Interview questions for a Director of Resources
Discussion
Hi all
This is a bit of a long shot but PH does seem to have a surprising breadth and depth of knowledge. Assuming you were a CEO or COO of a £1bn turnover organisation what interview questions would you ask for the above role? it covers Finance, HR, IT, Procurement (basically everything that is Support services) The key competencies that applicants will be assessed on are
- Leadership
- Managing large scale organisational change
- Contractor performance management
Sorry it's a bit vague, all suggestions gratefully received.
This is a bit of a long shot but PH does seem to have a surprising breadth and depth of knowledge. Assuming you were a CEO or COO of a £1bn turnover organisation what interview questions would you ask for the above role? it covers Finance, HR, IT, Procurement (basically everything that is Support services) The key competencies that applicants will be assessed on are
- Leadership
- Managing large scale organisational change
- Contractor performance management
Sorry it's a bit vague, all suggestions gratefully received.
At that level, you’re not usually talking about a standard selection process with a common or garden interview (some say that interviews are the worst way to select the best hire).
There may be a number of engagements where relationships are established to see if you’d fit, whilst concurrently assessing competence through discussions about your past achievements and potential to add value to the new organisation. Some of this could be outsourced to an agency to reduce applicants down to a more manageable number.
Only once those initial ‘informal’ meetings with the likes of the hiring manager, Chair and maybe a key shareholder or NED have whittled potential applicants down to the last 3 would a formal interview take place.
That would usually be a formality to select the preferred candidate, so questions for that interview would be around plans for first 100 days, shareholder engagement plans and any regulatory body engagement if applicable.
Hope that helps a little
There may be a number of engagements where relationships are established to see if you’d fit, whilst concurrently assessing competence through discussions about your past achievements and potential to add value to the new organisation. Some of this could be outsourced to an agency to reduce applicants down to a more manageable number.
Only once those initial ‘informal’ meetings with the likes of the hiring manager, Chair and maybe a key shareholder or NED have whittled potential applicants down to the last 3 would a formal interview take place.
That would usually be a formality to select the preferred candidate, so questions for that interview would be around plans for first 100 days, shareholder engagement plans and any regulatory body engagement if applicable.
Hope that helps a little
rog007 said:
At that level, you’re not usually talking about a standard selection process with a common or garden interview (some say that interviews are the worst way to select the best hire).
There may be a number of engagements where relationships are established to see if you’d fit, whilst concurrently assessing competence through discussions about your past achievements and potential to add value to the new organisation. Some of this could be outsourced to an agency to reduce applicants down to a more manageable number.
Only once those initial ‘informal’ meetings with the likes of the hiring manager, Chair and maybe a key shareholder or NED have whittled potential applicants down to the last 3 would a formal interview take place.
That would usually be a formality to select the preferred candidate, so questions for that interview would be around plans for first 100 days, shareholder engagement plans and any regulatory body engagement if applicable.
Hope that helps a little
Thanks Rog - that does help.There may be a number of engagements where relationships are established to see if you’d fit, whilst concurrently assessing competence through discussions about your past achievements and potential to add value to the new organisation. Some of this could be outsourced to an agency to reduce applicants down to a more manageable number.
Only once those initial ‘informal’ meetings with the likes of the hiring manager, Chair and maybe a key shareholder or NED have whittled potential applicants down to the last 3 would a formal interview take place.
That would usually be a formality to select the preferred candidate, so questions for that interview would be around plans for first 100 days, shareholder engagement plans and any regulatory body engagement if applicable.
Hope that helps a little
This is the 4th "meeting" - 1st one was with the retained Recruitment Agency, 2nd one was with other Divisional Heads, 3rd one was with a mix of other staff within the Division. On top of this there were several psychometric tests.
The bits in bold are probably very pertinent so thank you - in hindsight they're obvious but then hindsight is 20:20
First 100 day plans sound like a nice idea but presenting one is fraught with danger.
Unless there is good reason you can, you must not presume that you know about the intricacies of the company, the challenges it faces, and the firm’s objectives. You do not want to be the guy who presents an overly rigid or presumptive plan that misses the mark.
Remember, the junior guys you have met with (whose insight it may be tempting to use) will have different perspectives to c-suite.
As an example: One candidate I interviewed at around that level was particularly memorable because his plan was based on anecdotes he’d picked up from others in the business that he presented as facts. To be fair, he showed great tenacity but I don’t think I have seen such a deep hole dug in a interview before or since.
Instead of going to granular, I would suggest focussing on:
1) A clear knowledge of the sector;
2) Changes and trends in the sector;
3) How they impact standard models.
4) What you’d be looking for/expecting to see and how you would prioritise activities.
Given the role has a change element, what have you done before and what did you learn from
It.
Make it clear that you can bridge the gap between strategic thinking and operational activities. Your boss will be too busy to spoon feed you but will want confidence that you can hold your functional leads to account.
You should want a bit of time to learn the business. Not too much otherwise it looks like you won’t do anything for a long time.
Key questions for you to ask are therefore around the strategic importance of the role and the level of support you can expect from your manager and the broader organisation to help ensure that the things they want delivering can be delivered.
Good chance it will be more of a dialogue than rigid or formulaic Q&A.
There is one thing I’d be looking for more than anything else if I were the interviewer: can I work with you? If the tone changes to more general topics, that’s often a good sign.
Unless there is good reason you can, you must not presume that you know about the intricacies of the company, the challenges it faces, and the firm’s objectives. You do not want to be the guy who presents an overly rigid or presumptive plan that misses the mark.
Remember, the junior guys you have met with (whose insight it may be tempting to use) will have different perspectives to c-suite.
As an example: One candidate I interviewed at around that level was particularly memorable because his plan was based on anecdotes he’d picked up from others in the business that he presented as facts. To be fair, he showed great tenacity but I don’t think I have seen such a deep hole dug in a interview before or since.
Instead of going to granular, I would suggest focussing on:
1) A clear knowledge of the sector;
2) Changes and trends in the sector;
3) How they impact standard models.
4) What you’d be looking for/expecting to see and how you would prioritise activities.
Given the role has a change element, what have you done before and what did you learn from
It.
Make it clear that you can bridge the gap between strategic thinking and operational activities. Your boss will be too busy to spoon feed you but will want confidence that you can hold your functional leads to account.
You should want a bit of time to learn the business. Not too much otherwise it looks like you won’t do anything for a long time.
Key questions for you to ask are therefore around the strategic importance of the role and the level of support you can expect from your manager and the broader organisation to help ensure that the things they want delivering can be delivered.
Good chance it will be more of a dialogue than rigid or formulaic Q&A.
There is one thing I’d be looking for more than anything else if I were the interviewer: can I work with you? If the tone changes to more general topics, that’s often a good sign.
Is there a clear purpose behind the role? When I joined (General Counsel) my remit was to get the legal function fully engaged by the business to de-risk contracting behaviours, sort out a failed GDPR implementation and (because of my weird career), get our indirect procurement actually delivering cost savings.
A clear understanding of that from both the business and the candidate sets the direction of a successful recruitment process. The rest is down to demonstrable experience/successes and personality fit.
A clear understanding of that from both the business and the candidate sets the direction of a successful recruitment process. The rest is down to demonstrable experience/successes and personality fit.
OMITN said:
Is there a clear purpose behind the role? When I joined (General Counsel) my remit was to get the legal function fully engaged by the business to de-risk contracting behaviours, sort out a failed GDPR implementation and (because of my weird career), get our indirect procurement actually delivering cost savings.
A clear understanding of that from both the business and the candidate sets the direction of a successful recruitment process. The rest is down to demonstrable experience/successes and personality fit.
There isn't a specific purpose. It's just a CFO role, number 2 to the CEO. AIUI the incumbent has bene promoted up to the Group FC role and this role is a direct replacement.A clear understanding of that from both the business and the candidate sets the direction of a successful recruitment process. The rest is down to demonstrable experience/successes and personality fit.
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