Otis Elevator Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Nov 2007 in Washington, DC (took 1 week)

My first interview with Otis, to join the company, was 1993. The last interview process was in 2000, when I was transferring from one office to a higher position in another office. During my time there Otis seemed to hire one of two types for their Account Manager positions. Either business school graduates (MBA) or people who had experience in elevator sales from other elevator companies. Rarely did I see candidates come, and succeed from any other backgrounds.

I entered from a MBA program so the process involved, interviewing, at my university, for a summer internship, then later interviewing for a position with the company. Ultimately Otis is about sales and new hires who wish to advance, need to spend time in the local offices where the sales are generated.

Typically, candidates will be brought in for a day or two of interviewing at the local office where there is an opening. This will have followed a phone interview with the location manager, and HR manager, and maybe the regional GM. Usually this takes a day, but in larger metro areas there may be several offices in close proximity and multiple positions available. In this case you may spend two days and visit several offices.

On the interview day, the local office will have scheduled anywhere from 4 to 6 meetings/interviews for the candidate. These would include: the Location Manager, Sales Manager, Superintendent, Manager of the department with the opening, HR manager for that area, one or two sales reps from the department and possibly the Regional GM. Basically they try to have everyone on the team have a look at the candidate. There may be fewer interviews at smaller offices.

Typically, the interviews will last 30 minutes to an hour. You will probably attend lunch with several of the people you have spoken to during the day. If things are going well, you may also have dinner with someone from the office, if you are coming from out of town to interview. Depending on schedules, the candidate may be taken on a tour of the area, or ride along with one of the other sales reps.

Generally, the questions are standard fare, and you will have it down pat, by the 4th interview. They want to know your history, your education, your knowledge of the product, sales, and how you get along with people. Probably, above all they want to see, how you handle and interact with people; both potential customers and the Otis team. Nothing happens successfully in Otis without the efforts of a team players; sales reps. mechanics, superintendents, engineers, corporate support, etc. so it is important that the candidate be able to work in this environment.

One challenge to candidates with strictly white collar backgrounds, is the field component of Otis. Sales reps work along with a blue collar workforce of technicians and superintendents that do the actual hands on installation and maintenance of the elevators. You will find that the most direct and in your face interviews will come from the Superintendent. They do not mince words and are not too interested in political correctness. They want to know if you are capable, a team player and can be trusted to do what you say. If you do not have your superintendent's respect, (they don't have to love you) you will not be very successful at Otis.

By the end of the day, you will have a good feel for where you stand. You may have an offer, but that typically comes a few days following your interview; after all the team members have had a chance to share their impressions of the candidate.