Cengage interview questions

Having recently gone through the interview and accepting the offer, I still found the interview process to be a little long and time consuming. There is a series of interviews combined with a campus assignment with somewhat vague directions. The process took about 6 weeks with several steps. You first go through an initial phone interview with HR to screen you out among other candidates, wait a few weeks, then a phone interview with the hiring regional manager, wait another few weeks, then you're invited to a one on one meeting with the hiring manager. He asks you the standard interview questions and goes over your past experience. Nothing too complicated at this point. If you pass this point, he then gives you an assignment with limited time to get it done - three days to be exact. The first part of the assignment is to spend an entire day on campus that's not your alma matter and then write a brief report about your experience. The second piece is to learn one of their online products and build a presentation around the scenario they give you. The first part was somewhat tedious because I did not have a whole day to spend on a campus. He also gave me the assignment when classes where in-between semesters. It really helped knowing professors in this case. I don't know how else I would have got the information for my report. The second part, learning their software wasn't too bad because I knew a professor who actually used it and helped me out with it. It was a pretty simple site to learn. I felt very prepared demonstrating the online product in the next meeting. The last interview was surprising because the regional VP was also there. It would have been nice to have a little heads up. She tried to be intimidating, but I think I impressed her with my knowledge and skills during the interview and presentation. In this last interview, they both go back and forth firing questions at you. You then have to defend your campus report and then they ask for the product presentation. I think I handled everything amazingly well which helped me secure the position. I got the offer within a few days which I thought was rather quick considering how long the interview process was in comparison. I could also tell they where going to make an offer because they started a background in-between the last 2 interviews so it was telling going into the last interview that they were narrowing it down to me. I wouldn't say I enjoyed the process because it really was a get-this-done-right-now process to secure the job. I think most applicants drop out of the interview process because of the work and limited time frame they ask from you. You can tell that they are really looking for the right person to do the job. But all-in-all an interesting interview experience.

It was a series of phone interviews after sending in a cv. The conversations revolved around prior sales experience and knowledge of the industry. It also included questions regarding technology and content of their products.