Interview Preparation - 2023
Interview Preparation - 2023
Interview Preparation - 2023
I was raised in a Southeast Asian culture, native Vietnamese and now living as an
international student in the Netherlands. I am currently in the final stage of my academic
journey, and I am set to graduate in 2024. My academic pursuits have equipped me a solid
foundation in Supply Chain and Logistics, my minor Lean Six Sigma Green Belt reflects my
master in understanding the streamlined global supply chain operations. I have a keen focus
on this sector and choose it as my long-term career path, so I built up my knowledge when I
was the first- and second-year student. In the third year, I worked as a Supply Chain intern at
West Coast Supply Group and in my first semester of final year, I was doing the Customer
Data Intern role.
5. Why are you interested in our company? (how you see yourself contributing to the
position?)
== What do you like about the position?
Why are you interested in this position?
How did you hear about this position?
Their goals:
1. Evaluate your interest.
2. See if you understand the position.
3. Understand your long-term goals.
Tips: research company through the website, news release and Linked In profile.
I am interested in the company because it will allow me to use my focus on supply chain
management, inventory management and apply into the real situation, to a growing company. In my
research, it was nice to see a company focused on expanding its offerings to customers. The company
shows the growing opportunities for its current staff. According to my research, the company culture
are very supportive and cooperative.
Time:matter
I am looking forward to growing my expertise within the company. It is a great opportunity to not
only build my career but also to help organisations maximize their brands. I really like the culture of
the company believing in empowering employees to take ownership & decisions. The company work
environment is characterized by collaboration and teamwork. The company also value diversity and
promote an inclusive environment where every individual has the opportunity to reach their full
potential.
Solutions: same day air, same day rail, spare parts logistics (SPL); next flight out with various
industries: automative logistics, aviation, cell & gene therapy, high-tech & semicon.
Cotty
When I decided to join Coty, I am first excited by the famous brands and products in the Coty
portfolio. But what really solidified my decision was the outstanding culture which empowers other
employees to grow & develop, helping them succeed along the way. In my research, it was nice to
see a company focused on sustainability which are classified into beauty of company’s product,
beauty of our planet, and beauty of our product. For example, for the beauty of planet, it reduces
absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 50% from a calendar year 2019 base year. The company
increases annual sourcing of renewable electricity from 5% in calendar year 2019 to 100%.
For the beauty of people, it rolls out diversity, equity, and inclusions training for all associates and
95% of a associates to complete annual compliance training by 2025.
Procurement
+Global direct category team (packaging, raw materials, external manufacturing)
+Global indirect category
+EMEA Procurement teams (media, digital, marketing, business, logistics)
8. What I did as an intern at West Coast Supply Group? (try to be same as the JD)
In my last role, I played a crucial part in streamlining the purchasing process, ensuring the
stock levels and on-time delivery to meet key performance indicators such as availability,
delivery time. In details, I placed orders to SAP system, completed the process from
purchase order creation to order confirmation to advanced shipping notification and finished
goods receipts. In the stock side, I collaborated with warehouse employee to confirm the in-
coming goods and the capacity of the warehouse as well as the inbound checking from
warehouse for sufficient goods. In term of handling the logistics side, I collaborated with
multinational transporters and carriers to arrange the transports, ensuring the seamless flow
of goods. In addition, in the end of my internship I took care of update training materials
related to purchasing processes and procurement which helps the newcomers with easy
onboarding.
9. What I did as a Customer Master Data intern at Idexx?
In this role, I took on diverse responsibilities to ensure accurate and up-to-date records
within the ERP system of the company. This included updating suppliers ‘cost, volume and
inventory’s balance in Excel and SAP Production. A significant part of my role involved
meticulous maintenance of customers data in SAP, encompassing updates bank information,
VAT and IBAN numbers as well as payment terms and methods. I actively created and
maintained accounts in SAP for EMEA regions such as France, Germany, Netherlands,
Belgium & Asia Region such as Korean, Thai and Singapore in different lines of business of
the company.
I also collaborated closely with Transportation and Procurement team since I played a key
role in updating the serial numbers of goods and transportation zones for EMEA and Asia in
SAP. This collaboration contributed to streamlined logistics and procurement process.
I want to work with an important team and the colleagues that understand the needs and
the objective of the organisation, and knowing how to build on strategies and the vision and
so that would ultilize the knowledge of my courses and my previous internship experience.
11. When have you gone and beyond at work?
= Give me an example of where you were proactive in your last position?
= Tell me about the time you exceeded your team’s expectations.
I have several examples, but I think the most relevant is the time I helped my team.
gets the orders from suppliers on time before the holidays seasons that will not let
the sales’ figure drop.
Types of motivation:
- Achievement (tend to seek positions that allow you to advance, have a sense of
accomplishment, and receive feedback)
- Authority (lead others or heard by others)
- Affiliation (you are driven by social interactions and helping others)
12. Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.
Tips: research their culture
- Informational interviews
- New articles
- Website
The company decided to have training documentations and had a tight deadline. I let my manager
know it would take extra training due to lack of staff and I asked for support. I also reached out to a
team member that had already known about the process (2 seniors in my team). With their help, I
realised the timeline was too tight and talked to my manager about extending it. Although we
weren’t able to extend the deadline, we were able to collaborate as a team. I have since learned to
stay on top of departmental changes outside of my unit to anticipate to the company’s
documentation process and how to better negotiate timelines.
I am working with a couple of team members at our school, and we ended up working on a great
project. Unfortunately, they all weren’t able to meet the deadline and so I had to pitch in for some of
the students. They were able to get this work done with my help but it could have been a lot better. I,
for myself, being a team leader, know that I need to check in more with these students for better
experience.
13. Questions to ask the company.
Could you tell me a little bit about the team?
What is an ideal candidate for this role?
What is the company culture?
What is the next step after this interview?
What is the best thing about working for this company?
Which team am I going to work with? (direct procurement or indirect procurement)
By being positive, forward-thinking, and not dwelling on the setback, we created a new
action plan and went all out to get the project done.
In my last internship, I took my ownership of my training progress and I constantly asked for
the feedback from the manager as well as from my colleague. For some skills that I was
lacking, he suggested I enrolled in some courses through Udemy. After completing several
courses, my Excel skill increased significantly empowering me to add more value to the
company.
19. How would you communicate with your manager?
I would communicate with my manager both by email and in person in a respectful,
professional and productive manner.
I would keep my manager updated on my progress periodically, inform them of any training
needs I had, potential problems I could see, and opportunities I felt we could capitalize on in
the business.
20. Tell me about a time when you had to deliver bad news to someone. What did you
consider and how did you deliver the message?
I conducted a review of our company suppliers and found one that was not providing value
for money. After presenting my findings to my manager and giving her a list of cost-effective
alternative suppliers, she tasked me with informing the current supplier we no longer
needed their services.
Before speaking to them, I wrote down what I wanted to say and considered how I would say
it. I also pre-emptied some of the questions they might ask. When I spoke to them, I was
calm, confident, and direct and gave a simple reason for the company not to work with them
anymore. They thanked me for my honesty, and we moved on to the new supplier.
21. Talk about a situation when you had to work with a difficult co-worker. How did you
handle the interaction between you?
When I first started work in my last job, a senior member of the team was dismissing my
ideas and suggestions during the team meetings. Whenever I asked him for help or advice,
he said he was too busy. I was determined to build good relationships with him, so I spoke to
some of my colleagues to learn about his background and what he enjoyed doing outside of
work. I established we supported the topic, and during a work break, I talked to him about
our common interest. His interest instantly piqued, and we discussed the team and how it
was performing for several minutes. Then, when I next asked him for help or advice, he
cooperated. I am good at building relationships with everyone and will do utmost to fit into
my team for the company’s benefit.
22. Tell me about a time when you had to embrace a new process, system or technology.
A new team leader took over the running of our office. The team was performing well, and
we had just achieved the best performance for a department in the company. However, the
new team leader wanted to try new ways of working and introduce new technology to
monitor our performance. Some team members objected, but I encouraged them to
embrace the changes and support the new team leader because we needed to stay ahead of
the competition.
If we stood still, we could fall behind. Several months after the new working practices and
technology were implemented, the team performed even better, and everyone agreed the
change was positive.