BMW Group Manager Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was well organized and friendly. I was required to do some pre-work, which involved preparing a presentation for the interviewers. They showed genuine respect and interest in my presentation, and I really enjoyed the overall interview experience.

I sent an unsolicited application via the portal. A few weeks later, my future manager called to see if I had time for a short phone call. Then they introduced the potential position, asked a few questions about me, my background, and goals, and then arranged an interview. The call lasted about 20 minutes. Two weeks later, my future manager picked me up at the factory entrance by car and we drove to my future workplace. On the way, we had a nice chat about the drive, my first impressions of Bavaria, etc. He explained the different areas to me during the drive, interspersed with a few questions, like 'How many cars do we produce here in the plant per day?', 'Which derivatives do we produce/how many?', 'How many returns do you think we have?'. These were questions with a technical reference. When we arrived, we immediately sat down in a meeting room. The conversation was led by my manager and a group leader. The atmosphere was relaxed, no stressful questions, a pleasant getting-to-know-you. No interrogation. I felt my technical suitability was already demonstrated by my application documents. After 1 hour, we had a tour of the plant, again sprinkled with small questions (which car is this?, when is it on the market?, which suppliers does BMW work with?). Overall, very positive. BMW covered the travel costs (ICE + taxi). An interview via Skype would also have been possible. I was informed of the acceptance and a concrete internship offer at the end of the conversation.

The assessment centre experience wasn't great, mainly because I got invited only 3 days before, unlike others who got two weeks' notice. This made it hard to prepare for the role-specific task, which involved math, data interpretation, and understanding the job duties. I felt disadvantaged from the start. However, I did well on the day. In the group task related to the role, I was the only one who connected the discussion to the job responsibilities, while others didn't. For the second group exercise, I participated the most, challenged ideas constructively, and made the most logical points. It was also frustrating not hearing back for nearly a month, while others got updates weeks earlier. I had to email several recruiters to get an update. When I finally got a decision, it was surprising that candidates who contributed little and hadn't prepared were advanced, suggesting potential inconsistencies or bias in how people were assessed. Two months later, I still haven't received feedback from the assessment centre, even though they've been constantly emailing and talking to those who moved forward. Also, the rejection email I got a month after the assessment centre was frankly rude, saying 'the hiring team voted against you progressing to the next stage,' which could have been phrased much better.