Your Guide to QUESTIONS BY JOB ROTMAN FULL-TIME MBA · PDF fileROTMAN FULL-TIME MBA CAREER...

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INTERVIEWQUESTIONSBY JOBFUNCTION

Your Guide to

Interview Questions by Job Function

Business Design ............................................................................................................................. 3

Business Design: Commonly Asked Questions .............................................................. 3

Business Design: Technical Questions ............................................................................ 3

Business Design: Behavioral Questions........................................................................... 4

Commercial Banking ................................................................................................................... 5

Commercial Banking: Commonly Asked Questions ................................................... 5

Commercial Banking: Behavioral Questions ................................................................ 5

Commercial Banking: Technical Questions .................................................................. 5

Consulting - External .................................................................................................................... 6

Consulting – External: Commonly Asked Questions .................................................... 6

Consulting – External: Behavioral Questions ................................................................. 6

Corporate Banking ....................................................................................................................... 9

Corporate Banking: Commonly Asked Questions ....................................................... 9

Corporate Banking: Behavioral Questions .................................................................... 9

Corporate Banking: Technical Questions ..................................................................... 9

Corporate Finance ..................................................................................................................... 10

Corporate Finance: Commonly Asked Questions ..................................................... 10

Corporate Finance: Behavioral Questions .................................................................. 10

Corporate Finance: Technical Questions ................................................................... 11

Equity Research .......................................................................................................................... 12

Equity Research: Commonly Asked Questions .......................................................... 12

Equity Research: Behavioral Questions ....................................................................... 12

Equity Research: Market Questions ........................................................................... 12

Equity Research: Technical Questions ....................................................................... 12

Investment Banking .................................................................................................................... 13

Investment Banking: Commonly Asked Questions .................................................... 13

Investment Banking: Technical Questions .................................................................. 13

Investment Management .......................................................................................................... 14

Investment Management: Commonly Asked Questions ......................................... 14

Investment Management: Behavioral Questions ...................................................... 14

Investment Management: Market Questions ........................................................... 14

Investment Management: Technical Questions ........................................................ 15

Marketing ..................................................................................................................................... 16

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Your Guide to: Interview Questions by Job Function August 2016

Marketing: Commonly Asked Questions ..................................................................... 16

Marketing: CPG Marketing Questions ......................................................................... 16

Marketing: Pharmaceutical Marketing Questions ..................................................... 18

Marketing: Technology Marketing Questions ............................................................. 18

Risk ................................................................................................................................................ 20

Risk: Commonly Asked Questions ................................................................................ 20

Risk: Behavioral Questions ............................................................................................. 20

Risk: Technical Questions ............................................................................................... 20

Sales ............................................................................................................................................. 22

Sales: Commonly Asked Questions .............................................................................. 22

Sales: Top 10 Sales Questions ........................................................................................ 23

Sales & Trading ............................................................................................................................ 24

Sales & Trading: Commonly Asked Questions ............................................................ 24

Sales & Trading: Behavioral Questions ......................................................................... 24

Sales & Trading: Market Questions ............................................................................. 25

Sales & Trading: Technical Questions .......................................................................... 25

Supply Chain & Operations ....................................................................................................... 26

Supply Chain & Operations: Commonly Asked Questions ....................................... 26

Supply Chain & Operations: Technical Questions ..................................................... 26

Technology .................................................................................................................................. 27

Technology: Commonly Asked Questions……………………………………………… 27

Technology: Behavioral Questions……………………………………………………….. 27

Technology: Case Questions ........................................................................................ 28

Technology: Technical Questions ................................................................................ 28

Appendix 1 .................................................................................................................................. 29

The STAR Method ............................................................................................................ 29

Appendix 2 .................................................................................................................................. 30

The Recruiting Cycle ...................................................................................................... 30

Appendix 3 .................................................................................................................................. 31

How to best PREPARE for an Interview ........................................................................ 31

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Business Design

The interviewer may ask you specific questions about your resume. Be prepared to

discuss all your achievements, experiences, and skills mentioned in your resume.

Commonly Asked Questions

Tell me about yourself.

Why [company name]?

Why did you choose Rotman?

Why did you choose to earn an MBA?

Why [previous employer]?

Tell me about something on your resume that you would do differently

What are you interested in working on? What aspect of the business?

Why consulting? What skills do you have that lend to this work?

Do you make things real and tangible, or are you more theoretical?

What excites you?

What problems in the world do you want to solve?

What would you uniquely bring to our culture?

How do you push people further? How do you push projects further?

Technical Questions

Do you have experience in technology?

We look for people that are T-shaped. How does this apply to you?

o The concept of T-shaped skills, or T-shaped persons is a metaphor used in job

recruitment to describe the abilities of persons in the workforce. The vertical

bar on the T represents the depth of related skills and expertise in a single

field, whereas the horizontal bar is the ability to collaborate across disciplines

with experts in other areas and to apply knowledge in areas of expertise

other than one's own.

o The T-shaped person has broader skills and knowledge and learns by linking

different perspectives from different specialties. Many leaders today,

however, feel that T people are better at fostering the diverse connections

and conversations that bring exceptional ideas to the surface.

Are you comfortable with data?

What does design mean to you?

Do you embrace the opportunity to develop your own process?

How would you structure design research?

How would you develop a whitespace product idea? How can you de-risk an idea?

How can you prove or disprove your assumptions? What tests would you run?

How would you create financial projections for a new product?

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Can you set up parameters that feel defined but not overly restrictive?

How does a particular business model play in another space?

How do you think you’ll advocate for design on a team of designers, engineers,

etc.?

Have you launched a new product or service? How did it go?

Behavioural Questions

Behavioural questions asked during your interview will be reflective of the

competencies required in the role – refer back to the job posting to identify these and

create your stories in the STAR format to best showcase your ability.

Talk about how you influenced a leader.

Talk about how you have navigated complexity in the past (give an example).

Give me an example of when you’ve dealt with failure.

Walk me through a recent project where you used design. What insights did you

learn? How? What would you have done differently in that project?

Tell me about a design you think is successful.

Tell me about a design that you think is a failure. Who was it designed for? What is

the business model? How would you improve the design?

Tell me about a business model that is not successful. What would you do to improve

it?

Tell me about a successful business model. How could it be even better?

Tell me about a time you prototyped something.

If you had $10,000, how would you prototype and test an idea?

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Commercial Banking




Walk me through your resume.


Why commercial banking?

Why our company?

Why have you decided to pursue an MBA?

Have you ever been given a sales target? If so, how did you do?

Why should we hire you?

What is your greatest accomplishment?

What are your interests outside of work/school?

What are your strengths? Weaknesses?

What initiatives have you taken to expand your network?

How would you rate your financial analysis skills?

What do you do to stay up to date on the markets?





Tell me about a time when you showed leadership. Walk me through the most

complex problem you have had to solve.

Tell me about a time when you were successful/not successful in building credibility

with a new client.

It's your first day on the job and I tell you to go out and find three prospective clients.

Where do you start and what do you do?

Describe a particularly stressful period where you had to balance multiple tasks.

How did you accomplish this?

Technical Questions

How do you value a company?

If a company came to ask you for a loan, what would you do?

What do you see the Bank of Canada doing with interest rates over this coming

year? What about next year?

Define WACC and why it’s used.

If you have a company that turns it inventory twice a year, and you have another

company that turns its inventory 12 times a year. Which is more risky and why?

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Consulting - External



Skills to focus on: Leadership, analytics, problem solving, creativity, influence, conflict

resolution. Focus on “your actions” and “results” and be prepared to discuss an

example at length as interviewers may probe for details and ask numerous follow up

questions.


Brief summary about you, tell me about yourself?

Why consulting, why you want to be a consultant?

Why this organization?

Why an MBA and why Rotman?

Resume walk through, highlighting most recent work experience,

challenges/successes in each, how does the resume summarize you?

What is strategy, what does it mean to you?

What does a consultant do on a daily basis?

Tell me about your industry experience.

Tell me about your previous working experiences and describe how they will help

you in a consulting career.

What are some of the skills that you'll bring into consulting? What do you think are

some of the challenges you'll experience here?

Tell me about a time you had to deal with ambiguity?

What is the greatest strength you could bring to the firm? What is one thing you

would need to work on?





Consulting requires self-awareness and continual self-improvement. What is a

weakness or area of concern that is relevant to your work as a consultant?

Describe a time you disagreed with an authority. What did you do, say, feel, react?

What will you do if you see a conflict between an associate and a client?

Describe a situation where you had to work with someone who disagreed with you,

and where you had to change their mind.

Tell me about a time when you had a conflict in a team and how you dealt with it.

Describe a situation where you were working with/in a team and took a leadership

role.

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Can you give me an example of a team decision you were involved in recently?

What was the situation? What did you do to help the team reach the decision?

What was the result?

Think of a situation or project in which you had no formal position of authority, yet still

assumed a clear leadership role. What was the situation? How did you demonstrate

leadership?

Tell me of a time when you conceded something to your team? What could you

have done differently?

Tell me about a time (at school or at work) where you had to convince someone/a

team about an idea you believed in. What was your approach, were you

successful, where were the challenges?

Describe a change you have initiated or a new idea you recently suggested to

improve the way things were being done. What steps did you take to bring the idea

to life?

Tell me about a time when you effectively inspired an individual or group to excel

on a task or project. What was the situation? How did you do it?

What is the most complex project/analysis/mandate you have ever worked on?

What was complex about it? How did you overcome these difficulties? What were

the results?

Tell me about a time when you had to analyze or interpret complex information.

What was the situation? Which approach did you take? What was the result?

Tell me about a problem you did not solve on the first try. What was the problem?

What did you do on the first and second tries? How was this problem finally solved?

When a manager asks you to do research on a technical subject, what steps do you

take prior to starting the work? What questions will you ask your manager before

getting started? Why?

Describe a time when you exceeded a client’s expectations. What was the

situation? What did you do?

According to you, what are the three most important skills or qualities required to

establish good relationships with clients? Why?

Give me an example of a time when you had to deliver something high quality on a

tight deadline.

Tell me about a time you had to sacrifice quality to make a deadline.

Tell me about a situation where you had to innovate to reach your objectives.

Name a time when you had multiple tasks to balance and describe how you

managed to prioritize them.

Talk about a time you faced an ethical dilemma. What were your actions?

Describe a time when you received difficult or negative feedback.

Tell me about a time when you were too busy to check all the details of a project

and some errors slipped through. What was the situation? What did you do? What

were the consequences?

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Describe for me a situation where you used quantitative analysis.

Tell me a time when you used creativity to solve a problem.

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Corporate Banking





Why Corporate Credit? Why not investment banking?

Why an MBA?

Why our company?

Why are you the best candidate for the role?

What are your strengths & weaknesses?





Tell me about a time to you had to influence a person or a group of people to get

them on your side.

Tell me about a time things weren’t going as planned & how did you resolve it

(teamwork).

Tell me about a time you demonstrated strong leadership skills.

Tell me about a time you faced a challenge with limited resources.

Technical Questions

Markets – how do the market affect the banks & what we can learn from this?

What 3 items are most important from the statement cash flows for credit analysis?

What are the 5 C’s of corporate credit?

Explain why ratios are mainly related to cash flow statement not income statement

(creditor wants money not interested in growth/profits).

What would your approach be to evaluating the credit of a company?

How would you evaluate a credit application?

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Corporate Finance






Why are you interested in corporate finance?

Why are you interested in this company?

Why are you interested in this industry?


Why are you the best candidate?

What are your short and long term career goals?

Tell me something about you that is not on your resume.

Tell me about your greatest achievement.





Tell me about a time when you demonstrated initiative.

Tell me about a time when you led a project.

Tell me about a time when you used your analytical skills to a make

recommendation.

Tell me about a time when you had to persuade someone who disagreed with you.

Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a conflict colleague.

Tell me about a time when you failed. What did you do?

Tell me about a time when you had worked in a difficult team.

Tell me about a time when you were able to work effectively in a team.

Tell me about a time when you had competing deadlines, how did you handle it.

Tell me about a time when you experienced a significant change in your work, how

did you handle it?

NOTE: There could be scenario questions to assess the competencies required for the

position.

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Technical Questions

You need to understand high level accounting principles and know how to read

financial statements.

You could be asked to analyze the financial statements of an anonymous company

e.g. Why are profits declining?

Which of the three financial statements (cashflow/balance sheet/income

statement) is the most risky?

If you had only 1 financial statement and wanted to review the health of a

company, which statement would you use & why?

If you want to increase the price of a product, what factors would you consider?

What are some financial factors that you would consider when evaluating X

product of the company?

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Equity Research






Why Equity Research?

What are your strengths & weaknesses?

What sector are you interested in?

What type of manager do you work best with?

Do you invest?

What are your career goals?


Tell me about your ability to work in teams.

What type of work environment do you prefer to work in?

Be prepared to answer an ethical question.

Tell me about a time when you were able to multitask successfully.

Tell me about a time you exceeded a manager’s expectations.

Tell me about the biggest challenge you faced this past year.

Market Questions

Be prepared for an Excel test.

Example – They will give you a research report, quarterly report and press release

and ask that you summarize in 4 bullet point.

Do you follow the markets? What is your view on the markets?

Give me a stock pitch.

Have you written any research reports?

Where do you see the economy going?

Technical Questions

What are 3 ways to value a company?

Know Bloomberg!

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Investment Banking






Why IB?

Why the company?

What’s happening in the markets today?

Why Rotman?


What’s your greatest accomplishment?

What are your interests?

What do you dislike about IB?

What do you think an Associate will be doing over the summer?

Technical Questions

What is the banking landscape in Canada? Tell us about the Canadian Economy.

What are your expectations of the economy in the future?

How do you value a company? Use the 3 standard valuation methods/techniques

& apply it to make a recommendation.

Pitch a stock.

Know the recent deals the company has done & have an opinion i.e. Why you liked

it (accretion vs dilution)?

Know your ratios e.g. P/E, EV/EBITDA, and how they differ, Calculate market cap

WACC.

When do companies typically buy back stock?

Why would a company issue stock rather than debt to finance its operations?

What are some reasons a company would issue debt rather than equity to finance

its operations?

Where did the S&P 500 close yesterday?

Who is a more senior creditor, a stockholder or a bondholder?

Explain how a swap works.

Walk me through the 3 financial statements.

If I were stranded on a desert island, only had 1 statement and I wanted to review

the overall health of a company – which statement would I use and why?

What would happen on the Income Statement when depreciation goes up by $10?

What are the three major valuation methodologies?

Can you walk me through a basic Discounted Cash Flow model?

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Investment Management






Why are you interested in investment management?

What not sell-side? (if applicable)






How do you manage stress?


What’s the last book that you read?

What’s your favourite book on investing?

Do you invest?





Tell me about a time when you had to explain a complicated concept to

someone?

Tell me about a time when you failed? What did you do?

Tell me about a time when you persuaded a person or group to agree with you?

Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a conflict within a team?

Market Questions

There will be questions to assess your understanding and opinion on the markets, and

major economic, political and business issues domestically and globally.

How do you currently keep up with the markets?

What’s happening in the markets, domestic and global?

Where do you see the market going in the next 6 months?

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Technical Questions If you are interviewing for a particular asset class be prepared for specific questions to

determine your knowledge, understanding, and outlook on that asset class.

What’s your investing style?

How do you value a company?

Pitch me a stock.

Tell me what industry would you invest and why?

What is your favorite financial statement and why?

If the stock you recommended a few weeks ago began dropping suddenly, what

would you do?

If you could invest in one underlying asset right now what would it be?

If you had $1 million to invest, how would you allocate the assets?

What investment strategies would you use in today’s economy and why?

If you could buy one stock for the next 50 years what would it be?

What are the 2 biggest factors that affect interest rates?

What do you think the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates?

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Marketing




Are you more analytical or creative? Tell me about some analytical work you have

done.

What has been your most creative idea?

Your resume does not show a lot of analytical background and this job is very

analytically demanding. Make us feel comfortable that you could handle this job.

Give an example of when you used creativity to solve a problem.

Tell me about an ad campaign that you think has been successful and why.

Tell me about a product that you think is marketed well and why.

What are some consumer trends? How would you take advantage of those trends

to market a new product?

You find your sales are declining, what do you do to improve sales?

What are the skills you think brand managers need to be successful?

Why are you changing your career focus to marketing?

CPG Marketing Questions

Tell me a food product that you think is marketed well.

Tell me a product that you don’t think is marketed well. Given this product, what

would you do to change the brand image?

You’re the brand manager on Post Walnut Crunch cereal and all of the marketing

efforts are in place, ready for launch in one month. You have just found out that,

due to a civil war in Argentina, your walnuts are stuck in Argentina. (The walnuts for

this cereal can only be found in Argentina; there are no substitutes.) How would you

handle this situation?

You’re the brand manager on Lender’s Bagels. Sales are flat but your market share

is growing. What is happening to your brand and what would you do about it?

What is your favorite sports team? Suppose that you are a vendor at that stadium.

You could be selling food, souvenirs, etc. What would you do to sell your product?

… Now assume that your sales have declined by 5%. What would you do and why?

You’re able to sell anything at a sports arena. What would you choose and how

would you sell it?

You’ve just started working on a new brand. What type of information would you

pull out from a P&L to get a better understanding of the business?

You’re the brand manager for a vending station (choose anything) at a 6 Flags

Amusement park. What are the things you would consider when setting up your

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vending stand? At this same stand, after a while, your profits begin decreasing.

What would you do?

If you had been working on Oscar Meyer and were to move over to Kool-Aid,

before getting down to the nitty gritty, what are some of the facts that you would

want to know right off the bat from the P&L statement?

You're the brand manager on <coffee brand>, and another one of <insert CPG firm

name>’s coffee businesses is coming up $10M short of forecast. You have got 2

months left in the fiscal year, what would you look at in P&L to make up the

difference?

You’re the brand manager for <insert name brand>. You’re losing share to a generic

competitor. What would you do to boost sales?

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?

Tell me about a <insert CPG firm name> product that is under marketed? If you

were the brand manager for this product, how would you market it?

You’re the brand manager for Prince 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?

You’re 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 distribution that says they are two weeks delayed. How would you deal with

this situation?

Sell us on a product or an idea. It doesn’t matter what the product or ideology is,

just sell it to us.

You are the brand manager for V8 Splash. One of our competitors approaches you

and wants you to produce their private label blended juice. What do you say?

Tell me about a great product that you like, but that isn’t marketed well.

If you are the brand manager of a consumer packaged good and have a limited

communications budget, how do you optimize your communication spend?

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?

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?

Analyze 2 advertisements (Acuvue and Freshlook.) Tell the interviewer who you think

their target market is.

What is a new product that has come out in the last couple of years that you really

like? What have you liked about the marketing campaign?

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Pharmaceutical Marketing Questions

Tell me a <pharmaceutical> product that you are familiar with? E.g. Straterra. This

drug has two markets that it is indicated for – children and adults. How would you

market to these different audiences? What would you do different?

Suppose you are the brand manager for Cialis. Given the competitive environment

in the market with Viagra and Levitra, how would you go about formulating a

launch strategy?

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 oncology.

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.

If you were to launch a new product but want to do it in an interesting pill form (i.e.

a star-shaped or moon-shaped pill), what are some of the things you would consider

when doing this?

Technology Marketing Questions

If you’re the brand manager launching a PC line in a rural part of China, how would

you go about researching this opportunity?

Let's say that <technology company> is considering launching a new product in the

large color copier category to compete with Canon and Xerox. How would you

assess whether or not this would be a good move?

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?

Why are you interested in the technology space?

You are the brand manager for the Inspiron Notebook. It is being sold new via

normal Dell channels and not through Dell Outlet. The 2 competitors are H-P and

Toshiba, and you are losing market share to them. You currently have 30% of the

market. The costs of flat panel displays are going up because of the pressure from

flat screen TVs. The margin is higher on the TVs. The cost of memory is going up as

well and it is in short supply. What do you recommend?

Your uncle just passed away, and left you with a rental car company in RDU. 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? Follow-up question: size the market for this rental car company.

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?

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Suppose last year sales of Microsoft Windows client increased in 30%. What could

have driven it? Sample answer can include:

o Negotiations with OEMs

o Increased PC Sales

People moving from other operating systems

People moving from earlier versions of Windows (upgrades)

People moving from illegal copies of Windows

People moving from windows “Home” to Windows “professional”

Tell me about a software or app that you like. Why? How would you market it to

improve sales?

<Insert operating system name here> grew 30% last year. What would you do to

maintain the same rate of growth for this year?

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Risk






Why risk?

Why our company?

Why have you decided to pursue an MBA?


What is your greatest accomplishment?

What are your interests outside of work/school?






Walk me through the most complex problem you have had to solve.

Tell me about a colleague that you didn’t get along with. How did you handle it?

Can you provide me an example of a time you built credibility with a client?

Give me an example of a time when you were able to defend your position on a

decision/idea.

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken?

Technical Questions

Credit Risk:

How do you evaluate the financial performance of a company?

What ratios/metrics do you use to assess financial performance?

Is it possible for a company with negative net income to have positive net cash

flows?

How does Bay Street value a company?

During times of recession, what industries are most and least subjected to economic

downturn?

What is your opinion about the current credit market?

How do you analyze a credit deal?

What covenants would you add to make this credit deal work?

Market Risk:

What is VaR?

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What are the limitations of VaR?

How do you calculate standard deviation?

How do you calculate correlation?

Depending on how technical the role is, you could be asked about your knowledge of

options (Greeks) including:

Drawing profile diagrams for delta, gama, vega, theta.

Awareness of concepts such as vanna, vomma, charm, etc.

How options behave differently for commodities, equities, equity indices - S&P 500,

interest rate options, etc.

Operational Risk:

What does ERM stand for?

What is the COSO framework and why is it used?

What tools can you use to identify operational risks?

How are risks typically prioritized?

Other Possible Questions and Brainteasers:

What are key rations when evaluating risk?

How do you value an interest rate/FX swap?

What is Basel Accord? How does it affect the financial system?

What is Volcker rule? Does it affect our bank? How?

What is the next ‘big issue’ in risk?

How many cars are there in the United States?

You are dealt 13 cards randomly from a pack of 52. What is the probability your

hand contains exactly 2 aces?

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Sales




What’s your opinion of the role of learning in sales?

How do you keep up to date on your target market?

Do you have a helpful demeanor?

What’s worse: not making quota every single month or not having happy

customers?

How would you approach a short sales cycle differently than a long sales cycle?

When do you stop pursuing a client?

Who are you most comfortable selling to and why?

What’s your least favorite part of the sales process?

What motivates you?

What is your ultimate career aspiration?

What are three adjectives a former client would use to describe you?

How do you keep a smile on your face during a hard day?

What is your ability to handle rejection?

What made you want to get into sales?

Have you ever had a losing streak? How did you turn it around?

What do you think our company/sales organization could do better?

In your last position, how much time did you spend cultivating customer relationships

vs. hunting for new clients, and why?

What’s your approach to handling customer objections?

Have you ever asked a prospect who didn’t buy from you to explain why you lost

the deal? What did they say, and what did you learn from that experience?

What role does social media play in your selling process?

What role does content play in your selling process?

How do you research prospects before a call or meeting? What information do you

look for?

Have you ever turned a prospect away? If so, why?

What are some of your favorite questions to ask prospects?

What’s your take on collaboration within a sales team?

If you were hired for this position, what would you do in your first month?

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Top Ten Sales Interview Questions (and expected responses)

What image do you have of our company and this industry?

-Should have done a thorough job of research or your industry and company

What types of products/services have you sold and how did you sell them?

- See if they understand how to sell "solutions" as opposed to "products" or "services"

What kind of goals motivate you the best? What total compensation are you

seeking?

-Should be enthusiastic about setting goals

-Should be comfortable with a large share of compensation at risk (at least 50 per

cent)

What were your goals for the past three years and did you meet them? What was

the reason for your success? Why didn't you meet the goals?

-Should have had concrete goals with metrics

What was your most significant professional accomplishment? Tell me about it in

detail.

-Keep asking for more and more detail to get insight into work ethic

Tell me about a sales experience that demonstrates your work ethic.

-If they give a positive one, ask for a negative one. e.g. a time they failed and what

they learned

How do you generate leads?

-Asking for referrals from current customers should be a large part of the answer

What is your sales process, given a qualified lead? How many contacts do you

make on a qualified lead?

-Look for logical steps including building a relationship and asking about the

prospect's needs as the first two steps

-Average number of contacts should be 12

-Ask for the different types of contacts they make to qualified prospects

How do you overcome buyer objections? How do you handle price objections?

-Ask for examples

-Can they describe selling on value, not on price?

How do you expect to close sales? How do you know when a buyer is ready to buy?

What closing principles do you follow? What closing techniques work best for you?

-Does the candidate mention of the importance of body language?

Some answers to "what closing principles do you follow" include:

-Do not attempt to close until the buyer is ready

-When you propose a close, be silent until the buyer responds

-After the sale is made, quit selling

-Should be able to describe three different closing techniques

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Sales & Trading




Why S&T?

Why not IB?

Would you rather do sales or trading?

What desk would you prefer to work on?

What do you think are the 3 top qualities for a Trader/Sales Person?

How would you feel about getting coffee for the team?

What do you think an Associate will be doing over the summer?

How do you deal with stress?

What’s your favourite book?

What do you do in your spare time?

Tell me something about you that’s not on your resume.

What type of people/personalities do you find it difficult to work with?

Tell me about a time that you failed. What did you do?








How do you contribute to teams?

Tell me about a time you acted with integrity/dealt with an ethical dilemma.

Tell me about a time when you had competing deadlines, how did you handle it?

Tell me about a time when you showed initiative and took the lead.

Tell me about a time when you had to creatively solve a problem.


Tell me about a time when you dealt with ambiguity in your work.


did you handle it?

NOTE: There could be scenario questions to assess the competencies in particular multi-

tasking, conflict, managing deadlines, and working in teams.

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Market Questions

You need to be current on market conditions and economic situation in Canada and

globally.

Tell me about the current economic situation.

What are your expectations of the Canadian economy in the next 6 months?

What is your outlook on the global economy today?

What the #1 issue driving markets today?

What are the 3 most important economic events happening today?

Where did the TSX, Canadian dollar, oil, gold, stock price of company you are

interviewing for…etc. close at yesterday?

What’s your opinion on gold?

What’s your opinion on interest rates?

What’s the difference between the Canadian and U.S. banks?

Which industry you would invest in right now and why? (consumer, discretionary,

financials, industrials)?

Technical Questions

Technical questions can be extremely random and covers different aspects of the

market. If you are interviewing for a particular desk then prepare for specific questions

for that coverage desk.

Themes you need to prepare for:

Personal Investing

Do you invest?

How do you pick stocks?

If you had $1 million, how would you invest it?

Stock Pitch

Pitch 2-3 stocks to buy (consider both long and short) and what stock would you

sell?

Yield Curve

What does the yield curve look like, can it be inverted?

What is the link between inflation and yield curve?

Do you think the Federal Reserve increase interest rates?

If the Federal Reserve increases interest rates, what's your first trade?

Why does the yield curve drop off after 20 years?

Stocks & Bonds

What’s the difference between stock & bonds?

What’s the relationship between bond values and interests rates?

Know the following Technical Terms

Black-Scholes, arbitrage, NPV, hedging, inflation, option pricing model, EBITDA, P/E

ratio, long term capital management.

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Supply Chain & Operations




What were some of the common KPIs in your logistics/warehouse department?

What is your understanding of EOQ / Little’s Law – warehouse flow?

How do you identify bottlenecks and root causes?

Sample Case Question: Pepsi’s LA bottling plant experienced an inventory surge and

unhappy customers. In the last 3 months inventory has more than doubled while

customer complaints have increased 5-fold. What would you do?

Link for operational case interviews:

http://www.consultingcase101.com/category/case-interview-questions/operations-

strategy/page/2/

Technical Questions

Forecasting

What is tracking signal?

What is common forecast error measurement?

What are the advantages/disadvantages of common forecast technique including

moving average, weighted average etc.?

Which technique did you used to forecast in your previous job and why?

What are crucial elements to consider in forecast? (Answer: base level, trend,

seasonality and error)

Lean Six Sigma

What lean tools / methodologies do you use?

What is your understanding of Kaizen events?

What is the difference between lean and six sigma?

Inventory Management

How do you determine economic order quantity? How do you determine order

point, safety stock?

What is a service level agreement?

How do you distinguish among different replenishment systems (periodic review vs

continuous review)?

http://www.consultingcase101.com/category/case-interview-questions/operations-strategy/page/2/

http://www.consultingcase101.com/category/case-interview-questions/operations-strategy/page/2/

P a g e | 27


Technology






Why are you interested in this role?


Why are you interested in working in Technology?










Tell me about a time when you demonstrated initiative.

Tell me about a time when you led a project.

Tell me about a time when you used your analytical skills to a make

recommendation.


Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a conflict colleague.

Tell me about a time when you failed. What did you do?



Tell me about a time when you had competing deadlines, how did you handle it?


did you handle it?

NOTE: There could be scenario questions to assess the competencies required for the

position.

P a g e | 28


Case Questions

Consulting Case: The mobile payments technology involves doing a comparison

between multiple payment technologies like NFC taps, mobile wallets, currentC –

suggest which make sense for short term and which make sense for long term.

Consulting Case: A bank is looking at upgrading their technology, what process you

would follow to accomplish this?

Banking Case: Koho is redefining banking in Canada. Offering a card, web app

and mobile app, Koho replaces the bank account with a simple, transparent,

affordable and functional alternative – what should the bank do?

Banking Case: Agile banking – what technology solutions will enable client

experience?

Technical Questions

Explain SAAS – what are its benefits / disadvantages?

Compare the development of a mobile app vs. a web app. Which platform would

you choose between iOS and Android?

What’s software oriented architecture?

What are the latest trends in mobile banking technology? Where is Canada

headed?

How would you break up the development budget between mobile, table and

wearables?

How would you help a client decide between on premise or cloud services?

What steps or considerations would you look at in evaluating upgradation of clients

ERP platform?

Companies like Google like to ask:

o How many golf balls can you fit in a bus?

o How many times a day does a clock’s hand overlap?

o You are a product manager of a refrigerator, how will you lead the

development of the product?

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Appendix 1

The STAR Method – Behavioural Focused Interview

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Appendix 2

The Recruiting Cycle for On-Campus Recruiting

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Appendix 3

What to do BEFORE the Interview - PREPARE

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