Interview Questions
Why *Insert Company Name*?
Fannie Mae: One big reason is that I've heard from people and read online that the company has a very supportive culture and that there is a lot of opportunity to grow within the company. I also think it would be a very rewarding place to work at given that Fannie Mae's mission is to provide housing and mortgage credit to most families in the U.S.
What interests you about this role?
Fannie Mae: This looks like a position that could challenge by business acumen and give me an opportunity to build and develop my technical skills. I am also interested in how Fannie Mae operates and I think I would be very intrinsically motivated to see how my position affects Fannie Mae's operations as a whole.
Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully persuade someone to see things your way at work.
So as a department manager at Kroger, we had a new store manager in, and he was relatively new to the position and this was his first time being at a high volume store. He was coming in and making a lot of changes, and one thing he wanted to do was take down these starbucks shelves in my department area. Now Starbucks wasn't my responsibility but since they had product in my area, I tried to ensure that they were able to do their jobs efficiently because it could affect my department and other departments around them. So he wanted to take these starbucks shelves down and put all of the starbucks products on a brown cart. He never worked in a store where there was a starbucks department so I think that was one reason he might not have understood why that could have been a bad decision. When I heard about this, I went to go talk to him because I thought it was a very bad decision and that it would cause problems in the future. I explained to him how starbucks operated and why having shelves for their department was crucial to their success, I explained how it lets them organize their product, reduce shrink which would increase profit, and how it would affect the other departments around them who were sharing the same area. He was very open to listening to me and he adopted my position and decided to keep the shelves.
If you could be an animal, what animal would you be?
A wolf. They are loyal to their pack, protecting creatures, and seem to be respected animals. A wolf was also matched up to my myers-briggs personality, and it seems to go well. I: (Introversion) N: (Intuition) F: (Feeling) J: (Judgement) Myer Briggs Personality Test: 16 personalities, Tests to see how people are affected by the world around them and how they respond to stimuli.
Describe a time when your team or company was undergoing some change. How did that impact you, and how did you adapt?
About a year and a half ago when I was still a department manager for Kroger, our store was going through a remodel. I don't know if you've ever worked in a retail environment, but going through a store remodel is very stressful not only on employees but also on the customers. So through a store remodel, they move product from one spot on the shelf to another and it can create a ton of inventory issues if you don't keep up with updating the numbers. It impacted me because it turned my department that I worked so hard on to a completely new department where I had to go back and clean up everything. So change inventory numbers, update the ordering system and so many other things that I did in the past to make it an efficient department. The way I adapted was by accepting that there are things I won't ever be able to control. In a situation like a store remodel, it is so hectic and there are going to be problems regardless, so it's best to realize that, accept it, but still work as hard as you can to prevent those problems.
How did you manage your time when you worked and went to school full-time?
After the first week of classes, I made one big schedule of all of the due dates for assignments, papers, and tests. And at the beginning of the week and sometimes day to day, I would write down a rough schedule of what schoolwork I need to get done to ensure I am staying on top of it and I did a similar thing with my work schedule. I would make a day to day schedule to make sure I got everything done. I found it that it was easy to manage time if I blocked off time periods for certain project and focused all my time on that one project.
What do you know about *Insert Company Name*?
Fannie Mae: I know Fannie Mae is a mortgage loan company that helps provide liquidity in the mortgage market. So lenders, banks, and other firms originate the loans and then Fannie Mae purchases and guarantees them through the secondary market. They use these loans to pool them together to form mortgage-back securities to sell to investors. But ultimately, they are there to help provide liquidity for the housing market.
If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be and why?
Driven: I believe I can easily be inspired by something and when I am, I get tunnel vision and usually focus on that one thing that inspires me. Although I get inspired easily, I think another word that will describe me is practical: I think I set high goals for myself, but I always try to think through the circumstances and ensure that the steps I'm taking to reach that goal are logical and make sense. And the last word I would describe myself is self-aware: I know that there are things I am not good at and not strong in, but I think one reason I can succeed despite that is that I'm aware of my weaknesses and I'm willing to either adapt to them or improve them.
Describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it.
Every week at Kroger, we have to do AD change and everytime the AD changes, price tags change and sale signs change. So after I set my AD, we are supposed to have a file associate come and change the tags and print out new signs. However, our file associate was always behind, usually because they didn't care and they did the bare minimum. My store manager knew this and so did all the associates, so most of the time our signs and tags were wrong. Every week, I knew this, and I planned for it and I would block time in my shift to create my own signs and tags in my department. It could have been easy to forget about it and all the blame would go on our file associate, but I knew I would have wrong signs in my department every week and that nothing would change unless I took the initiative to do it myself.
What are your salary requirements?
Fannie Mae: About 55 - 65K range with benefits accounted for.
What motivates you?
Helping other people see their potential and helping people realize things they are unaware of. My favorite part about work is building relationships with people and being able to foster a team environment to achieve a common goal. It really energizes me and just brings joy to my work.
What did you like least about your last position?
Honestly, learning the technical skills. There would be times where I would be stuck on a technical problem for a couple hours and it could be frustrating to find that answer. However, it was very rewarding and relieving one I solved the problem.
How do you handle rude/upset customers?
I always try to remain calm and not take it personally. Usually when a customer is upset, it's because either I or a co-worker made a mistake or the customer didn't get something he was supposed to get. And I think the best thing to do is listen to the customer and sympathize even if they might be radical.
Tell me about yourself.
I am currently a senior at the University of North Texas double majoring in entrepreneurship and finance. I worked for a grocery store for five years with two of those years being a department manager. And although working at a grocery store may seem trivial compared to this position I am interviewing for, I learned basic business practices, gained leadership skills through managing vendors and associates, and I learned what it took to succeed as a team in a work environment. This past summer, I interned with Fidelity Investments and in this position I was exposed to how a corporate environment operates, and I learned how I could apply my technical and analytical skills that I learned in school, to the position. I graduate in December and during my job search, I've heard that Fannie Mae is a great place to work, that there is opportunity to grow within the organization and someone who works there told me that they thought I would fit very well with this company.
What other companies are you interviewing with?
I am currently in a pipeline for Fidelity for a financial analyst position. I am also under review with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin for financial analyst positions as well.
Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get through it?
I decided to take a three week accounting course over the summer. I heard it was very difficult but I thought I could do it even though I was working a full-time schedule. So I had class from 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday and then work from 1 p.m 9 p.m. So I was gone from about 7 a.m. in the morning and wouldn't get home until about 10 p.m. every night. Of course, since its a three week class, we have a ton of homework to complete every day and our first test was that first Friday. I don't know if you ever have taken accounting, but it can be a bit of a foreign language if you don't really sit down and study it. Anyways, as you can see with that tight of a schedule, I had very little time to study and get enough sleep. I almost convinced myself that this was going to be the first college class I would fail because I was so lost and so stressed about not having enough time to study the material. However, a classmate recommended an app called Wyzant, and it's an app where you can connect with tutors or working professionals in the area to help you in a college course or subject. So that is exactly what I did. I moved a few shifts around at work, and I found a practicing CPA on this app, met up with him, and he taught me and helped me with my homework for about 3, 4 hours straight. So I adopted this strategy, and even though this was very helpful, there were some nights I was still getting 2 hours of sleep because of all the deadlines. But ultimately, meeting up with him about 5-6 times throughout this course is what really helped me succeed given the time frame I had to operate in. After the course was finished, I got an A and honestly it was one of the most satisfying A's I received in my college career because it was very stressful.
How do you deal with time sensitive tasks?
I ensure that I prioritize correctly and I usually schedule blocks of time to finish the task. In my experience, if I try to multitask, it makes the task more difficult and usually takes more time to complete, so I've noticed that if I put all my focus on one task at a time, I can complete it more efficiently.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I go to the gym every day. When I am not working or doing homework, I like to read. I also spend time catching up on recent headlines and try to stay current with world issues. I also spend some time working on a small business I'm trying to start.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope to be in a management position with whatever company I'm working with. I also would like to see myself looking into graduate school or running a side business or both.
Why should we hire you?
I know I am someone that you can count on and trust to get quality work done in a timely manner. I worked full time while going to school full time and I believe I provided exceptional results to my company even with all the other responsibilities in my life. I also think there are very few applicants who will have the perspective that I will bring to the job, because I think the challenges I gave myself over the years has grown me and given me insight.
How would your boss and co-workers describe you?
I know it's cliche to say but they would describe me as hard working. My most recent store manager at Kroger wrote a recommendation letter for a scholarship program that my company was offering for college students. In it he wrote that I was very detailed oriented and that I had a high execution of assigned tasks. Also, In my internship with Fidelity, my manager sent out a recommendation letter and she showed it to me before she sent it out. In it, she wrote that I exceeded their business units expectations and provided a high degree of quality work among other things. For my coworkers, I think they would say that I am a good team player. I always try to be sensitive to how the completion and timeliness of my work will affect my coworkers timeliness and quality of their work.
What did you like most about your last position?
I liked the autonomy my boss gave me to complete the projects he gave me. The fact that he was open to letting me make decisions and use my own judgement in the reports I was making him was a very rewarding part of the job.
What makes you unique?
I love to build relationships and I am very intrinsically motivated to see how I can communicate with people better and foster a team environment. I always try to understand how and why people are thinking the way they are, and then I think of how to leverage unique personalities to foster a fun environment.
How do you handle stress?
If I am ever in a stressful situation, I always take a minute and play through a scenario of what the worst thing could happen. That might sound contrasting to what I should do, but when I do this, it makes me see that even if the worst scenario were to happen, everything will be ok. I've been in many stressful situations when I was working full-time while simultaneously going to school full-time, and when I would stand back and analyze the situation that way, I would get clarity and it would actually make my situation better.
What do you do to verify that your work is accurate?
If I ever need to ensure my work is accurate I usually will write my work out. When you write it out, it enables you to see all the aspects of the specific problem and shows you if there is anything your leaving out of missing.
How is home price determined?
In today's world, I would think the price would be determined by an automated valuation model. But I would think an appraiser would have to come in and assess the physical characteristics, take in the location of the house, the current market prices relative to listings in the same area, and overall supply and demand.
Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that?
In class we had a group project and in the project we were conducting an internal analysis of a firm. A decision we had to come to an agreement on was what the type of competitive advantage that the firm possessed. And there were two types; Either low cost or differentiation. Most of the group agreed on differentiation but there was one team member who was reluctant to adopt that position. It almost seemed as if he wanted to just pick the other one just to argue and state a point, but seeing this I tried to show him that I understood his position before I rebuked it. So I said something along the lines like "I understand why you think it's low cost because of this, this and this and that makes sense, but because of those things and this, this, and this, this is why it is more likely to be differentiation." I think that resolved the conflict mainly because I made him feel understood and made it clear to him that his original position wasn't stupid. I think it's human nature to fight accepting that we were wrong in the first place. Anyways, so the conflict was resolved, we picked differentiation, but I think the big thing was that no one felt misunderstood or embarrassed.
Tell me a time you handled a challenging situation.
In college, in one of my classes, we had a big group project that spanned across the whole semester. This project was for our capstone business course, which all business majors have to take, so it is one of the most crucial projects of our college careers. The professor knew this and she also made guidelines for how team members should participate and she also mentioned that we could fire team members if needed. I was the team lead of this group and there was one student who was doing no work and was always making excuses for why his part wasn't getting done. My group and I talked to him multiple times about the expectations and I even emailed him separately to make sure everything was ok and that if there is something we would help with or address. I tried to be open and understanding if there were any outside circumstances that was preventing him from getting his part done, but he continued to not do any work for the group and continued giving poor excuses, so my group and I talked and we decided that we would talk to the professor about firing him because we wanted to ensure that our team project would be a success. After the professor learned all the details and talked to the student, she agreed that he was to be released. It's never something I want to do or deal with, but I think it was important for us to do to ensure we were staying on track to complete our projects and provide quality work.
Why are manhole covers round?
Manhole covers are round because its not possible for it to fall in the hole itself as to if the cover was square. Other Answers: It could be cheaper to manufacture because there is a smaller surface area than a square cover. They can easily be transported; All you have to do is roll them. It is easier to dig a circular hole.
What is your greatest professional achievement?
My greatest professional achievement was becoming a department manager at 18. And the reason I feel this is my greatest achievement is because in the two years I was in this position, I learned a lot about myself, the position pushed me to grow both professionally and as a person, and I believe I gained a lot of confidence and skills that I could take to any position in the workforce. I personally believe the best achievement is being able to see how you have transformed as a person rather than meeting a specific milestone or goal.
What are three of your strengths and why?
One strength is that I am analytical. When I am given a complex problem or there is something I have to develop a strategy for, I always break it down into smaller segments to analyze so I can solve the bigger issue at stake. Another strength I have is that I can prioritize time efficiently. I am able to look at a deadline for a project and develop the adequate steps needed to ensure I provide quality work at the time frame given. I also believe I have strong interpersonal skills. In my time as a department manager at Kroger, I had the opportunity to manage vendors and associates. This is where I found the value of building relationships not only to facilitate business needs, but to also foster a team environment.
What are three of your weaknesses and why?
One weakness is that sometimes I can find it hard to be ambiguous. If I personally think there is a right way of executing something, I usually stand firm in my belief. Another weakness is that I can find it hard to have patience working in a team. In my experience, it can sometimes be difficult to get everyone to see the big picture in a project so it can be difficult to articulate the important aspects to team members. But this is something I am currently working on. I'm always trying to put myself in my team members shoes and try to see how they are approaching the situation. Another weakness is difficulty in learning technical skills. I am not super tech savvy so it might take me a while to learn how to utilize a new platform.
Give me an example of a time when you had to think on your feet in order to delicately extricate yourself from a difficult or awkward situation.
So when I was a cashier at Kroger, we were notified from management that there were customers coming in at night to purchase groceries and engaging in credit card fraud to purchases these groceries. Usually the grocery system has a way to prevent this but there are loopholes and if you know the loopholes you can still engage in credit card fraud.Our management gave us things to look out for and over time, you usually know in the first 30 seconds of the transaction if someone is engaging in credit card fraud because of the way they want their groceries purchased and rung up, it all has to do with the amount they spend. Anyways, I never really thought it happened until I was first exposed to it. I've heard stories before on how it happens but this was the first time I saw it first handed. So the customer pulled up to my register and explained to me how she wanted her groceries rung up and I knew right away there was a good chance she was engaging in credit card fraud. So the transaction could have easily gone through as normal because this customer was using loopholes, but on my end of the register I had the ability to choose if a transaction would go through. So, since this was my first time, I made sure I didn't process the transaction. I told her that the card wasn't accepting and to try again. After the second time, I told her "Let me call a manager". And usually anytime you get a manager involved with a transaction like this and the customer knows they are doing something they aren't, they get very upset and just walk out of the store before the manager shows up and they leave their groceries behind. So that is exactly what happened, the customer got upset and walked out and my manager came and we saved a few hundred dollars.
Run your resume through me.
Sure, so I am currently a senior at the University of North Texas double majoring in entrepreneurship and finance. For my work experience, I started as a sales associate at Kroger when I was 15, and when I turned 18, I became a department manager. In this position, I was given the trust and responsibility to run and manage my own department, I learned useful time management and prioritization skills to meet deadlines for audits and executive walks, I managed and trained associates and vendors, and ultimately, I learned how to succeed as a team in a work environment. I have a couple of internship experiences, one of them being an operations intern at The Dallas Entrepreneur Center and in this internship I assisted the executive director in operational and marketing activities. These activities included creating and updating member spreadsheets, coordinating events for the center, and responded to inquiries from potential clients and vendors. This past summer, I interned with Fidelity as a finance and accounting intern and in this position, I worked in the real estate business unit. My big project for the internship was to streamline a valuation report that the real estate department had so I had to search through data and analyze it to see how each each region site in the Fidelity portfolio was valued. I then used excel formulas to streamline the process where all my finance director has to do was import data and link it to the report and it would automatically update the valuations of the properties for that quarter. I also assisted in extra projects that dealt with vendor invoicing and project management. In the top section of my resume, for my core competencies, most of these came from my position as a department manager at Kroger. It was crucial to learn these skills especially when I was going to school full-time simultaneously. For my technical skills, I learned most of these in my internship with Fidelity and a little bit at the Dallas Entrepreneur Center. I learned a few basic technical skills such as Tableau and SQL from one of my business computer classes at college, but the main reason I included that was to show that I've been exposed to business intelligence systems and have a good background knowledge in it. Towards the bottom, I have a few organizations I am apart of and some volunteer experience through my college. As far as my leadership skills from those organizations, I honestly joined these organizations a little late in my college career and haven't held any important positions with those organizations, but I do believe that I gained valuable leadership experience during my time as a department manager with Kroger. And I think that sums it up, do you have any questions about it?
What was the last book you read, movie you saw, and sporting event you went to?
The last book I read was Freakonomics, the last movie I saw was Whiplash, and the last sporting event I went to was a college basketball game between Uconn and SMU.
Tell me about a time you failed. How did you deal with the situation?
There was a research and analytics internship I really really wanted. It was a position that I thought I could learn a ton and it was work that I know I would love to do. I sent in my resume and got a call back and they set up a video interview. And I knew I wasn't the best at interviews but I thought the video interview went well, not great, but well and I thought there was a good chance they would call me in for a face-to-face interview. I ended up receiving an email that they would not move forward with my application and it really upset me. This came after a few other rejections and it finally took that rejection for me to realize I need to show the interviewer what I'm capable of. I knew what I was capable of, but it is harder to articulate to someone, especially in a pressured situation. So I made a Quizlet of 200 plus interview questions ranging from basic questions to advanced questions and I really tried to sit and think of ways I could articulate the valuable work I've done in the past. I think it was very beneficial because through this process, I was able to really analyze and see where I could improve in certain areas.
What does customer service mean to you?
To me customer service means making someone feel special. It is far more than doing transactions and just being nice to whoever you're doing business with. When I am dealing with customers, I want them to walk away happier than when I first talked to them. I also like to think that if someone experiences great customer service from me, they will feel special and they will pass that same customer service along into whatever job they are doing.
What was the hardest decision you've had to make?
When I was a department manager at Kroger, about a year into my position, my boss and his boss wanted to promote me to an associate manager. As an associate manager, you have responsibility for about half the grocery store and about half the employees who work there, and it is known to be a very stressful job. They knew I was going to school full-time and that getting my degree was my priority, but they promised me that they wouldn't let me fail in this position and that they would work with my schedule. I believed them and trusted them, but I knew that if I wanted to be the best at that position, I couldn't have any outside distractions such as school. I ended up turning down the position because I wanted to make sure my focus was on school and not work. It was a position I knew I would have enjoyed and knew I would have been good at, but I know that if I became an associate manager, I would have been spreading myself too thin.
Tell me about a time you set a goal for yourself. How did you go about ensuring that you would meet your objective?
When I was in highschool, I was on my varsity basketball team and I was going into my senior year. I really wanted a starting position on my team in my senior year, but I knew that if I was going to get it, I would have to really improve my skills and physical condition. So that summer before my senior year, I committed myself to making 301 shots every day at the gym. In addition to that, I went to conditioning sessions hosted by my select team at the time to ensure I would be ready physically and that I would still be in shape by the time tryouts came. So by the end of the summer, I ended up making over 20,000 shots, was in shape, and I ended up getting the starting position I really wanted.
Tell me about a time you made a mistake and how you handled it.
When I was working at Kroger, we would have to do inventory annually for our store, as for any retail company. I'm not sure if you've ever experienced a retail environment, but we have the product out on the shelves and then whatever product doesn't fit on the shelves, we take it to the backroom and we call that backstock. So on inventory day, a third party comes in to count the product on the shelf, but we as employees have to scan and account for everything in the backroom. And we have to count all of our product in the backroom before the third party gets to the store, which is usually about 5 a.m. Anyways, this particular inventory day, it was in the middle of the holidays which meant we had a ton of holiday backstock to count, so more inventory to count then usual. So it was about 3 a.m. in the morning, and I just finished stocking all the product, and I was going through scanning and accounting for all the product. So since it was the holidays, I had about 30 cases of bread in the backroom and it was all the same and I'll be honest, I was tired and not paying attention 100% and I ended up counting double the amount of bread, but I noticed the mistake right way. These operating systems we use to scan the product are very old, not very user friendly and the screen we were using to account for inventory is a screen that we only see once a year since we account for inventory once a year. Given that, I tried fixing the amount but I wasn't sure how to fix it, I thought I might have done it correctly but I wasn't sure. I was also trying to rush because I had to finish accounting for everything in two hours before the third party showed up and it would have been easy to just forget about it and continue going to the next product because I felt there wasn't enough time. However, I knew that if I made a decision like that, it would be a hit to my integrity and values as corny as that might sound. So, I ended up going to my associate manager for help. He came over and I explained the situation to him. It took him a while to figure it out but he had more experience in doing inventory than me, but anyways he figured it out and showed me not only how to fix mistakes but explained to be how it would show up on the inventory report and that everything would be fine. We had inventory that day, and it was one of the best inventories our store had, and my store manager said my department did very well.
Can you talk about a time when you used your analytical skills to find a problem? How did you discover the problem? What did you do after you discovered it?
While I was at Fidelity, one of the big projects they gave me to work on was a valuation report for all of the Fidelity region sites. I had to look at datasets that contained the initial cost of buildings, the depreciation for them, and then any renovation and maintenance costs, and any improvements that could increase the value of the property. So through all this data, I was verifying that all the data in this spreadsheet was lining up with the data in the fixed asset register. Through my analysis, I found a two million dollar discrepancy at one of the Fidelity region sites. I saw that it was a land donation, and the land costs and improvement numbers weren't taking that two million dollars into account. If I didn't comb through that data and analyze every detail, I wouldn't have found that mistake. Result: I told my boss how the fixed asset register wasn't account for the two million dollar land donation, so he went in and double checked my work and he ended up contacting his boss about the situation. It ended up being that when the donation happened, no one reported it to the accounting department so it has been off the valuation report for five years.
Can you describe a project that demonstrated your analytical skills?
While I was at Fidelity, one of the big projects they gave me to work on was to build a streamlined valuation report for all of the Fidelity region sites. I had to look at datasets that contained the initial cost of buildings, the depreciation for them, and then any renovation and maintenance costs, and any improvements that could increase the value of the property. With all of these numbers, I had to build out formulas in a spreadsheet where the end goal was supposed to be where all my boss had to do was import data from the accounting department into a spreadsheet that was linked to my report and then click update and it would provide him with the value of each region site that quarter. Through this project, I had to analyze tons of data in our fixed asset register, and the way I ensured it was accurate was that I got a notepad, I would look at each region site and write down the data for it and build a formula that would bring in the costs, improvements, and depreciation of that site to help value it. This demonstrated my analytical skills because I had to take the whole spreadsheet, look at each region site and then look at the individual data for each of those sites to help me build a consistent formula across the spreadsheet.
Tell me a time you challenged the status quo.
While I was at Kroger, before every Wednesday we had to change the AD and update what products were being promoted. There were specific guidelines that we were given every week on how to do AD change and the reason for that is that companies make deals with Kroger to buy shelf space and those companies want to make sure that their money is being utilized. So, this was during the holidays and we had product that didn't have specific space shelf on the sales floor so the only way we could do it was by putting them on an endcap even though Kroger didn't make deals with those companies to do that. So for five of my end caps, I executed the sales plan 100%, but on the sixth one, I did the endcap completely different and created it to sell the extra holiday product and I thought it looked very well. So, eventually when I was walking my department with my store manager, he saw it and almost immediately said that we couldn't build the end cap the way I built it. He said he agreed with what I was doing and that Kroger wasn't being practical with the way they were making their sales plan, but he ultimately said that the rules and guidelines don't allow us to do it. I ended up changing it and finding a new plan to sell the holiday product, but we had a good conversation on how it's something that needs to change if we want to compete in a dynamic marketplace, so even though what I did wasn't 100% utilized, It was a risk I was willing to take and it ended up opening up a good conversation on how we can be more innovative.
Are you a goal-oriented person?
Yes I am and I always trying to set goals for myself in the workplace. For instance, during my internship this past summer, my boss gave me a project to work on and complete before August because that is when he needed to send out the report that corresponded with the analysis I would provide him. However, I set a personal goal for me to finish that project in the first week of July. I prioritized that project whenever I had free time and I ended up completing it in the second week of July, about three weeks before my boss needed it.
