Q: Tell me something about yourself ?
Sure My pleasure! I am a highly astute, energetic and team spirited professional with over 12 years of experience in diverse facets of food business operations. Starting from my most recent job. I was Senior Finance Analyst in Pepsi Foods Canada that is $2.5billion dollar business where I was personally responsible for providing strategic financial support to business leaders for both Frito and Quaker businesses. My strong technical skills and collaborative work approach supported the business to achieve $2million incremental profit in 2012 and that was highly appreciated by PepsiCo Controller.
Before Pepsi Canada, I worked as Financial Analyst in CIBC that broaden my horizon and helped me gain confidence to adjust quickly in new business environment with difference dynamics.
Before CIBC, I worked as Manager Financial Analyst with Pepsi International from 2010 to 2012 where I was responsible for providing business advice and financial counsel to the VP Sales and BU Controller. 11 staffs were reporting to me. I got two PepsiCo Annual excellence award for my outstanding contribution in growing business by 10%. The Pepsi market share touched 60% during that time.
From 2007 to 2010, I worked as Risk Assessment Manager in PepsiCo International. It was a billion dollar business. I was responsible to support business owners in managing business risks and controls. I trained and influence different functional teams while leading the implementation of PepsiCo’s Global control standards project. I was honored with Annual excellence award for working collaboratively with Chicago team on Global Control standards and getting 130 staffs on board in 2 months.
From 2006 to 2007, I worked as Senior Manager Costing in Berger Paints which is $200million public listed company. I supported CFO in cost reduction programs and automated financial planning mechanism.
From 2002 to 2006, I worked with Ernst & Young. I was responsible for planning and conducting audit for clients operating in service, CPG and Oil industries. I got appreciation letter for outstanding work during EY foreign audit assignments.
I am high achiever that helped me get my CA in 2006 and CMA in 2012.
I think my strength is leadership ability. What I am looking for is the company that can offer team work and group dynamic where I can join a strong team and have positive impact in achieving business goals.
"Is there anything I've mentioned that you'd like to know more about?"

Q:Why Kraft/McCain ?
A: Kraft North America is one of the biggest publicly traded business, based on combined net revenue of $18.7 billion dollars. The portfolio includes 3 iconic brands(Kraft cheese, dinners and dressings) with revenues exceeding $1 billion. I believe that my almost 5 years of outstanding track record with PepsiCo Food business would enable me to contribute to the success of. I am impressed with company’s culture, recent performance and the way the company re-made itself.
Kraft mission
Same iconic brands ... made more fun!
Same beloved products ... made more innovative!
Same great careers ... made more possible!
A:
1957: The year we were founded | Executive HQ: Toronto, Ontario, CanadaGlobal HQ: Florenceville, New Brunswick, CanadaR&D: Potato Processing Technology Centre46: Manufacturing facilities around the globe44: Sales offices around the globe3,200: Grower partners36,700: Supplier partners18,000: Employees$7 B: Net annual sales 160:Countries that our products can be purchased in 1/3:Our customer ratio: Grocery stores, foodservice operations and quick-service restaurant chains 1 in 3: One of every three fries around the world is a McCain fry | | | | | |
McCain Values
Authentic: Be real, open and informal. Listen generously. Talk straight.
Committed: Create your future. Be the vision. Have the courage to stand for a better company, a better world, a better you.
Trusted: Do the right thing. Build genuine relationships with our customers, stakeholders and each other.
Q:Why this role in particular? (Analyst process and control role) or what you bring to the organisation
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A: There are few reasons that I believe will really fit well with your company. Firstly, I am a team player with the ability to build relationship and work independently across functions. For example At PepsiCo Dubai I was pretty new in the role and had no time to adjust because deadline for submitting annual operating was fast approaching but I quickly built relationship at all level of organization and met the deadline that pleased my manager. I am very honest and stick to my ethics and integrity. For example, At PepsiCo I was having a bank relationship manager who visited me and offered me a gift on behalf of bank. I was fully aware of ethics policy so I discussed with my supervisor and HR to find resolution. As advised, I distributed those among team to avoided possible conflict of interest situation. I have strong people management skillls, I worked on career development of my finance team and participated in the preparation of career development action plan (CDAP). This is formal template that maps employee career objective and functional competence against predefined competency level for each position. I worked with each one of my direct reports in identifying their development priorities and action plan to fill the competency gap. I reviewed CDAP with my manager and CFO and got their alignment on staffs rotaition. For example 1 staff wanted to become a manager in 3 years time. He was lacking formal designation therefore I encourage towards study. He cleared CMA exam in first time and when planning supervisor position became available I proposed to promote him. As a result finance team got a competent person in the team.
We both worked together to identify competency gaps based on weaknesses we agreed PepsiCo had predefined competencies for manager level so bathat me and team fill independently and then sit down to finalize the final version based on weaknesses on competency gap I introduced team building event off-site. OR understanding their needs and having weekly communication to keep the team on track. communication been in similar kind of role analytical role I see an exceptional fit in what McCain is looking for Commercial Finance role and what I can bring to the position. The answer is two folded. Leadership and communication skills are primary requirement for this role that I clearly demonstrated while I was working at PepsiCo. Second this role requires a person who is system savvy and can work collaboratively across functions that is evident from my past accomplishments. I believe these two qualities put me in a strong position to add great value in achieving McCain’s business goals and enable me to hit the ground running from Day 1. Q: Career ambition: where you want to be in five years time?
A: In five years I'd like to have an even better understanding of this industry. Also, I really love working with people. Ultimately, I'd like to be in some type of managerial role at this company, where I can use my people skills and industry knowledge to benefit the people working for me, and the company as a whole.
Q) How you are planning to progress in this role?
A) I have a plan to apply the same methodology that was applied successfully when I joined PepsiCo during 2007-2008. I will set priority for first 15days then for 3 months.
In first fifteen days I will interact with team as much as possible so that I can learn about Kraft business, values, culture and the overall set up. That will help me to understand what is team expectation from me. I will discuss my on boarding plan with my line manager which is following: I will agree a time to Walkthrough Key business processes by visiting sites in order to understand end to end process. I used to take notes along the way so that I can share my learning, questions and suggestion with my line manager as you will be expecting outcome from my side. It took me one month in PepsiCo to understand PepsiCo sales and collection process as it was most significant and complex business cycle.
In the second month, I will plan to walkthrough procurement and production process and share my learning and recommendation with line manager. In the last month, I will get more about Financial reporting cycle. That reminds me something that I wanted to bring to your attention “I have expertise on MS Visio software and I have developed more than 100 process maps in my last role” I will plan to see how this expertise can benefit Kraft process documents
Your key strengths? 1) I have an ability to influence people at different level that I learned from managerial roles with Pepsi and this benefit the entire team to get desired results in a very effective manner. 2) Strong analytical skill that helps me connecting dots to analyze different situation and this facilitates entire team in making quick decisions. 3) Great communication skills that I used quite often to connect people at different level and that I learned from my last role with Pepsi and I understand that is also a Key criterion to succeed with Kraft. 4) Passionate for the career growth that keep me driving and succeeding along the career path and also benefit the company to have competent manager in the team
Weaknesses ?
I am passionate about exceeding expectation therefore I spent long hours at work that sometime impacts my work life balance. I am learning to overcome this challenge by taking time to participate in sports activities. Very recently I participated in Corporate Olympics that was held in Dubai. This is annual event where corporate team from different companies competes. I attended training session before this league and played superbly well with the team in that league. I am searching for similar activities in Toronto as well.
Q: What is the toughest team/department form which you had to get cooperation? OR Tell me about a time when you worked especially with another department to accomplish a goal.
A: Situation: I was responsible to review and approve customer orders exceeding their credit limit. I requested sales not to deliver stock unless that customer settles its outstanding invoices. Sales manager wanted me to release order as he was more accountable to achieve monthly sales target.
Task: I wanted to deal with this request in a pleasant and objective manner.
Action: I discussed the customer’s collection history and the grace credit period that was allowed in the past to settle the balance. I got him know that customer is dealing in cash and turning our inventory three time into cash til it becomes due.
Result: As a result of this logical conversation sales manager managed to collect overdue invoices from customer thus improved our cash flow. I learned the ability to get thing done from people who do not report to me or over whom I have no authority. "Would I be facing similar situations here?" or "Does that example fit with what you were looking for? Would you like to hear other examples?"
Q: Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things your way.
A: Situation: I was working on a project to start importing of Doritos Chips from PepsiCo Turkey to PepsiCo Dubai. When product arrived at port the dubai custom authority refused to offload container saying the item has ingredient that is banned for distribution in Dubai. The consignment was worth about half a million dollar. Logistic manager informed VP sales about potential risk to the business
Task: The meeting was called to find possible solution to the problem.
Action: Logistic manager suggested to send consignment back to Turkey and save demurrage charges to save business from additional loss. I requested logistic manager to find if same is permitted to distribute in other states of UAE. Note that in UAE there are 7 states and each state has it’s own regulations to govern businesses operating within their territory.
Result: Interestingly the product was permitted to distribute in Abu Dhabi state which was an hour and half drive from Dubai. This enabled the business to fulfill customer orders and also supported the business in achieving growth target. I gained confidence to show my mettle in trying out of the box ideas that ultimately proved its value.
OR Every year business set aside certain amount of budget for off-site team building event. My team was deprived of this opportunity. I discussed with Controller and VP and convince them that this is creating disappointment among the team. They finally agreed to allow $2000 budget that was enough for us . As a result the team had a complete faith in me and removed grievances.
Q: Tell me about at time when you had to work with someone who was difficult to get along with. Why was this person difficult? How did you handle that person?
Situation: Well! In the last role, I was having a colleague who was always falling short of deadlines to provide a data for my analysis. Feedbacks were not working with him.
-Task: I decided to manage situation at my level a +++nd tried differently this time and decided to take a deep dive into understanding his problems.
Action: I took him to lunch outside and tried to get more about his social activities and interests. I learned that he was much stressed and was unable to focus at work because his daughter was not recovered from illness after several medications and he was willing to take off to stay with her, the fact that he never opened during office time. I advised him to accumulate your overtime hours and compensate against day off to stay more with family.
Results: Results were outstanding in a way that my colleague got what he wants, I got my analysis done on time and the company saved overtime expenses. I learned that informal communication is the best tool to manage people. This approach was appreciated and replicated by other department also.
Q: Tell me about a time when you were most successful in leading a group towards accomplishing an important goal. OR In a leadership role, you are often required to build support for goals and projects from people who do not report to you and over whom you have no authority. Tell me about a situation in which you demonstrated that you can build the needed support.

Situation: PepsiCo was being audited by corporate auditors once in 3 years. Dubai office was scheduled to be audited February 2012.
Task: Being a control team member, I was assigned a responsibility to collaborate and coordinate with Sales and HR function to make sure that all control are operating properly and PepsiCo values and Code of conduct are intact at all locations.
Action: This was really challenging tasks because I had to build support from groups that do not report to me and I have no authority over them. I split this project into small steps: 1) developed understanding of the importance of successful audit completion (2) expectation from the team along with explaining my support to the team (3) developed & implement Control task list (4) Conduct self-assessment (4) get audit done by auditors (5) Celebrate audit
Result: Achieved excellent results from the team with no major control deficiencies reported in the audit report. I was honored to cut the cake on behalf of entire team after the audit. Later on I was recognized with PepsiCo annual excellence award.

Q: Tell me about a time when you were open to others ideas, even when they conflicted with your own?

Situation: I had a situation where I found an error in the formula for Daily sales outstanding (DSO). DSO is one of a KPI for sales team. I reported revised DSO based on correct calculation for the year 2012.
Task: Sales team advised us to recalculate 2011 DSO based on revised formula to have better comparison vs last year.
Action: It was difficult to get data from system because DTS credit sales was not being recorded in the right period but I was convinced with this idea and worked in detail to calculate 12 months DSO for 2011 based on revised formula.
Result: This flexibility enabled the team to have correct comparison of KPIs across different periods and to set right expectations with people responsible to achieve those KPIs.

Q: Describe a situation where you were criticized. What was your initial reaction and how did you deal with the criticism? OR Tell me about a time when you used your fact-finding skills to solve a problem. OR Tell me about a situation in which you have had to adjust to changes over which you had no control. How did you handle it?

Situation: We used to keep provision in financial statement for Racks stands at year end. I was responsible to ensure this provision for Pepsi Dubai operation. The business expanded later on and four countries were added under my responsibility. Due to lack of clarification on process changes, the racks provision for those countries was missed and it was assumed that the same will be ensured in Saudi office as normal that was criticized by Controller.
I investigated all facts to understand what went wrong in the process and presented my findings to management that helped us to realize that process was not defined and communicated properly before making business changes. To avoid the same situation in future, I assisted management in documenting clear process of Racks processing and recording that highlights roles and responsibilities of individuals engaged in the process.

Q: Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision, but didn't have all the information you needed.

A: Situation: I was leading a project of automating manual approval process of releasing customer’s orders on-hold. I was being asked from Saudi office to approve new system design on behalf of Dubai management.
Task: I was asked to respond them within few hours. It was a time when my team was not available to let me have their consent.
Action: I decided to approve system design after analyzing that project delay will cost more than the risk of missing some parts in the overall design structure. I collected enough information before making this decision that allowed me to assure that user testing will cover the risk of missing important parts in the system design phase.

Result: This approach enabled the project to go-live in time without major set-backs and helped the business to save 3,000 employee hours that worth $100,000 per annum. This experience improved my decision making skills and ability to independently manage difficult projects by balancing potential risk and benefit of completing the project in time.

Q: Tell me about a time when you had to analyze a significant amount of data and information. Tell me how you dealt with this situation and how you got to what was most important?

A: I used to have this situation in my last role when I was involved in developing annual business plan and significant amount of data was passed on to me from HR, logistic and Sales.
Task: I was responsible to analyze business rational for the cost estimated in the plan by each department against the business objective
Action: I identified cost drivers like increase in revenue could justify increase in sales routes and vehicles. This pushed up the personnel and fleet cost that provides rationale for the cost projection in the plan.
Result: The management was able to set right expectation at right time and I learned to perform well under pressure situation

Q:Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done.

Situation: Implementation of PepsiCo international reference template (PIRT) and testing of configurable controls. The PIRT is a PepsiCo document that governs process controls across all Pepsi businesses around the world.
Task: I was responsible to build an understanding of PIRT across all functions in order to go-live for control testing on PIRT document.
Action: It was a challenge to localize global control document because SAP configurable controls were so technical that it was difficult for non-technical person to modify the control as per local business need and test them from back end. I decided to perform test personally and lead this by example. I worked closely with SAP consultants to support me understanding system configuration and modified Control test scripts in a way that facilitated non-technical people to understand and apply the same.
Result: As a result, the task that was considered impossible by the team before PIRT roll out is now being performed quarterly and also supported an objective of proportional ownership.
What motivates you?
I’m motivated by constant progress. I find it exciting to implement new ideas and see them through to completion. I find the most satisfaction in implementing “out of-the-box” ideas that ultimately prove their value. I like to be challenged on the job and like the opportunity to utilize my skills and talents.
Questions
That reminds me of something I wanted to bring to your attention in my background.")

* Based on the discussion we have had and looking at my background, what do you think would be my greatest challenge? * * What would you like to be done differently by the next person filling this role

* "What would be my key priorities in the first six months on the job?"

* How is one evaluated in this position? And how do you see me on the track * What freedom would this person have in determining their work objectives, deadlines and methods of measurement?

* Who are the internal and external stakeholders that this position will be interacting with?

* What are the objectives for this person in the next 6-12 months?

* What are the most critical factors for success in your business?

* Assuming everything goes positive today, what is the next step? (Closing Question)

Salary question
"I'm more interested in the role itself than the pay. That said, I'd expect to be paid the appropriate range for this role, based on my 8 years of experience. I also think a fair salary would bear in mind the high cost of living here in New York City."
I was very well compensated for my responsibilities and for my abilities to produce value and return for the organization. Considering my previous accomplishments and you saw how I can bring value to the organization business processes, I am anticipating you would offer me a fair compensation for this role. What is the compensation range you have established? However, Peter is my liaison for this role and he shared the salary range that you guys are working for this position so I will discuss this range with him.
PepsiCo Values Mars Principles
Sustained growth Quality, Efficiency empowered people Mutuality trust Freedom responsibility Responsibility

1. Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure.

2. How do you handle a challenge? Give an example.

3. Have you ever made a mistake? How did you handle it?

4. Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it.

5. Describe a decision you made that wasn't popular and how you handled implementing it.

6. Give an example of how you set goals and achieve them.

7. Give an example of how you worked on team.

8. What do you do if you disagree with someone at work?

9. Share an example of how you were able to motivate employees or co-workers.

10. Have you handled a difficult situation? How?

1. What accomplishment are you most proud of?

2. What types of challenges have you faced in the past two years and how did you overcome them?

3. Give me an example of how you successfully dealt with someone who was difficult.

4. Give me an example of how one of your strengths has benefited you when working in a team environment.

5. Why do you want to work at this firm specifically?

6. Why are you interested in this particular area of the firm?

7. Give me an example of a time you failed.

8. Give me an example of a time you succeeded.

9. What’s the most difficult thing you’ve ever had to do?

10. Give me examples of how well you work under pressure.

11. What are you looking to get out of a job/internship with a public accounting firm?

12. What are your thoughts on the increase demand of quality by the PCAOB [Public Company Accounting Oversight Board] and how would you implement such demands in your audit?

13. Tell me about yourself.

14. How would you describe your leadership skills?

15. Give me a situation in your past work or school experience where you demonstrated problem-solving skills.

16. Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years?

17. Tell me about a time when you had an idea but your team was not willing to accept it. How did you go about presenting this idea and trying to persuade them to accept it?

18. What did you learn from your last job/internship?

19. Describe some situations where you’ve had to use technical writing skills.

20. Why should I hire you?

21. What makes you stand out?

1. Tell me about a conflict you had at your last job and how you handled or resolved it.

2. Give me an example of a time when you set a goal and were able to meet or achieve it.

3. Have you handled a difficult situation with a co-worker? How?

4. Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure.

5. Give an example of a situation when you had to go above and beyond expectations in order to complete a task.

6. Tell me about a time where you had to lead a project and how you handled it.

7. Give an example of when you needed to use logic to solve a problem at work.

1. Why do you want to become an accountant?

2. What was the toughest accounting task you had to solve in your career so far?

3. Why do you want to work in our company?

4. Why should we hire you?

5. Do you possess any knowledge of accounting standards?

6. How do you ensure you make no mistakes in work?

7. What characterize a good accountant from your point of view?

8. Describe a stressful situation from work and how did you handle it?

9. Describe a time when you helped to reduce costs at a previous accountant job.