Best practices of interviews

1. Daksh 2019 - Placement Excellence Program
Best practice of interview preparation
An IIMB NSRCEL & Goldman Sachs Supported Firm

2. Agenda
1. Different types of interviews
2. Type of interview & how to prepare
• Behavioural
• Situational
• Resume based
• Industry/ functions based
• Case based
• Guesstimates
• Some common questions
3. Type of role & typical line of questioning

3. Different types of interviews
• Behavioural
• Situational
• Resume based
• Industry/ functions based
• Case based
• Guesstimates

4. Behavioral interviews
• In behavioral interviews, you need to showcase your knowledge,
skills and competencies by giving specific examples from past
experiences
• Expect questions like "Tell me a time when..." or "Give me an
example of when..."

5. Behavioral questions examples
• Tell me a time when you have to take calculated risk?
• Tell me a time you have take initiative to solve a problem?
• Tell me about a time when you took a decision under pressure
• Tell me about a time when you committed to a team member but
could not live up to their expectations. How did you earn their trust
again?
• Tell me about a time when you had to analyze large amount of data
to solve a problem ?

6. Behavioral interviews – how to prepare?
• Create an "Behavioral preparation sheet" in excel and write one line
each of whatever you have done in the past
(Use Amazon 14 principles of leadership as reference)
• In next column describe each instance in detail using STAR format

7. Use a structure approach – STAR framework
• Situation
An event, project or challenged faced
• Task
Your responsibilities, assignment or objective of the project
• Action
Steps taken to relieve or rectify the situation
• Results
Results of action taken. Try to bring out not only specific impacts
but also how it helped the company in their overall business

8. STAR framework - Example
• Executive Summary
I completed a very complex SAP logistics development project within 4 days (as
opposed to 10 days) for a large FMCG clients which was entering in UK market despite
working alone as my coworker got some personal emergency.
• Situation
In my last job, we needed to develop a very complex and urgent logistics development
for a client which was launching its operations in UK. In this situation I had to work
alone as my coworker had a family emergency and needed to miss work for some days.

9. STAR framework - Example
• Task
My supervisor instructed me to take on the project alone, and with no
leniency on the deadline, I had few days to complete the project that
originally should have done with two resources.
• Actions (Bring your skills here)
I negotiated with my boss for a reduction in my weekly goals, allotting
me more time to attack the special project. As far as my weekly goals, I
was able to delegate them out evenly to some of my teammates.

10. STAR framework - Example
• Results
With the reduction in my daily goals, I was able to dedicate more time to
the special project. This allowed me to finish it 5 days before time, enable
my client to start the operation as planned and with complete accuracy.
My supervisor appreciated my attitude and drive, and I was given
several more projects after that, along with an eventual promotion and
pay raise.

11. Behavioral questions: Common mistakes/ issues
• Choosing a story that is not impactful
• Choosing a story in which you can not explain your role
• Poor communication skill
• Telling a story with too much technicalities
• Telling a story which is too much detailed (use executive summary,
be crisp, sense check in between)

12. Situational interviews
• Like a behavioral interview, during situational interview candidates
are asked specific questions about what may happen on a job.
• The candidate is asked to assess a situation and to provide solutions
on how he or she would handle it.
• In many cases, situation based interview questions involve
problem- solving and handling difficult issues and circumstances in
the workplace.

13. Situational interviews – How to prepare
• Try to come up with a similar situation in the past and answer it like
a behavioral question
• If it is a pure play problem solving situational question then follow
the rules of case interviews

14. Situational questions – Examples
• What you will do if your team members are not listening to you?
• How do you deal with an unsatisfied customer?

15. Situational questions: Common mistakes/ issues
• Not using logic/ facts/ data/ examples
• Giving up too early

16. Resume based interviews
• Be very thorough about your resume
• Not knowing any point written in resume in great detail is strict no-
no
• If you have done lot of job shifts, be ready to answer that
• If you have shown poor academics, be ready to defend that
• If you have travelled across countries/ geographies etc. , be ready to
talk about the difference in culture etc.
• Be prepared with all the details in a structured format

17. Resume based questions - Example
• You have saved xyz mn in this project, this seems unbelievable can
you explain?
• You have worked in this project tell me some of the learnings from
this project?
• You have worked in this industry how you can convince us that your
experience is relevant to us?

18. Industry/ function knowledge based interviews
• Industry structure, KSF, key players, new trends, disruptions,
future potential
• Knowledge of company/ its products etc.
• Understanding of function and its theoretical/ practical aspects
• Knowing current trends, future projections etc.

19. Questions related to emerging technology domain
• Use cases
• Benefits
• Business case (RoI)
• Risks
• What companies are doing to convince clients to adopt emerging
technology

20. Interviews around MBA courses / Value add from MBA
• At least be ready with two subjects fully
• Know all the important frameworks 5S, 4P, BCG matrix, Porter's
etc.
• For preparing for value add from MBA type of question, use your
Behavioral preparation sheet, in which add one more column and
write how you will do it differently post MBA

21. Some common questions
• TMAY
• One line about you/ broad profile (years of exp, value chain in
which you worked etc.)
• Relevant work ex (role/ name of the company)
• Your relevant expertise
• Achievement
• Anything you want to highlight or anything you want a recruiter
to ask questions on
• Why you are interested in the job/ role

22. Some common questions
• What is your weakness
• Don’t be evasive
• Understand which trait has ‘consistently’ impacted your work performance
• What are you doing to improve and what’s the status
• Use examples/ stories
• Why do you want to join this role
• Tell genuinely how it aligns with your short term/ long term objective
• Talk about learning opportunities, quality peers etc.
• You can reuse some relevant facts/ examples mentioned by them in PPT/
website

23. What is a case
Source: McKinsey Deck

24. Case : Car manufacturer’s case
Source: McKinsey Deck

25. An approach to solve case
Source: McKinsey Deck

26. Clarify
Source: McKinsey Deck

27. Case example - clarify
Source: McKinsey Deck

28. Structure
Source: McKinsey Deck

29. Use hypotheses & structure the problem – IH
• Initial Hypotheses
Figuring out solution even before starting the solution
Using whatever you understood from problem discussion
You do not want to dig a lot before knowing where to dig
It is just a theory to be approved or disapproved
If it is disapproved, you will have facts to move toward right direction
• Example in our case
The issue could be due to inefficiencies in customer ordering
process to delivery cycle

30. MECE
• MECE
Issue list is mutually exclusive i.e All parts of this list do not overlap with
each other
Your issue list is exhaustive
Maximum clarity & completeness
• Example* : Lets say problem is “We need to sell more”, a very basic
MECE issue list could be:
Changing the way we sell our products to retail outlets.
Improving the way we market our products to consumers.
Reducing the unit cost of our products.
*The McKinsey Way

31. Use hypotheses & structure the problem – IH
• IH
The issue could be due to inefficiencies in customer ordering
process to delivery cycle
• Structure issue list using MECE
I will analyze time taken and inventory level in end to end value chain of
car order in dealership to final delivery of car to customers
Car purchase by customer >> Locate car by us >> Manufacture>>
Transport >> Final Delivery

32. Analyse
Source: McKinsey Deck

33. Analyse
Source: McKinsey Deck

34. Conclude
Source: McKinsey Deck

35. Conclude

36. Case interview: Common mistakes/ issues
• Not listening the question properly
• Not clarifying
• Directly jumping to the solution
• Not laying down your approach
• Not asking key questions or asking irrelevant questions
• Not thinking aloud
• Not taking interviewers’ hint
• Not doing data driven analysis
• Not concluding properly (or concluding without confidence)

37. Summary
• The McKinsey Way
• BCG interactive cases/ practice cases other companies portal
• Case in Point/ Consulting books from consulting club
• Form a case group (max 2-3 people) and practice a lot
• Prepare for each and every point of your resume, use STAR
• Refer Amazon leadership principles for behavioral type of questions, again use STAR
• Practice other interview questions in detail
• Understand what is the value add from MBA
• Understand key frameworks
• MBA subjects
• Strategy
• Finance
• Marketing
• Operations
• Some tools: Excel modeling
• Stats/ R/python for analytics role
• Moreover ability to connect all the knowledge gained