Peninsula Business Development Manager Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was really smooth, starting from my online application all the way to meeting the Director of my division. The first interview was a phone call with the PA, followed by a chat with the Director. After that went well, I was invited to London for a casual coffee meeting with the MD, who was visiting the city. The final stage involved giving a presentation after being provided with a case study, which was on an industry I'm not familiar with. This last part was with the MD and a Sales Director.

The recruitment team sent me the wrong emails addressed to the wrong person, my competing applicants effectively. Once I did receive the right information, the phone call was scheduled over Skype, which was great. Then a final stage face-to-face where I was given a sales scenario with literally zero information on their product pricing or sales process. This process had/has many obvious flaws as the candidate doesn’t have enough information to do the pitch properly, so what are they testing? Then once told I would be invited for the final stage, my slot time was moved, and then I was emailed confirmation with a sales scenario and a confirmation of time and place, etc. I was then told minimum directions on how to get to their office, which was over 3.5 hours away from my address in Manchester, a town I have never been to before. Once there, I then worked out the way to their office through trial and error (Manchester Piccadilly station is massive, about 10 times the size of any other major London station). I arrived slightly late and flustered. In short, they didn’t do you any favors by not prepping me on the route, journey, and timings. Only positive I would take away from this is the company is good and I would have smashed their targets to pieces had they given me a proper go at getting in. Oh yeah, and they did reimburse me for my travel, another slight positive. Their loss as I’m now looking to for their competitors.

It was a really good and welcoming interview process. They were very thorough. It began with a phone interview that took about 25 minutes. Then, there was a Skype call where we went into detail about my background and CV. The final interview was at their really impressive head office in Manchester. Both interviewers were very welcoming. In the final interview, there was a presentation and a role-play. I was given the option to either present the role-play or act it out as a real scenario, which was fair. I was very impressed with the company throughout the entire process!