Job Interview Questions Flashcards
How do you manage suppliers?
We classify the suppliers depending on how strategic they will be for our business. This qualification mainly depends on the spend and on how critical or strategic is the service or material provided.
To develop a new strategic supplier, we collect documents, analyze its financial situation, do technical visit when necessary etc.
To manage current strategic suppliers, we fill an assessment regarding some topics like service level, material quality, lead time. If we identify some issue it will happen at the beginning and we can work on that with more agility.
What are your greatest strengths?
I think my greatest strengths are proactivity, leadership and engagement until the end of a project and build trustful relationships by assertive communication.
When I’ve joined GTM, I was analyzing the packaging category and noticed that the steel barrels contracts were too old and it’s the main packaging material there. It would be necessary to run a whole Strategic Sourcing Process and I decided to use this as an opportunity to train one of the analysts of the team. I run all the project’s phases (analysis, meetings, technical visits, strategy, negotiation, implementation) delivering 26% of financial saving.
I think it’s a great example of the mentioned strengths because I had the initiative, mentored the analyst, maintained the focus on delivering results and got closer to the client area building a strong relationship.
Tell me more about your weaknesses.
Yes, I see that I can improve in my communication style and time management.
Years ago, I received a feedback from my boss that I could improve my communication style because I was very shy and had a straight to the point way to communicate with others. I decided to take some courses and set to myself as a daily task to participate more in groups and strengthen my relationships.
I think I’m still in my way to get closer to the perfection in this skill, but I noticed an improvement and have already received a good feedback regarding this topic from my current boss.
I was used to do many things at the same time and spend more time that I wanted to conclude some tasks. I was frequently working overtime and saw that I could improve my time management, so I started a GTD course and learned how to prioritize each type of demand during the day and it is helping me a lot to organize my routine and meet my deadlines in an organized way.
Why do you want this job?
I feel identified and connected to the values of the company and I see that my competences make me a good fit for the position because I can bring value increasing the company’s performance, optimizing supplier management, working in a diverse environment and bringing transformation and innovation.
What is your salary range expectation?
I’m very interested in the role, but I first would like to understand the whole compensation package including benefits. I’m sure we will be able to reach a fair agreement considering the company requirements and my competences for the position.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
In the future, I would like to be a senior manager at XXX, I have now the required skills and I can grow deepening my competences related to the Procurement area and applying them in management and leadership.
How would you describe yourself?
In my personal life and working in groups, I’m collaborative and people encouraging. Also, I like to plan and focus in the objectives that I want to achieve. I like to work in transformation projects with people that think different from me making me update my mindset constantly and bringing new solutions.
Please describe your professional experiences and tell us more about yourself.
I’m from Curitiba and I’ve lived in São Paulo for 12 years. I graduated in Food Engineering and became interested in the Procurement area after my first job at Symrise in 2012, so I started working as a Procurement Analyst at Agrega.
There, I learned to use Strategic Sourcing and e-Sourcing tools to leverage the results of negotiations and conducted the Marketing, Facilities and Professional Services categories.
Then, at BAT, I worked for almost 4 years passing through the categories of direct materials, tactical cell and facilities, when I had the opportunity to work in transformation projects.
In 2018, at Danuri, I led the Supply Chain area with a team of 8 people executing all the operational processes and implemented OTB to increase the sales accuracy.
Then, I worked as Procurement Coordinator at GTM, were I had the opportunity to create the area from the beginning, form the team, mentor, establish policy, procedures and key performance indicators.
Today I’m Category Manager for forniture at Tok&Stok and I think that all of these experiences helped me to perfect my leadership and management skills and prepared me for new chalenges.
Personally, I like to play sports like yoga and swimming. I also like watching movies and traveling and I really love gardening.
Tell me about a situation where you had to make a difficult decision
At GTM, the Operations director said me that there was an urgent Due Diligence service demand for some sites all over Latin America and they already had a preferred supplier trying to bypass the formal process. He asked my support on contract formalization. As it wasn’t the right process, but, in the other hand, the demand was really urgent and important for the company, I scheduled an urgent meeting with everyone involved to negotiate with the client area and find a solution that could meet our rules and also the business goals. I suggested that I could run a Simple Sourcing process meeting their deadline, presented a schedule and they accepted it. But, along the process, I faced a lot of pressure and had to be focused on the results delivery with quality. At the end, I finished the sourcing process earlier than it was agreed and delivered 12% of saving compared to the proposal that they received at the initial phase. It required me negotiation skills, quickly reorganize my tasks and stay very close to the suppliers to finish the process within the deadline.
Tell me about a time you had to give someone difficult feedback.
I asked one analyst of my team to create some procedures regarding requisition and order creations. When I received and analyzed the job, I noticed that significant improvement would be necessary to share it with other areas. I told her that had appreciated her effort and gave some orientations about the review. She wasn’t expecting negative feedback and didn’t receive it well. It required me empathy and communication skills. In the end of this process, the documents were well done and we received many positive feedbacks from other areas. Also, I could use this experience to get closer to her and build a trustful relationship.
Tell me about a time you missed a deadline.
At Souza Cruz, I was responsible for the purchasing of direct materials and had a situation where one of my tobacco packaging suppliers (Siegwerk - Germany) informed a problem on importation process. It was a very important order, to an innovation project and not delivering on time would be a huge problem. Immediately, I had the idea of contact one local supplier (Carton Druck) and shared the situation and the suggestion with my manager. She agreed with it, and I sent an order to this supplier asking for send us samples with urgency. The samples were approved and the local supplier delivered the order with one week of delay.
After this situation, all new product implementation were developed with both suppliers to guarantee the projects’ deadlines and contingency.
Tell me about a time you had to complete a task you had never done before.
At GTM, I had the initiative to elaborate the Procurement Policy. I did benchmark with other companies, prepared the document and shared it with my boss. We had the opportunity to discuss some important and strategic topics like the definition of the spend cut between what can be negotiated directly by the client area and what they have to request for procurement team to be negotiated.
It was an opportunity to increase communication and relationship skills and strategic vision. I think also that this situation forced me to go out of my comfort zone, working on something completely new to me and bringing continuous improvement to the company.
Tell me about a time you considerably exceeded expectations.
At Danuri, I had the innitiative to lead the implementation of OTB to optimize the inventory accuracy and sales results. The fact that all products were imported from China by ship were a plus in the challenges there because we always had to consider at least 2 months of lead time, but monthly we used to update all the analysis and, with this, we achieved more accuracy.
It was the first time I worked with OTB, so this innitiative made me learn more about it and increase my strategic vision on the business.
Describe a difficult problem you solved.
At GTM, the Operations director told me that there was an urgent Due Diligence service demand for some sites all over Latin America and they already had a preferred supplier trying to bypass the formal process. He asked my support on contract formalization. As it wasn’t the right process, but, in the other hand, the demand was urgent and strategic for the company, I scheduled an urgent meeting with everyone involved to negotiate with the client area and find a solution that could meet our rules and also the business goals. I suggested that I could run a Simple Sourcing process meeting their deadline, presented a schedule and they accepted it. But, along the process, I faced a lot of pressure and had to be focused on the results delivery with quality. At the end, I finished the sourcing process earlier than it was agreed and delivered 12% of saving compared to the proposal that they received at the initial phase. It required me negotiation skills, quickly reorganize my tasks and stay very close to the suppliers to finish the process within the deadline.
Tell me about a time you successfully demonstrated your analytical skills.
When I joined GTM, the Procurement area had to be created considering a strategic view. At that time, there was a team focused on tactical purchases, decentralized and without experience on strategic sourcing and category management. As the new coordinator, I requested formal training for the team on these skills and analyzed some data of the area. I considered the purchases done in the previous year, separated them into categories, analyzed the number of purchase orders, spend and the main suppliers. Then, I proposed a new structure for the area organized by category and, with my manager approval, conducted on-the-job training with each analyst to prepare them to use strategic sourcing and to manage the indirect categories.
