Interview Questions

Dealt with an unhappy customer?

Situation: When I worked at Olly's Olives part of my job was to manage inventory. Task: I was in charge of my own clients at the company and if I gained a customer, I was responsible for inputting when, where, and how many of the product needed to be sent. One of my customers was unhappy with their order and said that some of the olive pouches contained bad olives and wanted new ones sent immediately. Action: Even though the customer did not provide proof of the incident, Olly' Olives focused heavily on customer service and so I immediately apologized for the inconvenience, sent out a new order right away, and gave him 20% off of his next order. Result: The customer was happy with how the situation was handled and unexpectedly surprised with the response I gave him and continued to place orders with the company. Through this experience I learned the importance of customer service and going above and beyond to correct mistakes, even if there is nothing you could have done to prevent the mistake.

Why sales?

So my previous sales experience has confirmed my passion for sales. I love the relationship aspect of sales. Being about to form relationships with your clients and build trust is something that really draws me to a career in sales. I also like that fact that you get to work with so many different kind of customer which makes every day exciting and different with sales and I think that's exciting. For example, one day I may work with a small start up company like Olly's Olives, and they may have a completely different goal than working with a company like BCBS.

Give me an example of a time you managed numerous responsibilities. How did you handle that?

1. Actually preparing for this interview - School trip to Germany, group projects in undergraduate courses, grading TA assignments, interviews, friends birthday. Needed to prioritize these and ensure I was keeping everyone in the loop.

Talk about a time when you had to work closely with someone whose personality was very different from yours.

1. Artistic and loose personality àevery solution had to do with tying it back into the arts and my solutions were more based on facts and logic.

Tell me about a time you had an analytical roleand had to come to a conclusion based on data?

1. BCBS final project 2. Case Study 3. Assigning students to classrooms (look at size of room, number of students taking the exam, distance from each other) 4. Brexit debate

Tell me about a time you were assigned a difficult project and how did you deliver results?

1. BCBS final project 2. Olly's olives theatre district - run with it

Tell me about a time you achieved an assigned goal

1. Becoming excel certified 2. $200 / hour quota at VS pink

Tell me about a time you emerged as a leader (helped a team succeed when you weren't officially the leader)

1. Brother recently started a new business, helping with the marketing plan (increase brand awareness, increase sales) 2. Started a study group where we quizzed each other before an exam

Give me an example of a time you were able to be creative with your work. What was exciting or difficult about it?

1. CB chick fil a sauce 2. CB revolving door 3. Creating charts for finalist presentations, while I needed to communicate relevant information, I was able to be creative with colors and formatting and the overall display of the pages

Tell me about a time you solved a client's needs

1. CB revolving door 2. CB chick fil a sauce

Describe a long-term project that you managed. How did you keep everything moving along in a timely manner?

1. CB revolving door project 2. CB chick fil a project 3. BCBS final project throughout the course of the summer

Tell me about a time you took the extra step to make sure everyone was on the same page.

1. CC Guide 2. SIM - Meeting in person rather than remotely

Tell me about a time when you failed to meet a deadline. What did you fail to do? What did you learn?

1. Case Study Interview - failed at time management, learned that I need to move on when I cannot figure something out and come back to it at the end if I have time 2. Applying to MIB program, failed to read that application had to be submitted in person. I learned to read instructions thoroughly especially for things that are most important to me and will have a large impact

Tell me about a time when you worked under close supervision or extremely loose supervision. How did you handle that?

1. Close - VS pink, it was imperative I met my quota, meeting with floor manager every 2 hours 2. Loose - Olly's olives, let me run with the business

Tell me about a time where you had to use creativity or innovation to solve a problem

1. Consumer behavior revolving door 2. Olly's olives excel spread sheet

Tell me about a time you dealt with ambiguity. How did you handle it?

1. Consumer behavior, only direction was to work with a company to nudge behavior

Tell me about a time you had to deal with a cost or time hurdle?

1. Cost hurdle - vision boards for teams goals 2. Time hurdle - Make sure assignments are grades and posted in a timely manner (in Singapore with family, and berlin for school trip) 3. Plan weekend trips when studying abroad (trip to Iceland)

Tell me about a time you were dissatisfied in your work. What could have been done to make it better?

1. Could have helped coworker more with meeting quotas 2. Sales simulation interview

Describe a specific problem you solved for an employer or team. How did you approach the problem? What role did others play? What was the outcome?

1. Create excel sheet to manage inventory for Olly's Olives 2. CB class and chick fil a sauce

Tell me about a time when you had to prioritize tasks

1. Earning an A in Finance - prioritize course over personal activities 2. BCBS had to balance final project with mini projects assigned by each team 3. Studying for the GRE over thanksgiving and Christmas break 4. Online classes at UF - building a schedule and prioritizing time

Describe two specific goals you set for yourself and how successful you were in meeting them. What factors led to your success?

1. Earning an A in finance. Prioritization, dedication to the course, giving it 100% effort 2. Earning a 4.0 GPA during my most difficult semester 3. Generating new business for Olly's Olives during the short time I was there. Asking questions, shadowing, pushing myself outside of my comfort zone

Tell me about a time you had to be very strategic in order to meet all your top priorities.

1. Filtering students who needed my immediate attention and who could be delegated to a TA and which students whose issue was above my authority and needs to be forwarded to my professor 2. Earn a 4.0 during my hardest semester- determine how much time needed to be delegated to each course in order to earn an A

Tell me about a successful presentation you gave and why you think it was a hit.

1. Final project - showed our knowledge of the industry and the company as a whole. Used visuals and asked questions to keep the audience engaged. Told personal stories to connect our internship experience to the company.

Tell me about a time you stood up to / disagreed with a superior

1. Finance professor 2. VS Pink - bra fitting

Tell me about a time when you had to rely on written communication to get your ideas across to your team.

1. Group project in online class where we are all based in different places and hard to find a time to meet

Tell me about a time you navigated challenges to make an impact

1. Helped friend decide what career path to pursue 2. Helped a student who came to office hours form smart study habits

Describe a time when you were the resident technical expert. What did you do to make sure everyone was able to understand you?

1. Helping my intern friend with Excel

Give me an example of a time when you had to explain something fairly complex to a frustrated client. How did you handle this delicate situation?

1. Helping my intern friend with excel 2. Explaining phone contracts to Vivian

How do you lead?

1. I am a supportive leader. I understand the importance of being a resource to help my teammates succeed. (cc - here to help teaching assistants thrive and assist them if needed)

Tell me about a time you've shown team members you value your perspective even when its different from yours

1. In Germany our team was tasked with whether we believed in companies having diversity quotas

Tell me about your proudest professional accomplishment.

1. Landing a client, and managing my own client list 2. Being promoted to CC

Sometimes it's just not possible to get everything on your to-do list done. Tell me about a time your responsibilities got a little overwhelming. What did you do?

1. Make sure I am able to get my top priorities done first. Ask for help when I went to Germany It was almost impossible for me to keep up with all of the student emails - TA go through all of the emails

Tell me about a time you handled an objection

1. Olive pouches not being a good fit for the theatre

Describe a time when you had to interact with a difficult client. What was the situation, and how did you handle it?

1. Olly's Olives breaking down preconceived perception of olives. Had to reposition olives in the mind of consumers 2. VS Pink return policy 3. Vivian - cell phone

Tell me about a time where you optimized a process to save time or money

1. Olly's Olives excel sheet 2. CB chick fil a sauces

Give me an example of a time when you did not meet a client's expectation. What happened, and how did you attempt to rectify the situation?

1. Olly's Olives rotten olives 2. VS Pink return policy 3. Vivian - cell phone

Tell me about a time when you handled conflict/disagreement with understanding and care

1. Olly's Olives rotten olives 2. Vivian - cell phone 3. In group setting...

Tell me about a time you helped grow a business (autonomy)

1. Olly's Olives àbuilding my own client list

Describe a time when you struggled to build a relationship with someone important. How did you eventually overcome that?

1. Olly's olives managing company 2. TA - students were guarded about opening up to me and how honest they could be. I needed to establish trust and communicate that my role is to help them succeed.

Describe a time when your team or company was undergoing some change. How did that impact you, and how did you adapt?

1. Olly's olives was growing rapidly when I joined the team. That meant that the employees were already spread so think and I needed to be able to self-manage

We all make mistakes we wish we could take back. Tell me about a time you wish you'd handled a situation differently with a colleague.

1. One of my collogues was struggling hitting at quotas at work. While I was aware of this, I left it to my manager to help her with. Looking back, I wish I could give her my advice since we were both sales associates, to communicate what works for me and to help her find what works best for her.

Tell me about a specific instance in which you needed to understand complex information very quickly in order to answer a question or respond to an issue?

1. Proctor U glitching during an exam 2. Standby flying - change plans last minute be ready to be flexible and adaptable

Tell me about a time where you had to communicate across various levels

1. Proposed idea to manager and he set up a meeting with the VP of our office 2. BCBS networking - talked to manager first out interest in GeoBlue and then was able to talk to the head of GEO blue in our office

Tell me about a time you were open to learning and growing. Pushed outside comfort zone.

1. SIM - manufacturing and finance 2. Cold calling at Olly's Olives - new to sales and in a different country

Tell me about past projects and decisions you've made that helped push your team forward

1. SIM - meet in person to collaboraterather than divide and conquer

Tell me about a times you dedicated time outside of work to improve a job skill

1. Spent time before an interview improving excel skills 2. Learned about the healthcare and insurance industry before my internship

Tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult teammate

1. Stubborn and thought their way was the best way, not open to new ideas or input 2. Teammate who did not show up to group meetings and always finished at last minute 3. Freshman year would change work

Tell me about a time you were a leader of a team and your team did not perform well, what did you do to address this?

1. Student cheating on exam. Need to go over proctoring practices again 2. SIM - rather than dividing a conquering I suggested we all meet in person to make decisions together and collaborate

Tell me about a time you needed to get information from someone who wasn't very responsive. What did you do?

1. Student who came for help improving grade. Had to ask how you studied before. It was important they gave me an honest response

Tell me about a difficult situationand how you handled it.

1. TA Cheating student during exam - follow policy and set example for other TAs 2. Populating a census at work - asking for help 1. Olly's olives letting me run with my own book of business - breaking down preconceived perception of olives. Had to reposition olives in the mind of consumers

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully persuade someone to see things your way at work.

1. Take the quiz remotely - to interview and not fall behind in class 2. That Olly's Olives were a good fit for their theater 3. To add network into our rotation

Tell me about a time you persuaded someone to get something you want

1. Take the quiz remotely - to interview and not fall behind in class 2. That Olly's Olives were a good fit for their theater 3. To add network into our rotation

Tell me about a time you influenced an internal or external stakeholder

1. Taught my internship counterpart how to use excel during our free time

Tell me about a time when you led a team

1. Teaching assistant - during exam process 2. Team leader for international marketing course - took on additional responsibility of turning in assignments and keeping team on track

Tell me about a time when you failed. What did you learn and how have you grown?

1. Told customer the wrong promotion 2. Sales Simulation 3. Applying to student government

Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get through it?

1. VS pink $200 per hour sales quota right away - found what worked best for me and asked if I could be placed in that room 2. Student cheating on exam - pressure to respond correctly and quickly since it is a situation that is not handled lightly

Tell me about the first job you've ever had. What did you do to learn the ropes?

1. VS pink - $200 per hour quota, training process, best way to learn was by doing 2. Olly's Olives - managed my own accounts - shadowed Olly for the few days on client calls and asked for resources to learn more about the company to become a product expert before I began speaking to clients

Tell me about a time you developed a relationship with a client, how did you go about this?

1. VS pink client felt comfortable with me and would ask for me when she came

Tell me about a time when you made sure a customer was pleased with your service.

1. VS pink, returning customer 2. Followed up with all customers I sent Olives to 3. Vivian - made sure the cell phone plan was sorted

Tell me about a time when you communicated effectively

1. Vivian and sprint worker, communication differences 2. Helped student in office hours form study habits

Describe a time when it was especially important to make a good impression on a client. How did you go about doing so?

1. Went with Olly on a sales meeting to virgin Atlantic. The buyer asked my opinion on how olives would appeal to American customers.

When you're working with a large number of customers, it's tricky to deliver excellent service to them all. How do you go about prioritizing your customers' needs?

1. Who's needs are urgent? Who's needs are most important? Tier clients - 1sttier urgent and important (large size), 2ndtier - clients' needs who are important but not necessarily urgent for example... responding to student issues. Do I delegate the question to TAs or handle it myself right away or is it very urgent and important and I need to get my professor involved?

Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that?

1. Working with my brother's company. Working with family can be challenging. I have kept my role to a form of a marketing consultant or advisor to review their advertisements and presentations before

Explain ad words to a 7-year-old who doesn't know what it is.

Google AdWords is essentially when companies can pay for certain key words to make their company's link pop up in the search results. For example, if I type face into the search bar, and Facebook pops up it is possible that Facebook paid for the keyword "face". The advertisers will pay Google every time someone clicks on their link. Need to add more & show product knowledge

Why Google?

Google has quite literally changed the way the world works, how we access information, the quantity of information available, and the way companies advertise. I would love to work for a company that has that giant of an impact on a global level. The company is centered around innovation and constant growth. I am also intrigued by the company culture at google. In addition to constantly being ranked a company with one of the best corporate cultures. I have been able to experience this firsthand. During my time in London, for my internship I conducted a tasting at Google's headquarter in London. I was able to experience the lively and welcoming company culture and that is something I would love to be a part of.

Tell me about yourself.

I am a combined degree student at the university of Florida. This means I will graduate with my undergraduate degree in Marketing in December and with my master's degree in International Business in May. On campus I am the course coordinator for introduction to marketing, meaning I am in charge of the other 16 Teaching assistants. For work experience I have had two internships focusing on marketing and sales. One in Houston at BCBS and one in London at a food startup company called Olly's olives. After I graduate in May 2020, I am interested in pursuing a career in sales.

A time when you needed to dedicate time outside of work to improve a job skill?

I interned for a health insurance company this past summer. Going into the role, I had little to no knowledge about health insurance. The other intern was a health care major and was very familiar with the structure of the company and the jargon used. I did not want to start out the internship behind so before the role started, I began to familiarize myself with health insurance. Once I started we had access to our HR portal from home and this contained videos about the plans we offered and the Affordable Care Act, as well as other important aspects of our business. I would watch these videos every day after work until I felt comfortable talking about insurance. Studying this material outside of work proved to my managers that I was dedicated to this role and wanted to do the best that I could.

What qualities do you think are needed for this position (be really specific, make sure to include something about teamwork here because google loves team players)

I think in order to thrive at this position it is important to be client focused, a team player, and willing to constantly improve and grow. Client focused - This role is centered around helping advise clients on the best solutions for them. When working with 150 different clients in different industries and different locations, it is important to realize what works best for each individual one and how to help them succeed. It is important to be a product expert and someone that they can trust. Communication and caring about your customer is key. Team Player - When you work at a company, like Google, everyone is working on the same team and towards the same goal, to better the company and your customers. There are so many opportunities to learn from people around you such as the option to take on additional projects, and meetings with your team and managers. Willing to constantly grow and improve - at a company that is constantly growing and changing, it is important to grow with the company, become a continuous learner, and always ask why

Tell me about the biggest achievement you ever had.

I would say the biggest achievement I ever had was being selected as a Course Coordinator for principles of marketing. Very competitive and prestigious, and I am able to help so many students. It has helped fostered a great mentor relationship between me and two of the marketing professors at UF. Being promoted to this role was an honor and a huge responsibility that I am glad I took on.

If you are leader of a team and the team doesn't perform well, what are you going to do?

Meet with my team after the task is completed and try to figure out what went wrong and see if anyone has ideas on how to perform better next time. Before I meet with my team I will analyze the performance on my own to see if I can come up with some constructive feedback on my own. Example: Cheating student, and non-attentive TAs.

Describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it.

Olly's Olives inventory excel sheet

Specific instance in which you needed to understand complex information very quickly in order to answer a question or respond to an issue?

Situation: As the course coordinator I am constantly dealing with last minute student issues before exams. Task: We use a software called ProctorU for offsite students which is not always the most reliable and I am in charge of making sure it runs smoothly. This past Thursday the students had their first exam and the software unexpectedly quit about 30 minutes into the 2-hour exam. I had students calling me and emailing me confused. Action: I got in contact with my professor first to see if he had any additional information on the glitch, and then I got on the phone with our Proctor U rep. They explained that they could get the software back up and running and we had it working within 20 minutes and contacted all the students letting them know they could complete their exam. Result: In the end it all worked out but I learned the importance of reacting quickly and keeping the students informed

Tell me about a time you had to analyze information in order to make a decision (Analytical Role)

Situation: During my time as an intern this summer... Task: Part of my task was to analyze how BCBS TX stacks up in comparison to other Insurance companies in the area. It was my job to determine areas where BCBS thrived and the areas where our competitors had us beat. Action: This involved analyzing, revenues, network coverage, differences in plans and numbers of providers. Once I identified these things, I was tasked with coming up with how we could highlight our strengths and improve our weaknesses. It was difficult to compare certain plans to other companies since I only had access to our internal information. However, I was able to seek help and talk to some sales representatives to gather information about the other companies. As part as a final project for the company I presented my findings and proposed solutions. Result: This helped the company because it gave them ideas for improvement, and it helped me by improving my analytical and problem-solving skills.

Set a Goal and achieved it

Situation: Finance is the hardest class a business student takes. Most students either have to retake it or end up with a C. Because of my competitive nature, I was determined to get an A. Task: I Went to the library almost every day and stayed on top of the material Action: I sacrificed events I usually would have attended such as football games, because I was determined to do well in the course. Result: Because of my dedication to the course I was able to end with an A. Although I had to prioritize Finance over some thing in my personal life, earning an A gave me a sense of pride because I know if I set my mind to something, and give it 110%, I can achieve the desired result.

Name a time you stood up to a superior

Situation: I took a finance course last year. The class was dedicated half to lecture, and half to working on problems. Task: There was a problem that I had done multiple times that I was sure I had gotten correct, but my answer was different from the professors. Action: After trying it a few more times and talking to my peers who could not figure out his answer either, I decided to speak with my Professor. He showed me how he did the problem and I was still confident my way was correct. I pulled out our textbook to show him where my thought process was coming from. He mentioned that the two problem types were slightly different and needed to be treated in a different way Result: While, in the end I was incorrect, showing my professor my way of thinking and questioning the answer on the board helped me learn the problem even better and understand the meaning behind the work

Describe a situation where you used creativity to solve a problem / innovation

Situation: In my marketing class, consumer behavior, we had a project where the goal is to nudge consumer behavior. Task: My group and I worked with the library to nudge more students to use the revolving door since it saves energy. Action: In order to nudge them we taped gator footprints, since that is our school's mascot, on the floor leading up to the revolving door to encourage more students to use it. We tracked this by first observing days with the gator feet and the days without the gator feet. This whole experiment took about a month and a half to complete and at the end we discovered that without most students even realizing it the gator feet nudged them into using the revolving door. Result: This ended up increasing the number of students who used the revolving door by about 30%, which saved the library power and money, and allowed us to test out our knowledge to solve an actual problem.

Tell us about a time when you optimized a process to save money or time?

Situation: My previous internship, at Olly' Olives, the company was slightly unorganized when it came to employee knowledge of stock counts. There was no way for us to track who sent out product to a customer on that given day, and this would sometimes lead to stock outs. Task: I suggested that we make an excel sheet that updated in real time who sold what, with an equation automatically updating the remaining stock. Action: My boss loved the idea and tasked me with creating the excel sheet and sending it out to everyone on the team with instructions on the top. The excel sheet broke down into each individual product and all the employees had to do was enter how many of each product they sold, or they could check the excel sheet before promising an order to a customer. Result: This saved time because it was automatic feedback, and everyone was using the same excel sheet to view the numbers so there was no more miscommunication. It also gave me a chance to make a lasting impact on the company.

Tell us about a time when you handled confrontation in a group

Situation: We were assigned to work with groups for my management course. One of my group members consistently skipped meetings and did not put in as much effort as the other members of the group. Task: It got to the point where something needed to be said. Action: Since our classes are online and group meetings are the only time to see my group members, I messaged her stating our groups concern with her poor attendance and lack of participation. I asked if she had any questions or needed any help with the assignments because it was important that all parts were completed in a timely manner. Result: Once the group member realized our frustration with her lack of participation, she apologized, and her involvement increased to the same level as the rest of the group members. Sometimes people need an additional push to be held accountable for their work.

Have you ever failed at anything?

Situation: When I came to the University of Florida, I did not know anyone and wanted to get heavily involved on campus right away. Task: After about a month on campus, I applied to student government. I had not had any previous experience in student government on campus nor did I know much about student government at the University of Florida. Action: I did not end up getting the position and when I asked for feedback the interviewer said I lacked experience when other candidates had more. After talking to someone I knew who was heavily in student government later in the semester, and learning more about the structure of student government at the University of Florida, and finding a specific department I felt passionate about, I decided to try again and reapplied in the Spring. Result: I ended up landing a position as assistant to the director of woman's affairs. This proved to me that if you are really passionate about pursuing something, someone telling you know should not stop you it should make you ask why and continue in pursuit of your goal.

Why this position / What would you bring to this position?

This is a question I have given a lot of thought to. You are going to interview a lot of qualified candidates so what makes me stand out. First, is my sales experience an passion for sales. I have had 3 previous sales positions in 3 different industries. First, I was a sales associate for Victoria's secret PINK, second, I was a sales and marketing intern for a food startup company in London, called Olly's Olives, and third I had a sales internship with Blue cross Blue shield in Houston TX this past summer. Although the roles were very different, I learned that I have a passion for sales and finding a helpful solution for customers. I feel comfortable forming relationships with clients and I genuinely enjoy it. All of these opportunities required client engagement and finding solutions to grow the business. This position with Google would be an opportunity for me to take all of my past experiences and education to help grow the company. I feel that because of this experience I am a great fit for this role and here are a couple examples. This position requires someone who can use analytical, communication, and knowledge on online media to succeed. Analytical abilities - BCBS, finding strengths and weakness against competitors Communication - PINK, uncovering needs of clients and helping them find the best solution through fittings Online media - Worked with the head of advertising at Olly's Olives to conduct video shoots and online content