General Mills

Candidature

J'ai postulé via un recruteur. J'ai passé un entretien à General Mills (Mississauga, ON).

Entretien

Very thorough interview process. I was sold in through a recruiter to begin the process. I went through an in-person interview first with an Associate Marketing Director who asked questions around personality, past achievements, all the good old behaviour questions. The interview was sprinkled with mini-cases probing into your technical abilities and general capacity to problem solve (e.g. you have to do this but lack the pre-requisite info. How do you go about getting that info? --> but CPG specific). Then I was given a 9 or 10 page case on a product launch strategy, execution and P&L and given 90 minutes to prepare a 15 minute presentation on my case recommendation on which SKUs to launch, what strategies & tactics to use for the launch, and expectations on P&L from Years 1 - 3. Pretty intense stuff. I was then given 15 minutes to present to a panel of 3 people, at Director and Manager level. That was the first round, about 2.5 hours in total.

Second round was with a Marketing Director and HR Manager. Similar format as first time but without the case interview. Prior to the interview, I was asked to complete a personality questionnaire 48 hours prior to the interview, so I did that. In person began with HR interview, then with Marketing Director. There still were mini cases, and some classic marketing sizing questions such as guesstimating the # of whatever sold in wherever. The interview focused on technical skills quite heavily, asking about hypothetical CPG brand management scenario and how I'd go about solving it. And once I was done with the interviews, I was asked to complete two rounds of aptitude (read: IQ) tests, one verbal and one numerical. There are practice rounds and then you get timed tests. Verbal test is pretty classic, you read a passage and answer questions regarding its interpretation & logical implications. Numerical portion gives you a chart of table of #s and you answer questions regarding it. Pretty easy stuff if you can think for yourself; I used the Excel on the computer instead of a small calculator you're given. I was told 90% of interivewees don't finish the test by both the Talent Acquisition Manager and my recruiter so as to not worry, but I was able to finish test with some time to spare. All in all another 2.5 hour day.

I was given an offer the same day, about an hour after the interview, as I had a competing offer from some place else.

I really found the process to be very thorough, rigorous, and it left a very positive impression for me of GMCC. However the competing offer was better (it was a promotion for me whereas GMCC would have been a lateral move) so I had to take the competing offer.

If you are a marketer who is confident in your skills, I would highly recommend GMCC. Their rigorous process gives me confidence that only those with aptitude and the attitude to be successful make it to GMCC marketing team.

Questions d'entretien d'embauche