Sales Benchmark Index Consultant Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process had about 5-6 rounds in total. I was ghosted after the presentation round. It was really frustrating because I spent hours preparing a presentation and doing an excel exam. The least they could have done is let me know I wasn't selected, but instead, there was total silence. It really says something about the company when they make you spend hours preparing and then don't take even a minute to send a rejection email.

The interview process is long and involved, but the result is that you know the company and the company knows you. Win-win. There are several stages that you need to go through, but the lead time between each one is relatively short. They know what they're doing at SBI and you know quickly if you made the cut or not. Here are the stages that I went through in the hiring process: 1. Screener call with someone on the recruiting team: Standard behavioral questions 2. Screener call with a VP or Partner: Make sure you have a lot of questions lined up because you're doing a lot of the talking 3. Career Attribute Assessment: This is the first assignment where you have to hand in a deliverable. This is a good exercise to examine all of the options that you have on the table, and why SBI is the best one for you. It takes a lot of thought, though. 4. Analytical Assessment: This is where you show if you can work in excel. Pretty straightforward, but as with any test there are things in there designed to trip you up. Pay attention to what you're doing and review your work. 5. Case Study: You're doing a business case and you have to reason your way through it and present it to the hiring manager as well as a VP or partner. You have a week to prepare for the presentation, so make good use of your time. Be concise and to the point. 6. EQ Test: You'll take a test of your Emotional Quotient. Not much to prep for. Just take it. 7. Day in the Life: At this point, they want to make sure you'll be a good cultural fit. You've jumped through the qualitative and quantitative hoops, now they want to know if you're easy to be around. You'll fly out to a project site and interact with the team. Like past stages, make sure you have good questions and are prepared with good answers to behavioral questions. Really leverage the website at this stage. Get comfortable with the products that SBI has to offer. 8. Partner Dinner: You and your significant other (if there is one) will meet up with a partner and their spouse. If you're married, this is the chance for your spouse to ask questions and get comfortable with the fact that you'll be on the road a lot. Great experience, and really fun. 9. Background check, screeners: This is the last hurdle. They do a background check, credit check, and drug screen prior to giving an offer. I don't know why they don't do this a lot earlier in the process, but it is what it is. After all of that, you can expect an offer. Although I found the process very challenging and long, getting the offer was very gratifying. Honestly, the process itself makes you ask yourself how committed you are to taking the job. In my case, I was for sure excited to join a hard-driving team and be in the consulting field.

I applied through LinkedIn and the recruiter reached out quickly to set up an interview. After that, things got messy. The recruiter and hiring manager seemed either super busy or forgetful. My first interviewer canceled last minute, so I resent my availability but heard nothing back. Every time I had an interview, I had to follow up at least twice to confirm. Their communication was pretty bad overall. I really felt like they were messing with me the whole time. I did two interviews and they both went great. During chats, the interviewers made it sound like the company would be a good fit for me and that I'd be a good fit for them too. I was also told I had to do a long, two-part assessment, which I completed. Then, after two weeks, I followed up again to schedule the presentation for my assessment and was told they had already picked other candidates. I just wish they had been more communicative and clear throughout the whole thing, especially so they wouldn't lead on prospects. It also would have been more respectful if they had told me right away when they decided to go with other candidates, instead of having me finish an assessment and then wait two weeks to hear back from them with a negative response.