Chapter 15 A "very interview" for the world's top 500 companies

Introduction to the characters and stories in this article: Li Bai, the city manager of a famous foreign company.This article describes the whole process of Li Bai's application for the Zhejiang Provincial Manager of J&R Company. Shangri-La Hotel is located on Beishan Road beside the West Lake, backed by the remaining veins of Baoshi Mountain, and facing the "Su Causeway Spring Dawn" which is the first of the ten scenic spots of West Lake.This hotel does not participate in the star rating, but it is recognized as the best hotel in Hangzhou. Generally, the price of a standard room that is not near the lake is more than 1,000 yuan.

Beishan Road is a very beautiful road, with the West Lake on one side and Baoshi Mountain on the other. There are lush trees, flowers and plants everywhere along the road.Jin Yuxi, a famous American hostess of Chinese origin, once praised Beishan Road as one of the most beautiful roads in the world.When Li Bai drove to Shangri-La on Beishan Road, his heart was full of emotions. Just two months ago, this was the place where the former CEO of the company stayed when he visited. Today is the first round of interviews for J&R. According to the notification from the human resources department of the other company, Li Bai prepared a pen and a calculator.Up to now, Li Bai has more than 6 years of work experience, but this is the first time he has heard of bringing a calculator to the interview.

The interview time was 10 o'clock in the morning. When Li Bai walked into the agreed small meeting room in the west building of Shangri-La, many people were already sitting in it.A lady in her 30s was seated at the chairman of the conference table. When she saw Li Bai coming in, she immediately extended her hand with a smile and said, "Hello, I am Liu Jing, the recruitment manager of J&R's human resources department. Welcome to our first meeting." A round of interviews, what is your name?" Li Bai reported his name and sat down in the seat designated by Liu Jing, but he felt very strange why so many people came to the interview together.

At 10 o'clock, everyone arrived.Liu Jing locked the door, returned to the chairman's seat, and said to everyone: "We emphasize the concept of time, so those who are late will not open the door. Before the test starts, I will give you a simple Introduce myself. My name is Liu Jing, and I am the recruitment manager of J&R Human Resources Department. I am responsible for the recruitment of sales personnel across the country. J&R is a Fortune 500 company. It is our home and personal care products department that has entered China, but our The department is the smallest of the three major departments in the world, accounting for about 15% of the total business, our global food business accounts for 50%, and the clothing business accounts for 35%. Therefore, our interview process is the most complicated among all FMCG companies, but we firmly believe that only through such complicated selection can we select the best talents.”

"The first round of the test will be a math test," Liu Jing continued, "There are 45 multiple-choice questions in 45 minutes. You can hand in the test in advance, but after the 45 minutes are over, you must hand it over to me whether you have finished it or not." .” Liu Jing handed out the "examination paper" as she spoke.Li Bai has never taken any exams since he left university, but he was not afraid when he heard that the subject was mathematics and science. From elementary school to university, Li Bai studied mathematics and physics best. As a graduate of the Department of Mechanics As a student, advanced mathematics is also a compulsory subject for him, and his grades are quite good.

In about 40 minutes, Li Bai finished all the exam questions. He felt very strange why these seemingly simple questions took him so much time. At 45 minutes, Liu Jing told everyone while collecting the test papers: "Your first round of testing is over, and tomorrow we will notify you of the time for the second round of interviews." When he walked out of the conference room, there were already many people waiting at the door. Li Bai roughly counted, and there were about 10 people.Li Bai felt the pressure in an instant. He didn't expect that J&R had to meet so many candidates and do so many tests for the position of manager of Zhejiang Province.

In fact, what Li Bai didn't know was that J&R recommended as many as 30 candidates only through headhunting, and there were 40 candidates screened through the Internet and newspaper advertisements.It was 70 people who participated in the first round of math and science tests! Early the next morning, Li Bai received a call from Liu Jing.Liu Jing told Li Bai that he had successfully passed the first round of math and science tests. Two days later, he would have an interview in the same meeting room in Shangri-La. Liu Jing informed Li Bai that he should bring his original academic certificate and ID card.

Still the same conference room.But when Li Bai went in that day, there was only one person sitting inside, who seemed to be about the same age as Li Bai.The man didn't stand up, but motioned Li Bai to sit down, "Hi Li Bai, my name is Wang Kai, and I'm the national sales manager of J&R. Nice to meet you." "Come on, tell me why you majored in mechanics in college, but you do sales?" Wang Kai began to ask questions. He didn't look at the academic certificate and ID card brought by Li Bai, and he didn't read it until the end of the interview. "Mechanics? Actually, I didn't know what mechanics is when I filled out the volunteer application. Maybe my physics is not bad, so I filled it out like this during the college entrance examination. But it wasn't until I was in college that I realized that I was more interested in marketing. Interested, I have read a lot of books on this subject, and Kotler's books are obviously much better than mechanics textbooks. I worked as a part-time salesman in my junior year, selling tea for a company. In my senior year, I worked as a salesman, and also Handed out shampoo giveaways for Procter & Gamble, did market research for small companies, and after college, I got a job at Coca-Cola, where I felt like I was in college for the second time and learned a lot Knowledge of sales and marketing. I love this industry and think I will be in it for the rest of my life."

Wang Kai did not introduce J&R company, but kept asking Li Bai about his previous study and work.Li Bai didn't feel that these questions put any pressure on him. In his eyes, Wang Kai's interview was more like a chat between familiar friends. Li Bai talked freely, as if he felt that he was not applying for this position. Instead, I was telling a friend about the career path I had traveled in the past few years. "Then why do you want to leave Ou Shiya? In fact, we all know that this is a leading company in the industry and is very respected in the industry." Wang Kai suddenly changed the subject and asked a question that Li Bai was most unwilling to answer.

Li Bai scratched his head, hesitant to speak, "Actually, I don't really want to leave Ou Shiya. During the more than three years in Ou Shiya, I did learn a lot. The company's distribution system Although not as good as Coca-Cola, the ability to build a brand is indeed top-notch. I have almost never seen failures in the products I promote. Distribution is also my strong point, and I have more stages to display my talents. But then again, I feel Many people in this company are more obsessed with 'politics' than business. I prefer to work for a company that cares less about 'politics' and more about business. Ou Shiya's brand is too strong. But not everyone has made their own contribution to these powerful brands, and many people are lying on these brands. Sound system is of course a good thing, but sometimes it will make people lose their creativity desire, and no matter how powerful an enterprise is now, as long as it indulges in bureaucracy and loses its original creativity, it will not last long after all. I cannot change most of the habits and styles of the company, but I hope that I can work in a company Work in a company that takes marketing as the forerunner, and use performance to prove your ability, not others."

"I have also heard about Ou Shiya's bureaucrats. Okay, let's not talk about this issue, but I am very grateful for your true thoughts." Wang Kai said. "I don't know whether I should say these words." Li Bai regretted some of the words just said, "But it is indeed my true thoughts. In this industry, the company that is most affected by me is Coca-Cola. I think my battlefield It should be in the market, if I have the opportunity to serve your company, I believe I will prove it to you with my performance." Wang Kai smiled, but did not make any comments. He stretched out his hand and said to Li Bai, "It's a pleasure talking with you today. If possible, we will inform you of the time of the next interview within a week." And the next interview?Li Bai thinks that J&R's interview procedure is really complicated, and the national sales manager has also seen it. Who will talk to him next time? Li Bai was wrong. The next interview was not just a simple conversation. The last round of interview was J&R's famous "group test". Two days later, Li Bai received another call from Liu Jing, saying that at 9 o'clock in the morning of this Saturday, there will be a final interview in another hall of Shangri-La.Liu Jing reminded Li Bai that the interview will last a whole day, so please prepare well. all day?Li Bai had never heard of such a long interview. When I came to the large meeting room in Shangri-La, it was 8:50 in the morning, and there were already many people sitting in it.Li Bai heard that several people's accents were still Shanghai dialect. It turned out that they not only recruited for this position in Zhejiang, but also found someone in Shanghai.The name tags of the candidates were placed on the conference table one by one. Li Bai found the seat with his name on it, sat down, and clicked on the name tags. A total of 20 people came to participate in the final round of interviews. At exactly 9 o'clock, Liu Jing closed the door again.At this time, Li Bai found that besides Liu Jing, there were four or five other people who looked like interviewers standing in the room. Wang Kai was among them, talking in English with a European in his 40s. Liu Jing announced today's interview procedure, the first round is still a written test.However, Li Bai found that most of the written tests this time were questions about sales and methods of dealing with problems, not the last math test. At this time, a person with the name "Tian Qiliang" printed on the seat nameplate raised his hand and asked a question, "Miss Liu, can I answer these questions in English?" "English? Of course." Liu Jing answered simply. Tian Qiliang looked back at Wang Kai and the Europeans, put down his hands in satisfaction, picked up a pen and began to answer questions in English. Li Bai secretly felt that this person was a strong opponent. After all, in a foreign-funded enterprise, good English is still an advantage.Li Bai's English is not bad, but he still gave up his plan to answer the questions in English, because he was afraid that if he wrote wrong words or expressed incorrectly, it would be self-defeating. The answers to these questions are not complicated, and Li Bai will finish it in a while.But Liu Jing did not ask him to hand in the paper, but told everyone to hand in together at the end of the evening. At 10 o'clock, Liu Jing came over again and told everyone that the "group test" would start immediately, with 6 people each time, please come if your name is called, and each round will last for half an hour. The "group test" was set up in an adjoining conference room. It was 11 o'clock when Li Bai was called.Before that, there were no people from J&R in the conference room. Li Bai secretly asked some people who had participated in the group test to ask them what the problems were.But most of the people who participated in the test were monk Zhang Er who couldn't figure it out, saying that they hadn't been asked any questions, it was just some desert escape game, the game was difficult, and they didn't know what the standard answer was after they finished it, and they didn't know Whether the answer is right or not. Li Bai entered the meeting room next door with 5 other people.Liu Jing and 5 other people from J&R Company sat at the edge of the conference room, each with a pen and paper in their hands. Liu Jing distributed some paper and pencils to the six people.There was a question printed on one of the papers, Li Bai looked at it, and it was indeed the question of escape from the desert they mentioned just now.The general idea is that a group of people encountered an accident in the desert, and there are many conditional assumptions. In the end, a conclusion needs to be made, whether it is better to stay still and wait for the rescue team or continue to move forward and actively look for the rescue team to appear. Liu Jing announced the rules of the game. She said to Li Bai and his group: "You have 10 minutes to think about this problem, but you can't discuss with each other during this time. After 10 minutes, you have 15 minutes for group discussion. When it's over, you send a representative to report to us on your conclusions and tell us why we made the choices we did." Li Bai looked at this question, and suddenly realized that this question was definitely not for the group to make a choice of how to escape.Li Bai had also done these games before, when his instructor told him that such games were to test in the group who was the leader and who was the follower, or who was the bystander and who was the troublemaker.Li Bai secretly made up his mind to fully demonstrate the style of an excellent leader during group discussions... In fact, Li Bai did play the role of "boss" in his previous jobs, and he has also received training in this regard whether it is in Coca-Cola or Ou Shiya.When the group discussion time started, Li Bai controlled the dominance of the field within the first minute.Li Bai did not spend his energy on the debate of "stay" or "go on", which can never really have an answer, but encouraged everyone to fully express their opinions. When some group members talk too much, He encouraged other silent people to speak, and reminded everyone of the remaining time from time to time.Under the leadership of Li Bai, this group finally made the decision to "stay". Li Bai took the initiative to undertake the task of concluding the speech, and everyone had no doubts.Several interviewers on the side kept writing something on the paper, Li Bai firmly believed that he could get extra points in this round of interview. Another round of group testing took place in the afternoon, and the staff was rearranged again.This time, Li Bai and Tian Qiliang were in the same group. The topic this time is actually very similar, nothing more than desert escape turned into moon spacecraft escape.Li Bai didn't spend too much time on the topic, but kept thinking about how to deal with this seemingly difficult Tian Qiliang. Tian Qiliang was indeed very powerful. Li Bai found that he was secretly competing with himself for the leadership of the group. Every time Li Bai spoke, Tian Qiliang would immediately express his opinion. Although it was not tit for tat, Li Bai knew very well in his heart that he was obviously In obstructing Li Bai's leadership in the group.Li Bai was a little annoyed, but he couldn't express this emotion. He saw Tian Qiliang's eyes were a little provocative, but he knew that the more he accepted his tricks at this time, the more he would be in the interviewer's shoes. The score is lowered there. When the 15 minutes were about to expire, Li Bai made his last move. He said to all the team members: "We had a very good discussion just now, and we have found a plan for the lunar spacecraft to escape. How about it? I recommend Tian Qiliang to be the concluding speech of our group. Do you have any comments? His speech just now is very exciting and worth learning from.” Tian Qiliang was taken aback for a moment, he didn't expect Li Bai to retreat like this.The other members of the group sided with Li Bai this time and expressed their acceptance of this arrangement.Tian Qiliang made a final concluding speech. Li Bai thought that although such an arrangement might give Tian Qiliang extra points, he believed that he would also get extra points, because after all this arrangement was made by him, and at least it reflected his leading position in the group.And if Tian Qiliang and Tian Qiliang compete for the right to speak in the end, it is very likely that Tian Qiliang will express doubts. Li Bai is not very sure about this kind of competition.Instead of risking damage to yourself, it is better to choose a win-win approach. But no matter what, Tian Qiliang will definitely be a strong opponent. Li Bai realized that this time the job competition is likely to be between him and Tian Qiliang. After the group test, there is a final round of analysis and speech tests.The question had already been sent out during lunch, and those who did not have the turn to participate in the group test were all preparing for the question in the conference room.In addition to the question paper, everyone also sent a slide and a marker pen, which was used to make slides for the presentation. This topic is called "A Graduate's Career Choice", to the effect that two college students who are about to graduate use their vacation time to make a fortune and buy a small shop in a prime location, and the business of this small shop is very good.Now is the time to graduate. They participated in the recruitment of management trainees of a certain multinational company and were all admitted. Now they have to make a choice, should they choose to start their own business or work for this multinational company?The topic gives a lot of conditional assumptions and requires the speaker to explain his point of view and explain why. Li Bai wrote on the slide: 1) Benefits and opportunities of operating a store 2) Opportunity loss caused by operating the store 3) The benefits and opportunities of working in multinational companies 4) Opportunity loss caused by entering a multinational company 5) The best solution: go to the company to work and rent out the shop Li Bai's slides are not densely written.In the various trainings in the past, Li Bai has long noticed that the lecturer's outline is generally relatively simple, and those detailed explanations can be expressed clearly through oral explanations, and there is no need to write complicated ones at all.He noticed that many applicants had already written a lot of words on the slides, but these words must be difficult to see clearly when the slides were shown. Li Bai believed that his choice was right, otherwise he would not have sent only one slide to them. When it was Li Bai's turn to explain, he had already made up his mind.Li Bai compared the opportunity cost of running a small shop with the opportunity cost of working in a multinational company, and finally told the interviewer that if it was him, he would work in the company and rent out the shop. The European suddenly asked Li Bai a question: "What if the shop cannot be rented out? Could your choice be wrong?" Li Bai remembered his objection handling skills when he received sales skills training a few years ago, and replied: "You mean that the store cannot be rented out, right?" "Yes." The European replied. "You asked a very good question," Li Bai replied with a smile. He knew that this must be a test of his ability to respond. "First of all, I think there is a good chance that this shop can be rented out, because it is a shop with good business. I think it is not difficult to do such a thing in Shanghai; secondly, what should we do if it cannot be rented out. We all We know that buying real estate is an important means of preserving and increasing the value of property. Taking a step back, even if this store cannot be rented out temporarily, it still has the function of maintaining and increasing value as property. Therefore, for this store, we can do nothing Don't worry about the loss if you don't take care of it. In fact, in this matter, what we want to analyze is which is the lower risk. We all know that the management trainees of multinational companies are only recruited by fresh graduates , That is to say, if you lose this opportunity, the possibility of entering such a famous company in the future is almost zero, and you will not be able to learn useful experience in marketing, finance, management, etc. I have risen to a higher level. Giving up this opportunity is actually giving up a good career prospect that I could have had. And giving up the operation of the store is just giving up the opportunity to make some small money temporarily, but the financial value of the real estate itself It is not lost. Even if one day you really want to leave the multinational company and do something else, you still have at least one store to operate, but at that time, you have learned more management knowledge in the multinational company, and your vision and skills are all different. It will not be the same. Through this comparison, I think you will definitely make the same judgment as me." The European nodded slightly, and Li Bai saw that his lips also moved, which was clearly a "Good" mouth shape. analyze the problem itself. Now there are only 4 interviewers left in the room to ask Li Bai questions - Liu Jing, Wang Kai, a European and another middle-aged man.They no longer asked Li Bai this question, but kept asking Li Bai's past work experience, and asked some hypothetical questions to make Li Bai make a "yes" or "no" judgment. Li Bai felt that he performed well, and Wang Kai asked him "how many days until he arrives at the job", which was clearly a hint of his satisfaction with him.The last question was asked by the middle-aged man, and it was about salary. "Li Bai, what is your salary requirement?" Li Bai was stunned for a moment. Although the headhunter had revealed the salary standard for this position to him, he was still a little caught off guard when asked this time.Li Bai chose the most conservative figure and said: "13,000 yuan." "Will you come if we give you 8,000 yuan?" the middle-aged man asked quickly. "I won't come." Li Bai didn't know why, and blurted out this sentence, which even felt a bit strange to himself. "Why?" The middle-aged man continued to ask. "Because I believe that the performance I will create for your company, your company is definitely worth hiring me with a salary of more than 13,000 yuan." When Li Bai said this, his face was full of confidence. The middle-aged man did not continue to ask, but signaled the end of the interview. It was already 6 o'clock in the evening when all the interviews were over, and the six people from J&R Company all returned to the conference room where Li Bai and the others were.These 6 people introduced themselves one by one and introduced J&R's business status in the world and in China with a projector.The European turned out to be Wang Kai’s boss, named Paul Nethercott, the English name was Paul Nethercott, the sales and marketing director in China; the middle-aged man was an American Chinese, Lu Jiacheng, the president of J&R’s home and personal care products department in China ; The other two are Brand Manager He Ling and National Modern Channel Development Manager Li Dawei. Such an introduction delayed the time until almost 7 o'clock.When Li Bai left Shangri-La, the morning sun had been replaced by lights by the West Lake. In any case, today is finally over, Li Bai thought. It's not over yet! But things are not over yet. Li Bai waited for a call from Liu Jing three days later. Liu Jing first congratulated him on passing the group test a few days ago, and then told him an unexpected news. At the same time, a one-day trial work will be carried out, and finally the candidate for the manager of Zhejiang Province will be determined.The day after tomorrow, the two candidates will be accompanied by Liu Jing and Wang Kai to visit five shops in downtown Hangzhou. When meeting at the agreed place that day, Li Bai saw another candidate who had come earlier than him.It's Tian Qiliang!As expected, this time, Li Bai really wanted to have a final competition with him. In the taxi to the store, the four chatted, and Li Bai heard that Tian Qiliang was the sales manager of a five-star hotel.This news made Li Bai relax a little bit. There are many industry rules and know-how in operating supermarkets, supermarkets and department stores, which are definitely not something a sales manager of a five-star hotel can grasp immediately. The first store is a supermarket on Qingchun Road, which Li Bai is most familiar with.When he walked to the J&R product shelf in the daily chemical area, Wang Kai announced the first "topic" of the day: tidy up the J&R product shelf for a better display. The first person to do it was Tian Qiliang, who sorted out the goods according to Wang Kai's instruction of "cleaning the shelves".However, Li Bai noticed that his way of tallying goods was obviously not professionally trained. His job was just to arrange the goods neatly, neither expanding the display position of the products, nor highlighting the best-selling products. Tian Qiliang was obviously dissatisfied with the action of "organizing the shelves".So I made some suggestions to Wang Kai and Liu Jing: "I noticed that our products are in stock on the top shelf. But you can see that the words on these boxes are printed in monochrome and there is no pattern, so I have A suggestion, if these boxes can be printed with colorful patterns and fonts, it will be more conspicuous, and this will also increase the advertising effect, thereby increasing the sales of our products in the store." When Tian Qiliang said this, his eyes looked at Wang. Kay, expecting some positive responses. Wang Kai nodded and said, "It's a good idea, and I will consider it. Li Bai, it's your turn now. Do you think there is still a need to improve this display?" "This display? Well, it should be ok, but I would like to ask which varieties are more popular?" When Li Bai said this, he noticed that all the products here were evenly displayed, and there was no particular emphasis on the best-selling products. After Wang Kai told Li Bai about the best-selling varieties, Li Bai did not immediately start to tally the goods, but said to Wang Kai: "I see, can you wait for me for a few minutes? I want to leave for a while?" "Can." Li Bai came back after walking away for a few minutes, and immediately started to tidy up the shelves.Li Bai shrunk down several display areas of Johnson and Kaimi next to him, put J&R products on it, and tripled the display positions of the best-selling varieties.After the display area was expanded, the original products seemed a bit sparse, so Li Bai selected a few full boxes of products from the top of the shelf, and placed them behind the original products. "Can you explain the display you made?" Liu Jing asked. At this time, Li Bai was wiping the products with a rag, and there were several empty boxes of products on the ground. Li Bai stomped them one by one with his feet: "This is the rule of the supermarket. The rest of the products, and it is easier to stack. The question you asked just now, I actually did it according to the general principles of display. There are three main points: the first point is to expand the display area as much as possible, so just now I It can be regarded as encroaching on some display areas of other brands; secondly, the best-selling products are displayed in the best position and have the largest display area, so I expanded the best-selling varieties to three times the display of ordinary products On the one hand, such a display can increase the sales of these products by about 60%; third, FIFO, that is, first-in, first-out, I put the products with a fresher date at the back of the shelf, and put the products with an earlier date Products are placed at the front so that they can be first in, first out as much as possible, thereby reducing the aging time of products in the supermarket.” "So, will the supermarket allow you to change the display surface without authorization?" Wang Kai asked at this time. "Yes, of course it's very difficult without the approval of the supermarket!" Li Bai said: "So I left for a while just now, one is to borrow a rag, and the other is to say hello to Master Zhang, the foreman in the daily chemical area. I have a very good relationship with him. I am familiar with it, so he gave me a face and agreed. In fact, many salesmen think that it is difficult to compete for the shelves, and these salesmen are not top-notch. Whether it is done well or not, the performance can be several times worse.” Wang Kai did not make any statement, but only signaled the end of his visit to the supermarket. The second store is Wanjia Supermarket not far away. In this store, Li Bai did not find any J&R products on display, so he asked Wang Kai. It turns out that there has been no supply here because of the distributor, but Wanjia Supermarket has more than 50 chain stores, and the business is not bad. Why not supply ?Li Bai felt so strange. In Wanjia, Wang Kai's test questions are about the advantages and disadvantages of shelves.This still did not bother Li Bai.Tian Qiliang chose a location closest to the aisle. He thought that since it was the closest to the aisle, that is, the closest to the direction of the flow of people, it must be the best.However, Li Bai chose the second position next to this shelf. In Li Bai's sales training and practical experience, the sales of the second shelf position are 1.06 times that of the first shelf position, because it is along the flow of people. Directions are the easiest for shoppers to stop at.Li Bai also explained to Wang Kai and Liu Jing why he chose this shelf based on his own experience and knowledge.Li Bai had every reason to believe he was right. They visited 5 stores that day, and Wang Kai and Liu Jing asked questions about distribution and display.It was not difficult for Li Bai to deal with these problems, but Li Bai found that J&R's product distribution was worse than he imagined, and this market seemed to have been unmanaged for a long time. On the return journey, Li Bai expressed his feelings to Wang Kai.Wang Kai didn't deny it, and said to Li Bai as if talking to himself: "Yes, there is indeed a problem in this market, so a strong person is needed to promote Zhejiang's performance..." Two days later, Li Bai finally received a call from Liu Jing, telling him that he had passed all the tests and was hired by J&R...