Management Interview Questions & Answers

I was originally referred to the graduate scheme by a friend who already works for the company and he encouraged to apply online initially. After doing this I was lucky enough to be accepted onto the next stage of the recruitment process where I had a telephone interview.

This involved a talent specialist calling and basically summarising if your previous job experience would be suitable for a role at enterprise and there were also competently based questions. I was then invited for a one to one interview at the company's regional head office. She mainly asked competency questions such as ''explain a situation where you dealt with a difficult customer' and 'explain times where you've had to upsell a certain product. It was fairly informal built up of these types of question and discovering if you had the right personality.

They are huge on customer service aptitude. I received a phone call inviting me on a branch visit where I spoke to current members of staff and got a feel for daily life in a branch, it also involved similar questions again with the branch manager. The final stage was the assessment centre where there were individual tasks about planning a day at the branch and a couple of customer scenarios where you had to upgrade someone into a better car and deal with a complaint. There was also group discussion and one to one interviews.

The customer scenario questions where you had to upgrade a customer into a larger vehicle and sell the benefits.

Just to simply get on the website and learn the company founding values as well as there mission statement. This can really set you aside from other candidates if you can bring some facts to the table. Also ensure you're prepared with plenty of company based answers as they ask hundreds of them to ensure you have a strong sales/customer service background. If you don't have this they won't look at you.

We were given a presentation about the company and it's founding values and mission statement etc. afterwards we were each given a charity idea for the company to support but with a certain budget amongst ourselves so only a few could be chosen.

It's important to be heard here but not to be too overpowering and controlling. Bringing the quieter applicants into conversation can look very good at this point. We were then give scenarios that would occur on a daily basis at the branch and this was role played with the area manager, this was a opportunity to show you can think and problem solve efficiently.

The most difficult task was having to plan part of a day in the branch where a number of things went wrong and you had to logically plan how to correct them and ensure the branch smoothly. The last interview was with a member of staff from head office who summarised why you'd applied and why you think they should hire you etc? 24 hour turn around on the decision.

My telephone interview involved a series of questions which required me to describe personal experiences and how I dealt with them. For example, I was asked, 'describe a time when you had to take charge of a team'. The follow up questions involved a more detailed analysis of why I did what I did, the ways in which this affected other group members, and what the results of my actions were. After about 5 experience-related questions there was a more general chat about why I thought I would fit the job well, what makes me think I would make a good manager and why KFC.

What changes would you make to the brand? - This was a difficult question because they are clearly interested in meeting someone with bright new ideas, but the balance needs to be made so as not to change everything they stand for as a company!

What are your weaknesses? - This question is always a difficult one, but it is quite common therefore it is helpful to come up with a few answers before being interviewed.

Do you see competition as a challenge? - Clearly, competition poses challenges, but I think they were looking for a positive answer, for example, competition makes you strive harder to get where you want to be, and makes you perform to your best potential.

Where do you see yourself in 3 years' time? - This was a difficult question, as you have to either be vague about the company and say personal goals or jump in and assume you will get this job. I took the latter approach, and said I saw myself managing a team in KFC and creating new brand ideas, and that I saw myself becoming part of the senior management team in years to come.

Be yourself. It is a company that is a little like marmite - if you think you would enjoy it, it will show. If not, don't apply as they will see right through it!
Make sure you know everything you can about the company. Everyone at the assessment centre has the same chances (i.e. looking online at all the various things KFC has been up to) so make sure you go a step further and look for something that particularly interests you (for example a video about how KFC helps the environment) and mention this in an interview to get one step ahead.

At the assessment day, there was a number of different activities, including a one-on-one interview with senior management (20 minutes), a group discussion involving designing a new KFC brand (which lasted 1 hour and involved each coming up with a new brand, discussing ideas together, then choosing between us which idea would be best to go for and then discussing finances and logistics), and a group task (also 1 hour) in which we were given a budget and asked to make changes to a KFC store for a new opening - we had to chose different options which had different effects on customers, staff and overall appearance of the KFC brand. I was criticised for not going over budget, which is something that didn't even occur to me, but was what they were looking for - someone who would push the boundaries. It was a fairly small assessment day, with only 8 of us invited, which made it seem less competitive and more relaxed, however there were 8 members of the management team evaluating our performance which was daunting at times.

My one to one interview consisted of around 10 competency based questions. Each of these questions required me to give reeal life examples of situations e.g. in work or extra cirricular, and how I have acted. They also wanted to know the outcome of each, and how I would act if I had the opportunity again.
The interview was with a company called Cloud9 recruitment, who worked on behalf of Smurfit Kappa. This was the second round of the whole interview process, by which I had already completed a telephone interview with Cloud 9. The format was strictly to these competency based questions, and little attention was paid to other possible questions or conversations. MY CV was also briefly discussed, and my reasons for applying to Smurfit Kappa, as well as a brief company background.

I found the most difficult questions to be generally based around how have you influenced a group? What was the influence? And what was the result?

I found the complexity of this questions quite difficult.

Look to stick out and show that you are not just a robot in your answers. Show a variety of working and social activities as Smurfit are looking for a rounded individual.
Practice psychometric tests before, this is a mistake I made as I didn't think there would be any, so was slightly naive. Show enthusiasm throughout, even though it is a demanding 2 day assessment centre. At the end of it all, be yourself. Dont be something your not. Even if it gets you the job, you will be found out on day 1.

Firstly we received a factory your of the Northampton site of Smurfit Kappa. Then we had to complete numeracy tests, with there being around 7 individual tests, each lasting around minutes.
After this we attended a night meal and met the Smurfit team, and management on different levels. On the next day, we were split into two groups of 5, and completed various tasks. This included group presentations, debates, team building (getting X amount of items out of a production line in the given time) and individual activities with designated preperation time.

Following my online application for the Graduate Management Trainee role at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, I received an email from a Talent Acquisition Manager at Enterprise whom requested a telephone interview the following day. My initial telephone interview lasted approximately 30 minutes and covered a number of sales and customer service-related positions I had held and documented on my CV. I was asked a number of competency questions in which I had prepared examples taken from my prior work experience, voluntary community fundraising and educational attainment to demonstrate my suitability to each stated requirement.

I was then told by the Talent Acquisition Manager that I had been successful in my telephone interview and asked to attend an interview at the Central Office in Heathrow. This initial meet with the Talent Acquisition Manager consisted of a 45 minute process in which I was asked approximately 12 different competency questions ranging from my experiences in exceeding sale-related targets, working alongside a busy team in a small workspace and describing my greatest sense of achievement.

I initially received no feedback for approximately 3 days and so I contacted the Talent Acquisition Manager to prompt a response. I was then told that I had passed the 1st interview stage and was asked to attend a branch interview and 'shadowing' exercise at a disclosed Enterprise Rent-A-Car location.

Upon arrival to the local branch, I was asked to 'shadow' two members of staff for approximately 3 hours and in interviewed with the Branch Manager. This interview also consisted of a Senior Member of staff sitting in on a portion of the interview in which I was asked a range of new competency questions, asked to participate in a small role-play and give examples of 'upselling' and negating objections. The entire branch interview process lasted approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Describe a time in which you failed to hit a sales target and what was the outcome?

Describe an experience with an angry or irritable customer, how did you manage the situation?

Can you describe a step-by-step sales process which would be utilised here at Enterprise on a day-to-day basis?

Be fully prepared for an expansive range of competency based questions which are designed to test both your prior experiences and how closely aligned this are with the 'Enterprise' model of sales and customer service.

Take time to compose your answers as any 'holes' in your answers will be picked up on and scrutinised irrespective of your academic achievements and transferable work experience, knowledge and skills.

My application was not put forward towards the assessment centre stage.

The first stage of the Honda Graduate Programme is to send your CV and cover letter. This should be tailored to the programme. The first things they ask you are to name two traits about yourself that you believe would make you a good candidate for the role.

Once you pass the initial stages (there was no online testing)you will receive a telephone interview. This lasted about 30 minutes. It was not a typical phone interview asking about your skills - it was more about explaining what the role would entail and what you would put into the role. They make it clear from the start that this is not really a Learning and Development programme, but is a real job from the first day. It is hard to mess up the telephone stage. They will invite you to an initial assessment centre. The new Head Office is in Bracknell, Berkshire where they will carry out interviews - this is also where you would work if successful. This consisted of 8 candidates and two assessors. You were first asked to do a short five minute presentation. Then, you would be presented with a case study and asked to resolve issues as a group. The key things to look out for are listening to others, remembering people's names, having intuitive ideas and ensuring that you answer the question given.

The next stage of the first assessment centre is a number of computer-based exercises. You will have to compose an email to a customer, use excel to analyse data and prioritise business scenarios and explain your answers.

If successful at this half day assessment centre, you will be invited back to a final assessment centre which will involve senior management. You will have to present to them and be interviewed more formally. This assessment centre is much more serious than the first one and is all day as opposed to half a day. This will be approximately 6 weeks after the first one.

I was asked if I fully understood the structure of the organisation, which I didn't as the organisation has so many different elements. It is crucial to carry out thorough research into this. Everything else was reasonably standard.

The emails I received from the company were riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. They spent far too long responding between different parts of the process - by the time they got back to me I had already been offered a different job.
The role seemed to be very hands on, whereas I would personally prefer a more integrative process where you learn along the way.
One tip is not to just apply if you are interested in cars because you need to have intuitive business accumin in order to do well in the exercises. You can do well if you come from any academic background, as long as you have taken part in a variety of extra curricular activities and demonstrated your ability to lead teams.

We started with an individual pre-prepared presentation about a proud achievement. This lasted five minutes. We then were given a case-study about the organisation and were asked to resolve issues, which we were given half an hour to discuss and formulate a solution.
We then carried out computer-based exercises for two hours which involved prioritising tasks, organising data on excel and creating charts, and writing an email to a customer. We also had to make a powerpoint presentation in which we would analyse a particular scenario with a client and the potential risks to the company if the issue was not resolved. This tests your awareness.

I initially had a telephone interview which asked some basic questions like when I graduated and what I was doing. I was then asked to arrange a Skype interview for the following week. I have never used Skype so found the second interview a little uncomfortable and I could constantly hear my voice echoed from the feedback on the interviewers side. I didn't really see the point in a Skype interview as opposed to a face to face or extended telephone interview, especially as most of the questions asked I had already previously answered in the first interview. Because of this I got the impression I wasn't being listened to the first time round and thought that dragging out there questions over a two step period was unnecessary and a waste of time. I kept being told to adjust the camera and the signal kept cutting out, it was just a very awkward experience.

I was asked to give an example of a time I gave great customer service so I gave an example of when I helped a blind wheelchair user around a supermarket and into her taxi which is obviously not in the contract of a checkout operator. I took some time describing in detail all the things I helped this customer do but my interviewer just dismissed it as something I should have been doing as part of my job anyway (far from the truth) and not relevant. At this point I decided to end the interview myself.

When they ask you to discuss what you thought about the values of the company make sure you mention the customer service one. When I got asked I got the impression that I did not need to list all 7 values as we were on limited time so I only addressed a few and gave my opinion on why I agreed with them but this again was dismissed by my interviewer who pulled me up on "forgetting about the customer service value" (I wasn't aware there was a quiz?)

Unfortunately I did not make it this far. I have heard good things about the company so I was disappointed my experience wasn't a good one, I guess it all depends on who is interviewing you.

So I initially started with a one to one interview with a recruiter. The recruiter was really nice and made me feel comfortable and took away my nerves. The interview was just finding out about me, my experiences, education etc. I received good feedback and some advice on how to improve but was successful and was put through to the next stage, Branch Interview.
On this day I was there for a couple of hours and shadowed one of the current trainee managers and interacted with customers, went on drop offs and pick ups and just got an understanding of how the company ran. After this the branch manager took me through for another one to one interview and asked me similar questions to the ones in my first interview, next day my recruiter called me back to tell me how fantastically I did and how impressed he was with me and that they really liked me so I'm through to the final stage, Assessment Centre.

You would typically have to work 55hours + a week, how do you feel about that? (It's a bit of a weird question to be honest, what do you respond to that?)

I would say really think about if the job is worth the time and potential money you will be investing into the interview process. I had to book a nearby hotel to make it to the interview on time and then be told I was unsuccessful after all my efforts!

On this day, I was with 7 other candidates and had to be there at 8am,
We started by doing a quiz which is where prior research would've come in, I was fully prepared and was the only one who put up my hand for a few of the questions.
We then were introduced to area managers and given a cheap and shitty breakfast which didn't even look edible may I add, after that we had to do sales and customer service role play with one of the area managers, which I got good feedback from. We then had to do a 'morning meeting' with two of the area managers. We had to motivate them and get them going. Discuss figures, targets and aims etc. Again at the end of it I received some good feedback that I was energitic, bubbly and made them smile. We then had to do a group discussion with the rest of the group, we each were given an initiative to pitch and between us had to decide to which one to go for then pitch it to the area managers. This is where we had to be involved etc. Lastly we had another one to one interview with an area manager asking the same questions as all the other one to ones and finished at 2pm. It was a very long day and pretty hard to keep energy up especially because there was ALOT of waiting around through ou the day. We were told we would receive a call the following day to find out wether we got the job or not.

On my call back, they told me I was unsuccessful because I wasn't oozing with confidence, which I find is completely unfair because I received a lot of good feedback from various people in the company during my stages.

The presenter Raj, was talking about how when she first started she disputed washing cars, setting off a negative thought in everyone's mind. I was then with another candidate who came unprepared, didn't bring a pen or a notepad and kept pulling his phone out during the day!! Had a really foul attitude and was sitting like he just didn't care and I later discovered he got the job. There were many of us in the room who visibly really wanted the job and a few of us didn't get it. And yes I know we are not competing against each other, I just find it unfair and disheartening that you could get all this way and really proving that you want it and sell yourself for an a****e like this guy to carelessly walk in and get it. I'm so gutted and upset at the company but I guess all blessings are disguised.

I had a brief telephone interview to discuss what the role was and I was asked questions about my education as stated on my CV. I was also asked why I was interested in the scheme and my motivations to have a role in management, and more specifically in the care industry itself (as that is the primary focus of CCS).

Why the care industry? What do you want out of the scheme?

Ask questions in the Q&A sessions. They have time for lots of questions so ask anything. Don't worry about bringing your CV because they will have a copy on the desk. Don't panic, the day was relaxed, although smart. Lunch was nice, so get there quick!

The assessment day was inefficient. Firstly, I was only invited to attend the week before, leaving me little time to request time of work and plan my travel arrangements (which we were to receive no re-imbursement for). We were required to be there at 9am for a 9:30 start. The email I received about the day detailed we would all have group activities and our presentation until lunch at 12/12:30. I was told, after lunch some people would be invited to stay for the afternoon session, which was to involve a panel interview. On the day, we started and "ice breaker" where everyone had to stand at the front and introduce themselves with their name, where they live, their university and degree subject/s and their proudest non-academic achievement. After that were presentations from 2 employees of CCS, a graduate already on the scheme and the CEO. These were also question and answer sessions. After this, we completed a 10 minute group activity in groups of approximately 10 people (5 mins alone, 5 mins group discussion) while they wandered around making notes. We were provided with lunch at 12:30. After about an hour, were told that one group would be invited to do their presentations first so the other groups were free to "go for a walk" for an hour. I was in this first group so I gave my 3 minute presentation, was asked one question by the panel of 4 (all men). My group were eventually dismissed at approximately 2pm with the promise of a response the following day of whether we were being invited to the interview at a different location on a different date. I was disappointed in my 14 minutes of activity for the day and that my expectations of the timetable of the day weren't met.

The process began with an online application with competency questions and motivations for the role and working for Mercedes-Benz.

Secondly, candidates completed online numeracy tests.

The third stage was a first round of interviews at a MB site, lasting for half a day. These were conducted by an external recruitment company and focussed on competencies. It was a very guided interview, essentially ensuring your interests and experiences could tick boxes on the interviewer's record sheet.

The next stage was an assessment centre, again held at a MB site.

Afterwards, there was a phone interview with the CAReer team at the MB headquarters in Stuttgart. Again, this interview focussed on competencies and motivations for the role and also included some questions in German for candidates who had indicated German language skills on their application.

Successful candidates were then due to be sent a further set of online tests before final selections were made, however I withdrew from the process before reaching this stage.

*Please note that the 2013 process was highly unsatisfactory, extending over a period of 8 months*.
I submitted my original application at the end of January and received no further correspondence from MB until mid-June when the online tests were sent. The interviews and assessment centre took place in July and further phone interviews and testing were in August (NB. the assessment centre was supposed to be the final stage - MB added additional stages at the last minute). The role was due to begin at the start of September, leaving candidates with little more than a fortnight to make arrangements. Nobody was able to answer my questions about the progress of my application and the reasons for the unacceptable delays. The staff running the hotline number provided on the website do not seem to have real knowledge of the scheme (I was given the impression that they were reading from a script to answer candidates queries and struggled to help me when I deviated from a question they expected).

The role play element of the assessment centre was most challenging, particularly weighing up the protection of company profits against providing outstanding customer service.

Do not set your heart on the MB Graduate Scheme as they can very quickly change their requirements (e.g. one of the other schemes was cancelled last year and they also changed their minds about the overall number of graduates they would take on (4 instead of 6)) and be sure to make contingency plans in case you are unsuccessful. The process was dragged out right up until a couple of weeks before the anticipated start date, therefore unsuccessful candidates could very easily be left without plans at a very late stage in proceedings.

This was an extremely demanding day involving a presentation about the company and the scheme, Q&A sessions with the previous year's graduates, a group exercise, an individual interview, a presentation and a role play (about customer service).

The website about the graduate scheme stated that the assessment centre was the fourth and final stage of the application process, however, candidates were informed at the conclusion of the assessment centre that Mercedes-Benz had in fact extended the process this year, with an additional phone interview and further online tests.