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New Post 11/21/2011 6:51 AM
User is offline Tony
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Help me rise to an Interview Challenge - Need input please! 

I am new to these forums and was not sure the best place to post this so I thought I would start here. I am preparing for a second interview as a manager over Business Analysts and Project Managers in a retail operation and they are doing an interesting format. Here is the format: I will interview with 3 business area directors for 45 minutes each. This is a completely cold interview as I do not know the departments I will be interviewing and I have no information about their operations. I am supposed to provide the hiring manager with a summation of what their pains points, challenges, etc are. That is about all the information I have but please ask any questions you may have.

I have compile the following list of questions to "steer" the conversation. I do not plan to do a rapid fire question and answer session so I am just using these as firestarters if you will. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts on approach, feedback on firestarters, etc.  Thanks!!!

Introduction
What functions are you responsible for?
Are those across all the businesses?
Initiatives
What initiatives/major changes has your department undertaken in the past year?
What initiatives/major changes are planned for the next year?
Are there initiatives/major changes you will not be able to get to that you want to?
What are the drivers for these initiatives? (revenue, efficiencies, regulatory, customer demand)
People
As Jim Collins from Good to Great asks "Do you have the right people on the bus?"
Do you have solid daily operational people on your team?
Do you have innovative forward thinking people on your team?
If you could improve one aspect of your overall team, what would it be?
Are your people satisfied with the tools they have to do their jobs? 
What do they like best?
What do they like least?
Processes
How would you rate (1 thru 5) the overall effectiveness of your department's processes?
 1 - they barely exist and are chaotic
 5 - they are highly efficient and well integrated into up and downstream processes that flow outside your department
How would you rate the processes of other departments that flow work into yours? (use the same criteria)
What process or processes would you look to improve to have the largest positive impact on the company's operations?
As the company grows and expands, do you see your processes as sustainable?
Technology
If I say IT meets your departments needs do you reply - Agree - Neutral - Disagree or somewhere in between?
Do you think their priorities are aligned with the overall business priorities?
Is it clear how IT accepts, evaluates and prioritizes projects?
Are there opportunites you have identified where technology can improve your daily operations?
If yes, are they in the project/request pipeline already? If not, why not?
If no, how could IT help you brainstorm/troubleshoot pain points to see if technology can assist?

 

 
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