Interview Questions

1. Describe a time when you addressed a difficult work issue or concern with a team member and built a trusting relationship as a result. What steps have you taken to contribute to a work environment of trust and transparency in which people feel comfortable discussing issues openly? Please provide a specific example.

Because our team was originally under Treasury Services, I had the opportunity to work with other teams within Treasury. There was an external analyst that would make it known that he was leaving the office at 2pm every day or going out of office when he knew that his manager would be out as well. His SFA was on the quieter end and never really spoke up about how unfair she felt that she wasn't receiving help from him but was going home earlier than others. I did advise her to speak to her manager about it but she never did and left it at that. Eventually, that analyst did ask me to be his mentor and I took the chance to tell him that he should make the most of his time at the office. Whether that meant checking in to see if his SFA needed help or whether he could start working on things that he would need to do the next day. I . He recognized why I was sharing the advise and made some changes in how he professionally handled himself in the office and the SFA on his team actually thanked me because she knew that she would not have the courage to confront him.

1. What have you done to ensure that you and those you work with support and maintain an ethical and fair work environment? Can you give an example?

Because our team was originally under Treasury Services, I had the opportunity to work with other teams within Treasury. There was an external analyst that would make it known that he was leaving the office at 2pm every day or going out of office when he knew that his manager would be out as well. His SFA was on the quieter end and never really spoke up about how unfair she felt that she wasn't receiving help from him but was going home earlier than others. I did advise her to speak to her manager about it but she never did and left it at that. Eventually, that analyst did ask me to be his mentor and I took the chance to tell him that he should make the most of his time at the office. Whether that meant checking in to see if his SFA needed help or whether he could start working on things that he would need to do the next day. I . He recognized why I was sharing the advise and made some changes in how he professionally handled himself in the office and the SFA on his team actually thanked me because she knew that she would not have the courage to confront him.

1. How do you determine when a rule, policy, or guideline is critical and when you have room to be more flexible?

For my current role, I used my audience as a factor as to sense of urgency for project financials. If I knew that it would just be project management and our real estate team looking to see the financials, I would take the typical full week to validate the financial inputs with local finance and ensure we got the right rent schedules from our CBRE brokers. However, if there was an unexpected review with the Project Sponsor or business CFO to see the financials, I would aim to complete the analysis in 2 to 3 days. Because a lot of the inputs may not be received in time, I would leverage prior projects in the area and use those benchmarks to build a high level directional financial analysis for them.

1. What have you done to build a network of relationships to accomplish work or further your career goals?

Having been part of the FLDP program, I've learned the importance of networking and building relationships to further your career. From asking my program champions to be my career mentors to now having mentees who have more experience than I do, I've learned to appreciate their guidance, apply it to my everyday work, and even pass it on. I personally believe that Finance is a large yet small world and that you will eventually cross paths with a lot of the people that you have worked in the past with. For example, Ed Kenkel was the senior director on my team and I've had the pleasure to actually work close with him on my first major project, called Laguna, and present those results to Shlomi. To build a trusting relationship with Ed, I always thought ahead of the questions that he would be getting asked from senior leadership and would try to prepare summarized analysis or backpocket information that he could quickly leverage in those conversations. It was great knowing that Ed felt comfortable in walking up to my desk to ask me a question and getting into the details, all the way to letting me handle the meetings with Shlomi on my own. And now, applying for this role, I feel confident that my prior partnership with Ed would make the transition easier and to perhaps create new opportunities within the team as to how we work with him.

1. What have you done to ensure that customer, or other stakeholder, needs are considered and prioritized when making decisions?

Having multiple projects that have overlapped each other, I have learned to keep organized, be honest, and provide clear timelines to business partners. There was an instance in which my Real Estate business partner communicated the need to deliver a financial analysis for 3 completely different projects in 2 weeks. I immediately set time up with my Real Estate business partner to talk about the complexities of each project, what scenarios were being considered, what inputs we already had, and whether there were reviews that were already set up on the calendar with our project sponsors or business CFOs. From our discussion, I determined that 1 of the 3 projects required an in-depth analysis as it involved people's costs, such as severance, relocation, etc, while the other 2 were lease renewals that required minimal capital. Because there was a higher focus from senior leadership on the 1 project, I told my Real Estate business partner that I would take the next week to consolidate the inputs from Facilities and local finance and then review with him before meeting with our project sponsor. Towards the end of that first week, I would then start on the 2 lease renewal projects as they were more straightforward. Throughout the 2 weeks, I had frequent connects with my real estate partner and kept him up to speed as to my progress and when I had slides put together for our presentations. This was the turning point in which my real estate partner recognized my quality of work and has since then commented on his reliability in me and my expertise.

1. Describe a time when you analyzed data and used the results to make a recommendation to your manager or decision about an objective or project. 2. Note to Interviewer: Inquire about experience related to the position's area of expertise (e.g., payroll, accounting, financial analysis, tax). Probe for GAAP understanding and knowledge of NPV, budget/forecasting, journal entries, ERP familiarity, systems/software. Determine if the candidate was able to both focus on the details as well as see the big picture impact of the work.

In my current role, I manage the consolidation of our Enterprise Funded project actuals via our PL56 BRAVO report. Halfway through my role, I noticed that local finance for these projects were not submitting actuals in BRAVO and that there was only a 25% usage of the report. I reconciled this report with another Facilities Report that was shared with us and often times questioned why we continued with PL56 if there was no real data from it. I put together an excel with statistics on usage and the efforts that I've implemented, such as a quarterly call to teach local finance how to submit in BRAVO, and set up time with our global real estate team to show the non-value added process. Even though I proposed we discontinue the use of PL56, I did suggest we directly ask the local finance teams to confirm via email or to share their BvAs to gather those actuals, especially since we were already working closely and had visibility to those projects. They were aligned given the manageable number of projects in our portfolio and agreed to revisit PL56 in the future if it ever got out of hand.

1. Give me an example of a time when you made a work-related decision that you felt best served the needs and interests of everyone involved. How did you communicate the consequences and benefits of the decision to others?

In my current role, I manage the consolidation of our Enterprise Funded project actuals via our PL56 BRAVO report. Halfway through my role, I noticed that local finance for these projects were not submitting actuals in BRAVO and that there was only a 25% usage of the report. I reconciled this report with another Facilities Report that was shared with us and often times questioned why we continued with PL56 if there was no real data from it. I put together an excel with statistics on usage and the efforts that I've implemented, such as a quarterly call to teach local finance how to submit in BRAVO, and set up time with our global real estate team to show the non-value added process. Even though I proposed we discontinue the use of PL56, I did suggest we directly ask the local finance teams to confirm via email or to share their BvAs to gather those actuals, especially since we were already working closely and had visibility to those projects. They were aligned given the manageable number of projects in our portfolio and agreed to revisit PL56 in the future if it ever got out of hand.

1. Give me an example of a time when you faced an ethical dilemma that did not have a clear right or wrong answer. What was the dilemma and what did you do?

Most recently, I've had the opportunity to transition one of my models to a facilities manager down in Sao Paolo as his stretch assignment. It was his first time working on creating an NPV and P&L analysis, especially for a large project such as this one in which we had all business presidents looking for a recommendation from us. The idea was that he would own the entire process and that I would be his source for any questions on the accounting principles and what type of slides we would need for our presentation. Unfortunately, in the middle of the project, he had to step away for a couple of days for a family emergency. Based on our touchpoints, I knew that he had most of the inputs but that he was having trouble in straight lining the lease costs and penalty. Coincidentally enough, as I was checking his work, I received an email from the project sponsor that she would like to model 2 additional scenarios in time for the next core team meeting. I immediately connected with her and asked her some questions on additional data I needed and started to build it out. I knew that if I would have waited for the manager to come back in a few days to start the scenarios, that it wouldn't be enough time for us to review with the project sponsor first and then with the larger team. By the time the analysis was done, the manager came back, and I briefed him on the 2 new scenarios and their impact. Because of this he was able to present the results and slides to both the sponsor and larger team accurately. Even though I did have to pick up the work, I didn't want to take the credit as I knew he put in a lot of effort and time into understanding the model and putting the analysis together for the original scenarios. I thanked him in front of the larger team for his work and the real estate lead in Latin America asked for his help for another project in Colombia.

Walk me through your resume.

Once I graduated from Lehigh in 2016, I immediately joined the FLDP program here at J&J. My first role was the WW FP&A MD team in which i delivered different monthly and quarterly results, such as Sales, PVC, Headcount, and EC Package, to the FP&A VP, Medical Device, and Consumer Medical Device CFOs. My second rotation was supporting the Global Consumer Supply Chain team in managing $110MM of global admin budget that was made up of different pillars and other supply chain functions. I held detailed BvA reviews with my business partner and created an automated excel module that let me submit costs, such as site spend, CNIS, headcount, and GP, into TM1. Most recently, I am part of the E&PS team supporting Real Estate where I have delivered major Real Estate projects through detailed NPV and P&L analysis to cross-functional business partners and senior leadership. I also did deliver a stretch assignment called the Facilities Financial Visibility Project in which i created 70% transparency to budget vs actuals for our global make and non-make sites.

1. Give me an example of a time when you were working with multiple people whose needs or perspectives differed, and you all needed to reach alignment as a group. How did you incorporate different points of view and what was the outcome?

One of my recent projects was in Jacksonville in which we were reducing our footprint. Because of the low credo scores of the facility, the original project sponsor wanted to completely modernize the campus and therefore knew the project would be costly at about $75MM. As we shared the recommendation with the business CFO, there was feedback to cut down on project costs given capital constraints across Medical Device and thus a new project sponsor was going to lead the project. She shared that her only goal was to deliver a positive or neutral NPV. Given my expertise in larger projects in MD, I did share that often times the long-term strategic benefits of a project would outweigh the costs and that Real Estate would be supportive in an NPV negative recommendation as well. The sponsor remained hesitant while my Project Manager and my Real Estate partners were nervous and looked for me to provide insights and convince her of a solution. Because I knew that we needed support form the Sponsor to move the project forward, I connected with Project Management to understand what work was necessary vs. a nice to have. With that information, I then created an npv sensitivity analysis to adjust the level of fit-out investments and further understand what additional gaps we had in order to maximize capital while staying at least neutral. My analysis determined that we could only spend up to $38MM and that we would have tradeoffs when it comes to how modernized we can truly make the campus. Once the sponsor understood this and saw my determination in finding a solution that was a positive outcome while keeping in mind our goal of providing a better work environment for our employees, she was able to fully trust me and the financials and gave her approval to route the CAR up. As a result, this project will relocate about 2K employees into a larger and flexible work environment that's up to J&J standards.

1. Tell me about a time when you had to work with a colleague or stakeholder to accomplish an important objective. How did you ensure that you and the other person were aligned? Describe a time when you had to influence a colleague to adopt a point of view. What did you do?

One of my recent projects was in Jacksonville in which we were reducing our footprint. Because of the low credo scores of the facility, the original project sponsor wanted to completely modernize the campus and therefore knew the project would be costly at about $75MM. As we shared the recommendation with the business CFO, there was feedback to cut down on project costs given capital constraints across Medical Device and thus a new project sponsor was going to lead the project. She shared that her only goal was to deliver a positive or neutral NPV. Given my expertise in larger projects in MD, I did share that often times the long-term strategic benefits of a project would outweigh the costs and that Real Estate would be supportive in an NPV negative recommendation as well. The sponsor remained hesitant while my Project Manager and my Real Estate partners were nervous and looked for me to provide insights and convince her of a solution. Because I knew that we needed support form the Sponsor to move the project forward, I connected with Project Management to understand what work was necessary vs. a nice to have. With that information, I then created an npv sensitivity analysis to adjust the level of fit-out investments and further understand what additional gaps we had in order to maximize capital while staying at least neutral. My analysis determined that we could only spend up to $38MM and that we would have tradeoffs when it comes to how modernized we can truly make the campus. Once the sponsor understood this and saw my determination in finding a solution that was a positive outcome while keeping in mind our goal of providing a better work environment for our employees, she was able to fully trust me and the financials and gave her approval to route the CAR up. As a result, this project will relocate about 2K employees into a larger and flexible work environment that's up to J&J standards.

1. Tell me about a time when you used a financial analysis (e.g., NPV, cash flow, risk assessment) to support decision-making on a project. 2. Note to Interviewer: Inquire about experience related to the position's area of expertise (e.g., payroll, accounting, financial analysis, tax). Probe for GAAP understanding and knowledge of NPV, budget/forecasting, journal entries, ERP familiarity, systems/software. Determine if the candidate was able to both focus on the details as well as see the big picture impact of the work.

One of my recent projects was in Jacksonville in which we were reducing our footprint. Because of the low credo scores of the facility, the original project sponsor wanted to completely modernize the campus and therefore knew the project would be costly at about $75MM. As we shared the recommendation with the business CFO, there was feedback to cut down on project costs given capital constraints across Medical Device and thus a new project sponsor was going to lead the project. She shared that her only goal was to deliver a positive or neutral NPV. Given my expertise in larger projects in MD, I did share that often times the long-term strategic benefits of a project would outweigh the costs and that Real Estate would be supportive in an NPV negative recommendation as well. The sponsor remained hesitant while my Project Manager and my Real Estate partners were nervous and looked for me to provide insights and convince her of a solution. Because I knew that we needed support form the Sponsor to move the project forward, I connected with Project Management to understand what work was necessary vs. a nice to have. With that information, I then created an npv sensitivity analysis to adjust the level of fit-out investments and further understand what additional gaps we had in order to maximize capital while staying at least neutral. My analysis determined that we could only spend up to $38MM and that we would have tradeoffs when it comes to how modernized we can truly make the campus. Once the sponsor understood this and saw my determination in finding a solution that was a positive outcome while keeping in mind our goal of providing a better work environment for our employees, she was able to fully trust me and the financials and gave her approval to route the CAR up. As a result, this project will relocate about 2K employees into a larger and flexible work environment that's up to J&J standards.

1. Our Credo plays a guiding role in how we do business at Johnson & Johnson. What aspects of our Credo most inspired or motivated you to seek a position at Johnson & Johnson?

The most important aspect of the CREDO that inspires me is giving back to the community. Along my career and education, I have had different mentors that have supported and guided me in my development both professionally and personally and therefore believe it is my turn to return the favor. I admire J&J's recent dedication in creating a COVID vaccine and going beyond that to work with our competitors in distributing vaccines faster. Similarly, I too feel it's my responsibility to help those in need to the best of my ability and is the reason why I joined the Rewards and Recognition and the Community Service Boards under the Treasury team. We hosted an annual breakfast in which we took time to celebrate and acknowledge the achievements of our colleagues to thank them for their hard work and where I was able to lead a Trivia to make the event as inclusive and fun as possible. Although we didn't have the chance to have an in-person event this year, I was able to lead a virtual scavenger hunt to raise over $3K for multiple causes and organizations. It was great seeing the team and upper leadership participate and having a good time for a great cause. I look forward to continuing to express my passion of helping our communities as I continue my career at J&J.

1. Describe a stretch goal you have set for yourself to enhance your skills and further your professional development.

· Currently, I was able to deliver a stretch assignment, called the Financial Facilitity Visibility project that has helped me learn about the Cost of Owership for all Make and Non-Make sites. I've learned to organize myself, be proactive in holding discussions with my regional teams, and to set timelines that were reasonable not only for myself but with the team. One of the biggest things that I have learned has been to work with challenging business partners who did not want to own the new process and do this recurringly. Being able to communicate the added-value benefit of visibility to our regional and subregional directors has influenced business partners to submit their data to us and have closer relationships with their site leads. In addition, this new process has brought to light the errors that were currently existing in their systems and have held internal discussions within their own team to resolve them. Aside from this, I continue to explore new ways in which I can improve my technical and presentation skills. I've taken it upon myself to join PowerBi sessions to learn ways to create more effective visuals, continue to watch youtube videos that explain advanced excel formulas, and even join the Finance Women's Leadership Initiative ERG to further learn about personal budgeting, making my voice heard, and celebrating my achievements.

1. What steps have you taken to learn more about the broader business or industry in which you work? How has this impacted your work? Describe a time when you had to consider the impact of external business factors (e.g., market, economic, financial, legal, compliance) on your work or studies. How did you build knowledge of those factors?

· In my current role, I've had the opportunity to learn about the larger real estate industry. I have been able to investigate key terminology, such as Tenant Improvement, Triple Net Leases, or even about the different market rates in a specific area or country and how laws play a role into our projects. I've learned about these things by either googling it online, signing up for a Real Estate magazine, or joining our monthly Real Estate and CBRE calls in which they would bring in an external speaker that would talk about the market trends or any new developments that we should be aware of and how that ties into our strategy at J&J. This information has been helpful because I've applied it to my modelling for my projects, specifically in Latin America. Unlike in the US, laws in South America say that lease renewals don't require an annual inflation year over year. With that knowledge, as I begin to prepare high level financials for our projects, I alter my formulas and ensure only a risk premium % is included in our npv calculation. Not only that but having knowledge of the level of investments that we've done in similar countries in South America, I would know that having a $50MM project in Ecuador is way too high of a benchmark and that we would need to work through the details to understand why that's the case. Overall, having this knowledge has helped me to leverage benchmarks and to quickly prepare financials ahead of our first meeting with the business. My business partners have thanked me for being attentive and proactive in learning more about the industry so that we can focus on the more strategic questions during our meetings.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

· Over the next 5 years, I would like to learn more about the business and the different brands that we support. More specifically, I want to be able to have an appreciation of the start to end process and learn how we continue to think about innovative solutions from designing a new product all the way to delivering it to our consumers at stores. I want to continue building trustful relationships with teams outside of finance and to support their decisions through my financial analysis and strategic thinking. I would like to become a well-rounded individual with both enterprise and business level experience so that I can one day become a manager and strategically deliver results.

1. Sometimes it can be difficult to work across internal boundaries. Tell me about a situation in which you had challenges working with an internal partner. What did you do to overcome these challenges?

· S: In my current role, I had the opportunity to oversee the 2nd year FLDP for half of his time in the team. Because he was originally reporting to my manager, we became really close teammates and enjoyed working side by side on multiple projects. Unfortunately, as our FLDP heard that I would be managing him during the second half of his role, our partnership became a bit complicated since he didn't enjoy knowing that I was only a few years older than him and that he would have to change how he acted around me. · T: I still wanted him to be able to confide in me and to understand that I would always have the best interest in his career and development. · A: I immediately asked him if it was okay for us to connect at least twice a week so that he could get me up to speed on what he was working on and if he had any questions for me. The first few 1:1s was a bit challenging to get him to respect me as his manager so I did highlight the goals that we had in common and that I was open to helping him work through the details during working sessions instead of just asking him to give me a deliverable and then reviewing it on my own. I also let him know that I wanted him to be honest with me and to tell me if he had too much on his plate so that I could help him prioritize. He apologized for his lack of professionalism and did note that he realized that this too was a brand-new experience for me. · R: By the end of his rotation, I sat down with the FLDP and asked him for feedback as a manager. He was truly grateful that I let him be himself while venting and for always thanking him for everything as little as sending an email to our business partners. He wanted me to know that he trusted me in having his back and that he wouldn't mind reporting to me in the future again. The experience taught me a lot about myself and further apply it to my other mentor/mentee relationships.

1. What actions have you taken to support the professional development of others? Give an example.

· S: Throughout my career at J&J, I've had the opportunity to have different mentors at different leadership levels and am grateful of their investment in my professional development. It is why I also believe that we need to continue giving back to others in the same way to ensure that we are all collectively reaching our goals and growing professionally. · T: As my colleagues have seen me get multiple inspire awards or hear my team compliment my work in the office, I've had coworkers ask me if I could mentor them, some who actually have more professional experience than me. I've learned that I'm a people person and gladly have accepted to be their mentors. · A: I am currently helping an analyst through his interview process by helping him with mock interviews and looking over his resume to ensure he finds his next role. One of the biggest things I've recently shared is that he shouldn't feel discouraged after a few interviews and that he truly needs to understand what he may be doing wrong or can improve on, especially how he communicates with others. · R: As a result, I have realized that I truly am invested in helping others grow and have participated in recruiting efforts with the FLDP team as well. I check-in with my mentees at least once a quarter and have always asked them if they needed any additional support from me. I always want to make them feel welcomed and that they could trust me with any of their concerns inside the office or on a personal level. I hope to continue to foster these relationships and even help my friends outside of J&J as they continue their own careers by giving them advice and tips on reaching their goals.

1. Tell me about a time when someone challenged you to think differently about a problem or project. How did you respond? What was the outcome?

· Situation: During my first FLDP role in FP&A for Medical Devices, I had the responsibility to deliver a monthly sales package by C+2. I was asked to recreate the excel module and make it as efficient as possible so that it was a quick update in 1 day from C+1, our pre-sales package. Because I was freshly out of college, I found myself using SUMIFs or VLookups to create the formulas for multiple tabs. As my senior was checking my work, she noticed that the file was too large to run and that there were errors across the reconciliation. · Task: My senior then explained to me that our role depended on quality work and that it would be good to think about how to make the process quicker by using advanced formulas such as INDEX MATCH. She also insisted I include checks to tie out the information and avoid any future errors. · Action: I felt upset that I couldn't deliver a successful file, but I motivated myself and took my senior's challenge to get myself out of my comfort zone and learn new excel skills. I watched hours of youtube videos and memorized excel keyboard shortcuts. After a lot of trial and error, I was able to put together the file using index match, nested iferror/vlookups, and created a macro that essentially ran the entire process for me. I created an additional file on the side to avoid making the working file any bigger than it was just to have checks for all of the data across all the tabs. · Result: When I shared the new file with my senior, she was extremely impressed and happy that I was able to take on the challenge. I was able to deliver a quick sales package by C+2 and my senior eventually asked me for help on her excel formulas throughout the rest of my role. To this day, I believe that experience has shaped my success in my other roles and has allowed me to become the go-to person for excel tips but also to ensure I'm checking my work consistently.

1. What were the developmental turning points that have contributed most to your success as a Professional? How have you shared your learnings and successes with others?

· Situation: During my first FLDP role in FP&A for Medical Devices, I had the responsibility to deliver a monthly sales package by C+2. I was asked to recreate the excel module and make it as efficient as possible so that it was a quick update in 1 day from C+1, our pre-sales package. Because I was freshly out of college, I found myself using SUMIFs or VLookups to create the formulas for multiple tabs. As my senior was checking my work, she noticed that the file was too large to run and that there were errors across the reconciliation. · Task: My senior then explained to me that our role depended on quality work and that it would be good to think about how to make the process quicker by using advanced formulas such as INDEX MATCH. She also insisted I include checks to tie out the information and avoid any future errors. · Action: I felt upset that I couldn't deliver a successful file, but I motivated myself and took my senior's challenge to get myself out of my comfort zone and learn new excel skills. I watched hours of youtube videos and memorized excel keyboard shortcuts. After a lot of trial and error, I was able to put together the file using index match, nested iferror/vlookups, and created a macro that essentially ran the entire process for me. I created an additional file on the side to avoid making the working file any bigger than it was just to have checks for all of the data across all the tabs. · Result: When I shared the new file with my senior, she was extremely impressed and happy that I was able to take on the challenge. I was able to deliver a quick sales package by C+2 and my senior eventually asked me for help on her excel formulas throughout the rest of my role. To this day, I believe that experience has shaped my success in my other roles and has allowed me to become the go-to person for excel tips but also to ensure I'm checking my work consistently. I have helped people even outside of team with their technical skills and am myself continuing to learn more.

1. What steps have you taken to create a collaborative work environment in which diverse backgrounds, talents, and ideas are listened to, respected, and included? How have you encouraged others to do the same? Please give an example.

· Situation: I am currently part of the Treasury Community Service Board, which is about 6 of us on the team. We would meet to brainstorm on different ideas with the leading manager. Often times, I would find myself talking most of the time while the rest of the team remained silent or had very little to say. I acknowledged that some of my colleagues were on the quieter end or didn't have much experience in an extracurricular board. · Task: I felt the need to ensure that the team felt like they had the chance to share their ideas and that were being included in the conversation. · Action: So, I spontaneously asked the team to write down 2 ideas down in a piece of paper and to place it in the middle of the table. I mixed up the papers and went to the white board to write down the ideas. I then starting asking around the room on what it would require to successfully hold each event or idea and if anyone would like to form teams to work on exploring it a bit further. · Result: From that meeting we were able to put on the calendar an event for each of the quarters and the leading manager thanked me for speaking up and helping the rest of the team to participate. As a result, I noticed that the team has felt more comfortable in sharing and taking the initiative to lead some of those events.

1. Can you give me an example of when you were able to help a co-worker weigh the risks of a potential decision? What was the outcome?

· Situation: I believe all our real estate projects demonstrate working with business partners to show them the risks or opportunities of moving forward with a project. One example would be my consolidation project in panama. After performing the financial analyses on the different scenarios, the business informed us of having budget constraints and that we had to provide a new proposal with a reduction in project costs. · Task: The project team immediately asked us to help us find a smaller building to move into as a solution. However, from my experience, I suggested to the team that we focus on adjusting our fit-out investment levels as we didn't want to jeopardize the good lease rates that we got from the current proposed building and because it would allow us to expand into another floor if we saw headcount growth soon. · Action: I also met with the project manager and went line by line item on the different upgrades that were being planned for the project. I did mention that we would not be able to fully renovate the building as modern as they'd like and that we would need to have a set of tradeoffs. I did encourage the team in understanding that although we do have budget constraints today, that it's not to say that we wouldn't revisit and prioritize this project over other initiatives in Latin America in the future since our work environment and needs of the business are always changing. Result: As a result, we were able to share the alternative solution to the business and they were content in knowing that this was a work-in-progress initiative and that we would keep Panama in mind in the future as we prioritized other projects.

1. Describe a time when you had to remediate a compliance gap or recommend or implement a new control to support a business process or accomplish an important project. 2. Note to Interviewer: Inquire about experience related to the position's area of expertise (e.g., payroll, accounting, financial analysis, tax). 3. Describe a time when you implemented a best practice regarding the implementation and/or tracking of financial controls.

· Situation: In my current role, I work with various cross-functional business partners to get inputs for our modelling. One of the inputs is the 21Tab that we get from Project Management, a detailed schedule that classifies our project costs into capital or expense. In the past, there was a blind belief that Project Management was correctly classifying costs but when I joined the team, I took it upon myself to read through the WWPs and noticed that a lot of the costs were not properly being categorized. · Task: Because I had to understand when to assume new depreciation would start and provide an overall P&L/NPV impact, I told the Project Manager that some costs, like Construction Manager costs, should be expensed per WWP. Because no one has ever caught this before, there was push back on making that change. · Action: I understood the challenge, so I set up a meeting with the Technical Accounting team and Project Manager to hold a conversation on properly classifying costs and further understanding the WWPs. Since this was their area of expertise, I believed bringing in this 3rd party to help the Project Manager understand the importance of being accurate was the best approach. · Results: As a result, we were able to keep compliant and deliver the project on time. More importantly, I was able to create a PPT guide that we then shared with Project Managers when they're going through their 21Tab for any new projects to ensure we were being compliant to WWPs and correctly modelling our analyses from the start.

1. Give me an example that shows your commitment to maintaining high standards of quality and compliance in your work.

· Situation: In my current role, I work with various cross-functional business partners to get inputs for our modelling. One of the inputs is the 21Tab that we get from Project Management, a detailed schedule that classifies our project costs into capital or expense. In the past, there was a blind belief that Project Management was correctly classifying costs but when I joined the team, I took it upon myself to read through the WWPs and noticed that a lot of the costs were not properly being categorized. · Task: Because I had to understand when to assume new depreciation would start and provide an overall P&L/NPV impact, I told the Project Manager that some costs, like Construction Manager costs, should be expensed per WWP. Because no one has ever caught this before, there was push back on making that change. · Action: I understood the challenge, so I set up a meeting with the Technical Accounting team and Project Manager to hold a conversation on properly classifying costs and further understanding the WWPs. Since this was their area of expertise, I believed bringing in this 3rd party to help the Project Manager understand the importance of being accurate was the best approach. · Results: As a result, we were able to keep compliant and deliver the project on time. More importantly, I was able to create a PPT guide that we then shared with Project Managers when they're going through their 21Tab for any new projects to ensure we were being compliant to WWPs and correctly modelling our analyses from the start.

Please provide an example of when you took ownership of the outcomes of a decision and made improvements without direction or guidance from your manager.

· Situation: In my current role, I've had the opportunity to work on projects independently of my manager or direct team. One example would be my consolidation project in panama. After performing the financial analyses on the different scenarios, the business informed us of having budget constraints and that we had to provide a new proposal with a reduction in project costs. · Task: The project team immediately asked us to help us find a smaller building to move into as a solution. However, from my experience, I suggested to the team that we focus on adjusting our fit-out investment levels as we didn't want to jeopardize the good lease rates that we got from the current proposed building and because it would allow us to expand into another floor if we saw headcount growth soon. · Action: I also met with the project manager and went line by line item on the different upgrades that were being planned for the project. I did mention that we would not be able to fully renovate the building as modern as they'd like and that we would need to have a set of tradeoffs. I did encourage the team in understanding that although we do have budget constraints today, that it's not to say that we wouldn't revisit and prioritize this project over other initiatives in Latin America in the future since our work environment and needs of the business are always changing. · Result: As a result, we were able to share the alternative solution to the business and they were content in knowing that this was a work-in-progress initiative and that we would keep Panama in mind in the future as we prioritized other projects. My manager was extremely happy that I owned the entire project from start to finish from understanding the strategy all the way to preparing the CAR document for approval and since then would trust me in helping her take on projects from her own plate.

1. How do you ensure that you are developing and growing in a way that will maximize your potential to contribute to the success of the business? How have you helped others to do the same?

· Situation: My first Real Estate project was called Laguna and it consisted of consolidating offices out in California for the MD business. Given the heavy level of investment, our financials indicated that our NPV & P&L impact was negative, however, our real estate team was supportive of this recommendation as we would we eliminating a large amount of footprint and bringing teams closer together. The project sponsor wasn't content in sharing this with senior leadership and was adamant in having us reduce the level of headcount costs even though the business confirmed that they expected growth in the next 10 years. · Task: As finance, it was my job to ensure we were accurately taking into account all data sources and sharing accurate results, so I was hesitant on chasing a positive npv/P&L impact by making last minute adjustments that was not based on facts. I had to figure out a way to convince my project sponsor that a project as large as this one required us to be very detailed and conscious of the assumptions. · Action: After a bit of back and forth, I felt comfortable enough to escalate this all the way through Ed and asked if he could help us talk with the sponsor on why being accurate in a large project like this was important. I developed multiple backpocket information that proved that underestimating the cost of headcount could lead us into requesting more money in the future for even more space at higher market costs. The sponsor was still adamant in having a positive npv/P&L so Ed and I did rationalize that the sponsor was closer to the business so we changed the financials and had a positive result. · Result: Now, given the COVID environment, the assumptions that the sponsor kept making about having less headcount costs actually worked out in the end since a lot of people were now going to be permanently working from home or going to the office for a few days. Overall, I'm glad I went through the experience because I now understand and apply the fact that our role as finance is to not only give accurate results but to support the business in their decisions as they are the key experts and know their areas. Since then, I've applied this same mentality in my other projects when we have similar challenges and have shared this knowledge with my new manager.

1. Tell me about a time when you adapted to a change at work. What was the change? What was the impact of the change on you? How did you react?

· Situation: My first Real Estate project was called Laguna and it consisted of consolidating offices out in California for the MD business. Given the heavy level of investment, our financials indicated that our NPV & P&L impact was negative, however, our real estate team was supportive of this recommendation as we would we eliminating a large amount of footprint and bringing teams closer together. The project sponsor wasn't content in sharing this with senior leadership and was adamant in having us reduce the level of headcount costs even though the business confirmed that they expected growth in the next 10 years. · Task: As finance, it was my job to ensure we were accurately taking into account all data sources and sharing accurate results, so I was hesitant on chasing a positive npv/P&L impact by making last minute adjustments that was not based on facts. I had to figure out a way to convince my project sponsor that a project as large as this one required us to be very detailed and conscious of the assumptions. · Action: After a bit of back and forth, I felt comfortable enough to escalate this all the way through Ed and asked if he could help us talk with the sponsor on why being accurate in a large project like this was important. I developed multiple backpocket information that proved that underestimating the cost of headcount could lead us into requesting more money in the future for even more space at higher market costs. The sponsor was still adamant in having a positive npv/P&L so Ed and I did rationalize that the sponsor was closer to the business so we changed the financials and had a positive result. · Result: Now, given the COVID environment, the assumptions that the sponsor kept making about having less headcount costs actually worked out in the end since a lot of people were now going to be permanently working from home or going to the office for a few days. Overall, I'm glad I went through the experience because I now understand and apply the fact that our role as finance is to not only give accurate results but to support the business in their decisions as they are the key experts and know their areas. Since then, I've applied this same mentality in my other projects when we have similar challenges and have shared this knowledge with my new manager.

1.Give an example of when your ability to adapt to change produced improved results over sticking with the status quo or resisting change.

· Situation: My first Real Estate project was called Laguna and it consisted of consolidating offices out in California for the MD business. Given the heavy level of investment, our financials indicated that our NPV & P&L impact was negative, however, our real estate team was supportive of this recommendation as we would we eliminating a large amount of footprint and bringing teams closer together. The project sponsor wasn't content in sharing this with senior leadership and was adamant in having us reduce the level of headcount costs even though the business confirmed that they expected growth in the next 10 years. · Task: As finance, it was my job to ensure we were accurately taking into account all data sources and sharing accurate results, so I was hesitant on chasing a positive npv/P&L impact by making last minute adjustments that was not based on facts. I had to figure out a way to convince my project sponsor that a project as large as this one required us to be very detailed and conscious of the assumptions. · Action: After a bit of back and forth, I felt comfortable enough to escalate this all the way through Ed and asked if he could help us talk with the sponsor on why being accurate in a large project like this was important. I developed multiple backpocket information that proved that underestimating the cost of headcount could lead us into requesting more money in the future for even more space at higher market costs. The sponsor was still adamant in having a positive npv/P&L so Ed and I did rationalize that the sponsor was closer to the business so we changed the financials and had a positive result. · Result: Now, given the COVID environment, the assumptions that the sponsor kept making about having less headcount costs actually worked out in the end since a lot of people were now going to be permanently working from home or going to the office for a few days. Overall, I'm glad I went through the experience because I now understand and apply the fact that our role as finance is to not only give accurate results but to support the business in their decisions as they are the key experts and know their areas. Since then, I've applied this same mentality in my other projects when we have similar challenges and have shared this with my new manager as she is onboarded.

1. Describe a time when you adopted a new or innovative approach to completing an important project or work process. What was the approach and what did you do to implement it?

· Situation: Prior to my current role, I didn't have much experience in creating a full P&L/NPV analysis. Because our work here depends on the complexity of the project, the team has often found itself building their own templates and PPT slides instead of using 1 go-to model. Although some projects may be larger and thorough than others, the models each included the fundamentals in understanding the P&L and NPV impact. · Task: Having gone through major RE projects and feeling confident in my technical and presentation skills, I thought about how we could standardize the model and PPT slides so that anyone on the team could continue working on it in case there was a conflict with another project or that our business partners could easily understand the analysis and incorporate changes directly, even if they were not finance. · Action: So, I reviewed the models that both my manager and director have created in the past and looked across the similarities and differences within the analysis. I then set up a call with both to further understand what has worked with our business partners and what we can improve on to deliver results effectively. There was feedback on making sure the model was flexible enough to calculate new depreciation, an Enterprise P&L view that we could leverage and further breakout by different buildings or costs, and a summary page in which we could compare the different project costs and P&L/NPV results so that we can make a final recommendation. I took the feedback and built a flexible model that allowed us to enter information for up to 4 different buildings for 4 separate scenarios AND that you could easily copy the tabs over to add more buildings or scenarios as needed. I used my technical skills and adherence to WWPs to also develop an automated depreciation schedule based on the category of the investments. Similarly, I created P&L/NPV views and linked them to the 410B exhibits that we officially had to submit as part of our CAR. For our PPTs, I established that we only really needed 3 specific slides: 1 being an executive summary that highlighted the strategy of the project and total CAR request, the second having a financial summary of the different scenarios with key highlights, and then lastly a slide that showed the year over year P&L impact and NPV outcome vs. our baseline. Result: As a result, my team has been able to quickly work on each other's models and we've had business partners pick up the model and make changes to the assumptions without asking us any questions on how the template worked. Overall, having the standardized process has helped us become quicker and clearer in providing insights to our business partners and my new manager mentioned that the transition was easier for her instead of creating something from scratch.

1. How do you go about challenging yourself or stepping outside your comfort zone to contribute as an innovator? What have you done to contribute to a work environment that supports creativity and idea sharing? How have you encouraged the creativity and ideas of others? Give an example of a time when you were able to contribute an idea or solution to a problem at work that led to a positive outcome. Give me an example of a time when you took a risk by trying an innovative idea or approach. How have you encouraged others to do the same?

· Situation: Prior to my current role, I didn't have much experience in creating a full P&L/NPV analysis. Because our work here depends on the complexity of the project, the team has often found itself building their own templates and PPT slides instead of using 1 go-to model. Although some projects may be larger and thorough than others, the models each included the fundamentals in understanding the P&L and NPV impact. · Task: Having gone through major RE projects and feeling confident in my technical and presentation skills, I thought about how we could standardize the model and PPT slides so that anyone on the team could continue working on it in case there was a conflict with another project or that our business partners could easily understand the analysis and incorporate changes directly, even if they were not finance. · Action: So, I reviewed the models that both my manager and director have created in the past and looked across the similarities and differences within the analysis. I then set up a call with both to further understand what has worked with our business partners and what we can improve on to deliver results effectively. There was feedback on making sure the model was flexible enough to calculate new depreciation, an Enterprise P&L view that we could leverage and further breakout by different buildings or costs, and a summary page in which we could compare the different project costs and P&L/NPV results so that we can make a final recommendation. I took the feedback and built a flexible model that allowed us to enter information for up to 4 different buildings for 4 separate scenarios AND that you could easily copy the tabs over to add more buildings or scenarios as needed. I used my technical skills and adherence to WWPs to also develop an automated depreciation schedule based on the category of the investments. Similarly, I created P&L/NPV views and linked them to the 410B exhibits that we officially had to submit as part of our CAR. For our PPTs, I established that we only really needed 3 specific slides: 1 being an executive summary that highlighted the strategy of the project and total CAR request, the second having a financial summary of the different scenarios with key highlights, and then lastly a slide that showed the year over year P&L impact and NPV outcome vs. our baseline. · Result: As a result, my team has been able to quickly work on each other's models and we've had business partners pick up the model and make changes to the assumptions without asking us any questions on how the template worked. Overall, having the standardized process has helped us become quicker and clearer in providing insights to our business partners and senior leadership.

1. Tell me about a time when you used a mistake or failure as an opportunity to learn and adapt. How did you share your learnings with others?

· Situation: So our team funds Central Projects that are multi-sector or create a One J&J environment but we also provide financial support for our non-central or business funded projects that impact just one sector or a specific business. As I was finalizing a project in Florida and preparing the CAR document, there was a miscommunication from my end that this was going to be funded by us the Enterprise, when in fact it was the responsibility of the local business. This was communicated up through senior leadership and my VP asked why there was a change in funding when the project was centered on one specific sector and not producing a One J&J location. · Task: I realized that my mistake was due to the different definitions for the word FACILITIES that was being used when reporting what type of capital investments we had to the Corporate FP&A MD team vs. the actual funding source. So, I now had to figure out a way to quickly fix this error before this got to the EC. · Action: I immediately set time up with the project team and senior leadership to clarify that this was a local facilities project and that we would not be funding it. I suggested we edit the CAR document to say that this project was aligned to our Real Estate Strategic plan but that it would be collectively funded by the different functions in the local business. Additionally, I did have backup support from the Corporate FP&A team that their definition of facilities was more in regards to the type of investments and not a confirmation of where the funding was coming from. · Result: As a result, senior leadership was understanding of the error and we still ended up routing the CAR in time for approvals to the EC. From this, I learned the importance to specifically spell out in our PPT slides whether a project was going to be funded by us or by the local business. This is an example that I've shared with my new manager during transitioning and have told her that we need to be more proactive in documenting via email our interactions with project teams when telling them where funding is coming from.

1. Tell me about a time when you developed a strong collaborative relationship with a colleague outside of your team to accomplish a goal. What process did you take to seek their perspective or expertise? How did you incorporate their feedback or insights to accomplish the goal?

· Situation: Under my first rotation, I had to deliver headcount results on a quarterly basis. The original process and template were very manual and didn't provide enough context as to the headcount variances that we were seeing across MD globally. There was a disconnect with our business partners and often times had errors in the data that was being submitted to us. · Task: I sat down with our consolidation partner who received our headcount handoff and asked her what could be improved, and she mentioned that the commentary was not always clear nor talking to the different buckets of headcount. · Action: I immediately set up a "lessons-learned" call with our global business partners and asked them what challenges they faced when completing our headcount request. They voiced their needs of a more flexible template that was accessible to the entire team and clearly defined the different types of headcount buckets, such as transfers in and out, open positions, and conversions. With their feedback, I immediately thought about a BRAVO report that wasn't necessarily complete but thought it would be a good starting point for our global business partners to validate and input any additional missing information. So, I built a brand-new headcount template that would allow me to easily drop in the BRAVO report by region and MD hierarchy. Then I thought about how to make it accessible to everyone and then worked with IT to create a new sharepoint where I could upload the template and give access to our global business partners. · Result: As a result, we were able to get clearer commentary on the variances and were able to hand off the results to both the consolidations team and group finance for their overall rollup much more quickly and with less questions or concern on the data. Since then, I've applied a lessons-learned step in all my processes in the other roles that I have to ensure we are satisfying the needs of our business partners as well.

1. Give me an example of a situation that required you to build a working relationship with an internal or external partner to be successful. What steps did you take to understand and include their perspective or area expertise?

· Situation: When first joining my current role, the team owned the entire LRFP process, from collecting our inputs from real estate all the way to presenting the strategic storyline to our VP. Having experience in creating clear and concise power point slides in my other roles, my team looked to me in putting our financial slides together using visuals and key highlights. It was only until we went through the reorg to E&PS that we were informed that a Strategy & Analytics team was created just to assist us in our LRFP process. · Task: I was hesitant on having the S&A team change the format of our slides, especially since our VP complimented the effectiveness of the slides I put together, but I knew that they were experts in analyzing the data and building advanced visuals. · Action: To make myself comfortable about this transition, I set up a 1:1 with the analyst to further learn about the skillsets of the S&A team. I shared insights as to what our VP was looking for and he was able to show me examples of advanced visuals and analysis in a new software that was newly being used in J&J, PowerBi. I was highly interested in learning more and we set up an additional training session to help me learn about the different tools and dashboards. · Result: As a result of this, I confided in the S&A team owning the deck and leveraging PowerBi to create effective slides. I then asked my team to help me get a license to PowerBi to leverage it for my stretch project - the Financial Visibility Project. I was able to create an efficient data collection process and build advanced dashboards for my project and ultimately made it accessible to global stakeholders.