Loft9 Consulting Business Analyst Interview Questions
& Process

In person interview, followed by written assignment, followed by second in person interview. Up until the second interview, I was impressed by all the Loft9 staff I interacted with and was excited to continue on with the process. In the end, I probably was not what they were looking for and that was ok. Because my second interview made it clear that the vision and culture they had been relaying along the way was quite different. I would hope that companies would select team members who were excited about the company and could positively represent to potential new candidates. Love that they quickly let you know your standing.

I had a quick chat with the recruiter, and they set up a meeting with a PM. We met at a cafe during lunch, but the noise made it hard to hear each other about half the time. I got there 15 minutes early, and so did the interviewer. He let me buy him a coffee since I was getting one anyway. For the first few minutes, he seemed a bit intimidated by me. He was watching my every move, like how I put my bag and coat on a chair, which felt weird. A few things during the interview made me question if I was even interested in the company. First, he mentioned he worked as a BI analyst on a project even though he didn't know anything about it beforehand and had a mentor teach him during the project. It felt like the company misrepresented his experience to the client. Second, when I asked him about the key qualities for a BA here, he said he wouldn't know because he's a PM, which confused me since he was interviewing for a BA role. He also said he worked as a BI analyst, so what was that then? Third, he seemed surprised by the cafe's noise, but it was lunchtime in a busy downtown cafe, so I'm not sure what he expected. Honestly, it felt like a waste of my time, and I wouldn't recommend it.

I went through 3 rounds of interviews. First was for culture fit, second for skills, and the third for thought process. The first two interviews were with long-time employees who are currently embedded in companies. The goal was to get a strong sense of the company culture and way of doing things, go through my resume in detail, and allow for questions in both directions. Before the second interview, I had to submit a writing sample – an up-to-2-page write-up of a project, process, or analysis I conducted, including the 'why', 'how', and outcome. The third interview was with a founder and the Managing Director. It was also somewhat social, involved a walk-through of my resume, and then a couple of verbal case studies with time limits and a few scenario/approach questions. All interviews were done via Skype or phone, no in-person meetings.