Corporate Executive Board Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details telephone interview, it takes less than 20 minutes. tell me about your self. how to be a good sales person

Interview Details Psychometric tests

Telephone interview

Face 2 Face interview

The interview took place at CEB offices in Holborn. Two hiring managers jointly conducted the interview. The initial stages of the interview followed a normal path with the usual questions where you are asked to follow a STAR technique and then a role-play where you are required to simulate a sales call to an executive.
Throughout the interview, while one fo the two asked the questions and listened to my reply the other manger acted in a weird manner, yawning and checking the time on her watch. I had the impression this was staged and probably a way to test my reactions or my personality. Although this appeared unusual I had no problem whatsoever with this and I felt comfortable and confident.

Towards the end of the interview on of the two manager posed me a question that I felt had no reason to be asked and that really changed the atmosphere in the room, making me feel uncomfortable and unwanted as a potential future employee. She asked: “ How do you feel being 28 years old and knowing that most of the other candidates competing with you for this vacancy are fresh graduates from university and are much younger than you, in fact in their early 20s? ”. I tried not to look surprised by the question and answered professionally and with a good answer, which I do not need to detail here. However, as I formulated my answer I start feeling deeply offended and discriminated against by her question, which in fact did not sound as a question but rather as an affirmation of the fact that my age was a problem that made me unsuitable for the position.

 Although I am sure that me being 28 years old played no part in the decision that they made regarding my application, I know her question did, since my state of mind changed drastically: I felt harassed and discriminated in a context (a job interview) that is not comfortable and relaxed in itself , this caused me to take a defensive attitude that apparently led to the decision of not taking my application further (as highlighted in the feedback I received from you).

When I left the conference room where the interview had taken place, I was “beaten up” and “shoked” by the experience , later that day, I began doubting I wanted to work for a company where my superior or my colleagues could show a similar behavior towards me.

CEB takes pride in stating that they are an equal opportunity company, my experience would not support that statement. I have submitted a formal complaint to the HR director of the company and an inquiry has been started to investigate this matter.

To all of you who are applying at CEB, good luck!

Interview Details Psychometric test, role plays, compenency based interviews
Advise: get everyything they promise to you in writing. Ask a lot of qustions, believe in your 'stomach feeling'

Negotiation Details – Four months back and fourth

Interview Details Went through a recruitment agency with whom i had already had interviews and competency based interviews with to be on their books. Had to take the Hogan test before being offered an interview, which is standard practice and consists of questions about yourself. This is a psychometric test that you cannot cheat on to guage whether your attitude consists with that of the company.

Then i had a formal face to face interview after i passed the hogan test. This consisted of asking me to detail myself to them in a concise way. What i knew about the role i was applying for, What i knew about CEB as a company. Then there were competancy based questions including, how well i work in a team and how i have built credibility as a person. There were also other questions about my CV. Finally there was a role play where i had to "sell" the company to a CEO of a company and deal with their rejection.

Negotiation Details – Recruitment agency did it for me

Interview Details I applied for the role that I found on TotalJobs. The day after I received a call - this was the first stage. Then the interviewer invited me for a face to face interview with another recruiter.
I went for the face to face within the week. The recruiter there explained me that the process will take 1 week, as he has other candidate to interview.

I have sent a thank you email the following day after the F2F interview. I did not get any response... but that's fine for now.

Then after 1 week, without any call, I have sent another email. I tried to call and left message and i did not get any response so far after 1 month!

But I have checked and I've seen on Linkedin that there is a new Talent Management Coordinator !!!

Thank you very much for your consideration !!!!

Interview Details The interview process begins with a prelim 30-40 mins telephonic discussion to gauge the match and some competency based questions by the HR team. Within HR team there is a coordinator role that organizes and provide details of the interview. This coordination of hiring process is professional and works well until the final round.

The round two is a face-to-face competency based interview with someone in the line organizationand the HR. This part was also well conducted and professional. The time gap between these two rounds depends on the availability. Until this point I was not informed on which practice line I was being considered for.

Final round of interview consists of role play/ case study mix and competency based interview with hiring manager. CEB provides a presentation pack one needs to read through and present it in a role play to CxO. The good part of this round is that after every role play there is a feedback session. In my case it went very well.

While the concept is vert interesting this part of interview was not well organized overall. The hiring manager came late for interview, seemed to be playing the role of CxO even after the role play session was over and repeatedly dropping in sentences to the effect on who had the power in the office i.e. hiring manager. This did not make me feel welcome as a potential employee and made me wonder if I'd like to work for such a manager. Perhaps it reflected on my approach for the rest of the interview.

The outcome of this round was not provided for over a month by HR even after several mails and phone calls. Finally when I got hold of HR I was informed that while I was a fit for CEB overall my "impact" in first 15 minutes of interview was not as strong as hiring manager wanted. The HR promised to come back to me for a research oriented role that could be more suitable and have a final interview with hiring manager as I met all the other criteria. They never came back.

Tip1: The above is something one should keep in mind if you are interested and appearing for the interview. I took a slower approach since extent of being aggressive in the first meeting is cultural. It's a small detail that can be learnt quickly on the job but it clearly did not work for me in such a job market.

Tip 2: In the role play slide description CEB provides an example of slides one could cover. Seems like they prefer candidates to go through the same slide instead of other slides that the candidate might find more interesting. I enjoyed the final interview and it requires preparation.

Interview Details Interview was very easy with simple questions on how would I sell A, B and C.

Interview Details Telephone interview was handled by a retained search firm based in Richmond who have impressed me with their level of professionalism throughout the process.

It is mandatory for all job applicants to take the 'Hogan' behavioural test, at least in sales anyway.

1.1 interview was with the Head of New Business Sales. Overall a very intellectually stimulating experience where abilty to sell and communicate at a high/strategic level is extensivley explored

Interview Details By all accounts mine was a singular experience and not that enjoyed by most joining CEB who have a fairly standard process. So if you want to know what a potential interview process with CEB is like this wont apply.

I had a fairly singular set of experience so missed most of the steps and generally was 1:1 interviews about what I had done and how I could help them to start a new business line.