Isaac Operations Interview Prep

Tell me about yourself

• From a young age exposed to the technical aspects of engineering and manufacturing at my grandparent's house

• Developed into a strong interest in the application of mathematics and science

• A community service trip to Panama illustrated the bigger picture

• This region was severely underdeveloped with widespread poverty seen by families disposing of human waste outside their houses

• The social inequality was evident as the community was deprived of the essentials to live properly

• Thus I pursued Biochemical Engineering to be able to design sustainable solutions to improve the quality of life

I'm a graduate from Queen's University in Chemical Engineering and now I currently completing a Master of Engineering in Manufacturing at McMaster. I have proven experience leading collaborative teams and managing multifaceted projects in the logistics and distribution industry. Engineered competitive advantage and drove shareholder value through the redesign of strategic projects to develop innovative solutions. Passionate in process improvement through automation and the implementation of disruptive technology such as live factory and future supply network.

• Want to provide clients solutions that improve their quality of _________ (process, product etc.)

Business Development Representative

- Collaborated in the business improvement process through the optimization of inventory levels and facilitating customer engagement across all channels

- Managing and maintaining product inventory levels in the retail environment in order to reduce inventory shrinkage.

o One of the performance indicators was expired product

- product expansion within stores was done through communication with store managers to retrieve additional shelf space, displays etc.

Warehouse Operations Lead

- Retrieved vendor orders via a WMS and loaded the product onto trucks to be delivered to vendors

- Accuracy of SKUs loaded and compliance were the 2 performance indicators

- Trained and encouraged team members which led to an increase in the daily fill case rate from 95% to 98%

- Was a part of a discussion to optimize the flow of the DC to streamline operations

o Examined factors such as throughput capacity, storage capacity, and the SKU line capacity

o Most popular SKUs were identified and with the aid of SAP, some SKU locations were changed based on frequency of use which led to increased productivity

Bombardier

- Signed an NDA so can't say much

- We were tasked with creating a prototype that would mitigate an issue experienced by their newest monorail

o Modifications were made from the previous model to the newest, which led to the potential for a massive failure

- The client did not want a solution that eliminates the failure, rather, a solution that drastically decreases the operational downtime

- Solution: reduced the operational downtime from three days to one day, and manufactured a solution that decreased the capital cost by 20%

What do you know about Isaac Operations?

- Founded in 2003 and currently has about 30 employees

- Engineering-based consultant company that works across a broad range of industry sectors

- Focused on delivering tailored solutions to clients and this is done through a hands-on implementation approach

Why us? What specific things about Isaac interest you? Why do you want to work here?

1) the challenging work environment coupled with the philosophy of striving to deliver professional excellence

- Isaac is a dynamic firm and offers the exposure to work within a variety of industries and create custom pragmatic solutions

2) invest in people and value continuous improvement

- meaning development and learning opportunities (i.e. senior consultants pairing with junior ones)

- also seen through the salary (i.e. there is incentive for continuous growth and improvement as you begin to receive a share of the profits)

- also seen through ensuring there is the work/life balance and creating a positive and encouraging work environment

3) the high-performance culture and innovation sets you apart in the industry

- meaning it's a 2 way street at Isaac for communication which allows the company to grow but ensures happiness within their employees

- a lot of flexibility within the company and a lot of people who make work enjoyable and help you grow and develop

I have numerous years of professional/first-hand experience working in a variety of the industries Isaac does business in; well-versed in supply chain management and operations

Biggest Strength

- My greatest strength is my willingness to learn new things. This was evident to me throughout my academic career when I took the initiative to learn new skills to streamline tasks and help me outperform my classmates. For example, I began to learn VBA as manipulating large quantities of data was a common task.

Biggest Weakness

- My greatest weakness is my hesitant nature to share responsibilities. I prefer being in control of tasks as I do not want to rely on others if I know I can complete the task. I discussed this weakness with my professor of my 4th year design course as an area of improvement. During the 8 month project I worked on this weakness by learning to share tasks and developing confidence working in a collaborative group.

Can you articulate why this job appeals to you? Why choose consulting?

- Consulting appeals to me because of the multifaceted nature. The challenging and diverse environment means that there is something new everyday.

- Constantly working in new sectors and learning new skills that will yield the correct solution for the client.

- Consulting allows you to be a part of a collaborative team where creativity and entrepreneurial skills are at the forefront of all decisions.

- There is great satisfaction when your hard work on a project translates into a happy client

How do you describe your life before university?

- Heavily involved in sports in high school

o Played AAA hockey, high school hockey, set up weekly soccer scrimmage with friends from school and work etc.

o Gave up playing hockey in grade 12 and focused on school more

- My work ethic, attitude towards school, constant drive to learn and improve was the same before university to now

o Did intramurals in university to stay active, meet friends etc

Whats your ideal weekend?

- Getting all my friends together and setting up a soccer/hockey scrimmage

- Its been tough to do recently because people are in school, on co-op, or already working (i.e. not at home)

- Going out to see the latest movie

- Ultimately, just hanging out with my friends and catching up over a team activity

What would your friends say about you?

- I am confident that my friends/colleagues would describe me as:

- 1) result-oriented - seen through my keenness to explore the topic/issue at hand and the reasons behind it to yield the best possible result

- 2) resourceful - seen through my ability to find solutions by maximizing the resources immediately available

- 3) reliable - seen through my ability to be trusted and consistently produce high quality work; as evident through my professional experience as I worked additional shifts when the company was short-staffed

What are your interests?

- I am a very active person and love doing outdoor activities with friends (i.e. pickup soccer or hockey, hiking)

o Ice hockey/road hockey, pick up soccer or playing against a team

o Love doing outdoor activities because it's a good way to manage stress and allows for lots of interaction and collaboration with friends/teammates

- I am a huge fan of movies, so I love seeing new movies in theatres once they come out

o This year was the first year I was able to go to the Toronto International Film Festival which was a really great experience

o Favourite movie was First Man

- I love travelling. This past summer was my first-time visiting Europe and it was such a wonderful experience seeing new sites and experiencing different cultures.

o Went to France and England

o Italy, Greece, Germany, and Norway are my next targets