WPS Interview

Question 3: What do you do in data preparation?

In data preparation, you will prepare the data for the next stage i.e. the modelling stage. What you do here is influenced by the choice of technique you use in the next stage. But some things are done in most cases - example identifying missing values and treating them, identifying outlier values (unusual values) and treating them, transforming variables, creating binary variables if required etc, This is the stage where you will partition the data as well. i.e create training data (to do modelling) and validation (to do validation).

Tell me about a working situation in which you had to market a product with a team of people who had very different ideas and values from you. How did you manage the situation?

"I worked on a team with several people who came from very different backgrounds and disagreed on many things. The way I worked to bridge this gap was by defining what our product was together and focusing on the product rather than on our personal differences. By focusing that way, we were able to work together.

A customer left a negative review of our product on a social media site. How do you respond to the customer?

"I would take the opportunity as a representative of the brand to address the customer in a respectful and holistic way, assuring them that our brand feels accountable to making the customer happy and discussing how we can best accomplish that in the customer's future interactions with our brand."

WPS Purpose statement:

"Make healthcare easier for those we serve"

What are three things that are important to you in a company/internship opportunity?

- A company's values - Putting customers first - Commitment to communities - Like WPS' work with veterans or donations to good causes - An opportunity that has room for growth / company culture - I'd love to work for a company that is innovative and always looking for new opportunities to expand. Supportive and adaptive

What do you think makes a team successful? Give an example of a successful team you've worked on and what attributes it had?

- A successful team needs to have responsible members, respect for one another, be intrinsically motivated - When I was a server, I worked on an efficient, successful team that had all these characteristics. - We trusted one another, cared about the quality of our work and were there not for the money but for the people - We all felt more invested in the team because we shared these characteristics.

What is your biggest strength?

- Customer Service, connecting with an individual to best meet. their needs - server experience - I would say being a leader. Being a leader is an interpersonal skill that allows you to inspire and motivate others into action.- Leadership, just as any other skill, can be learned.- But, in contrast to other interpersonal skills, the degree to which you can learn it is highly correlated with your character traits, such as dependability, patience, responsibility, self-motivation, or emotional intelligence.- I find myself questioning each and everyday how I can be a more successful leader.

If you were starting a company tomorrow what would be it's top 3 values?

- Customers first, Integrity, teamwork - This comes down to my definition of success. - I have worked in customer service for many years now, so success for me has always looked like success for a customer, whatever their needs may be. - We live in an experience economy now more than ever, so it boils down to making a customer experience quality. - In order to be successful in this way, I defer to moral integrity to consistently achieve beneficial results. - And teamwork is key to any prevalent organization.

We all make mistakes. When you have discovered you have made one, how do you handle it?

- Depending on the severity of my mistake, I usually like to try to figure out what led to my mistake and how I can fix it on my own. - Then I will seek out a mentor or supervisor to confirm I handled the situation properly or allow them to guide me to a better solution.

You're the manager of a team and one of your team members doesn't follow instructions when completing a project you assigned them. How do you handle this?

- First I would set up a one-on-one meeting with them, or a touch base, and let them talk and see where they think they are at - Then I would Re-outline our goals and expectations for the project and for the team - But most importantly I would ask how I can help them reach these goals - I believe these three steps serve as an effective way to put a team member back on track

Tell me why we should give you the job and not someone else? Why should we hire you?

- First of all, my resume is a match for the role - I'm someone is analytical minded, who can work under pressure, meet strict deadlines, be independent, function as a strong teammate because for 6 years that's what I have been doing - I've been fortunate to be apart of many teams and many initiatives, from serving as president of multiple student organizations to my current role as an operations manager - These have allowed to become a quick learner and reliable - This team would serve as another opportunity for me to work hard and learn more

What motivates you?

- I am in a constant pursuit of growth and self development so I can in turn help others utilize their full potential. - It's the combination of this world's endless opportunities and an individual's boundless potential that serves as motivation enough to achieve my best results each and every day.

Do you prefer to work alone, or in a team?

- I feel as if there is more potential to learn when you work in a group setting vs alone. - This is especially important considering that I have a lot to learn about my current field of interest. - In high school and now college I have found myself always leaning towards working within a group of people as it has been beneficial to bounce ideas off of others.

How do you rely on others to make you better?

- I feel there is a common misconception that self growth needs to happen individually. - However, the most successful efforts in self-improvement have other people at their core. - Whenever I look to gain a new skill or break a bad habit, I seek out other people who are looking to do the same. - I've joined online communities and discussion groups to achieve this. - By working with others you can build confidence to become a better you.

Tell me about someone you have looked up to in the past. What characteristics have made them a good leader or role model?

- I have always been inspired by Apple, especially in recent years. - Specifically, Tim Cook has always come off to me as a leader who serves with moral integrity. - He leads not for himself but for his employees, customers, and even the planet. - He has always been committed to diversity, inclusion, and sustainability. All around he is a very inspiring person.

In 10 years do you see yourself working for yourself as an individual contributor, or overseeing a team as a people manager?

- In ten years I see myself as a potential people manager due to my desire for interacting with others and pursuit of self development. - I feel like there is more potential to learn when you work in a group setting vs alone. - This is especially important considering that in ten years I will still have lots to learn. - In high school and now college I have found myself always leaning towards working within a group of people as it has been beneficial to bounce ideas off of others.

What applicable experience do you have that will suit this role?

- I have lots of experience that matches the role requirements and job description - In fact, when I was reading the job description I could almost see each of my positions which fit the role - I've gathered, synthesized, modeled, and interpreted large datasets through a plethora of case studies and projects with my time at UW-Madison. - (I'm currently working on a data programming project involving database management with SQL and Python as well a data modeling project in R) - I've conducted fact finding interviews in my previous role as an admin assistant in order to publish articles for our division - I've sat on student advisory boards for workplace related issue identification and problem solving - and to make all this work, I've had to develop strong communication skills in order to advocate for myself and my teams - So I feel strongly that my skills and experience are a strong match for this role

How do you define success?

- I have worked in customer service for many years now, so success for me has always looked like success for a customer, whatever their needs may be. - So my definition of success is to go above and beyond a customers expectations in each every service I provide.

What do you hope to gain from this experience?

- I hope to learn more about the analytics field and different career paths that it could lead to - I hope to learn from others experiences and apply those takeaways to my own experience and to my future work environment - I hope to learn more about WPS as a company and the behind the scenes of WPS' strategy - I hope to learn more about different career opportunities within WPS - I hope to make connections with not only WPS employees, but also other students that have similar interests as me

Can you tell me about a time there was ambiguity in a process or project and how you work your way through it?

- I think ambiguity presents an opportunity. - I once needed to execute a marketing campaign for a student organization and I wanted to isolate it to the student population who would be most interested in our club. - But we didn't have any data on who that population was, just hunches - To be successful, I knew I first needed to gather the analytics to determine who to target. - Once I had that information, I determined who the campaign should be based on. - After the campaign was executed, I monitored the results using simple tracking tools to assess the level of performance of the campaign - With some data, I was. able to turn a complex and abstract question into a successful campaign

Is there a particular trend in marketing or analytics that you find especially interesting? What is an innovative new marketing strategy that you'd like to implement while in this position?

- I think we live in an experience based economy. - So I'm really excited about the prospect of creating an experiential marketing campaign, where we can activate a brand or data in the wild, where our customers are. - I think about RedBull's "Stratos" jump or just those big piano mats at malls, applying marketing and data in this way is powerful and exciting.

What are some of the first things you would do in this role to make an impact?

- I would first gather all the information I could about the role and the requirements so on my first day I could hit the ground running - I would also get to know our team, products, and services. - Then I would get to work on my first important project or task so I can show everyone that I'm ready to go. - I think these are crucial steps to establishing credibility. I have had to use them in the past and they have always lead to a successful team.

What steps do you take when there is an immediate decision to be made but you don't have all of the necessary data available? Ambiguity

- I would weigh the pros and cons and come up with a solution that makes the most sense. I truly believe common sense can take you a long way! - However, in circumstances involving lots of money or that make a significant impact on others, it's important to get a second opinion. - In my time in Administrative Assistance I would keep track of survey data from training participants so come year end I could help make recommendations to administrators. However, some of our feedback data lacked sample size and consistency. I consulted a peer who worked in a different department on campus who did similar work and made my decisions based on their prior experiences and my intuition.

How do you stay organized?

- I'm a big planner. - My main tool for staying organized is a comprehensive calendar of all my commitments. - I also love the cloud and technology that enables me to access work from anywhere. I use a variety of apps that allow me to immediately and effortlessly organize new information.

Tell me a project where you had to analyze data. What tools/thought process did you use?

- I've completed a variety of projects requiring data analysis through both my time as an administrative assistant and through coursework. - This past June I completed my second business analytics course in which I learned a variety of data analysis tools ranging from estimations with multiple regression models to predictions with SPSS and Solver. - One of my favorite projects had us developing a model predicting whether or not a client should be approved for a loan based on specific variables. - After implementing logits and model odds to see how are models held up, we used Excel's Solver to determine an appropriate "success probability" cutoff rate and then calculate expected profits from each cutoff.

Tell me about a situation where you overcame a significant obstacle to succeed within important work project or activity.

- In my senior year of high school I served as president of an organization known as Best Buddies, we advocated for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. - Every spring, our chapter needed to raise near $2,000 for what is known as the Best Buddies Friendship Walk. - - Our club had failed year after year to achieve this goal. - When I became a leading officer for the organization, it was one of my highest priorities to reach that target while incorporating the inclusive values of Best Buddies. - The challenge was that our membership rates were falling every year, and we relied heavily on member family donations to reach our fundraising goals. - As an officer team, we decide it would be best to try to market mainly to the student population rather than our member families. - After surveying students to see what fundraisers interested them, we implemented the top ideas for months on end. - By the time the fundraiser came around, we had reached our target.

What does innovation look like to you?

- Innovation is interesting, because it's not always the MBA or the PHD who innovates, it's actually quite the opposite, it's the people who look at something and think they can do it differently, they can do it better. - This is why I love what Kohl's does with Diversity and Inclusion, because to innovate requires fresh perspectives and imagination - Innovation looks like a diverse set of minds striking together to make something that's already good, awesome

Tell me about a time you were new to a team and needed to gain credibility. What steps did you take?

- Last summer I served as a camp counselor. - The first thing I did to establish credibility with the team was ask questions. I only knew what the company website told me, but I wanted to make sure that I had the whole picture before I tried to establish any sort of credibility. - I also had a preliminary plan on who to meet with and what responsibilities I needed to serve. - But most importantly, I did my job. I think that my hard work spoke volumes to the team on my credibility.

Tell me about a time you received constructive criticism, how you took it, and how you adapted going forward?

- Like everyone, I have received input from my managers that helped me to see how my work could be improved. - Once I was asked to revise a promotional flyer that I had spent a lot of time on, but after listening carefully to the critique, I saw how I could make changes that would strengthen the finished product. - I'm always eager to learn from people with different views and experiences, especially when their commentary can help me grow in my career, and strengthen my skillset.

What is your outlook on making mistakes?

- Mistakes are a revenue. For years I consider myself as a perfectionist until I realized the reason I was a perfectionist was due to a narrow skill set and lack of exploration. - I was trying to do simple things perfectly because it was more comfortable than branching out and making mistakes. - Now I have found that I learn best from my mistakes, whether it's in an analytics project or some math problems

What kinds of projects excite you?

- Projects where I get to work cross-functionally really excite me. - I love to bring together different people, where we can use our varying expertise to solve a problem.

Tell me about yourself

- Sure! My name is Sam Peterson, I am a junior at UW Madison studying Information Systems and Data Science. - As a kid, I grew up listening to my parents exchange medical and health insurance jargon, as they were both pharmacists. - As the years went on, I started to take interest in the world of healthcare, so much so that I was "this close" to pursuing a degree in medicine - But I became fascinated with a different side of healthcare, particularly analytics. - With my dad as an employee at WPS he would show me his giant excel charts and the magic he could make with them. - Now, I'm in college learning how to make my own magic with data programming and I couldn't be more excited to see where this path takes me.

What is your biggest weakness?

- There are times when I have to remember that although I'm a leader and ultimately at times responsible for the success or failure of a project, that I also have to step back and trust my team members to do their jobs. In past situations when problems would arise I would sometimes find myself jumping in and fixing the problem myself, bypassing the person who was assigned the task. While my jumping in did solve the immediate problem, it would often lead team member to feel as though I didn't trust them or lacked confidence in their ability. It was a hard lesson to learn, but now, when I am faced with an issue, I step back, take a deep breath and really assess what's going on and how I can fix it without stepping on toes or undermining my fellow teammates.

What excites you about WPS?

- WPS is changing the healthcare and pharmaceutical landscape by implementing data analytics to truly understand and deliver the best experience to their members - I want to be a part of this change and help with the strategic moves in the industry

Why major in data science? What does analytics mean to you?

- Well data science is interesting to me mainly due to its scope. - Studying data allows me to be employed in a variety of professional settings for a variety of purposes. - My favorite function of data science is applying predictive analytics. - By leveraging statistics and algorithms, I can help make intelligent predictions about the future in levels unprecedented throughout the history of the world. It's kind of incredible to me.

Why are you interested in this internship?

- Well, I find myself very attracted to your organization. - WPS is taking innovative approaches when it comes to exploring trends in pharmaceutical claims, predicting unnecessary medical costs, and so much more - Also the company values of customer centricity, responsibility, respect, and passion align very well with my own beliefs - With this role, I want to apply all that I have learned in a way that dramatically helps those I serve - And I believe this internship would be a fantastic place to start

How do you react to change?

- When I see change I try to analyze the effect it will have on the big picture - I never shy away from change, but instead, see it as an opportunity to learn

Describe a complicated problem you've had to deal with and how you identified or gained a better understanding of that problem.

- When I served in Best Buddies, a student organization that advocates for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the officer team would pair student applicants with a special needs student as their "Buddy" for the school year. - There would often be times where a relationship would not work out. - In order to gain a better understanding of the problem, I met up with the both the student member and special needs student one on one to attempt to find where the relationship went wrong and how we could improve the experience for both parties. - This comprehensive yet kind conversation led our officer team to develop a solution that worked best for everyone.

Can you talk about a work environment you were successful in and one that you wereunsuccessful in?

- When I was a server, I worked on an efficient, successful team that had a strong manager. - He would check in with us on a weekly basis. - We were trusted, but he also cared about the quality of our work and work environment. - We all felt more invested in our team because management's investment in us. - I have also had the opposite experience when I worked in fast food. - There would be times where it felt like management didn't exist and that a group of teenagers were running a restaurant. - There definitely needs to be a healthy balance in management, but I believe a solid leadership structure leads to my best results.

Tell me about a time you used persuasion to communicate a point.

- When I was a student advisor for UW Madison's WiGrow program, I sat on a committee that helped develop resources for student employees - At one point there was a debate about where we should direct our focus for the upcoming semester, on student and supervisor relationships or on resume building. - Resume building had been a focus in the past that didn't gain much traction, but a majority of the committee thought it would be easier to implement and adjust then starting a new program from scratch. - Before I cast my vote, I did some research on the previous resume building program and thought there were more opportunities to make bigger changes in student and supervisor relationships. - In order to clearly convey this, I showed committee members what the resume building program had done in the past and communicated how better student supervisor relationships could provide similar benefits to students as resume building does. - There was some back and forth at first, but in the end the committee realized student and supervisor relationships could use some attention.

What have you done to improve your data analytics knowledge in the past year? What are your career goals? Why do you want a career in data analytics?

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Tell us about a product that you successfully marketed. What was your strategy? In the case of the product that you successfully marketed, how did you assess the impact of the campaign?

Jo 2 Go Holiday drinks Week to week sales Survey reviews

What do you do in data exploration?

Data exploration is done to become familiar with the data. This step is especially important when dealing with new data. There are a number of things you will want to do in this step - What is there in the data How much data is there Quality of the data You will also identify some important variables and may do a deeper investigation of these. Like looking at averages, min and max values, maybe 10th and 90th percentile as well... You may also identify fields that you need to transform in the data prep stage.

Questions to Ask Interviewers

I understand Kohl's recently went through a reorg, what has this looked liked for you personally? How has COVID and working from home affected your team? What do Marketing Analytics Interns do that make them successful in the internship program?

What unique skills or qualities do you have that make you a great candidate for this position? What separates you or makes you unique from other candidates? What do you think specifically makes you a great candidate?

My skill set and passions are a perfect match for this role. In particular, the combination of years of team and customer service based work experience, a desire to turn data into insights, and my love for the communities I am apart of, I know for a fact I can bring success to this position and to Kohl's. I find myself having a work ethic that is rarely present in an individual my age. By the end of my senior year in highschool I had already racked up a full year of college credit through dual enrollment at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Now finishing my first year at UW Madison, I am on track to graduate with a double major a year ahead of my class. And I am certain that the course work I have planned for the next academic term will set me up with even more skills to be highly successful for the strategy intern position.

Can you outline the various steps in an analytics project?

Problem definition Data Exploration Data Preparation Modelling Validation Implementation and tracking

Question 4: How will you treat missing values?

The first step is to identify variables with missing values. Assess the extent of missing values. Is there a pattern in missing values? If yes, try and identify the pattern. It may lead to interesting insights. If no pattern, then we can either ignore missing values (SAS will not use any observation with missing data) or impute the missing values. Simple imputation - substitute with mean or median values OR Case wise imputation -for example, if we have missing values in the income field.

Question to ask Interviewer

What does the day in the life of a marketing analytics intern look like? What is your personal opinion about the culture within Kohl's?

Question 5: How will you treat outlier values?

You can identify outliers using graphical analysis and univariate analysis. If there are only a few outliers, you can assess them individually. If there are many, you may want to substitute the outlier values with the 1stpercentile or the 99th percentile values. If there is a lot of data, you may decide to ignore records with outliers. Not all extreme values are outliers. Not all outliers are extreme values.

Question 6: How do you assess the results of a logistic regression analysis?

You can use different methods to assess how good a logistic model is. a. Concordance - This tells you about the ability of the model to discriminate between the event happening and not happening. b. Lift - It helps you assess how much better the model is compared to random selection. c. Classification matrix - helps you look at the false positives and true negatives.