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Responding Strategically to Interview Questions

This activity is important because you will often need to interview effectively to receive new professional roles.

The goal of this activity is to demonstrate your understanding of strategic responses to job interview questions. It focuses specifically on your ability to use examples.

Read the case and answer the questions that follow.

McKenna is interviewing for a marketing internship. Zain is interviewing her.

Zain: McKenna, can you tell me why you$$re interested in this marketing role?

McKenna: I$$ve always enjoyed doing things that are both creative and analytical. I think marketing requires people to understand the needs of customers in an analytical way and then think creatively about how to influence customers. I used to be in charge of marketing for a student club. I always did a survey of club members and prospective members to learn what they were looking for in the club. Then, I$$d create really fun and memorable social media posts to attract our club members to be more active and to persuade other students to join the club.

Zain: Thanks so much for sharing that. Could you tell me what you think your main strengths are?

McKenna: A few of my strengths, I think, are teamwork and determination. I believe I do my best work in teams, and I don$$t let failures stop me from achieving our ultimate goals. I was a marketing specialist at my last job for a small chain of ice cream shops. My team was assigned to create a marketing plan that would increase repeat purchases. The first time we shared the plan with our supervisor, she told us several parts of the plan were not possible with our budget. Instead of giving up on some of our ideas, I asked her if our team could spend another week on the plan. She agreed, so our team got back to work and figured out how to execute some of the recommendations without any need for additional funds. One of those recommendations was to create a loyalty program for customers who use the app. Within a month of starting that loyalty program, purchases among app users increased by nearly $20$ percent.

Zain: That$$s nice to hear about your strengths. What about some weaknesses? What are some areas where you feel you need to grow?

McKenna: I can$$t really think of any weaknesses off the top of my head. Well, I guess one thing is that I never settle for anything less than excellence. That means I sometimes put in too much work to make sure we do exceptional work. So$,$ in one way you could view this as a weakness, but from the business viewpoint, it$$s a net plus.

McKenna shares a short example of marketing for a student club. Within the STAR framework for success stories, what is the greatest weakness of this story?