Supply Chain Manager Interview Preparation Guide

The interviewer wants to know if you are a high-achiever and ascertain how your accomplishments will be beneficial to them. Select one or two recent accomplishments that are directly related to the job offered. Identify the situations, the actions you took, skills you used and the positive outcomes, quantifying the benefits where possible. Show how you can bring what you learned to the new role.

Throughout high school, I worked at a local bike shop. While I was working there, I found out that GGL was located in the Twin Cities, and eventually some of my friends started working here. In college, I thought I'd work here for a summer or two and stock up on some bikes, but - after I started - it turned into a lot more. In the warehouse, there was a lot of opportunity to participate in process improvement projects, and that was where my interest in this field started. While I worked in the warehouse, I got involved in a project that saved the company more than $100,000 per year. I like these projects, and the leadership became supportive of helping me learn and grown. I went through different positions in warehouse, and then moved into a warehouse analyst position. Eventually, I ran into someone that was a purchasing manager at a company event who asked what my plan was after graduation. He wanted me to help him develop a supply chain position, so we collaborated on creating the job. After graduation, I applied for the new position and got the job.

For me, it is a lot of fun to take a bunch of numbers, crunch them, and get the results that ultimately make an impact on our business. Sometimes in supply chain management, it can take one to two years of planning for the results to show up. We're seeing that right now: two years ago we changed a lot of process systems in our structure, what people did what, etc. All those things were happening at once and it was really chaotic and uncomfortable to go through, but now we're really seeing the fruits of that labor. It's fun to see the results and see things turn out like you expected.

This is a commonly asked interview question designed to break the ice. A strong, succinct answer will quickly gain the interviewer's attention and separate you from other candidates who may be tempted to divulge their life story. Give a brief, concise description of who you are and your key qualifications, strengths and skills. Tailoring your answer to the role offered by declaring the strongest benefit that you offer an employer will leave the interviewer compelled to know more.

Supply chain analysis is a concept that came around in the 1980s and many people still don't know what it is. In the end, it's an analyst position where we're looking at data and making recommendations to management.

The interviewer is trying to gauge your enthusiasm for the role as well as your level of knowledge about the company. Give specific examples of things that attracted you to the company and elaborate on your strengths, achievements and skills and how they match the position description, making you the right fit.

In college, I studied biology and finance, because I was interested in biology (although not medical school), and I thought that the finance degree would help me find a job. I was interested in the health-care industry, so I customized my degree in biology and finance to incorporate things like statistics and general analysis. It was a good lead into supply chain analysis, so it suited me for this position. I've also just started some supply chain management training through GGL, which is a national organization for inventory control and management.

The interviewer wants to see that you have composure, problem solving skills and can stay focused in difficult conditions. Give an example of a time when you were faced with a stressful situation (not caused by you) and how you handled it with poise. Describe the context, how you approached the situation, the actions you took and the positive outcome. Demonstrate how you remained calm, in control and got the job done.

The interviewer wants to know what you are particularly good at and how this would fit into the role. Choose a few of your key strengths that are required for the role and give examples of how you have demonstrated them successfully in the past. Strengths could include the ability to learn quickly, composure under pressure, ability to multi-task, team focus or your ability to work autonomously.

I don't use a lot of machinery, but I use the computer a lot. I use Microsoft Access and Excel all the time. As we get bigger, we're using SQL or Oracle databases, where we're writing queries to extract the data we want to work with in Excel or Access. I write a lot of queries to access the database, and then I need the skills to obtain and analyze data. Statistical software, like Minitab, is also helpful for this type of job.