Pepsi Interviewing Final Round Experience

Hi my name is Abel Arriaga I am a senior graduating this May
from the School of Global Management and Leadership. The following is a journal of my trip to Dallas, TX for final
round of interviews for Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG). The position is a “campus recruit” which is a fast track program
towards leadership positions in PBG.
They invest a lot of money in this because the hires they get out of
this program will stay with the company making a career becoming future
business leaders. Pepsi is #21 in Business
week top companies and also in the Top 50 places to launch a career. I took as many notes as possible to give
future students of the Office of Professional Advancement and Engagement a
detailed look at what is involved in complex out-of-state interviews. I hope
you enjoy.

Wednesday March 5th, 2008

7:30am

Last night I had the most dreams I have had in a long
time. They weren’t about Pepsi but
about someone stealing my car engine. I
don’t know what symbolism this represents because Fraud never had cars J I got six hours of sleep they most in three
weeks and it felt like it was never going to end. When I woke up I went jogging like I normally do. The crisp and quiet morning helps me
focus. I packed all my clothes last
night, folded them nice and neat. Some
slacks, my suit with a Pepsi blue shirt to match, a tie, my dress shoes and
socks and a bathing suit (you never know).
I imagine myself going through the trip so as not to forget
anything. I wasn’t nervous but each
minute that ticks by I feel my heart pumping more steadily. I printed some extra resumes, grabbed some
homework and a Fortune magazine. I pack
away my binder form the Office of Professional Advancement and Engagement
“Learning to be the Competition”, and portfolio with my notes and pens, and my
homework. All of this is going carry on
with me, it is too important to lose.

8:55am

Almost nine getting ready to leave to Sky harbor airport I’m
flying American Airlines to Dallas Fort Worth International airport. Put a couple new songs on my MP3 player.
Ahhh I cant find my headphones…

9:48am

At my terminal now.
No traffic what so ever. I still
have an hour before I fly out. After I
finish my breakfast burrito study time begins.
Copies of resume, check, self statement memorized, check, accomplishment
stories, che..um time to write these out.

12:00pm

Ding! You are now free to move about the cabin. I am currently 33,000 ft in the air. I just finished re-reading an article our of
Fortune magazine. The cover article is What
makes Pepsi Great? This came in the mail a day after I received my offer to
fly to Dallas for the second round. It
has some good information about Pepsi Co CEO Indra Nooyi. The article outlines the history of Pepsi
like the selling off of its restaurant chain (Pizza Hut, Taco Bell etc.) and
its acquisition of Quaker and Tropicana.
It also gave some insight to Pepsi’s future goals and the problems it is
facing in the food and beverage industry.
Now back to my accomplishment stories.

5:25pm

I just finished showering and getting ready for the panel
dinner. On the plane I picked a few
people that looked like potential Pepsi candidates. I was right! We all ended up taking the shuttle to the Mariott.
Three more recruits from ASU, two from Tempe, one alumni and another from Ohio
State. Nate from Tempe is going for operations position, the rest unfortunately
are going for sales development, my position Yikes! We arrive at the front desk and check in. Waiting for each of us is a Pepsi
packet. I decide to get some lunch with
the other two guys from ASU. I race to my room feeling super-charged. Its really happening now and I am ready for
it. I quickly hang up my clothes, they
will need to be ironed again, and unpack the rest of my bag. I go through the
packet before I leave it contains the following:

PBG pen

PBG key chain light

PBG informational booklet

Campus Assessment folder

Inside the campus assessment folder are the two case
studies, some waivers for the tour of the plant and a relocation interest sheet
ehhh okay Phoenix is an option.

I met Nate and Adam down in the lobby and we head to a
sports bar across the street. On the way there another young man is walking
towards us. I measure him up quickly-
KU shirt with a Jayhawk on it, another sales potential from Kansas
University. Sergio is his name and he
joins us for lunch. Sergio’s first
choice to move is Phoenix too. He had been to Glendale once and loved it. I
wonder how many other people want to go to Phoenix? We all head back to our
rooms each of us is staying on a different floor. I go over the case studies in the folder. The first case study focuses on time
management; four tasks to choose from and I must decide what order I want to do
them in. The second case study is a
sales simulation in which I must bring a new product and sell it into the
campus store. My mind quickly comes up
with some ideas but its 5:38 I gotta get there early for dinner.

8:54pm

When I walked out of my room to go to the dinner the first
thing I see walking out of door is four other guys my age with their portfolios
in hand heading towards elevator. Three of them are from Texas A & M the
other one is from Colorado State. At the dinner there was a nameplate with my
name and school and a spot for me to write in my favorite Pepsi drink at one of
the tables. Pepsi goes over the
complete program and where we fit into the equation. They are investing all this money on us because we are their
future leaders, we are on the fast track to Pepsi upper management. We had both the VP of sales and VP of
operations speak to us. After the
dinner the upper management left and the split up the groups into operations
and sales. Then we heard from past
college recruits and their experiences.
We got to ask them questions about anything we wanted; salary, worst
experiences, relocation issues and keys to success. After dinner I stayed
behind to talk to the panel for a bit longer. Everybody has rushed back to
their rooms in order to start on their homework- the case studies. I am
grabbing my stuff and going to go to the pool and relax and get some work done.

11:21pm

I have read both case studies and written out my
answers. Time management was fairly
easy and should not be a problem. The
sales simulation was a bit more difficult but thanks to Dr. Rice’s MKT 414
class it was minor. The case studies I
do in that class made it so easy and fun to do. I made my SWOT analysis and wrote it up. I made my final version of the time
management already but I am too tried to finish the sales simulation. I have to wake up at 5:45am, which is 3:45am
AZ time, and I have a long day tomorrow so its time to rest.

Thursday March 6th, 2008

7:10am

On the shuttle heading to the Pepsi plant in Mesquite,
TX. Everyone is dressed in their suites
with their game faces on. I already
reviewed my strengths on my resume and my accomplishments. Now I am reviewing my case studies.

9:50am

We had breakfast supplied for us and I just finished with
the plant tour. It was insane seeing how quickly some of the lines made the
beverages. We saw five lines operating,
like the Mt Dew 2 liter and 20oz and also the Lipton tea cans. It was
interesting because some of the older machines are less automated and had to
have human involvement. Then there was the newer equipment like the cans that can
produce 2000 cans per hour. They put them in boxes and palletized them all in a
matter of minutes it was very cool.

10:10am

I am drinking my Aquafina ready to interview. They have been showing Pepsi Super Bowl
ads. They also have fridge behind me loaded
with all Pepsi products- Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mt. Dew, Sobe life water, G2, Dole
juice, Hawiian punch, Tropicana lemonade and Aquafina.

12:10pm

I just finished eating my catered lunch from Panera
bread. It was a victory lunch because I
did excellent at the interview sessions! (note: I look back now and feel there
were things I could have done differently and that great confidence isn’t as
strong as it was) There were three sessions of interviewing. I amazed Peter Pelasu during the time
management part that he asked me some curve ball questions to find out what I
could do. The next one was the
situational session with Lesa. Here I
was told of a situation and how I would respond to it. Like what would you do
if a member of your group at school had not done his/her part and it was due on
Monday? The last session was the sales
simulation. There I had two Pepsi
people one was Andrew who was acting as the manager of the store I was trying
to sell my shirts to and Mandy who was taking notes during our mock
session. It was fun and I was
persistent in getting my shirts sold in.
Andrew was very resistant to bring in my short sleeve shirts but I kept
pushing to get my foot in the door.
Afterwards Mandy said she like the way I took it in a different direction
than the other people they had interviewed. They were impressed and enjoyed my
creativity.

1:40pm

We got back from our trade tour which was a going out to the
stores and seeing what they have deal with in getting in their product in
stores. John Cruz is the Territory
Sales Manager for the Dirty South, which is what he calls his region in Dallas;
the other region is called the Royal North.
He explained to us the battles for shelf space and displays that goes on
that nobody knows about. Some stores we
can negotiate price and orders other are set from headquarters. I has been steadily raining more and more so
we cut our tour short after two stores.

2:00pm

Its now a waiting game, the day is done but we are waiting
to see who can leave and who is going to have t stay another night because the
rain has cancelled some flights.

4:02pm

We dropped off half of the recruits and some Pepsi personnel
at another hotel because their flights were rescheduled for tomorrow or
Saturday. We have been driving for an hour
now and some of the cars coming the opposite direction we are driving have snow
covering them. It is sleeting now not
looking good. Pepsi will pay for what
ever I need but I’d rather go home. My flight is still on time.

4:10pm

All flights have been cancelled we are hearing now. Katie
from Colorado State says her flight on Delta is still going.

5:10pm

It is snowing and we ended up just driving through the DFWA
international airport. Tensions are
rising and this is quickly becoming an MTV episode of the Road Rules. The
Driver of our shuttle wouldn’t turn into any of the terminals because he said
they were all closed. Katie was yelling
her flight was still going. (Her flight did end up taking off) We are heading
back to the original Mariott to drop of those that drove.

6:30pm

Me and two other recruits are taking a cab now back to the
secondary hotel near the Pepsi plant; all hotels by the airport are booked
up. Another group of us is going to
pick up a recruit that is stranded at the airport and bring her back to the
hotel.

7:24pm

I just got done talking to the police. Our cab driver, “Owedo” can’t remember exact
spelling, tried to rip us off coming back the Mariott south. I figured out where we were going on our
drive and called the driver out. He
said he wasn’t but his GPS unit kept saying U-turn now, U-turn now. He said he wasn’t go to charge us or pay
whatever we wanted. I said we would pay him half. I had the manager of the new Mariott we were at call the cab
company to see what the right price would be.
I had all the Pepsi HR and recruits watching the whole scene. Long story short Pepsi paid him $57 instead
of $75 its not my money but I am not going to let someone cheat me even if its
not my money. I have no flight mine
never rolled over like everybody else’s did. No room! What a day. I hate Texas!

8:43pm

I finally got a flight leaving tomorrow at 7:50pm. I just
checked into my room at hotel across from the rest of the group. This truly is the Pepsi challenge. Time to go to the Jacuzzi and relax.

Friday March 7th, 2008

9:20am

I just woke up after a nice long sleep. It felt so good to sleep and not have to
rush to do something. I am gong to get
some breakfast down at the hotel lobby.

9:30am

Breakfast ends at 9:00am damn Texas time.

10:30am

I met Stephanie the main HR rep for Pepsi in Denver down in
the hotel lobby. There are four of us
left at this hotel so we are going to meet up with the rest of the pack at the
other hotel.

12:58pm

Got a new flight our of Dallas Lovefield leaving early so I
will get home at 7:30pm.

1:28pm

I am taking another cab again… this guy is from
Jamaica. We’ll see how this one turns
out.

2:28pm

Made it to the airport, check-in, by my terminal getting
some food and flight is on time. I can’t wait to get out of Texas.

6:30pm

Flying over Sante Fe, NM now. On my flight to Tulsa, OK I was sitting next to a college
recruiter for Target. She said to make
sure I take a good look at benefits because those are very important and
usually not paid much attention to when accepting a job offer. I asked her what is the one key thing she
looks for in her recruits. The main
thing she wants is leadership. The
skills and knowledge she can mold and develop while leadership has natural
traits they desire.

7:50pm

I am back in Phoenix and got my bags on my way home. What a
journey I hope it was all worth it.

I learned some things on this trip. First off bring extra clothes you never no
when you might need some warm clothes or extra days worth of clothes. Also bring a cell phone charger no matter if
it just a day or two day trip. There were a bunch of recruits that had dead
phones by the time Friday rolled around.
Express to everyone how much you want the job. I felt like I did great with everything that was asked of me but
I should have made it clearer that I wanted the job and wasn’t just trying to
get the job offer.