Simon Property Group Marketing Director Interview Questions
& Process

I interviewed for a marketing position and the interviewer was the personification of a toxic manager. Listen to all the other negative reviews about this place and you will get a better sense of who they are and what their values are. Simon Property Group does not value work life balance at all. You are expected to work Monday - Sunday 8 am - 6 pm and be on call 24/7 and make a ton of personal sacrifices for this company (you will not be rewarded for making said sacrifices). You have a sales target of $1.5 million/year and are expected to make this through cold calling alone. If you do not make your annual sales target, you will not get your bonus (the interviewer made it seem like this is an impossible task and the reason it's so unattainable is so SPG doesn’t have to pay staff their yearly bonus). They're in the middle of changing their employee payment system and so there are a lot of employees and vendors who work there aren't getting paid properly. This is something the marketing team has to deal with (why is the marketing department in charge of payroll; this is clearly something their HR department should deal with). The manager seemed quite joyous about admitting to not paying people properly. The manager said that if you make one small minute mistake (for example an incorrect RFP) your career is finished there and you will be micromanaged for the rest of your time there. When a leader doesn't know how to lead, they micromanage. The manager also said they're looking for people who "live to work" not "work to live" and this is the expected culture. She said, "your social life will suffer and will should you take this job". The manager explicitly said this is not a job for people with thin skin. She's quite proud of being too "busy" to have manners and say "please and thank you." She also said she's extremely hard to please. This is all a direct quote from her. I was told that there is no professional development at Simon Group. There is no room for movement laterally and this place has a ceiling you cannot break through. This was explicitly said during the interview. You will never have the ability to move in your career unless the manager above you retires, which they said they will never. SPG does not want people who are looking to grow; instead, she made it sound like they're only looking for people who will do the job and ask little questions...wait later for her contradiction. The manager also said they are looking for people to continually challenge management and question them. That's part of the culture (the manager allegedly said she's the only person in the entire organization who challenges the Vice Presidents/ Regional Vice Presidents). If you do not challenge anything and do as your asked, you won't get anywhere, but again, there is a glass ceiling in which you cannot get through despite challenging management [these conflicts what they want - someone who will make a ton of personal sacrifices and have no work-life balance].

The interview process was really smooth, and the company was great at getting back to me quickly. Even though they're based in Indianapolis, they have lots of cool offices around the country. This company is a leader in its industry, and they really showed me how they come up with innovative business ideas in every aspect. I interviewed with a few of their group presidents.

I had a phone call with the Mall Manager and two people from Simon Properties. While waiting for my interview, I could hear the previous candidate's interview through the door. The interview itself was very quick. They seemed most interested in what events could be done at the mall and asked for my ideas.