By Nathaniel Luce
Every year, students at the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management are peppered with interview questions just like this one as they prepare for their summer internships. Thanks to the personal-scale approach of dedicated coaches at Owen’s Career Management Center (CMC), students are able to give smart answers to even the toughest marketing internship interview questions.
Owen’s CMC’s coaches know their stuff. For the MBA Class of 2016, at the end of their first year, 100 percent of students seeking an internship had accepted an internship offer by June. Ninety-five percent of these internships were paid, with a median monthly salary of $6,721. But the CMC’s coaching is more than about placement rate; it’s about making the right match. Approximately half of interning MBA students return to campus with a full-time job offer from their internship.
But before the job offer comes the interview, and you have to do your homework to nail it. Amanda Fend is a CMC coach at the Owen School, where she works with students who are pursuing careers in marketing. She shared five things that she coaches marketing internship seekers to do before they walk in the door for their interview.
1. Walk the aisles and see the products
Companies want to know that you’ve done your homework and have thought about their products. A common interview question is, “Which one of our brands do you think is under-leveraged and what would you do about it?” You need some real- world interaction with a company’s brands and products to have good answer. A company might also ask you to evaluate one of their ads. You don’t want the interview to be the first time you’ve seen it.
2. Pay attention to the news and have opinions
One major Consumer and Packaged Goods (CPG) company has been know to ask, “What are three major trends happening in the CPG industry? Which one is the most appealing to you and why?” Read the news, subscribe to marketing newsletters, but—and most importantly—have an opinion. They’re hiring you for your insight, after all. Be ready to talk about one of the most effective and least effective marketing campaigns you’ve seen recently. It shows you’re an effective marketer if you can say why a particular campaign didn’t resonate with you as a consumer, but then talk about why, as a marketer, you thought it was effective.
3. Stalk the company’s social media accounts. Stalk their competitors, too.
Companies like to hear your thoughts on their brands, and following their social media accounts is one of the best ways to familiarize yourself with them. But don’t forget about their competitors. This will help you prepare for the many variations of a common interview question: “Tell me the brand that you’re most loyal to. Now imagine you’ve just been appointed the CMO of their largest competitor. How would you go about converting your favorite brand’s most loyal customers to your company’s product?”
4. Know a few basic, high-level numbers
Having a handful of numbers in your back pocket—the population of the United States, for example—will help you base answers to tricky questions on logic, or allow you to do easy math to make educated assumptions. Marketing interviewers like to ask questions about market sizing, such as, “How many visitors come to the Mall of America every year?” or “How many holiday drinks will Starbucks sell in December?”
5. Your past is important today
Companies want to know about your personality as much as they do your intellect. Culture matters more than ever in the workforce. Think deeply about your past work experience and be ready for behavioral questions, either simple (“What is your passion?”) or complex (“Tell me a time you led a team and then faced conflict with a manager and analyzed data to resolve the conflict”)
For more on how the Career Management Center helps students land an internship, watch this video.
