The Hoffman Agency Account Executive Interview Questions
& Process

I emailed CareerSEA@hoffman.com and heard back from the KL office account manager about a week later. They scheduled a 30-minute preliminary call via MS Teams. The call started and ended on time. They asked if they could record it for internal documentation. The questions were mainly about my previous internship since I was a fresh grad. The interviewer was friendly and explained how Hoffman works with global B2B tech clients (Oracle, Zoom, E-gaming), focusing on corporate clients rather than typical local B2C ones common in KL. He shared this to set expectations for joining Hoffman. He also gave me career advice and answered my questions about it. He was warm and curious about me and mentioned the team is expanding, emphasizing dealing with SEA clients/media over local Malaysian ones. At the end, he said he'd update HR and outlined the next steps: a 30-minute call with the senior team/senior HRBP plus a written test, followed by a final round with the GM. A few days later, the senior HRBP from Singapore reached out to schedule the second 30-minute call, which I set for the following week. This call focused on behavioral questions: managing in a fast-paced environment, handling criticism, career motivations in PR as a fresh grad, ideal manager traits and expectations, and resourcefulness in a startup setting. The HRBP gave me a written test the same day, which had four parts: Idea Generation, Bylined Articles and Pitches, Copy Writing, and Creative Writing. They gave us 2.5 hours to complete it, and the questions were straightforward, though Bylined Articles and Pitches were challenging as I hadn't done that before. The instructions were clear. The process moved quickly, and the following week, I was informed they were moving forward with another candidate who better fit the KL office's current needs.

I had a 30 min chat with the recruiter, they were really nice and asked stuff like why I want to work there, my past social media experience, and how this job would help my career. Then I got moved to the 2nd round with 3 managers. The managers were not nice and didn't seem to care. I was asked again why I want to work there and for examples of how I've managed multiple accounts at once, and my fave social media platform. I thought my answers were good and I explained my experience well. During part of the interview, the managers were talking about a trend amongst themselves for a while and I just had to sit there, it was awkward and they weren't welcoming. I don't feel like I got a fair shot.

The process starts with an HR interview, followed by a written test. Then, you'll interview with your line manager and/or the senior account servicing team. This part can vary based on your skills; some might have a chemistry check with the whole team, others a culture test, and some a bigger group interview with multiple team heads or the GM.