Glassdoor is your free inside look at Northwestern Mutual interview questions and advice. All 555 interview reviews posted anonymously by Northwestern Mutual employees and interview candidates.
Northwestern Mutual Interview Questions & Reviews
Getting the Interview 555 Interviews
Interview Experience 505 Ratings
Private Equity Summer Analyst at Northwestern Mutual
No Offer – Reviewed Apr 14, 2013
Interview Details – Guy was a bit cold. Opened up more towards the end of the interview.
Interview Question –
Name three world leaders.
Give me three ways to value a company.
Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Summer Intern at Northwestern Mutual
Declined Offer – Interviewed in Richmond, VA – Reviewed Apr 11, 2013
Interview Details – very easy process. they accept basically everyone.
Interview Question – no hard questions. basic behavioral questions Answer Question
Reason for Declining – i wanted something better
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Intern at Northwestern Mutual
No Offer – Interviewed in Santa Barbara, CA Jan 2012 – Reviewed Apr 10, 2013
Interview Details – The first round of interviewing ended with me getting a packet to fill out for "homework." They wanted me to fill out a chart detailing my inner circle of people that I could sell life insurance to. The circles branched out to include people within my inner circle's networks. I was encouraged to color in my packet.
Interview Question – What was the greatest challenge I faced during my last work experience? Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Internship at Northwestern Mutual
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in JAX Beach, FL – Reviewed Apr 10, 2013
Interview Details – The first one qualifies you. The next one puts you on a list of 20 and from there everything is really based on you. I was given a packet to complete (interview people, etc). You really should complete this and show you tried.
Interview Question – What has been your biggest challenge? Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
College Financial Representative at Northwestern Mutual
Accepted Offer – Reviewed Apr 10, 2013
Interview Details – Applied on campus recruiting website, contacted by a recruited a couple weeks later. Very professional process, they worked around my already busy schedule.
Interview Question – Tell me about your savings philosophy? Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
College Financial Representative at Northwestern Mutual
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in Greenwood, IN – Reviewed Apr 9, 2013
Interview Details – I applied this position through my school job site and I got contacted by the recruiter very soon afterwards. The first interview was a phone interview. It was very informative, because they wanted to know if you understand this position and know what you are getting into. Feel free to ask questions regarding the position, however, I still recommend you to do some research before your phone interview. The second interview is one on one, before which I took a personality assessment. I was offered that internship at the end of the interview.
Interview Question – What do you expect yourself to be 10 years from now on? Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Summer Intern at Northwestern Mutual
Declined Offer – Reviewed Apr 8, 2013
Interview Details – Submitted my resume to a college recruiter at a fair my school was holding. Wasn't planning on visiting the booth but the recruiter called me over. Within a week of giving him my resume, I received a call from the northwestern branch asking me if I wanted to come in for an interview. I found the whole process somewhat odd for a "top ten internship" which they had no trouble flaunting at every possible chance they got. The first interview was very simple, no difficult questions and less than ten minutes in length. They were only looking for motivated and outgoing people with some leadership experience; didnt care about major, field experience or gpa. Had to recommend three friends for the position who they promptly called within a week. In my experience, no "top ten internship" chases students like this, the students have to find the employer. I was offered a second interview but after time to think about the position and doing a little online research, I came to a few troubling conclusions detailed in the section below.
Reason for Declining – Northwestern wants to exploit your family and friends for insurance sales, using you close personal ties with them to sell them their insurance. Ask yourself this, what random adult is going to trust a student without a degree (and not even a finance degree in some cases) to plan their financial future and invest their money? The answer is your family and close friends. If you are comfortable selling insurance to your family and friends, this is the perfect internship for you. You will get great experience in financial planing and sales. If not, as was the case for me, steer clear. Your salary is commission based so make sure you are aware what your getting into. This place needs to be removed from the top 10 list, maybe it will humble them a bit. Compare them to the vault's other 10 including deloitte, google and pwc, there is no comparison.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Intern at Northwestern Mutual
Declined Offer – Interviewed in Sacramento, CA Feb 2013 – Reviewed Apr 8, 2013
Interview Details – First round interview was focused on behavioral questions as well as background and what I could bring to the company. It was about 30 minutes long. The interviewer was very friendly and engaged in the conversation. The second round was more like them explaining to me what the role would be like and going over what I would need to have ready for the third interview which was a five minute presentation on why I deserved the position.
Interview Question – I was not expecting to give a presentation in an interview. Answer Question
Reason for Declining – The internship was not a fit for what I was looking for at that time.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Financial Services Representative at Northwestern Mutual
Declined Offer – Reviewed Apr 7, 2013
Interview Details – Applied through college's career site, was given call to schedule interview a couple of weeks later. Showed up to preliminary interview, asked a few questions about my educational background and resume. Once they told me it was a sales position and that I would have to pitch their products to my family and friends I was out.
Interview Question – What is your biggest strength? Answer Question
Reason for Declining – It was a sales position
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Financial Representative Intern at Northwestern Mutual
No Offer – Interviewed in King of Prussia, PA Mar 2013 – Reviewed Apr 7, 2013
Interview Details – Was asked to come to one of their regional branches in order for an information session. Not much was given about the actual internship so I went. Ended up being in a conference room for about an hour listening to what life insurance actually is and how they develop you into a salesman. At the end, you were brought into a room for an individual interview for roughly five minutes. They asked basic behavioral questions and then informed me that I would be contacted about the next interview (they said this was the first of three). I was given homework to complete which included a brief PowerPoint about the virtues of the company and why I would succeed. I left fairly disappointed because the entire premise of their sales internship was this: you would come up with a list of names of people who would be interested in life insurance. This basically came to a huge list of names of your closest friends and family. They said that this core group would be your first list of possible clients and that you would ask each one of them for referrals. So you were to try to sell life insurance to your closest friends and relatives and then badger them again for more clients. I understand they say this is a Top-Ten internship, but both my friend and I who applied together were not buying it.
Interview Question – There were not many questions, everything was very straightforward. Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Problem with this interview?
Worked for Northwestern Mutual? Contribute to the Community!
Add Review Add Salary Add Interview Review Add PhotosWork in HR or Recruiting?
Interviews by Company
Salaries by Company
Flag this {0} as inappropriate
Would you like us to review something? Please describe the problem with this {0} and we will look into it.
Oops!
We're sorry but your feedback didn't make it to the team. Your input is valuable to us – would you mind trying again?
The difficulty rating is the average interview difficulty rating across all interview candidates.
The interview experience is the percentage of all interview candidates that said their interview experience was positive, neutral, or negative.
Your response will be removed from the review – this cannot be undone.
