Intimidation and stress: all in a day's interview
Alittle while ago, I was asked: "How many jellybeans can fit in an ???-aircraft?" I was not talking to a precocious five-year-old. I was talking to a 40-something-year-old man, at one of the leading companies in the world, in the process of interviewing for a coveted position within their organisation.
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In this same interview I was asked: "What is 36 cubed?" and: What do you think the interest rate will be on February 17, 2007? The exact interest rate please, to the nearest hundredth of a per cent."
As any MBA student can tell you, we are in the recruiting season.
What is interesting is that this interview was not at an investment bank or a financial services institution, as my cohorts here at Insead might have guessed. It was actually for a position within a sales and marketing department. Despite the seemingly casual interview process for sales and marketing posts, at least in comparison with those for investment banking roles, this particular institution had nonetheless incorporated the "stress interview" into their repertoire.
The stress interview is one in which rapid questions are fired at you, usually complex and time-intensive in nature, with the goal being to see how you react to "stress". This type of interview can take on other variations, such as when an employer lines up a group of interviewers, either one at a time or en masse, with each given the sole mission of intimidating you.
Contrast the stress interview with the behavioural interview, where applicants are asked to describe past experiences where they demonstrated leadership, teamwork or creativity. Here, any answer is accepted; what is important is how one describes the situation.
There are also informational interviews, the structured interview and the semi-structured interview, among others.
And here in Singapore, where we are sometimes interviewed by companies that frequent only the ???-Fontainebleau campus, there are also video-conference interviews, on-campus interviews and on-site interviews. These, in fact, form a ???-different axis on which all the other types may be ???-plotted.
Preparation for each nuance of interview has proved to be time consuming. But the best advice that I have received about interviewing is this: relax and remember that you are interviewing them, just as much as they are interviewing you.
This advice helped me to rule out one employer who chuckled when I said that five years from now I wanted to be in a job where I felt a sense of joy in my career. He replied that he had not experienced a single day of joy in the course of his 20-year-career and that it was called "work" for a reason. This, I decided, would not be the company for me.
It also helped me rule out a potential employer who had invited me for a final-round interview, only to reveal that the position was not actually in Singapore, as I had been led me to believe.
The advice has also helped me rule out consulting, to the horror of many of my fellow MBAs.
Instead, I have decided to remain true to my strengths and passions and not be led astray by contracts etched in gold. I will continue in the realm of sales and marketing and devote myself to shaping consumer behaviour.
I may be atypical, as it amazes me how many MBAs turn out to be career-switchers, whether they opt for a change in location, function or industry.
There are former strategy consultants looking for management roles in industry. There are those from business development who are trying their hand at investment banking. There are entrepreneurs bidding for top-tier consulting jobs. And there are those tired of working for others, trying to start up their own ventures. Everyone wants someone else's job.
Why not create some kind of internal market for these jobs? It is analogous to the "double-coincidence" problem we studied in macro-economics.
In the past, people would trade bread for eggs and eggs for bread. But in order to do so, the baker would have to find exactly the right person who was willing to take his bread and give him eggs in exchange. And when the baker wanted milk he would have to find another person who was willing to trade bread in exchange for milk.
And, thus, monetary units were created to solve this problem, where the baker sold his bread for money and then used money to buy whatever else he needed.
In the same way, we should create a system for jobs pre-Insead.
The number of fellow participants at Insead who are scared they will not find a job is amazing. These are people who have excelled their whole lives, been showered with praise and large sums in year-end bonuses, only to admit that they are afraid they are not good enough.
Despite any change or lack of change in functions, we all bring with us many newly cultivated MBA skills. Even I am impressed by my recently developed Excel skills and my ability to create macros and pivot tables when, just a year ago, I was one of those people who would scroll down a 30,000 line spreadsheet using the little down arrow.
I now also notice marketing campaigns in a different way and feel (almost) compelled to tell anyone who will listen how they might be improved. I find myself thinking in frameworks and wish that people would express themselves in more organised and concise ways.
I think of new ventures and products that would thrive in Singapore and observe organisations that are not spending enough on their sales force or need a significant change in ???-management.
As we enter the last of five academic periods, I suppose we are almost ready to re-enter the real world. All that is left is to determine who is ready to accept us, with all this fresh MBA knowledge.
The company is out there and when I find it I am sure the interview will go very well, now I know that "six to the sixth power" and "whatever interest rate is printed on the front page of the Financial Times" are not clever enough
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久前，我被问到这样一个问题：“一架飞机里可以装下多少粒豆豆糖？”与我交谈的并不是早熟的5岁小孩，而是一位40多岁的中年人――他就职于某全球领军企业，当时我正在面试该企业的一个诱人职位。
就在同一次面试中，我还被问到：“36的立方是多少？”，“你认为2007年2月17日的利率将是多少？请回答确切的利率数字，精确到百分点后两位。”
每个MBA学生都会告诉你，我们正处于招聘季节。
有趣的是，并非像我在欧洲工商管理学院(Insead)的同学们原本猜测的那样，这次面试不是一家投资银行或金融服务机构的面试。实际上，这次招聘的是销售与市场部门的一个职位。尽管对于销售与市场方面的职位而言，面试过程看似随意――至少与那些应聘投行职位的同学相比是这样，但这家特别的机构却将“压力面试”加在他们的压轴戏中。
在压力面试中，面试官会向应聘者迅速抛出一堆问题，特点通常是些颇为复杂、回答时间也很紧迫的问题，目的是想观察受试者面对“压力”如何应对。这一类型的面试还具有其它的变化形式，比如雇主让一组面试官排成一列，每次允许一人或全体出现，每位面试官的惟一任务是对应试者造成压力。
与压力面试形成鲜明对照的是行为面试，在这类面试中，应聘者被要求描述过去工作经历，以此表明自己的领导能力、团队精神或创造力。这类面试中，任何答案都是可以接受的，重要的是如何描述事件情形。
此外还有其它类型的面试，如信息化面试、结构化面试和半结构化面试等。
在新加坡这里，有时面试我们的公司经常只在法国枫丹白露校区设有招聘区，因此还存在视频会议面试、校园面试和现场面试等方式。这几类面试实际上构成了一条不同的轴线，所有其它类型的面试可以此展开。
为每次面试的细微差别作出准备需要耗费许多时间。不过，我所收到关于面试的最佳忠告是：放松，记住你也在面试他们，正如他们在面试你一样。
这个忠告帮助我淘汰了一位雇主，因为当我谈到今后5年内希望从事一份能够从职业中体验快乐的工作时，他吃吃地笑起来。他答复称，在20年的职业生涯中，他从没有一天感受到快乐，这就是 “工作”的实质。因此，我认定这家公司不适合我。
这个建议还帮助我排除了另一位可能成为我老板的人，当时他邀请我参加最后一轮面试，没想到却透露出，该职位实际并不在新加坡――先前他们引导我相信职位是在新加坡。
这个建议还帮我打消了从事咨询业的念头，因为我的很多MBA同学对此深恶痛绝。
相反，我已经决定，仍然忠于自己的优势及热情，不要被一些金玉其外的合同所迷惑。我将继续在销售与市场领域发展，并致力于塑造消费者行为的工作。
令我惊奇的是，无论是在工作地点、职务或行业方面选择变动，如此多的MBA学生似乎都打算改行，我可能算不上是典型。
从前的战略咨询顾问们，如今在业内寻找管理类工作。一些商务拓展人员开始尝试从事投资银行业。一些企业家们转而竞聘高级咨询师的工作。还有一些厌倦打工的人，设法开创自己的企业。每个人都在觊觎别人的工作。
为什么不为这些工作开设某种内部市场呢？这与我们在宏观经济学中所学的“双重耦合”(double-coincidence)问题颇为相似。
从前，人们以面包换购鸡蛋，或用鸡蛋换购面包。但为了做到这点，面包师傅必须找到正好愿意接受他的面包、并拿鸡蛋作为交换的人。而当这位面包师傅想要牛奶时，他又不得不寻找另一个愿意以牛奶交换面包的人。
因此为了解决这一问题，货币单位应势而生。如此一来，面包师傅可以出售面包挣到钱，再用钱去购买他需要的任何其它东西。
同样，我们应为在欧洲工商管理学院就读前那些学生的工作创建一个系统。
欧洲工商管理学院的校友们担心找不到工作的人数令人惊讶。有些人一直表现卓越，获得过无数赞誉和大笔的年终奖金，却承认他们担心自己不够优秀。
不论在职务上有没有什么变动，我们都掌握了许多新学到的MBA技能。甚至连我自己都有感于最近演练娴熟的Excel技巧、以及创建宏和数据透视表的能力。而就在一年前，我还属于只会使用向下箭头向下滚动一张3万行电子数据表的那些人中的一个。
现在，我还能从不同的角度关注营销活动，并(几乎)迫切地希望告诉任何愿听的人，这些营销活动有可能如何获得改进。我发现，自己能够在框架内进行思考，并希望人们能以更有条理、更为简练的方式来表达观点。
我想到了可能在新加坡旺盛发展的新企业和新产品，并注意到对销售力量投入不足、或需要进行重大管理变革的组织。
当我们进入5个学期中的最后一学期时，我认为我们差不多已作好准备，再次进入这个现实世界。悬而未决的是，谁愿意接收我们这些掌握所有新鲜MBA知识的人。
这家公司就在那里，当我找到它时，我有把握面试将一帆风顺。现在我知道“36的立方等于6的6次方”和“不管怎样，2007年2月17日的利率将印在《金融时报》的头版上”并不是足够聪明的回答。
作者是即将从欧洲工商管理学院新加坡分校毕业的MBA
