o Market Sizing (What is the market for PCs likely to be

10 years from now?) o Brainteasers (Tell me different ways you could tell if

the light is on in the inside of the refrigerator after it is closed?)

o Business Operations (A bank discovers that its customer turnover is 15 percent higher than industry average. How do you find out why?)

o Business Strategy (A cereal company is thinking about introducing a new natural cereal. How should it go about making its decision?)

o Entering a Market (We're thinking about launching a jalapeno-infused soft drink. Tell me how you'd go about analyzing this opportunity and bringing the product to market.)

Case Questions:

• You are losing revenue year-over-year in the Maharastra market, what are the factors you would analyze to determine the cause? (Jet Airlines)

• What is your favorite marketing campaign? Least Favorite Campaign? (ConAgra Foods)

• If you were the manager of printers, would you want to go for a high growth strategy or a slow and steady growth strategy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both? (Dell)

• If you were in the Workstation group, what would you do if HP and IBM recently entered the market and market share dropped from 64% to 62% during the same time? (Dell)

• It's the middle of summer in Delhi and you just got 500 Chinese quilts that you need to sell, how do you do it? (HUL)

• You are taking over the position of Brand Manager of Product X. You have 30 minutes to ask the current Brand Manager questions…what you ask. (Frito-Lay)

• There has been a trend in declining breakfast food and lunch sales yet dinner sales are still constant to rising. Why? (Kellogg’s)

• Imagine it’s the year 2015. Tell me what you think the most influential technologies have been over the last 10 years and why. (Microsoft)

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1. What is the difference between Traditional Marketing and Modern Marketing? Give some examples of those companies which are doing Business in India more than 50 years and how they changed from traditional marketing to modern marketing. 2. Explain the Sales Promotion in marketing and also how HLL and P&G are doing their promotion of products in India with suitable examples. 3. Take atleast 10 FMCG companies in India and analyze how they are doing ethics in marketing in various segments. 4. What is the meaning of trade mark and patent rights in Govt. Of India and how it is helpful in marketing management? Explain with suitable products. 5. Define discount orientation & upscale orientation 6. I have to sell a woman cosmetic like face cream. Now problem is that many cosmetics are already in market. So when there are well establish players in market how can I sell this product. The cream is very good in quality but the company has not enough money to go for advertisement through media. Now how to sell this beauty cream and make market among establish players. Also tell me one good reason why female will opt for this cream when many well known brands are available? (HCL) 7. What are the skills necessary for a sales person? 8. If landing cost of my product (butter and mayonnaise) is X what will be MRP for the same? 9. What is Delphi technique? (Lanco) 10. Approximate financial gain in insurance? 11. Assume that the following new products are being launched in the market – a) Electric car and b) Pocket calculators. Based on the five characteristics of innovations, what prediction could you make regarding the speed of adoption of these products? 12. What are the main factors for arriving at the costing and pricing of a new product? 13. How do you calculate ROI? (HUL) 14. What is the difference between the guarantee and warrantee period? 15. What is a channel sale? 16. The difference between perception and interpretation? 17. How promotional activities affect sales? 18. Explain in brief the situations when you would be using Integrative growth strategy Intensive growth Diversification growth strategy 19. What is online marketing? DELL 20. Value chain of Cement industry (Orient Cements) 21. What is ROI and could you please explain me in detail with all calculations with proper example, that how u will calculate ROI of a FMCG distributor. Remember that you have to explain me in that manner that i am a fresher and u r explaining me all the things about ROI in proper steps (Nestle), (ITC InfoTech) 22. 1) what do you understand by the marketing? 2) What are the differences between marketing and sales? Dainik Jagran 23. What is a typical Sales Cycle? 24. Please explain. (Parle)

A) If you are selling industrial products, how would you generate new leads? B) In a new territory, what strategy you would use to meet up as many customers as

possible? C) How would you ensure that Sales Volume and Margins remain healthy? D) What products or services you have marketed before? E) What was the best achievement you had so far? F) What are the first three steps you would take if a customer complaints about your

product? G) What are the main factors for arriving at the costing and pricing of a new product?

Informational Interviews

Marketing

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25. What are primary & secondary sales? (Parle) 26. What is the definition of super stockist? What is additional VAT? 27. Why is market segmentation important before launching the products? 28. 1.what is the definition of sales? 2. What is the definition of marketing? 3. What is difference between sales& marketing? Coca Cola 29. How u will convince Axis bank or SBI bank customer to take loan from IDBI bank? 30. What is pre-sales? HP 31. How can a marketer of very light, very powerful laptop computers use its knowledge of customer’s expectations in designing a marketing strategy? INFOSYS 32. By using 7p's how can u sell a HLL product? HLL 33. What is networking in marketing? HDFC 34. If the customer is dissatisfied with the service of your company, how will you handle the customer? Write the steps (HSBC) 35. What is the difference between invoice and billing? (Aptech) 36. What is market mapping? How will you draw your market share? Ultratech cement 37. What will you do to acquire new clients? Fullerton 38. What is retailing? What is the difference between old retailing and modern retailing? Big bazaar 39. How will you sell a product which is not well known or recognized in the market? T3 software 40. How will i convince an NRI to open an account? ICICI when they open NRI banking? 41. If company is not giving the proper service to dealers then how you solve the problem? HLL 42. How will i sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo? ICICI 43. Define indirect marketing and explain its role and importance? Vogue 44. Define sale documentation? In detail. Bharti 45. What do you mean by cold, warm, hard call? Airtel 46. If the product has fail can you sell that to customer? HUL 47. What is primary & 2ndory sales Motorola 48. What is the difference between advertisement and publicity? 49. What is marketing myopia? CNN, Microsft 50. How to sell a pen to illiterate? General Motors 51. What are the 7P's and 9R's of marketing? IDBI bank 52. If there isn’t demand of product what you’ll do and what step you’ll going to take? HP 53. What is marketing aptitudes? What is demand Forecasting? HLL 54. What is channel Barrier? Siyaram 55. What is POP material? Big bazaar, HLL 56. How do you handle a customer with buyer's remorse? IDEA 57. What is stock turnover ratio? HLL 58. What is relationship between concept, hypothesis and theory? Exim Bank, IMRI 59. What is cavitation? Idea Cavitation is a point where the expectation rises but the delivery is not up to the set benchmark. Cavitation would in general sense means forming & collapse of bubble when pressure is high or cavities/gaps are formed. In marketing Sense it would mean promising on What you cannot deliver raising false hopes and beliefs which on the due point would collapse against the pressure and hence resulting damage or vacant space of trust and values. 60. A contract is an agreement but agreement can not be a contract? Explain—IBM 61. What do you mean by Push and Pull Strategy? IDEA 62. Being a researcher in marketing company, how can you search the opportunities and monitor the threats of your product? Monster.com 63. Discuss the steps involved in Business Research decision-making process? Parle 64. What do you see as the key skills in closing? Explain your closing technique. Explain some ways you create a sense of urgency to close the sale? Mahindra and Mahindra 65. Difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing? IBM

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66. Imagine hypothetical situation if u r working in a mobile company and your target is to sell 30 mobile in a month. In a particular month u have sold 25 mobile and 5 mobiles r still left to sell what will u do? IDEA 67. Difference between tag line & punch line? Encrust technologies 68. Whats software marketing? Encrust technologies 69. What do you mean by online marketing? ICICI 70. Describe the compensation plans you would suggest to ONIDA

• Obtain new customers?

• Increase sale revenue from existing customers?

71. Which steps do you take to overcome a prospect's sales resistance? 72. Explain about a marketing questionnaire that you have developed? Which marketing research tools and techniques did you used? What is meant by demographics? Which environmental variables show effect on marketing plan? 73. When is a "diversification growth strategy", integrative growth strategy, intensive growth strategy? Dell, HP, HLL 74. What four utilities should marketing provide? 75. What do you see as the key skills in closing? ICICI 76. What do you see as the key issues in negotiating? SBI 77. What type of sales cycle is most rewarding to you? A long cycle for a big ticket item or a series of smaller, more frequent sales? 78. What do you think are the most important skills in succeeding in sales? HUL,LO’real 79. How will you justify the product cost to the prospect? 80. Imagine that YOU ARE the marketing manager of Zideo International, Agra, manufacturing leather goods, which are the steps you will take to promote sales? 81. How does the panwala calculates his profit? L’Oreal 82. How we can increase our sales? DELL 83. Give me an example of a time when you motivated others. ICICI 84. Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead? 84. What are key strengths required a marketing manager? How to handle team? ICICI 85. What are the marketing challenges that diamond selling companies are facing as a result of the recent global financial crisis? And how best can these companies exploit those marketing challenges to improve their market situation?

Marketing Management- Concept questions

Short ones

1) What are the characteristics of an effective marketing mix? 2) How can informal communication among various departments in an organization facilitate

the marketing function? 3) Why should a company attempt to emotionally engage its customers 4) Of the various roles played by consumers in the decisions making process, which one is

more important and why? 5) Why is it important for a company to study its environment? 6) What are the important requirements for commissioning a good research? 7) What are the essential conditions in designing a questionnaire to elicit a correct response

from the respondent? 8) Define Marketing Management. 9) Define the terms: Exchange and Transactions. 10) Give one example of each of the following: Places and Ideas to be marketed. 11) Brief ‘Selling Concept” 12) What is mean by strategic marketing plan? 13) Which are the different types of customers? 14) Explain ‘competition power’ used to motivate channel members?

16

15) In which organization structure a company can avoid geographic or customer duplication? 16) Give the difference between transformational and transactional leadership. 17) What is mean by profit margin quota and give its importance. 18) State the critical success factors for making distribution strategy effective. 19) Describe the horizontal marketing system in short. 20) What is relationship selling? MILD ONES

1. Does marketing orientation impact business performance? Discuss. 2. Effectiveness in serving the customer is paramount for the survival of the business.

Comment? 3. Distinguish between efficiency and effectiveness in terms of serving the needs of the

customer? 4. Discuss the limitations of the marketing concept? Do you agree with these limitations? 5. Coordination between the marketing department and the other departments of an

organization is crucial for implementing the marketing concept. Explain. 6. What is marketing myopia? 7. How does the marketer’s commitment affect his ability to serve customers? 8. What barriers may a marketing manager face when trying to convince other people within

an organization that they should adopt the marketing concept? 9. Discuss the difference between marketing research and MIS? 10. Discuss the usefulness of marketing research in understanding customers and

competitors? 11. It is always better to hire a professional marketing research firm rather than engaging

one’s own staff for this purpose. Comment. 12. Distinguish between ad-hoc research and continuous research?

13. Discuss types of continuous research methods that are adopted by companies? 14. For what type of data can the following prove to be useful: I) Consumer panels? II) Retail audits? 15. Is continuous research better than ad-hoc research? 16. What is a research proposal? What are the contents of a research proposal? What are

the essential characteristics of an effective research proposal? 17. What is exploratory research? What are the various methods of carrying out exploratory

research? 18. Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative methods of MR? 19. What is descriptive research? How is it carried out? 20. Explain the meaning and usefulness of experimental research? 21. What are focus groups? What type of data can be obtained from focus groups? Suggest

some measures to improve the effectiveness of focus groups? 22. What is a depth interview? What are the advantages and disadvantages of depth

interviews? 23. What are the various techniques that can be employed in questionnaire designing to

make it more effective? 24. What is pilot study? Why should it be done? 25. How do companies establish initial contact with marketing research agencies? 26. Discuss the impact of technology on business. 27. How does the competitive environment affect business? 28. How can a company track changes in its socio-cultural environment 29. Discuss the difference between microenvironment and macro environment? 30. How can companies incorporate technologies in their business models? 31. What is consumer behavior? Why is it important to study consumer behavior? 32. What do you understand by buying role? Explain the different roles played by consumers

during the buying process?

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33. Should a company serve all its loyal customers? Explain. 34. What are the differences between extended problem solving and limited problem solving? 35. Does a consumer play the same role in every purchase process? Explain the dynamics

of consumer roles in the decision making process? 36. What is customer portfolio, and how can it be managed effectively? 37. The consumer’s attitude towards a product plays an important role in the evaluation of

alternatives. Explain. 38. What are the characteristics of habitual problem solving by consumers? What strategies

should a marketer adopt for such products where consumers exhibit habit forming behavior?

39. Describe the relationship between consumer loyalty and profitability? 40. Define Marketing Mix. Discuss different components of marketing mix. 41. What is marketing research? Why is it needed by companies? 42. Discuss the Holistic Marketing Concept in detail. 43. Write short notes on:

a. Experience concept b. Service concept

Long Ones 1. Discuss the concept of marketing. How is marketing orientation relevant to business? 2. Several competing philosophies such as the Selling concept, Production concept and Product

concept exist. How are these different from one another? How are these different from the marketing concept?

3. Define marketing mix? Discuss various components of the marketing mix? 4. Discuss the significance of segmentation, targeting and positioning in a company’s marketing

strategy? 5. How do customer centric companies build concern for their customers throughout the

company? 6. Are internally driven businesses geared to meet customer needs? Explain. 7. What is marketing research? Why is it needed by companies? 8. What do you understand by marketing information systems? Explain various elements of in

detail? 9. Discuss various approaches to conduct marketing research? 10. Discuss various stages of the MR process in detail? 11. Differentiate between probability and nonprobability sampling methods? Under what

conditions should each of these methods be used? 12. Discuss various survey methods, illustrating the advantages and disadvantages of each? 13. Discuss the impact of various economic forces on a company? 14. How do changes in socio-cultural forces affect businesses? Do some industries get affected

more easily than others due to changes in socio-cultural factors? 15. Discuss some prominent changes in various demographic segments that have affected

businesses globally? 16. Discuss the regulatory framework for businesses in India? How do these regulations affect

multinational companies that are doing business in India? 17. What is country analysis? What is the purpose of conducting such analysis? 18. Discuss various stages in the consumer decision making process? 19. What is a choice criterion? How does a consumer formulate choice criteria for evaluating

alternatives? Discuss each criterion in detail, with relevant examples. 20. Explain the influence of the internal factors on the consumer decision making process? 21. Explain the role of culture, social class and reference groups in influencing the decision

making process of a consumer? 22. What is CRM? How is it useful for a company? What mistakes do companies make while

implementing CRM? 23. In the Indian rural markets, consumers generally buy sachets / small packs of FMCG

products. This also facilitates the process of trial for companies that sell their products to these customers. Traditionally, small, unorganized players dominated this market. However,

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now MNCs are increasingly focusing on the rural markets to increase their revenues. A regional player wants to find out what he should do to tackle competition from larger multinationals. What type of research framework will you adopt for this regional player? Keep in mind the social, cultural and economic background of the intended market while designing the research framework?

24. “Work from Home” marketing? Explain. 25. ITC food division launched into toffee segment in December 2005. The market size for toffee

in India in 2006-07 was at Rs.2400 million and it was growing at 13%annually. What sales forecasting methods would you suggest to ITC and why?

26. Describe the different types of vertical marketing system. 27. Some Nationalized banks recruit only experienced persons or promote people from within the

organization. Some other like ICICI Bank and IDBI recruit extensively from management institutes. Explain the difference in sources used by these financial organizations selling essentially the same kind of financial services and products.

28. Explain various types of: i. Probability sampling methods? ii. Non-probability sampling methods?

Company specific /industry specific

Company Z marketing interview questions

11. Tell me a product X that you are familiar with? This products has two markets that it is indicated for – children and adults. How would you market to these different audiences? What would you do different? 12. You are the brand manager for Product X. Given the competitive environment in the market with Competitor product A and Competitor product B, how would you go about formulating a launch strategy? 13. There is an existing product with 2 indications; new product has another indication but possibly also the 2 indications from the existing product. Both are for cough and cold. What types of things would you think about in a new product launch, considering the fact that the brand manager for the existing brand manager sits next to you.

MICROSOFT

1. Why technology? Why Microsoft? 2. Your uncle just passed away, and left you with a rental car company. This company has been operating for 30 years and had been doing well. How do you decide whether to operate it or to sell it? If you decide to keep it, how would you make it grow? 3. Size the market for this rental car company. 4. Your company has a shipment of binders (to hold CDs) in Europe, and they were manufactured wrong: you wanted blue, but they are yellow. It is clear that you cannot use them to hold the CDs you sell. Now what do you do with them?

Dell -Marketing interview questions

1. Describe Web Services to your Grandmother. 2. In plain English, what is a Portal and how did it come about? What are the next

challenges to be overcome? 3. Tell me what in technology you’re passionate about. 4. How do you follow technology trends? (Talk about both business impact and technology) 5. Let’s play a scenario. Imagine you are a brand manager for a new technology product

and you forecast your sales for the year and decide you can make a $10M profit. You go into a meeting with your boss and other brand managers. At the end of the meeting your boss pulls you aside and tells you that one of the other brands is having difficulties and

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will be short $10M in profit. Can you pull it off and what do you tell him? Imagine with risk (2 or 3 standard deviations out) you can make an extra $7 in profit, so you cannot cover the needed $10M, what do you tell the boss now? Assume you say no. Bob down the hall who is managing an old stale product says that he can make the needed $10M. Bob is also the bosses nephew, but don’t worry that has nothing to do with being able to make the $10M. Do you think you can make the $10M or should I give the product to Bob and you take over his product?

6. Pretend you are the manager of project that is given a 10 million dollar budget. After a few months into the project you learn that your budget was cut in half. What do you do?

7. After a couple of months on the job in the marketing division, your boss leaves. Your new boss comes from sales and doesn’t understand marketing or its importance in the organization. How do you educate your boss on the benefits of marketing?

Product Manufacturing Company -marketing interview questions

1. Our group is working on delivering a new and improved version of Company X’s Baby Lotion. The product has to be out by the start of the year. However, due to difficulties on the marketing side, we are behind schedule. In my last meeting with Operations, they told me there is no way to get this product out in time. What do I do?

2. Band Aid is the category leader in wound protection. Our competitor has come out with a new product and is pricing it cheaper than ours. What do you do?

3. On your recent trip to the grocery store, tell me about a product that has a new promotion? What did you like/dislike about it? How do you think this promotion will work for this company?

4. Why pharma/biotech marketing?

Marketing “You are” type questions

1. You are a brand manager and have the opportunity to choose one person out of three to

work with. The first person is an overachiever, the second person is a solid person, and the third person you can has lots of growth opportunities, but hasn’t really been challenged yet to grow. Who would you choose and why?

2. You are the brand manger for a vending station (choose anything) at Essel world Amusement park. What are things would you want to consider when setting up your vending stand? At this same stand after a while, my profits are going down, what do I need to do?

3. If you had to choose for your new brand team b/w an average employee but good performer, a high achiever, and an employee that shouldn’t really be around, who would you choose and why?

4. You are the brand manager for Vasoline. You’re losing share to a generic competitor. What would you do to boost sales?

5. What are some consumer trends? How would you take advantage of those trends to market a new product?

6. What are skills you think brand managers need to be successful? What do you think your biggest improvement is relative to those areas?

7. Tell me about a product that is not marketed well. If you are a brand manager for this brand, what changes would you make to strengthen the brand?

8. Tell me about a product (non-food) that is marketed well. 9. You are the brand manager for company X tennis racquets, and your company just

signed a deal with Andre Agassi. He will compete in Wimbledon with your racquet, but it must be produced in 6 months. The normal production period is 1 year. How would you achieve this goal?

10. You are the brand manager on a new product that is launching in 6 weeks. Sales, promotions and manufacturing are set up, but a month goes by and you get a call from

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distribution that says they are two weeks delayed. How would you deal with this situation?

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IT QUESTIONS 1>Why do you need a MBA in IT sector? 2>What is difference between BI and warehousing? 3>What is security policy? To protect an organization’s information what security policy need to follow according to you. (NIIT) 4>

(a) How do you implement internal controls in IT systems? (b) How to design internal controls over financial reporting, when financial reporting is performed totally from the software application? Explain briefly the major points. (c) What are the additional controls needed, when the software interfaces are web based? Explain the materiality of the payroll processing functions to be performed by web-interfaces from the control perspective. VODAFONE

5>What are the key performance indicators of Business process analyst? WIPRO 6>what is data base management system and give their uses in marketing sector or day to day life (SAP) 7>what is the difference between oracle ERP products and SAP ERP products? ORACLE 8> What are the practices you follow for closing a project and meeting the conditions required to establish closure? 9>How do you determine realistic schedules for the project? SAFEWAY 10>What is the difference between product based and service based IT companies? PATNI 11>How would you explain why you got an MBA after completion of your BE in Information Technology? In your case, this means figuring out why you decided to get an MBA. Think carefully, and develop your story. Make sure it makes perfect sense to you, then test it on others, then you'll be ready for anything an interview can ask.

Describe – How –What Questions

1. Describe a past situation in which you provided excellent customer service to a user.

2. Describe the systems development process you went through at your current/previous

company.

3. Describe the types of network security features you have implemented or maintained in

the past.

4. Describe your decision-making process when selecting which IT certifications to pursue.

5. Do you have any analysis and design experience?

6. Do you have data warehousing experience?

7. Do you have experience with client/server technology?

8. Explain the concept “referential integrity” as it applies to relational databases.

9. Give an example of how you handled a difficult user.

10. Have you been involved with the quality-assurance process of application development?

11. Have you ever been in a situation where you were unable to resolve a customer’s

support problem?

12. Have you ever encountered a technical problem you couldn't initially solve? That your co-

workers couldn't solve either? What did you do?

13. How do you get people to embrace a new software product?

14. How do you handle requirements creep?

15. How do you manage to keep up with the latest technologies?

16. IBM vs. Mac?

17. In your experience, what are the essential elements of an IT disaster recovery plan?

18. In your opinion, how does managing a staff of technical workers differ from managing

other kinds of workers?

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19. Is it sometimes difficult to get clients to reveal what they’re thinking in terms of

information output?

20. Of your certifications, which one(s) have you found most helpful when you encounter

technical problems on the job?

21. Tell me about a time when a major project you were working on was unexpectedly

running far behind schedule. How did you try to mitigate the problem?

22. Tell me how to configure a Windows server on a dumb terminal using WiMax over a

closed DRM-enabled Vista workstation. (this is not a real question but you want to gauge

how quickly a candidate is able to admit they don't know something - which is a key

characteristic for a good technical resource).

23. What are your views on data security?

24. What brands of hardware do you feel most comfortable dealing with?

25. What characteristics do you feel are necessary for success as a technical support

worker?

26. What experience do you have supporting clients?

27. What have you learned about training users after a system implementation?

28. What is your style for dealing with frustrated people?

29. What kind of hardware and software do you have experience with?

30. What new technology do you think will be most significant over the next few years?

31. What new technology have you learned in the immediate past?

32. What software have you had the most success supporting?

33. What technologies do you most enjoy working with? What technologies do least enjoy

working with?

34. What type of programming experience do you have?

35. What would you do to improve the response time of the IT Department?

36. When do you believe client/server architecture is better than hierarchical systems?

37. When it comes to web site, which person to you think is the most critical to the success of

the project - the project manager, the content provider, the designer, or the technical

person? (I like it if they say they're all just as important as each other for different

reasons.

38. When you have several users experiencing computer problems, how do you determine

which users get help first?

39. When you integrate several types of systems, what types of problems do you typically run

into?

40. When you start a project, do you prefer to create a flowchart or immediately start coding?

41. How would you transform business requirements to functional requirements?

42. What analysis and modeling techniques do you use to translate business objectives into

system requirements?

43. What are the main objectives of a project manager?

44. What is SAP...? How does it related to databases? What is the basic concept?

45. What is the difference between demand management and supply management?

46. What is the difference between ERP and Distributed Computing?

47. What is strategy and strategic planning? If you are working in a Super market, what

techniques / tools you will use in data collection. How are you going to analysis the data

and make references? How will you apply your market research to improve sales and win

over customers? Suppose the price elasticity of demand for Text books is two and the

price of the text book is increased by 10%. By how much does the Quantity demand fall?

Discuss reasons for the fall in quantity demand?

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Finance Questions from Campus Interviews Behavioral:

• Why do you want to do Finance? (All) - Say how your experiences prepared you for the job.

• Walk me through your resume. (All) - Things you are proud off (you feel energized about), - Things that distinguish you - Things most applicable to the core finance skills.

• Let me give you an example: It is Friday afternoon, you have a wedding set for Saturday and you have told everybody in the office you will be gone. Just when you are about to leave, you find out that the client wants to meet with your team tomorrow. What will you do?

- This is a work attitude question. • Why should we hire you? (All)

- With any open-ended question, make your response insightful and entertaining. Think of these questions as speeches. Give stories and anecdotes, something so they can remember you for, something unique.

• What types of activities did you pursue while in college? - You are interviewing for intense, stressful positions. Banks love to see A

personalities who worked, went to school, got As and don’t seem to need sleep. • Why are you applying to this firm? (All)

- Get ready to talk about the industry and the firm specifically. This is especially important question for smaller firms.

• Give me an example of a project that you did that involved heavy analytical thinking. - If you don’t have financial background, give example of a work or school project,

focusing on the part that required a lot of number crunching • Give me an example of a time you worked as a part of a team: (All)

- You will DEFINITELY get this one. Highlight your strengths as a team member: empathy, collaboration, consensus building…

• What is the most striking thing you’ve read recently in TOI (or what Publications do you read regularly)? (Merrill Lynch)

• Let’s say I give you this job today. Now let’s move to the future and say in six month into the job you are fired. Give me three reasons why this could happen, and what you can do to prevent this (or give me 3 weaknesses)? (Bear Stearns)

- Don’t loose your cool and have answers prepared for the weakness question. • Think of a person that knows you very well both professionally and socially. If I were to

call this person and ask him to describe you, what would he say? (Banc of America) - Talk about your strengths and weaknesses.

• Can you give me an example of an experience with failure? (Merrill Lynch) - Have an answer prepared for this question. Be modest and admit that you have

experienced setbacks. Also, focus on how you bounced back and learned from that experience

• You don’t seem like you are a very driven person. How will you be able to handle a job in banking? (All)

- A stressful question: for instance you may meet with more than a dozen people in a day when interviewing for Goldman. It is easy to appear worn out, when you are trying to convince them you don’t wear out easily. Give a good example when you were totally driven.

• Tell me about an accomplishment you are proud off: (All) - This is you chance to shine. Remember: teamwork, analytic ability, hardworking,

dependable.

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INVESTMENT BANKING

VALUATION

• Tell me the different ways you can value a company. (All) ******** YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS INSIDE AND OUT********

• Discounted Cash Flow Analysis • Adjusted Present Value • Market comparables

o Price to earnings (P/E), Enterprise value/Revenue, Price to book value • Comparable acquisitions

• Be able to talk comfortably about the following: (All) o Levering and delivering betas o Capital Asset Pricing Model o Five factors that affect options pricing o Terminal values o What makes a good comparable company

• What ratios do you think are most important when valuing a company and why? • Walk me through a valuation you have done (all encompassing question). (All)

GENERAL QUESTIONS

• What types of industries have you followed and give me your opinion on a particular industry and why companies have succeeded or failed in this industry. (Bear Stearns)

• Know how the three basic financial statements flow together. Cash Flow Statement, Balance Sheet, Income Statement

• Let’s talk about ______ merger. What do you think about it?

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

• Walk me through the IPO process • When raising equity, what are important factors you should consider before the public

offering? • Discuss the types of capital sources and when each is appropriate: (All)

• Debt, Equity, Preferred stock, Convertible debt

HELPFUL HINTS

• Interview with many banks; it’s a numbers game • Know strengths/weaknesses of the firm very well • Know the latest news regarding the firm with which you are interviewing

o Know high profile deals the bank may have completed

• Have insightful, intelligent questions PERSONAL AND FIRM SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

• Why investment research? Why do you want to be on the buy/sell side? • What other firms are you talking to? (Goldman Sachs) • Compare and contrast the firms you are talking to and why you like our firm better.

(Morgan Stanley) • Why do you see yourself as a good fit with your firm? • Where do you see the industry going (e.g., Reg. FD)? • In your opinion, what makes a good equity analyst/research associate? • Do you have specific industry interests?

ACCOUNTING & F/S ANALYSIS RELATED QUESTIONS

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• Describe how the three main financial statements flow together. Mini-case question: “There are three ways to account for oil exploration costs: The FIRST is to write-off all exploration costs as incurred, the SECOND is to capitalize successful explorations and write off the rest, and the THIRD is to capitalize all exploration costs. Which one results in the lowest Net Income, the highest Book Value, and the highest Cash Flow?”

• Larger case question: After being presented a set of financial statements you are asked what you would look at (in the f/s) and what other information you would acquire in determining if you would purchase the stock. Would you buy?

• Describe two ways to estimate Free Cash Flows? • What can you tell about a company’s ROE if you are willing to pay an amount equal

to its book value per share for a share of stock? SECURITY ANALYSIS

• Do you invest in stocks personally? (Morgan Stanley) • What stocks do you like? Why? (This is basically a stock pitch. Be ready to talk

about three stocks in detail. Know financial information, ratios, multiples, the company’s prospects, etc. HINT: consider giving the Investor Relations office (of the stocks you are pitching) a call as part of your preparation. Asking the company questions show that you have really done some homework).

• Tell me about what you consider your best investment success? Biggest failure? What did you learn?

SELL-SIDE RELATED QUESTION

• You are a research associate: you get into the office at 9AM, a stock (XYZ) you have a “strong buy” rating on has gone down 30% in the last 30 minutes, the analyst you work for is currently on an airplane and not reachable, you have four calls on hold: 1) the CFO of the XYZ, 2) one of your biggest institutional clients, 3) the head trader at your firm, and 4) the director of research. In what order do you answer the calls and why?

• You get into the office in the morning and there is a note from the analyst you work for. She will be in the office in 5 hours and would like to see an analysis of a particular stock. What do you do to analyze the stock and what do you present to the analyst.

• What is a research associate’s number one role?

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APPROACH TOWARDS ANSWERS There are typically three types of interview questions that clients ask 1. Typical HR questions (structured and unstructured questions) For the typical HR question a structured approach is recommended 2. Behavioral Style questions

• Tell me about a time when you had a difficult employee…what did you do turn him/her around? • Tell me about a situation where you had to think outside the box…

For the behavioral question, the STAR method is recommended. (given on next page) 3. Case interview questions. Interviewers give candidates a logic question or an actual case study and ask them to solve the problem/issue

• Our division’s profitability is down this year and here are the variables…why?

Case interview questions are rare and covered individually and are position specific.

Structured Response

One of the biggest complaints from employers is that candidates ramble in interviews, can’t put structure around their answers or come across as vague. So what is structured thinking and answering? Here is an example to illustrate the point: “So why are you looking for a new opportunity? “employer to experienced guy Answer: “We’ll my company is experiencing financial difficulty so I am concerned…and I can’t move out of my current role so there is no potential for growth….and we really don’t like the Mumbai” Here was the way it should have been structured using the same basic information: “I am glad you asked that question. There are three reasons I am looking for a new opportunity. First, my company doesn’t move people into different functions so I have no career growth potential. In addition, my company is experiencing financial difficulty and quite frankly I am worried about our long term viability. The final reason is location. Our goal has been to move away from the Mumbai to our roots and family somewhere in Uttar Pradesh” Notice the content didn’t change but there is now structure around the answer. The answer is framed by saying there are three primary reasons for the change. Then the reasons were listed in a concise matter with context. This is a simple example of structure. However, there will be times when a more complicated structured answer is needed. Another question that typically comes up is “What would you do in the first 90 days for our company?” There are a lot of structures that can be applied to answer this question. One could be process, people and technology. It doesn’t matter what structure is employed as long as one is used and it is logical.

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The STAR Method is used for situational/behavioral style questions. These questions are fraught with peril as most candidates go off on tangents and ramble. The STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. The best way to describe this method is through an example of an experienced employee though this can also apply to freshers using their experience in summers or college projects: Question:” Tell me about a time when you had an internal customer that was an obstacle on a project and how did you handle it…” Answer Situation: At XYZ Corp, I was responsible for quality management for new products. We had cross functional sub-groups that worked hand in hand to identify potential issues throughout the R&D phase. As the team lead in quality, I had to get each leader of the sub-groups to buy in to changes as they occurred. Task: My quality group identified a key component of the product that had structural issues from the supplier. However, purchasing owned this particular function in within R&D. Despite convincing the R&D group the supplier needed to change tolerances or the part sourced by a different supplier, the purchasing group held to existing supplier for price reasons. Action: By working directly with the R&D manager, I was able to get a joint meeting with leader of the procurement division and emphasized that our group was not trying to dictate terms or become “subject matter experts” in procurement. We emphasized that a stronger component part, regardless of price, might minimally increase the budget but would save money in the long run. Result: We ended up changing out the inferior component and have had no issues with the product once the design was changed. We now send a member of the quality team along with procurement to supplier sites to add perspective to the purchasing process. Based on similar component quality issues, we estimate a time savings of 500 man hours and an expedited labor process. This provides a good example of how to use the STAR method. However, there are several other types of questions that are asked in the process that you can employ this method. For example, an interviewer might ask “what are your strengths?” A candidate might answer “I have great leadership skills.” Did they prove it? It is one thing to say you have something but another to quantify and give examples of how you have demonstrated your strengths. It is also important to give perspective in these answers. Example “We utilized a six sigma methodology with an R&D project” INSTEAD-“ The process engineering group, consisting of a Sr. Process Engineer, a Jr. manufacturing engineer, two technicians and myself utilized a Six Sigma methodology for the R&D project of a plastics injected molded part” Energy & Enthusiasm Another big complaint we get from clients is the lack of energy the candidates bring to the table. There are several candidates we have worked with that were extremely qualified but lacked energy and ended up being passed over for a candidate with less experience but more energy. This is something in your control. If you are on the phone interview, stand up. When you stand, your voice carries more and you sound more enthusiastic. Have some pep in your step during on-site interviews. Many times we have heard from clients “Once we met your candidate, we knew immediately he was going to be a good fit for the position”. Not because of their qualifications, but their enthusiastic nature towards the team. Pace Pace is a very critical and often times overlooked part of the interview process. Typically candidates rush through answers right after the interviewer asks the question fearing an uncomfortable silence. However, sometimes it is more beneficial to take a little time to collect your thoughts to expound upon the most accurate information and examples possible rather than answering quickly. Some interview questions you should see coming a mile away, i.e. “Why are you looking? Others might not be so obvious. On the tougher questions, pause for a second to

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collect your thoughts. Then, using the advice mentioned earlier, apply some structure to your answer. The caveat here is to not pause for most of your questions. If you pause a little bit, you come across as polished…pause too much and you come across as calculating and guarded. On the obvious questions, be spontaneous…on the tougher ones, take your time. Addressing Weakness or Potential Concerns There is no such thing as a perfect candidate. They might not have enough experience, or the wrong experience, or too much experience. They might have had too many jobs, too few jobs or not the right education. The key for a candidate is to honestly look at their background and discover what their weakness or potential concern there might be for the position. Keep in mind, weakness in this sense is related to your background in a specific job, not a general personal weakness. Once a weakness or potential concern is identified, you need to craft a strategy to address it during the interview. One of the worst things that can happen is if you get a bad interviewer and your weakness or the potential concern about your candidacy is never addressed. This happens often. Interviewers often times don’t ask the tough questions. There have been several instances where candidate had great answers for weaknesses or viable concerns but the question was never asked. How do you mitigate this? If the interviewer is winding down the interview and hasn’t asked you about it YOU introduce it to the conversation…take control. Usually at the end of the interview, the interviewer asks “Do you have any questions?” This is the best time to bring it up. Asking Questions It is important in any interview to ask questions…you are interviewing your potential employer as much as being interviewed. Some of the questions can be general focusing on corporate culture or growth of the organization. However, a good chunk of the questions need to be geared specifically to the position and how it works within the matrix of the organization. A detailed, well thought out and targeted group of questions can set you apart as much as the answers you give. Conclusion Preparation is the most important part of the interview process. Once a company has reviewed your resume and asked to interview you, they have deemed you technically sufficient for the position. Most candidates believe their years of experience will land them their next position. How you interview and separate yourself from other candidates are the most important parts of the process. In our experience, very often it isn’t the candidate that is the most qualified that receives an offer but the candidate that is the most prepared.