PhD Nutrition Ltd. Interview Questions & Answers

After emailing my CV and a covering letter explaining why I would be suitable for the Marketing and Sales Assistant role, I was invited by the company's Finance manager to attend an interview the following week. Upon arriving at the company HQ, I was greeted by one of my interviewers and invited into one of the conference rooms. After a brief and friendly chat about the weather and how my journey to the office was the second member of the interview team arrived, the company CEO. Initially I was given a brief about the company, how successful they have been, what areas of business they work in, and all of the general information about the firm. After this, numerous questions were raised by my two interviewers asking me to describe myself, why I want to work for the company, and what my career aspirations are. The interview was conducted in a friendly manner which helped to lower my nerves and improve my confidence and lasted around 30 minutes in total. After the questioning it was illustrated that the business would contact me again within 4 days as to whether I progressed to the final stage of the interview process, a verbal presentation in front of the CEO, Personnel manager, and Managing Director.

The most difficult question I had to answer was based on my knowledge and expertise on the company's competitors. This was tough to answer because the business has a lot of competition and I had only researched one of the main competitors. I was able to give a detailed answer on one company, however when asked if I knew of any other competition I had to admit I did not. However my interviewers did not seem too off putt by this answer as they realise that this was an interview for their company, and not their competitors.

Be confident! Employers are not looking to employ timid, shy or nervous individuals. Also, have an interest in the area of business the company works in. It is much more interesting and appealing talking about an area of business that you personally enjoy.

The business does not operate using assessment centres when looking to recruit employees. I feel that this is a clever and appropriate decision as my opinion on assessment centres is that they do not accurately measure individuals' abilities, they merely measure who can shout the loudest. The face-to-face interview style that the company uses is much more effective at finding out how competent an individual is, as the organisation can spend 30 minutes asking detailed questions and receiving feedback from the employee. This is just not possible in an assessment centre where there are 15 people attempting to get their voice heard over everyone else.