gcapone, Author at Palladian Career Resources

Behavioral Interview Answers for Sourcing Careers

Answering behavioral interview questions can be challenging due the level of detail required. Behavioral interview questions assess past performance of a job candidate in order to predict how the individual will perform in the future. To impress a hiring manager, answers need to be specific and detailed.

Behavioral interview questions require the candidate to tell a story. The questions cannot be answered with a yes or no. The best answers will give a detailed example that frames the situation, details the actions taken and gives the results of those actions. Providing an answer with these elements will allow the hiring manager to picture how the candidate performed in the past, leaving a strong, memorable impression.

Many candidates answer in generalities when posed behavioral questions. This is a big mistake. General answers do little to differentiate the candidate, leaving an impression that the candidate is average and ordinary. Instead, a focused example, with clear results, will make the best impact.

Below is a behavioral question followed by two answers. The first answer is a typical general answer many candidates give. The second answer provides a detailed example. Following each answer is an assessment of the effectiveness of the answer.

Example Question: Tell me about a time when a major supplier had significant quality issues with materials shipped to you.

General Answer: Managing supplier quality is a constant challenge. We have supplier scorecards we use to track quality, and perform quality audits on a routine basis. When a major quality problem occurs, we contact the vendor and work to the resolve the problem quickly. This includes traveling to the vendor or having the vendor travel to our facility to work on resolving the problem.

General Answer Assessment: This answer fails to answer the question. It describes how quality problems are dealt with, but does not provide a specific example. Many job seekers make this mistake with behavioral questions. For questions about routine activities, the candidate discusses activity in generalities. Answers like this will not be remembered and will not help sell the candidate to the hiring manager.

Specific Example Answer: Managing supplier quality is a constant challenge. Usually, we can resolve quality issues quickly, without affecting production schedules. One situation I encountered proved to be especially challenging. We had a key raw material with very high quality specifications. Any deviation from these specs made it impossible for us to produce a product to our customer’s requirements. The key vendor we used was located outside of New Orleans. After Katrina hit, it was a major priority to get them up and running. Within a week of the storm hitting, I relocated to their location to monitor the plant restart. The storm damaged some key equipment, leading to fluctuations in quality. It was clear that fixing their problems was not going to happen overnight. I traveled to potential vendors in six countries over a two week period and found two suppliers that could provide this key raw material within our specifications. We expedited shipment and only lost eight production days due to the supply interruption. Today, we divide our purchasing between our original supplier and the two new suppliers, mitigating any risk we might face from a situation like this in the future.

Specific Example Answer Assessment: This answer is specific and addresses the question directly. The example is easy to follow and demonstrates exactly what the job candidate did to solve the problem. In addition, the answer discusses how the supply interruption led to sourcing changes (adding additional suppliers) to ensure that this situation is never repeated.

When preparing for a behavioral interview, develop a number of stories from your experience you can tell. This will allow you to adapt to a wide range of questions. Providing specific examples will also make your answers more memorable.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing.

Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Behavioral Interview Questions for Sourcing Jobs

Sourcing manages the process a company uses to find and acquire materials with the supply chain function. A selection of behavioral interview questions targeted to activities and challenges within the sourcing field is provided.

Behavioral interviews focus on assessing the past performance of a job candidate. The questions explore specific situations and activities the job seeker is likely to have experienced. This makes behavioral interviewing a good tool in selecting sourcing professionals.

Sourcing manages the process a company uses to find and acquire materials within the supply chain function. The complexity of sourcing, especially from international suppliers, opens the door to a very wide range of interview questions. Below is a selection of behavioral interview questions that can help prepare for a supply chain interview:

Tell me about a time when you switched from a domestic to an international supplier for a major raw material.
Tell me about the greatest sourcing challenge you have faced in your career.

Tell me about the most difficult vendor relationship you have managed.

Tell me about a time when you made a poor decision in selecting vendors.

Tell me about a time when you assessed the risk of a supply interruption from a source of critical purchased materials.
Tell me about a time when you reduced the landed cost of a material by sourcing from a supplier with a higher unit cost.
Tell me about a time when a major supplier had significant quality issues with materials shipped to you.
Tell me about a time when a cultural issue between you and a vendor or potential vendor led to a collapse of the relationship.
Tell me about a time when you reduced raw material inventory levels without affecting customer service.
Tell me about a time when you utilized intermodal transportation for a key material.
Tell me about a time when you utilized a freight forwarder.
Tell me about a time when you utilized a 3PL.
Tell me about a time when you conducted an audit of a potential vendor overseas.
Tell me about a time when you had to overcome significant security concerns in an international market.
Tell me about a time when you replaced a preferred vendor due to changes in exchange rates.
Tell me about a time when miscommunication with a vendor led a conflict with the vendor.

Tell me about a time when you utilized a international procurement office to identify and manage vendors.

These questions cover a variety of topics related to supply chain and sourcing roles. With the thousands of potential interview questions, it is unlikely you will see many from this list in each interview. Despite this, preparing for these questions will help your interview performance.

Almost all companies will have challenges with some of the topics in the list. If you are prepared to discuss these challenges, few questions about your sourcing experience will be difficult.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing.

Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Resume Writing for Sourcing Careers

Resume writing for supply chain professionals, particularly in sourcing careers, requires addressing specific challenges and goals that are important to the target employer. By highlighting these topics in your resume, you can standout from your competition.

Sourcing careers manage the identification of suppliers, the purchasing of materials, and the logistics of purchased materials and components. In our modern global economy, sourcing provides the foundation of many companies. More than any other function, sourcing can change the financial condition and competitiveness of a company quickly.

A number of companies have capitalized on their sourcing expertise to build powerful competitive advantages over their competition. Wal-mart and Dell are both known for the efficiency of their supply chain operations. Slight improvements to the sourcing function can dramatically affect the bottom line performance of a company.

The significance of sourcing roles to the success of an organization makes finding exceptional talent in the sourcing field a critical component of a company’s success. During the hiring process, most companies will have specific goals and expectations for the position. To be successful, a job seeker needs to demonstrate an ability to make an impact on these specific goals.

Many job seekers find it difficult to identify the goals of the company and the hiring manager. You may be able to research and determine the priorities, but often this won’t be possible. Instead, you need to address the major challenges that are most likely to be priorities based on the industry and company.

There are a number challenges that are likely to be important within the materials field, including:

Vendor Identification
Vendor Qualification
Quality Monitoring
Legal and Contract Concerns
Transportation
Customs
Scheduling
Inventory
Supply Interruptions
Issues With Political or Economic Instability

This is a partial list but can give you a starting point for marketing your background. On your resume, you should mention a variety to challenges and goals. It is important to include more than just a list of keywords. Provide details of your experience and accomplishments for each area of expertise. You may choose to emphasize a selection of skills, but try to mention most of them in your resume.

One way to highlight your sourcing skills it to start your resume with an executive summary. The executive summary should include two or three of your most significant accomplishments. This will draw attention to your strongest skills and accomplishments, highlighting a few key elements of your experience. You can then work the remaining elements you want to mention into your resume under your work experience section.

If you show significant experience in the sourcing arena, and mention the key topics that a hiring manager is seeking, you are likely to get a phone screen. You do not need to guess the top priority of the hiring manager and emphasize this in your executive summary. As long as you mention the topic and show significant sourcing expertise, you should generate sufficient interest to motivate the hiring manager to want to learn more. If you do not focus on a topic critical to the hiring manager, the phone screen will usually explore this topic in detail.

The list of competencies above omits one very common topic. In fact, it is by far the most common topic of accomplishment, and a critical element you need to cover in your resume. The omitted element is your experience with reducing costs. Reducing raw material and transportation costs are one of the biggest opportunities most companies have. Cost reductions through better sourcing can offer the best ROI. An investment of time and some travel costs for a sourcing professional can often yield millions of dollars in savings.

There’s an important reason why I omitted cost reductions from the list above. The reduction of cost is the result of an activity. It is not the core activity. For example, picture a sourcing professional that includes this accomplishment on his resume: “reduced the purchasing costs of a key raw material by $3 million.” This is a good accomplishment but doesn’t say anything about how the individual achieved this result. Another candidate, with a similar background, lists the same accomplishment, but with additional key details: “Identified two dozen new potential vendors for a key raw material. Assessed and qualified three to be suppliers. Negotiated international contracts with two of these sources, resulting in $2 million in savings from lower purchase costs and $1 million in transportation savings.”

These could be the same accomplishment, but the second presentation is much more specific and makes a much stronger impact. If the hiring manager is focused on identifying new sources, assessing potential sources or reducing transportation costs, this accomplishment should peak their interest.

Show what you did with the results you achieved. When we assessed resumes in our resume benchmarking survey, we found nearly half of the resumes didn’t list any accomplishments. Many of the resumes that did list accomplishments, only included cost savings numbers – accomplishments similar to the first example provided above. If you give a detailed presentation of what you did, how you did it and what the results were, your resume will standout for the vast majority of your competition and your chances of landing an interview will be much higher.

Need specific resume writing advice tailored to Supply Chain Careers? Get our book, Resume Writing for Manufacturing Careers. It is packed with examples and advice of production management, scheduling, purchasing, logistics and transportation.

Interview Tip #2

Interview Tip: Prepare to discuss how you stay organized and meet deadline.

Interview Tip: Prepare to discuss how you stay organized and meet deadlines.

Virtually all jobs require organization and a sense of urgency. It is important in an interview to be able to address your organization and time management skills. Being organized will not get you hired, but projecting disorganization and unreliability will cause you to be rejected.

Resume Tip #2

Resume Tip: Include the continuing education you have completed on your resume.

Resume Tip: Include the continuing education you have completed on your resume.

It is important to update your skills and continue to improve throughout your career. List major continuing education events: classes, workshops, conferences and certifications. Don’t go overboard with this. Many companies provide annual training of basic procedures, safety practices and government compliance topics. Usually, listing all of these is a mistake. Focus on significant training events that will separate you from your competition.

Job Market Trends

I received the CareerBuilder Hiring Forecast for 2009 along with a few other reports from CareerBuilder recently. There are a number of interesting items in the reports, and two in particular that jumped out to me.

Changes in Staffing Levels

The hiring forecast compiled data from 3,200 hiring managers. Interestingly, most said they were increasing or maintaining staffing levels. Only 16% said that they planned to reduce the number of permanent full-time employees in their location.

This may come as a shock to a lot people. The only news you can find talks about how bad the economy is. The economy is bad. We’re in a recession. January’s unemployment figure is due out today, and I expect it to be bad.

So, how can the CareerBuilder figure be right? As bad as the economy is, it is still running. We have unemployment around 7%… that means 93% of the workforce is employed. Companies also moved aggressively to layoff workers at the end of 2008 to position themselves for ’09. Many facilities are now staffed to ride out the downturn.

Additionally, many hiring managers understand that the average recession lasts about a year, and we haven’t had a recession lasting more than two years since the great
depression. We’re already a year into this, so the hope is that by 2010, we’ll be on the path to recovery. There is no guarantee that this will happen, in the 1800’s, we had two recessions last more than five years without an upturn. Our situation is bad, but doesn’t compare to the situation at those times. One of the prolonged recessions occurred after the War of 1812, when Washington DC was burned by the British, and the other occurred in the early 1870’s with the county still trying to recover from the Civil War.
Fortunately, our country is in much better shape than at either of those times.

We don’t know when the economy will start growing again. We don’t know which companies are going to hire and which will layoff. We can’t be sure of much right now, and the negativity in the news can be overwhelming.

If you need a job, the only option is to forget the stats and headlines. Aggressively work to find your next job. Maintain your self-confidence. There will be job seekers that desperately need a job but lose momentum in their search expecting failure with each application.

No matter how bad the economy becomes, there will be millions of people that find jobs in 2009. To be one of them, you need to be positive, confident and proactive. Attitude and effort will make a huge difference in your search.

Social Media

Employers are using social media sites to assess job seekers. A social media site is a website with a community of users that interact. MySpace and Facebook are the two biggest, but there are a lot more out there. Of the managers that checked social media for a candidate, one-third found a significant reason to reject the candidate based on what they found.

Some of the common problems that were identified included drug and alcohol use, inappropriate conduct, a bad attitude towards past employers, poor communications skills and lies about the candidate’s qualifications. If you have online public profiles, you need to maintain a basic level of decency.

You should also google your name to check what information is on the web about you. It is so easy to do a search on a candidate’s name, it will become a common screening procedure at many companies. You should at least know what they are going to find.

More information can be found in the the 2009 CareerBuilder Hiring Forecast the CareerBuilder Report on Social Media.

Job References For Your Search

Reference checks are an important step in the hiring process of many companies. They are extremely common, and it is likely you will be asked for the names of several references before you are made a job offer. There are a few mistakes job seekers make with their references that are easily avoidable.

References on Your Resume

Some job seekers list their references directly on their resume. These can be included at the end in a reference section, of throughout the resume under each job. In either case, this is a mistake.

You should not list your references on your resume. By placing your references on your resume, you are inviting anyone that reads your resume to contact the people you list. As an executive recruiter, I’ve read articles from several sources that advise recruiters to search resumes for references to recruit. If you are posting your resume on online, with references attached, there’s a good chance a recruiter will use the information you give them.

There isn’t a benefit to listing your references on your resume. To land an interview, you need to demonstrate your skills, experience and track record of success. Listing a former supervisor will not help in this capacity. The hiring manager will make their decision to interview you long before they invest the time to contact a reference.

References Available Upon Request

It is common to see the phrase “References Available Upon Request” at the bottom of a resume. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s completely unnecessary. If a company requires reference checks in its process, it is going to ask for them whether you write this or not. A company will expect you to be able to provide references.

Go ahead and leave the “References Available Upon Request” off your resume. Save the space for information that will make a difference in landing an interview.

Choice of References

When you provide references, try to select former supervisors and try to select individuals from your recent work history. The best reference is your most recent direct supervisor. This individual should have a similar perspective as the manager hiring you. After this, past supervisors, make good references. References from more recent positions are more valuable than older ones.

After direct supervisors, individuals at the same level as your direct supervisor, but in a different functional area, can provide helpful references. A senior executive several levels above you is also a good reference, but usually not as good as a direct supervisor. A direct supervisor has much more contact and time directly observing your performance than senior level people. This allows the supervisor to describe your performance in more detail.

Peer references are also good to have, but are less valued by employers. It is easier to pick and choose a peer that you are friends with that you know will give a very positive reference. Hiring managers often discount these references.

Personal references are rarely valuable. Friends, neighbors, ministers, teachers and other individuals may be able to describe your personality, values and background. They rarely can provide an assessment of your performance and potential in a specific job.

Notifying Your References

When you select your references, you should let the reference know that you would like to use them as a reference. Let them know you are interviewing for a job and they may be contacted. Describe to them why you are looking for a job, the type of positions you are seeking and the type of companies you are pursuing.

Information to Provide With Each
Reference

Full Name
Current Title and Employer
Title and Employer when the reference
worked with you
Your title and reporting relationship to the reference when you worked with them
Phone Number (preferably a cell phone)
Best Time to Call
Email Address

Number of References

You should have at a minimum three references. Don’t expect a company to check every reference. They may only check a few. The company may request additional references, especially if you do not include any former supervisors.

A great selection of references would include two direct supervisors, a exec above the level of your supervisor and a couple peers. A list of five references like this should satisfy an employer.

Letters of Recommendation

A letter of recommendation is a reference that is written and given to you so that you can provide it to a prospective employer. Recommendations are good to have, but do not eliminate the desire of companies to speak with your references directly. They may have questions that the letter does not address, or just want to hear from the reference directly. In either case, you may still be asked for contact information of someone that provided a recommendation.

An option for recommendations that is becoming more common is to obtain recommendations on LinkedIn. When a former boss or coworker writes a recommendation on LinkedIn, it can be viewed by anyone (if you have your profile set to a public status), and can be beneficial in your search.

Other Considerations

If you are employed and your employer does not know you are considering a change, you many not want your current employer to be contacted. This is usually not a problem and is understood by companies. Make sure you provide references from the position immediately prior to your current position. If you have been with the same company for a long time, you should try to get one or more references from your current employer. In this case, it is easier to get peers and this should be ok. Just try to get a supervisor from sometime in your work history.

References are usually requested around the time of the first face-to-face interview, often immediately following the interview.

You may have a past employer that will only verify employment dates. Companies do this to avoid any legal liability that may arise from providing a negative reference. They decide to avoid references all together. If this is an employer’s policy, there is little you can do to change their stance. A prospective employer should understand. Just make sure you have selection of references from other employers.

Behavioral Interview Questions for Production Scheduling

These behavioral interview questions will help you prepare for an interview for a production scheduling position.

Production schedulers develop the forecasts and production plans for manufacturing operations. These positions are critical to the success of a company and have to adapt to changing business conditions quickly. This makes behavioral interviews a great choice for assessing production scheduling candidates.

A behavioral interview focuses on assessing the candidate’s past performance by asking questions about specific situations the candidate has encountered. Some of the behavioral questions you may see for a production scheduling position include:

Tell me about a time when you had to schedule around a major unplanned equipment outage.
Tell me about a time when you had to add a new, large customer on short notice.
Tell me about a time when you faced the loss of a large customer on short notice.
Tell me about a time when you were significantly overstaffed for your forecast.
Tell me about a time when you were significantly understaffed for your forecast.
Tell me about a time when you planned for a new product introduction.
Tell me about a time when you faced finished goods inventory levels that were too high.
Tell me about a time when you faced a large backlog and could not ship all orders on-time.
Tell me about a time when a major supplier could not deliver enough to meet your plan.
Tell me about a time when you worked with an operations manager that disagreed with your production plan.
Tell me about a time when you had to overcome technical problems with your MRP system.
Tell me about the worst production schedule you have ever built.
Tell me about a time when you were able to reduce inventories through changes in scheduling.
Tell me about a time when you had to overcome a major bottleneck.
Tell me about a time when a major quality problem affected the ability to meet your production plan.

To be successful answering behavioral interview questions, you need to discuss specific situations. A clear, easily understood story of a challenge you faced, how you dealt with the challenge and the results of your actions can make a very impressive presentation.

Failing to prepare for a behavioral interview makes it very difficult to succeed. The best presentation requires specific details of the situations discussed. A general answer, lacking specificity, will not make a strong impression and will not be remembered.

The questions listed about above cover a range of challenges a production scheduler may face, but they are far from an inclusive list. There are thousands of potential interview questions. The key to preparing is to develop stories you can use to answer a variety of questions. If done effectively, preparing a number of stories can allow you to adapt to almost any interview question.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing.

Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

The Perfect Job

Finding the perfect job is a goal we all have. Many people find great jobs, that are rewarding and enjoyable, but perfection is elusive. There’s a simple reason for this. For almost every job, there’s a reason employers pay people to do the work. If an employer didn’t pay anything, they wouldn’t be able to persuade anyone to take the position.

There is an exception available right now. A job that most people would pay to do. The job is to live on the beach at resort for six months. The “work” required includes:

Going to the beach
Visiting a luxury spa
Snorkelling
Swiming in the pool
Touring the island by plane
Hiking the island
Sailing
Taking lots of photos
Sharing your trip by writing on blog

Does this sound like difficult, stressful, tedious work? How much would you need to be paid to do this? The salary for this position is AUD$150,000 for six months work… Australian dollars since the position is in Australia on Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Accommodations are provided.

The downside of the position is the duration – it’s only a six month contract, then you have to go home.

My first reaction to hearing about this was to think that it had to be a joke. It isn’t. The job is being offered by the Tourism Queensland. An important component of the job is to write a weekly blog showing the range of activities and your overall impression of the location. The person that gets the job will help promote the resort by showing the world how perfect being there is.

The deadline to apply is February 22^nd. Now, get working on your application (you need to submit a video), and good luck.

Why You Need to Prepare for Behavioral Interviews

Behavioral interviews are a type of interview that asks the candidate to describe specific situations from their experience. This interview type is becoming more common with many companies. If you want to be prepared for every interview, working on behavioral interview techniques is one element your should include in your interview preparation.

It is very difficult to excel in a behavioral interview if you haven’t prepared for this specific type. The interview style requires you to tell very specific stories from your background. Trying to select and tell the best story, emphasizing your strongest skills and showing how you will succeed, is extremely difficult on the fly. You may nail one or two questions, but it’s likely you will bomb a few too. If you are competing against a candidate that has prepared thoroughly, you will be at a distinct disadvantage.

Although being prepared for a common interview type should be enough motivation to work on behavioral interview preparation, there is another important reason you should improve your behavioral interviewing skills:

Behavioral interview techniques can be applied to non-behavioral interviews.

At its core, behavioral interviewing emphasizes storytelling. You will be asked to describe times when you encountered situations similar to the situations in the job you are seeking. The stories you prepare should show your skills, experience, attitude and character. All of these elements are important in every interview. Learning to provide examples that demonstrate your performance will help set you apart in any interview.

The better you get at showing an interviewer how you have performed, the more effective your interviews will be. Hiring managers want to know what they are going to get when they hire someone. Despite this, many job seekers are vague in their presentations. Every job seeker is going to claim to be hard working, a good communicator, good with people, knowledgeable in their field and successful in their career. If you make the same assertions as everyone else, you will look like everyone else.

Using behavioral interview techniques allows you to show the interviewer how you have performed in the past. You can make a strong, memorable impression by describing, very clearly, what you did and what the results were.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing.