Siemens Management Consultant Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Recommended Approach
Structured as financial and non-financial benefits.
Approach Identify options as product, functional or matrix and evaluated benefits of each
Finally suggested a matrix structure in Bombay to ensure economies of scale and still ensure SPOC for each unit

PI questions
Tell me about yourself
Biggest achievement
Why leave Mercedes and join TML
Why consulting and what are your other options
Why SMC
If hired what vertical would you want to work in
If hired what training would you want
Tell me a time when you had a conflict with your boss
How has ISB been

Tips: Did not have a proper structure thereafter, but a good discussion with interviewer took me through by just identifying relevant criteria for each decision. What was good: PI What could be better: Initial structure and approach to case

Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Candidate should start with explaining a basic process of hiring any individual and rope in interviewer to provide the details/guide you. Hiring process detail can be directly asked too; however, first providing a brief process and then asking gives brownie points. Basic hiring process: Advertisement of Job -> Applications received -> First level of review -> Segregating applications according to departments -> Department level review -> Interview -> Offer made -> Offer Accepted Upon asking the details from the interviewer, he provided a sheetwhich had following information that could have been easily interpreted. (This should be given by interviewer when asked by interviewee) 1) The number of application received were very less 2) Time taken for reviewing applications were very high 3) The number of applications dropped drastically at first four steps 4) Last three steps were fine. However conversion ratio was less than 5% Once the above information is provided, interviewer must ask for the possible reasons for each statement from the candidate. Following reasons should be provided by the interviewee: 1) New hires, laterals, internal transfer - Not many people looking for job, employment rate very high, not enough students, lack of skills explain first two. For internal transfer rural location and inconvenience caused is the main concern 2) Number of HR people employed very less or not enough skill, hence time taken very high. Due to less skill full HR more applications are send to wrong departments hence overall process takes time 3) Department could be very stressed with existing work; hence not enough time devoted to hiring leading to loss in applications.

Recommended solution should be provided by candidate. Following are a few: 1) Open the plant close to city not only within Denmark but also other countries where talent pool is high 2) Advertise jobs at right portals. Look for international hires too 3) Separate the functions – sales and engineering can be located at different places than manufacturing setup 4) Increase HR work force, train them to evaluate profiles properly before sending to department review 5) Incentivize department by aligning their job responsibility accordingly Summarize the case. [Not more than 20 seconds!]

PI questions
•Tell me about a situation where you did something inappropriate.
•What do you think your previous company is doing right in terms of motivating Indian employees? (Since my previous company is MNC) This was a stress interview in terms of kind of questions asked. Your ability to handle difficult questions was being tested
Tips: As you can see the case isn’t much hard. The focus is more on structured approach and the way you are involving the interviewer. This was the feedback that I received. 9) Scoping and summary was good 10) Could have involved the interviewer more In general for SMC, prepare for PI. Very important component

Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)