I applied online. I interviewed at Centric Consulting in Dec 2017
Interview
I was interviewed by several of the staff at Centric Consulting, starting at the HR person with a basic screening. Then moving onto several with the direct report, which involved performing a SQL assessment in between and even assisted them on advice on a product that would solve a problem that they were experiencing. And finally, I was offered an opportunity in talking to one of the peers of the position, which turned out to be more of an interviewing of me and did not give me much opportunity to ask about the position, the company or the direct report. The end of the interviews result in a response that they were interested in me (as passed on by the HR person), but they had just taken on an assistant to the direct report and wanted to wait until that person had been onboarded (a couple of weeks expectation). After a month I tried following up with an email. I did not receive any response to the email. I again tried phoning the HR person, they did not take my call or return my voice message I left. Further emails were sent, resulting in them being read, but no response. I get it that they might have changed their minds about me, but it would be courteous to drop a simple email just letting me know, especially seeing that I had been through a total of more than 6 hours’ worth of interviews, not counting the time spent on the assessment. It is now 6 months after the whole process and I had moved on a long time ago, but I thought I would leave an update for future applicants looking at the position (Big Data Architect), which they are still advertising today, to just let the applicants know what type of people they are dealing with.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Typical interview questions, nothing that one would not expect.
SQL Assessment Questions:
The data model below shows relationships between tables. You will need to understand these tables to develop SQL queries that answer the questions. All columns except Primary Key (PK) columns should be assumed to be nullable.
Sample data for each of the tables (Sales, Product, SalesReturnReason) is shown below. A complete set of data is included in the attached Excel Spreadsheet. This spreadsheet data may be imported into your database of choice.
Question 1
Write a SQL Query that will return the total amount of sales by product category, for the month of December 2013.
• Your query should return 2 columns: ProductCategory, SalesAmount.
• Your query should produce a 2-row result set, including the following row and 1 additional row that is not shown:
Question 2
Write a SQL Query that returns the total amount of returns for reasons that were our fault (OurFault = “Y”) regardless of whether the items were physically returned (Returned = “Y”)
• Your query should return one column: Sales.
• Your query should produce a 1-row result set looking like the following:
Question 3
Write a SQL Query that will show total sales for the top 4 product subcategories, including ties (see note below) based on 2013 sales.
• A NULL ProductSubCategory should be listed as “Unknown”.
• In the event of a tie within the top 4, both records should be included.
• Your query should return 3 columns: ProductSubCategory, Sales and SalesRank.
• Your query should produce a 4-row result set including the following 2 records and 2 additional rows that are not shown:
Question 4
Write a SQL Query that will show all transactions where a customer purchased a Hydration Pack (ProductSubCategory = " Hydration Packs") and their previous purchase -- based on TransactionTimestamp -- was a Water Bottle or Cage (ProductSubCategory = "Bottles and Cages").
• Your query should return 6 columns: TransactionID, CustomerName, ProductSubCategory, PriorProductSubCategory, TransactionTimestamp, and SalesAmount.
• Your query should produce a 3 row result set that includes these 2-rows and 1 additional row that is not shown:
Question 5
Write a SQL Query that will return total sales by product category and year.
• Write the SQL query without using a CASE statement
• A NULL ProductCategory should be listed as “Unknown”.
• Your query should return 4 columns: ProductCategory, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Each of the year columns will show the total sales amount for that year.
• Your query should produce a 4-row result set including the 2 rows below, and 2 additional rows that are not shown:
I applied online. I interviewed at Centric Consulting (Saint Louis, MO) in Apr 2017
Interview
Very weird experience with Centric. I had 4 interviews including the last one with a partner and the feedback was positive. They were moving so fast and I was really excited to join their team. I was expecting an offer but then suddenly the recruiter called and asked me to take a SQL test (after the 4th interview with a partner and after passing the technical interview? Hmm…weird but OK). Shouldn't that test be given right away? And never mind that I was applying for Big Data Architect position. I would think that NoSql test would be more appropriate or test related to database architecture. Anyway I took the test which was not easy considering it was timed to 1 hour...but I still did well. If I had 2 hours I would have answered all the questions correctly.
Anyway, the recruiter calls me today to tell me they won’t be proceeding with the hiring process because my test was not up to the standard, I lack experience in building teams (I have 7 years experience working as a manager and managing teams) and because I am not open to 100% travel (I told them I am open to 100% travel - this is fact the very first question recruiter asked me). I told the recruiter but I am open to 100% travel, I do have experience building teams…"sorry I wish I have more saying in the hiring decisions". And that was it. Wow!
It sounds like we didn't provide an unmatched candidate experience this time. I hope you can accept my apologies. I have shared your feedback with the team and we will use it to refine our process. If you would like to speak with me directly, feel free to email me at carmen.fontana@centricconsulting.com. Once again, I am so sorry! - Carmen Fontana, Talent Acquistion Lead
Top companies for "Compensation and Benefits" near you
