Millward Brown Market Research Project Director Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – I was contacted by a recruiting firm about a position with a market research firm based in Chicago (a former colleague of mine who was working with the recruiter gave them my name when told about the position). I wasn't really looking for a new job at the time, but I figured I would see what they had to say so I agreed to a phone interview. The interview went well and I found out that although I would technically be based out of the Chicago office, I would actually be working as an on-site project manager/consultant for a large client based in St. Louis. I was definitely interested and the next day the recruiting office called and asked if I could fly out to Chicago for an in-person interview. I agreed and they made the travel arrangements. The itenerary I was given indicated that a car service would be picking me up from the airport; however, this car service was not there when I arrived, so I stood around waiting at the airport for quite some time before finally calling the recruiter to inquire about the whereabouts of the car service. They made some quick calls and discovered that Millward Brown had forgotten to schedule the car service. They were very apologetic and said that if I took a cab to and from the airport and mailed/faxed them the receipt they would reimburse me for the cost, which was fine.

I met with another project director, the main account director (who would be my boss), and a department head (I think). Two days later I recieved another call from the recruiters office asking if I would be available to fly to St. Louis for an in-person meeting with the client whose office I would be working in daily. I said fine and this time the travel arrangements went off without a hitch. The account manager met me at the airport to accompany me on the interview and was present as I spoke with about four different people I would be working with in the company. During this time I gave him the receipts for the cab fares I paid for my previous interviews and he again apologized for the mix-up and said he would get it taken care of as soon as possible. I thought the interviews went well, but I wasn't sure the culture was the right fit for me. Everyone was very nice, but the job was heavily focused on one specific study, which seemed rather boring.

The next day the recruiter calls me to start talking salary. I had told them from the beginning that I wasn't going to uproot my family and move across the country for anything less than $65,000, which they assured me was within the range for this position. I was also told that Millward Brown would take care of all relocation expenses and fly my husband and I out to look for a place to live. However, when the recruiter called me the day after the interview, he was talking more along the lines of $55,000 - $60,000 with most (but not all) relocation expenses paid. Since I wasn't too sure about the job at that point, I really wasn't going to budge on the money and negotiations stalled until I said thanks, but no thanks.

That would have been fine if it ended there, BUT Millward Brown never reimbursed me for the $120 in cab fares I paid to get to and from my initial in-person interviews! I called the recruiters office several times to inquire about the status of the payment, but they were never able to get Millward Brown to pay and eventually stopped taking my calls. Funny thing was that the recruiter called me about a year later about another job at which point I reminded them about not being paid for my taxi fare and said that I felt in that situation the recruitment firm should have paid the tab. However, since they started avoiding my calls on the matter and did not press (to my knowledge) Millward Brown to honor their committment, I was not interested in any jobs they had to offer since I don't like to pay for the privledge of interviewing with any company.

Now I'm not a penny-pincher by any means, but this actually made me glad I didn't take the job as it definitely says something what kind of company they are.