If hired here at Concur Technologies, what do you feel would be the biggest hurdle for you to overcome from the start?

"As you can see from my resume, I don't have any direct working experience with the financial industry and I would see that as my largest learning opportunity if offered this position. Like I did with my current job in the healthcare industry, I would take the time to learn the basics of the industry that would help me design the most intuitive user interfaces in the products here at Concur Technologies."

The key to answering this question with confidence starts with understanding that you are interviewing with Concur Technologies because your interviewer feels that you are a strong candidate for this position. What your interviewer is focusing on with this question is how they could be of most help to you if hired for the job. So, take the time prior to your interview to think about an aspect of the position that would be the most difficult for you to overcome to be up and running at full speed and then take time to explain how you would plan to overcome that hurdle if hired. This structured answer will tell your interviewer that you have put thought to your potential shortcoming with a plan of action.

"Being a team player by nature, I've always considered my first challenge at any new company to be the task of getting to know my colleagues, their work preferences and their work styles. In the same breath, I want them to know who I am and how I best work as part of a team with them. To accomplish this, I would take the initiative to set one on one meetings with individuals that I didn't get to touch base with during my orientation process to get to know them better."

"The biggest hurdle that I foresee me having to overcome from the start, is learning who is who in all the different departments again. I have always found that once you have found at least one great reliable resource in each department that you work with regularly to support your projects, the more productive you can be. The same can be said for learning where everything is on SharePoint, so I can bookmark everything, such as WorkForce Management, Salesforce, Service Now, etc. Besides that, I am looking forward to working for Concur again and working with the different technology that you have."

Here at Concur Technologies, we strive for continuous delivery and continuous deployment with our software. Are you familiar with these processes in your current work?

"In my current role, we utilize a 100% continuous deployment process with our end users when we role out new changes to existing software. We use automated testing in our process to validate that code changes are correct and able to be deployed without issue. Once validated, changes are automatically rolled out to our end users. Having once utilized a continuous delivery system, I am very appreciative of working in an environment utilizing continuous deployment as it negates any need for human intervention in the roll out."

In the industries that Concur Technologies works in, updates to software are vital to end users for them to stay at the forefront of their business. To ensure that updates happen as quick and smoothly as possible, Concur Technologies utilizes continuous delivery and continuous deployment for their customers. For this question, talk about what you know about these processes as a software architect, why they are important and what experience you have with them.

"In my current position, we've slowly grown from a continuous integration process to a continuous delivery process. I love the automated testing process when we are looking at rolling out new changes to existing software and my role as the architect for our projects puts me in the drivers seat for sending out these changes. If hired for this role here at Concur Technologies, I'd be very intrigued at learning and working with continuous deployment practices as well."

As a consultant with Concur Technologies, your role will be vital in gather information from our customers in building new technology for them. What would be your goals in an initial consultation with a new or existing client?

"As an experienced consultant looking to break into the technology field, I will break a lot of awesome client focused skills to your team. In an initial consultation, my number one goal is to learn the business of the client and listen to what they are looking for in my products. Once their need is known, I can knowledgeably speak to the products that I work with to help them create a custom solution to fit their needs. If hired for this position, my first order of business would be to work very closely with the design and engineering staff to know the possibilities of customization. From there, my natural ability to consult with clients would take over in a win-win situation for all involved."

Software consultants are the bridge between the end users and the development teams of new software to help come up with new and creative solutions for the business. In this role with Concur Technologies, you will be expected to live in two different worlds and this question focuses on how you will work with end users of the companies products. In an initial consultation, focus your efforts on how you will learn the business needs of the client, talk about what can potentially be offered and then how you will start the creative problem solving process with them.

"In consulting with a new client or an existing client looking for system modifications, my number one goal in a first meeting with them would be to lay the framework for how we will move forward and to set expectations moving forward. I would look to understand their business needs and talk with them about all of the solutions possible for them with us as their software provider. From there, I have the ability to set expectations on a time frame for a solution proposal and we can move forward from there. At the end of a first meeting, I want to ensure that the key decision makers are comfortable with me and the business that I represent so they don't hesitate to reach out to me with questions or for clarification on items discussed."

"My goals for an initial consultation with a new or existing client would be where I first introduce myself, give a little background on myself and the rest of the project team working on their implementation will do the same and then I go to the client and have them introduce themselves and give a little information about themselves and their company and their role with our new technology that we are implementing.Then I will go over the implementation process and how it works, the standard time, the different communications, training, testing, reporting, and most importantly a potential go-live date. Sometimes the client is good with the standard timeline, sometimes they want to be more aggressive and I do my best to accommodate if possible and some clients want the go-live pushed out more due to changes happening within their company.I will then go over the different types of calls that I will be having with the client each week, so that they know what to expect from me and how to prepare before the calls. I also let the client know that I will provide them with 24 hours of our weekly calls our call notes/action items/due dates and agenda items for our next meeting. I will then conclude the 1st call with I would like to setup reoccurring weekly calls with the team now if possible please, since we have almost everyone on the phone, so if we can all quickly check our calendars that would be great or is this a good day and time each week for everyone to have our weekly calls and everyone says yes, great. Keep in mind that if one week this day and/or time does not work for the majority of us, we can always reschedule for another day during the same same week, in order to stay on target. Does anyone have any questions, if not it was a pleasure to get to know you and I look forward to working with you over the course of the next 2-3 months and please be on the lookout for our series of meeting invites emails, as well as the recap from today and talk to you all next week."

Here at Concur Technologies, we ask our test engineers to follow specific QA protocols. What role do you feel QA plays in software development and testing?

"As a test engineer, I take great pride in my role of ensuring that systems go out to consumers as error free as possible. In my current role, I take the time to learn all of the system specifications that are laid out by our design engineers and customize my testing to follow those specifications."

As an experience software testing engineer, quality assurance should be ingrained in your brain and your interviewer is looking to get a sense of your personal feelings towards it in your work with this question. In your answer, be sure to highlight QA's importance in reducing errors, maintaining specifications, testing failure parameters and preventing defects from occurring. In the end, make sure that quality is your mantra in the eyes of your interviewer by giving an example or two of how you put QA in the forefront of your work.

"In my work throughout my career, quality assurance in my testing was an every minute of every day job on my part. While creating effective testing processes on new software is extremely important in following QA protocols, the recording of defects, issuing of reports and assisting the designers on fixing issues are equally important parts of the process that I'd love to let shine here at Concur Technologies."

Talk about your previous user interface design experience in detail. Why do you feel that this experience will translate well to this role with Concur Technologies?

"Ten years into my career out of college, I consider myself very blessed to have such a well rounded background in user interface design. I have experience designing cutting edge mobile app designs, website design, video game design and software design. Here at Concur Technologies, your education software would greatly benefit from my creative designs to be user friendly and appealing to educators, parents and students and I'd love to bring these skills to work for you."

While your interviewer can get a good sense of your experience from your resume, they are looking for you to talk in details about your experiences in UI design in your previous work. While explaining your previous experience, be sure to highlight the skills that you developed that will help you be successful in designing new products with Concur Technologies. Prior to your interview, be sure you research and are family with the products that Concur Technologies puts out.

"While my experience in user interface design has really focused on web design over the past five years, I think my current skill set will benefit the team here at Concur Technologies greatly. In my web design, I prepare mockups and wireframes for customers and have experience utilizing a lot of different resources in doing these. In the software world, I would love to use these same principles. As well, my web experience has really driven me to be user focused. In this role, a more user focused drive is required out of your user interface design and I would be able to bring that to the team here."

"My previous experience with user interface design has been primarily with graphics, content, and hyperlinks. When I was a Financial Systems PM, I managed the SharePoint site, where I had to add new graphics to the home page, content, assign monthly tasks to my direct reports, post-credit card reconciliation statements, contracts, manage permissions of everyone in the 8 companies that we ran, pictures with links to take the end-user to the piece of technology needed, Concur for Expense and Invoice, Sage Intacct for my Accounting team to name two different types of technology that I used heavily daily, as I was the Administrator for all technology for the 8 companies. This experience will translate well with this role because I have firsthand knowledge of how the UI works with Concur and how to edit the messaging on the home page to tailor the clients' needs and how to customize different pop-up messages as well, when an end-user log-in if that is the way a client wants to go about sharing a message with their employees."

How do you stay organized and on track when working on multiple projects or duties at the same time?

"With any project that I am working on, I make sure to set benchmarks to meet deadlines ahead of time and set early personal deadlines to allow for some wiggle room. To do this, I am a proponent of using the Microsoft Outlook calendar and tasks functions to help keep me organized. I find that this method helps me stay on track with multiple projects while also leaving me wiggle room each day to fight the high needs fires that do come up in this job."

In this role with Concur Technologies, you will likely be expected to manage multiple projects at the same time. Your ability to plan, manage deadlines and handle high needs items that come up on a regular basis will be essential to your success in this role and your interviewer is looking to hear how you plan for success. Whether you utilize an electronic tool or a written list, there are no right or wrong answers as long as you can prove in your answer that this method works out great for you.

"For me to stay on track, I make sure to take ten minutes at the end of each day to recap what was accomplished, what new came up on my task list and re-prioritizing my work for the next day. Then, upon arriving the next day and working through emails from the previous evening, I can adjust my task list for the day if needed. I tend to set aside two hours per day to work on long-term project needs while focusing a majority of my time on the short-term needs."

"The way that I stay organized and on track when I work on multiple projects or duties at the same time is by utilizing my organizational, time management, planning, and prioritizing skills. The first thing I do is create a daily checklist in order of priority and what my role will be for the task on my checklist and a realistic deadline. I sometimes do a weekly checklist as well and follow the same steps. Making sure you have no outside distractions is key to staying on track and I do my best to step away from my desk for about 15 minutes to stretch and then get right back to my list. By doing this, it has always allowed me to manage multiple projects, as well as anything ad hoc that may get thrown into my day or week, that is not planned for, such as mandatory training, last-minute team meeting, client issue where we need to jump on an internal or external call immediately to mitigate risk."

Our implementation consultants here at Concur Technologies often face conflicts with our customers while onsite during implementations. What interpersonal skills do you use to handle conflicts with clients?

"Any time that I face a conflict in the workplace, I maintain my own personal composure by not taking things personally and keeping a smile on my face. After setting myself, I look to gain insight into the potential conflict by using my reflective listening skills and then problem solve from there. In this role, I would listen to the needs of the client and be empathetic in my approach with them. My ability to creatively problem solve would take over from there to help find a solution for the client."

In the software implementation process for large customers of Concur Technologies, you will be working with top level managers and key decision makers onsite and more often than not, issues can arise. In your role as the implementation consultant, these issues come directly to you and your interviewer will be looking to hear how you will handle these issues to maintain both a great relationship with the customer and honor to the Concur Technologies. In your answer, focus on finding solutions to issues that benefit both parties and talk about the important communication skills that you possess that will make this possible in any situation that you may face.

"The biggest skill that I would bring to the team here at Concur Technologies as a consultant to clients would be my ability to express mutual respect to all that I work with. As an organization, Concur Technologies has their own goals that I will be vital in helping to achieve. Your clients also have their own goals that can offer different greatly from yours. A sense of mutual respect allows me to put myself in the shoes of all involved and that really helps me find solutions that work for everyone."

"The top two interpersonal skills that I have found to be extremely successful when handling conflict with clients are communication and active listening. I once had a client who I implemented a year prior and they were trying to reach their Client Manager, but apparently, according to the client, the voicemail did not have anyone's name and they were leaving their Client Manager numerous voicemails and have not received a return call and they called me screaming and cursing about wanting to come back to me and how they never spoke to their CM, etc. and I listened to everything my client had to say, with no interruptions. I of course immediately wanted to help my old client, but before I did that I said to my client, that I want to help you immediately and after I do if it is ok with you, I just want to ensure that you have the right contact information for your Client Manager and they said that is fair enough. I helped the client with the minor issue that they had, they moved their headquarters, so I made that change for them and one of the Admins left too, so made that change as well. The client was now much happier,, so I knew it was ok to ask them to verify with me what phone number they had for their CM and that was when it all made sense, my client was calling my old work number from a year ago, they did not have the correct information for their CM that they were using from the emails I sent to them or that their CM sent to them, so instead of telling the client this, I simply provided them with the correct number, their name and email address over the phone, as well as emailed it to the client while we were on the phone and confirmed delivery of the information and the client apologized to me left and right and I told them, it was not a problem at all. They told me by answering their call, I saved them as a client because they were ready to cancel with us and it would have been their mistake he said."

What experience do you have in the different types of software maintenance?

"Being familiar with all four types of software maintenance, my most used method of maintenance in my current role is corrective. Based on bug reports from end users, I work through coding and logic issues to resolve issues in a timely and effective manner. In the maintenance I perform, I never hesitate to pick up the phone and contact customers to hear first hand about what they are experiencing. By doing this, they feel like they are an important part of the process and it reflects well on me and my organization."

As a reputable company, Concur Technologies takes their software maintenance processes seriously and your interviewer is looking to hear that you are familiar with the four different types of software maintenance. Talk to your interviewer about any work you have done in the past with corrective, adaptive, perfective and/or preventative software maintenance. Use specific examples and make sure that your interviewer walks away from your conversation knowing that you understand the importance of proper system maintenance.

"In my current role, I'd definitely say that a majority of the maintenance work that I do is adaptive maintenance. Working in banking software that is used around the globe, I help perform system maintenance for changes in currency on a pretty regular basis. This work requires research and talking with end users to help adapt the programs for their use. If hired here at Concur Technologies, I also have experience performing perfective, preventative and corrective maintenance on software as well."

At Concur Technologies, we take security risks very importantly in our products. In your experience, what are the biggest security risks in software and what is your experience in any prevention methods?

"As I'm fully aware, cyber-security has become a very important issue over the past ten years. In my current role, our biggest security risk is injection of code used by hackers to access information in our web applications. To help prevent any risks associated with injection, we've implemented the use of a safe API and using specific LIMIT and other SQL controls within queries to prevent loss of records in case of an injection."

As an expert in software industry, you are obviously aware of the many security risks that systems face in this day and age. For your answer to this question, talk knowledgeably about the security risks that you are most familiar with combating in your day to day work. Explain why the posed risk is important to combat against and talk about the methods you used to minimalize risk in the finished product.

"In the healthcare field where I currently work, broken authentication vulnerability has allowed attackers to hack into electronic medical records and gain control over those systems. This type of attack potentially puts hundreds of thousands of people at risk within a given system. We use many methods to prevent this type of security risk. First, we take the time to properly test the code before rolling out new updates to software. We also utilize very detailed external security audits. Other details we have implemented have been multi-factor authentication processes and recommendations to align password requirements with the NIST guidelines."

What programming languages would you consider yourself fluent in?

"From the start of college, where software engineering grew into a passion for me, I've become very fluent in Java, JavaScript and C++. My current role has me working primarily with C++, but I pride myself on my ability and passion to learn new programming languages and would be able to do so if hired for this role with Concur Technologies."

While this question gives your interviewer insight into the diversity of your programming language experience, they most importantly want to know that you are adaptable and able to learn on the fly if needed. Talk about the different languages that you consider yourself fluent in and, if possible, do as much research into Concur Technologies as you can prior to your interview and try to speak to the specific languages that they work with.

"During my training to be an engineer and then in my current role since graduating, a majority of my experience falls within Python. My current role delves deeply into artificial intelligence and Python is awesome with this advanced technology. As I understand it from talking to another engineer here at Concur Technologies, a requirement would be for me to learn Scala. Though I haven't worked directly with Scala, I believe my experience and willingness to learn would have me up and running in no time if hired for this role."

"I am applying for the Implementation Consultant role and I should not need to answer this question, but if you have any suggestions, I am happy to see them. Thank you."

We encourage innovation at Concur Technologies. When have you created a new product or service?

"In my previous role I was fortunate enough to introduce my company to the idea of a gold level service where, in addition to our general customer service, we added on service options. Our customer base responded very positively, and we kept the program running for a few years."

Using your creative mind, have you ever introduced an employer to a new product or service opportunity? Talk to the interviewer about a time when you have created a new product or service.

"In my current position, I create new products and services nearly every week! The most recent product that I created was X. Our customers received it well, and we are continuing to expand on the product now."

"I was a trainer to all the new hire Implementation Specialists and Early Engagement Consultants for their first 5 weeks and they remained their mentors. One thing that I always said when I was being trained when I joined the team was that there was some sort of guide to turn to on how to handle the different types of client implementations that we would be assigned and a mock call flow to follow or tweak as you wanted. Part of the training is to listen to all of the members on the team that you are assigned to, at least once so that you can hear their style with the client and see if that is how you want to run your calls or not and I found to be a good and bad thing, so I decided to create my wish list for all new hires, where it listed every single project that we could get, from tmc conversions, concur professional implementations, to concur standard and so many other implementations. The guide also included step by step instructions on what you would do once you are assigned the project, to when the project is handed off to client management, different call flow step by step instructions based on the implementation with how I run my calls and links to all the most used technology tools that we require daily, so that the new hire could bookmark them and have them readily available when they had their first client. I posted the guide to SharePoint for everyone to access and the most tenured Implementation Specialists and Early Engagement Consultants reached out to me and said they started to use it as a resource."

Do you consider yourself stronger in C++, C#, Java, or Python?

"In my last company, we had a bit of an outdated tech stack and used C# and .NET. I found myself fully immersed in those technologies, but had a strong desire to learn more and become more familiar with modern technologies and how I can apply that in my career. That's what has me so interested in this role. Over the last year, I've taken courses in Java and C++, which I noticed you prefer. I've become proficient in the skills and in side projects, applied my increasingly strong knowledge. I'm probably strongest professionally in C# as that has been where my experience lies, but my passion and dedication is on the Java and C++ side, as I feel that's the more modern alternative. I'm excited about the possibility of applying that knowledge in a role at Concur Technologies."

Before your interview, do some research to understand what tech stack Concur Technologies uses so you can best prepare and highlight your expertise. If you aren't as strong in one of the skills you feel is necessary, be sure to explain how you've used it and how you are growing your knowledge to become better. Be sure to be honest in your answer, as the company will likely test your strengths.

"I am motivated and excited about this new opportunity because it will challenge me to grow in my (X) skills. I love soccer and enjoy spending time with my teammates. I am interested in continuing my education by studying (Y) to further my career."

When do you consider a project to be finished?

"In my mind, a project is never truly finished. Once it's rolled out, upgrades will have to be performed, quality checks will have to be completed, and the product will inevitably change based on customer needs, new technologies, and trends in the market. We have to take that all into consideration when working on a project and while maintaining the product that was completed as a result of the project."

When answering this question, be sure to understand what the employer is truly asking. They are looking to see where you think the project ends, whether that is when it's completed and all testing is done, or whether you think projects are ongoing and require constant work. It can be a trick question as many companies believe a project is never truly finished. Be sure to give an explanation with your answer to back up your belief.

"I should disclose to you that I have a mark on my criminal record. I have a DUI from 1998. Since then I have maintained a clean record and I am willing to comply with any form of background check that you require."

"To me, a project is not moved out of my portfolio until it is truly in a steady-state and the client is transacting. This is the best way to ensure that the program we designed for the client is truly working. Simply because we test the software with the client before go-live and have the training with the end-users and admins on the site, the client may not use the site right away, so to say that this is when the client is at a steady-state simply because everything worked great throughout the process thus far, would not be accurate. Once the end-users start using the software is not until we know if the project is truly finished and can be handed off to client management and even when handed off to client management, my clients always know that I am available for any questions or concerns if they ever need me."

At Concur Technologies, we rely on a full team effort to deliver top quality products to our customers. Tell me about a time that you worked well as part of a team. Are you comfortable in a similar role here?

"Throughout my career, I've always enjoyed working as part of a larger team on the job and this personal enjoyment started with my love of and participation in team sports like baseball and basketball. Growing up playing sports, I learned that each team member brought a unique skill set that could help us achieve our goals. Through a great coaching staff that knew how to make these individual skills shine, this same philosophy holds true for a team that is looking to design a new software system. I know that my skills as an engineer are just part of the final product and I work very well with designers, architects, analysts and sales to help build the greatest system possible."

While this potential role with Concur Technologies will require your to be an independent worker that can think on your feet, you will also need to work as part of a larger team that is working toward one common goal. Because of this fact, your interviewer will want to hear that you thrive in an environment where you work with team members from other disciplines than you are trained in. In your example, stress to your interviewer that you have excellent communication skills and that you fully understand that every person on a team plays a vital role in the organization's success.

"I am a people person by nature and my current role has me working very closely with our engineering and design staff on writing technical manuals for our products. While I certainly can handle long days at my computer in solitude, my desire to work hand in hand with others really sets me apart from my peers in this field. I have excellent verbal, listening and written communication skills that, if hired here at Concur Technologies, your entire team would appreciate from my first day on the job."

"At _________, in a similar role to this one that I am applying for, I was asked by Senior Leadership to be part of a pilot group of 7 people from different parts of the organization, to create working documents that the rest of the organization will use when we implement our travel tools to our clients. The 7 of us all brought different skill sets and personalities to the table, a few had strong communication skills, both verbal and written, as well as detail-oriented, and is extremely organized, so each of us had to adapt to the way the other shared information with the team on their ideas, then the team offered feedback to one another both positively and in a constructive way in order to produce the best quality documents back to leadership when it was time to present to them after everything was completed after the 8 weeks. During that time there were a lot of different opinions, personalities, but we came up with amazing documents. Senior Leadership loved the documents so much that on Week 9 a client was going to be piloted using the new documents and I was selected to be the guinea pig if you will and it was a success and from what I hear, still used to this day. I love working in teams and hearing how other people would handle a situation and I also love working independently as well in this role, you get to do both, so it is a win/win."

What software analysis and design tools do you have familiarity working with?

"As my career and experience in software engineering has grown over the years, I've come to really appreciate and utilize these tools that are available. A great example of this would be my recent education and use of Structured English for designing insurance claim software for a large auto insurer. The simplicity of the structured decisions in the program were a perfect example of a program that could utilize the tool and the end product ended up very functional for our customer."

As a software engineer for Concur Technologies, your interviewer wants to hear that you have experience in utilizing tools that you make you more proficient in your work. Dig back on your past experiences and talk openly about your experiences with the different analysis and design tools that are available to help you be better in the work that you do. In the end, make sure that your interviewer understands that you are proficient in the use of these tools and open to learning and using new tools as well.

"I have great working knowledge in creating and reading data flow diagrams. To help with both our own sales staff and with customers, DFD's have been super helpful and I consider myself very proficient in creating them. I've also recently been introduced to decision tables to aid in product testing. I was working on a new system that involved some very complicated business rules and the decision table helped outline everything perfectly for our testing."

"As an example one of the software analysis and design tools that have worked well for me to make my projects run extremely smooth and efficiently has been using the static systems model, where I use a Gantt chart, which provides a static picture of an activity-time relationship. The static system model allows you to represent one pair of relationships and by using a Gantt chart it allows you to track the progress of the project by breaking it out by resource usage, task dependencies, milestones, task responsibilities, task distinction, and task completion status. I am always looking and open to new tools to use for process improvement."

How would you say that you would help bring sound data governance philosophies to this role at Concur Technologies?

"In my current role, I work under a very strict set of data governance principles that were developed by our team. The principles outline set processes that I follow in all data conversion processes for our new software. In the end of all projects, our data governance principles help ensure sound data storage processes and data security for our end users."

This big picture question will allow your interviewer to get a sense of how you understand that your work will benefit the greater good of Concur Technologies through following repeatable processes to maintain consistency in your work. When you talk about your experience and methods that you would help bring to table in this role, maintain a focus on minimizing risk and reducing costs for the organization.

"If hired for this role, I would love to help develop and abide by documented processes in data conversion to ensure solid data governance in the projects here at Concur Technologies. In the work I've performed in the past, I've developed conversion and end reporting processes that helped ensure 100% accuracy in the software being developed. With these processes in place, we could rest assured that corporate risks were as minimal as possible in our products."

In your experience in software testing, would you consider yourself proficient in both testing and debugging processes?

"Yes, I definitely would consider myself proficient in both testing and debugging software. My current role that I've held for four years since graduating from college has exposed me to both processes. In testing, I use known conditions and predefined methods to test for expected outcomes to find errors within the system. I utilize testing prior to new software rollouts. The debugging process happens to already released software that has had issues and comes with unknown conditions and unpredictable outcomes. In this process, my goal is to find the cause of the error to fix it efficiently and effectively to roll an updated program back out to end users."

As a reputable provider of software, Concur Technologies relies on their software testing engineers to both test and debug their products when necessary. Make your interviewer aware that you are knowledgeable on both processes by briefly explaining each process as you've worked on them in the past. Then, talk about your openness to working both testing and debugging processes if hired for this position.

"While a majority of my career has been focused on software testing, I am very familiar with debugging processes as well. If hired for this position, I would take the time to focus on debugging processes to bring myself up to speed while being able to hit the ground running on testing processes."

If you were asked to review a colleague's code that they had written, what key things would you look for?

"As an experienced software engineer, I fully expect my colleagues to reach out to me for my insight and I never hesitate to provide open and honest feedback. When asked to do this, my main focus is ensuring that the code is readable and functional. If there are lines of code that need to be removed, I don't hesitate to let my colleague know that while also giving them feedback on why I feel it is unnecessary."

For this question, your interviewer will obviously be looking to hear that you have adequate knowledge when it comes to coding processes. But most importantly, your interviewer will be looking to gauge your ability to be a team player and focus on the bigger picture when working on a project. In your answer, focus on your attention to detail and your ability to help others when needed.

"When I'm asked to do this in my current position, my main focus is on regulatory requirements that were put in place for the project and security issues. I work with a team of great engineers that are very efficient coders and these two areas are most often overlooked."

Can you describe the software development lifecycle?

"Absolutely. In my last job, we leveraged the waterfall method, making sure we completed each phase of the project - and completed it on time and to the highest quality, before moving on. The software development lifecycle consists of 6 steps, starting with planning, of course, followed by implementation, testing, documentation, deployment, and maintenance. Every step is crucial to ensure we're producing a quality product and also maintaining that product to meet the changing needs and demands of our end users."

With this question, employers are looking to test your knowledge. They want to know how much you've participated in the projects you've been involved in to truly understand the software development lifecycle. The question may seem basic to some, but employers are expecting an accurate answer to know that they're hiring a true pro.

"I am new to my career in financial services and sales; however, I have taken an online course focused on cold calling. This course was incredibly helpful and I look forward to meeting and exceeding my targets with Concur Technologies."

"I use the phased approach, also known as the waterfall method. I ensure that each phase of my project is completed on time and with the best quality for my clients, before moving on to the next. The software development lifecycle is made up of 6 steps, planning, implementation, testing, documentation, deployment, and maintenance. Every step is crucial to providing the best quality product to my clients so that it can be maintained later for any changes that my client may have."

Talk about a recent successful project that you worked on that required you to navigate some troubled waters during the project. What were the roadblocks and how did you overcome them?

"A couple of years ago, I was the lead architect on a new software package that we were developing. As in any project, I was tasked with reviewing and approving the code the would be enveloped in the software. Because the final code impacted our potential clients and this was certainly a unique package we were developing, I proposed putting together a focus panel of existing clients to discuss potential needs out of a new system. My senior leaders were very reluctant to do this as they didn't want any word getting out about the program in its infancy. Knowing that we really wanted their feedback to start the coding process, I worked with our sales staff to build a list of our most dedicated customers. Then, I approached out leadership with this group and they approved without reluctance. After putting together the focus panel and gathering their thoughts, we built a phenomenal program that exceeded all of our sales and performance expectations."

While your resume and your past experiences can easily show your interview that you have the technical abilities for this position with Concur Technologies, your interviewer needs some insight on your problem solving skills. This question allows your interviewer a chance to see how you handle adversity by using resources available to you. In your answer, talk about your ability to think critically and leverage people and resources to the advantage of beating a roadblock in your work. Make sure that your answer provides an example of a project that ended in success.

"I know that a large part of my success in the software architecture field is due to my ability to work collaboratively with others and provide mentorship to those on my team. On a recent project, I faced a design engineer that was very rigid in their ways and was unable to conform with new requirements for a system we were designing. In one of our first planning meetings, it became very evident that he would be unwilling to change in his ways. Being a person that wants to talk things out before escalating things further, I invited him to my office to talk one on one. I used a very educational approach to explain why we would be using the process we would be and I encouraged his participation in that approach. He hesitantly agreed. As we moved from design phase to the implementation phase, the engineer went right back to his old way of doing things and not embracing our new process. Rather than upsetting the entire project time, I immediately approached the engineer with a your either on board the ship or off the ship approach. Rather quickly, he asked that his seat on the team be reassigned to another engineer. In doing that quickly, our project was back up and running with success."

"In my last Global Implementation that I worked on, one of the countries that were included in my Phase 2 rollout was Russia. From the onset of speaking with the travel manager in Russia, there were some immediate issues that came up during our initial discovery calls, when it came to Form of Payment and the fee structure that was not discussed or discovered during the sales process based on there being nothing in the contract stating what Russia legal on the client-side advised me, the Project Manager and our Agency team of what was required to be signed by both parties(the client and my company) before we even continue to push forward with the Implementation. I now had to get my leader involved, as well as our legal counsel, to draft up an addendum with the verbiage that was required by Russian law to be able to do business with us and our Partner agency and when it comes to the FOP, they also wanted that included in the addendum, as well as the fee structure broken out for them. I managed this process, while still managing the other 7 markets and 15 countries in Phase 2, where I had to still conduct my weekly calls at the different time zones, based on my client's location, and get this addendum done quickly by staying on top of legal because they were so busy and I did not want this to fall to the waist side, as time was of the essence because I needed them back on track with the other Phase 2 markets. Thankfully, due to my problem solving, communication, both verbally and written, being detail-oriented, and critical thinking skills, I was able to get the addendum for Russia, have it docusigned asap and countersigned by our legal, so we could proceed with our Implementation. I doubled up on calls with the Russia travel manager and project team, so we can make our go-live date, to make up for any time missed."

How would you handle a situation where a colleague was being very difficult to work with?

"In all honesty, any great work atmosphere that I've been a part of in the past has involved conflict between colleagues. In situations I have witnessed, conflict has stemmed from very open-minded people giving their two cents in particular situations and two people not seeing eye to eye. This happened recently to me in the planning phases of a new project. On of our UX Designers and I had a disagreement on the final layout of a new software roll out we were planning. It worked best for both of us to talk about our ideas and list the pro's and con's for our ideas. I kept an open mind to learn from her point of view and she did the same to me on my end. This led us to come up with a great compromise in the end."

In the team based atmosphere at Concur Technologies, departments with different skills and backgrounds can often see things from different points of view and these situations can cause some internal conflict between coworkers. With this question, your interviewer is looking to hear how you handle situations where you are working with someone that can be seen as difficult. To give them the sense that you are able to work through conflict in a professional and sensible manner, try to talk through how you handled a conflict at work previously in the past and highlight the interpersonal skills that you used to help make it a positive situation.

"Last year, we had a new engineer join our team that was hired on from his internship with us. From his first day, he made it very evident that he would only handle certain tasks within our team and only work on certain projects. As his mentor to help get him up and running, I sat him down and discussed the expectations of each of our engineers as part of our larger team. I explained to him that our approach was not to pigeonhole ourselves into smaller tasks, but rather be well rounded engineers that could handle any project and be able to cover for each other if needed. He really appreciated this approach when I explained the benefits for his long term career goals with this approach. This example shows my approach to being very direct with people that I have a conflict with in the workplace and doing so in a very professional and educational manner."

"In a previous job that I had I was working with a large group on a new product that we were about to launch for our clients. Everyone on the team was extremely upbeat and had positive things to say about the product and shared similar views, with the exception of one colleague. For some reason no matter how we delivered the views during our initial meeting, this individual did not want to listen to anyone else's point of view. I knew without the help of this colleague that our team will not be able to be productive, so I called them up immediately following our meeting, telling them how important their opinion was to myself and the group. I also shared that it is hard when working with large groups all the different points of view that we will have to listen to and accept and adapt to them, even if they are not 100% what we would have chosen completely. Thankfully after this conversation, this colleague not only accepted the team's point of view, they brought so much value to the rollout of the new product."

Would you say that you are a goal oriented on the job? What would I be able to do as your manager to help you achieve your goals if hired here at Concur Technologies?

"I would definitely say that I am goal oriented on the job in wanting to contribute any way that I can to the overall benefit of the organization. In my current organization, our leadership focuses on overall sales numbers at the end of the year. To help achieve these goals, our department creates our own goals to help achieve the sales numbers needed to succeed. Last year, one of those goals was to be as creative as possible in our user experience design processes. With the launch of an exciting new app midyear, sales numbers skyrocketed and our department was instrumental in that. For me, it was important that we determined our goals as a team with the final stamp of approval from our manager. While this style of management really helped motivate me, I can thrive under any management style as long as expectations and goals for my work are clearly set."

At the heart of this question lies your interviewers desire to see what motivates you as a potential employee at Concur Technologies. Make it clear to your interviewer that you certainly are motivated by on the job goals and do this by using an example of a time where you were motivated by and achieved a goal. Then, think deeply about the type of manager that you like to work for in terms of goal setting and helping our achieve your goals. Let your interviewer know what type of management styles you appreciate the most while being open to any style.

"For me, my day to day work is much more meaningful when I have goals to work for. In my current role, we have set timelines for our projects and this helps lay the framework for our goals. If hired for this position, my expectations of you as my manager would be to have goals clearly defined and a supportive atmosphere to be provided to work within."

"I have always been a goal-oriented person both professionally and personally. A recent goal that I set for myself at my current employer is that I was working on a Global Implementation and they had a total of 5 Phases to their Implementation plan they really wanted to be live before Thanksgiving, but our actual go-live date was not until 06/Dec/21. I made sure not to make any promises to my client on the go-live date and advised them that it was dependent on some last-minute deliverables from them in order for my back office at the partner agency to complete the setup by the time the client wanted. I outlined every item that was needed by the client and with an extremely aggressive timeline and when I needed it back by. The client must have really wanted to be live early because all deliverables were received earlier than expected, I reached out to all the necessary departments and had a few internal calls and we were able to get the client's site configured, testing done, and the site reviewed by the client, all before Thanksgiving, goal accomplished and one very happy client. I find by setting goals for myself, both short and long term, keeps me focused, driven, gives me the drive to work even harder to ensure my goals are met. Being a person who sets goals for myself, I feel that my excellent time management, planning, and organizational skills are what allow me to be so focused and driven to meet my goals.As my manager, if I am lucky enough to be hired back with Concur, you can definitely help me achieve my goals by setting short and long term goals with me. This will then hold me accountable not only by myself, but with you, my manager as well. As my manager, you can hopefully advise me what different learning courses that are available at Concur, to make me even better at my job then I am now and whenever there are any opportunities to volunteer to help out on the team, please count me in, I love participating in special projects or whatever the need may be."

How do you measure the success of a data integration project?

"With any large data integration project that I have managed in the past, success starts with setting realistic yet high standard goals for the project. To do this, I need to make sure that I get input from all key stakeholders in the project. With a recent project, we measure our success in a few different ways. Because of the need set forth by our sales force to be more competitive with our competition in the market, we measured timeliness of the system pre and post integration. Then, to measure the financial impacts of the project, we measured our end of project costs versus what was budgeted. Because our goals were measurable, it was easy to see that the project was a huge success."

Similar to evaluating any project, measuring the success and impact of any data integration project should rely on goals that were defined at the start of the project. In your answer, be sure that you speak about the consideration for the people involved in the project (i.e. customers, sales, IT, engineering) and how success was measured in their eyes. Another great point to touch on in your answer is using the SMART method for setting goals to assure that they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time oriented.

"I think that I can best demonstrate this by talking about a recent data integration project we worked on in creating new banking software. At the beginning of the project, we clearly defined the end goals of the project in the data we wanted converted with a set deadline for completion. Our design team added their expectations on their desired workflow following the data conversion. One integration was complete, our goals were easily measured for the project to be considered a success."

"The way that I measure a successful data integration project is by doing my due diligence and planning upfront. I then create my Project Scope document to define what is expected of us by the client and have it signed off on by the key stakeholders and/or decision-makers, and this will have a project timeline that we are expected to meet on both sides. I also add any potential risks to the project to my risk document, that may come up during implementation and post and a mitigation game for those risks. Then I review all the different systems that are involved with the data, such as extraction, any system that receives the final data, and the consolidated input. You need to know if the process is manual or not, data security must be used for data integration. Then you are ready to do your design framework for the integration. You must have a good idea if the data is structured or not, its sources, the frequency of delivery, what format will the information be delivered, excel, etc. You need to know how will the data be processed and lastly testing must be done first, using sample input data to ensure mapping is done correctly before we map the live full file in a live environment, implement with live file to client. As you can see planning is crucial for the success of really any project."

Give an example of a time that you used a universal design practice in your work as a UI or UX designer. Why was it important to do this?

"From a very high level, the business success of a program really relies on being universally designed. If we pigeon hole ourselves, a product will only reach a very limited group of end users. But taking that a step further, universal design is the morally right thing to do to help reach people that may not have access to the average program design. Last year, I was part of a project that utilized a voice user interface for users that were deaf or hard of hearing. This simple yet effective design was a huge win for our current customers and in helping drive new business with our groundbreaking software."

In the technology, software and mobile app fields today, accessibility is a huge topic. As a designer with Concur Technologies, you will be expected to help create products that are as accessible as possible to as many end users as possible. In this two part question, talk about why you feel that universal design is important in the work that you will be doing with Concur Technologies and then really sell your ability to do this by giving an example of a time you used a universal design in your previous work.

"Early in my career, the best piece of advice that I receive was from an experience designer and she said that when UX doesn't consider all potential users, we are no longer working on the user experience. We live in a very diverse world and the programs that I've designed for in the past have certainly had the goal to reach a wide audience. With your financial products here at Concur Technologies, this same philosophy applies. Last year, based on some feedback from current customers, we switched our design to include a strong color contract to make the system much more user friendly to color blind users. This was both a simple and very effective change to enhance the look of the program."

"The best example to share with you of how I have used universal design practice as a UX designer is when creating my company's SharePoint site. A UX Designers main goal is the user and ensuring that the user knows how to actually use the tools available to them on the SP site because just because I made it look good aesthetically to the eye with bright and bold colors when I was acting as the UI designer for the site, you have to make things simple and user-friendly as a UX designer or your hard work can be all for nothing, as the end-user audience you are working on a specific project are unable to comprehend the information that you shared, if it is too busy, etc.In today's world, it is extremely important to think of accessibility and usability for products that we design so that we do not single out any target audience. The more marketable our products are due to universal design practice, the more successful as an organization we will be at Concur."

In your mind, when is monkey testing the most effective in testing new software?

"In my experience, monkey testing has been very effective in load testing and stress testing new software as standard testing methods couldn't do this without a lot of extra work. Because of the adhoc approach to the testing, load and stress on the software was most highly gauged through monkey testing."

By utilizing random inputs to check the behavior of a program, monkey testing has its time and place in the software testing process. For this question, your interviewer is looking to hear that you have an understanding of the theory behind monkey testing and how you would look to put it to work at Concur Technologies to test their products.

"Because monkey testing is able to find unique bugs that standard testing won't find, I've found it to be very effective for testing new pilot software programs that are reaching new bounds. At my current job, I helped design a brilliant monkey testing process that utilized user behavior to look for certain probabilities of bugs within our systems that we were designing."

"I have always found monkey testing most effective when I was doing a site review with the client of their new program that we just implemented and now we are showing the client all the different rules that have been put in place before they roll it out to their end-users. So what I tell the client is this call is to try and "break the system, sort of speak" and get any bugs out, if any before we go live in a week, and then get your end-users trained. The way I do this is by trying to break all the rules that the client put in place. An example would be to choose the most expensive airfare, pick a larger car size than what the company preferred size is and for hotel choose a 5 star and then see what happens at the end and see if we get any errors or if we are able to book the trip successfully. If we are Implementing an Invoice for example we want to show the client that the copy downs are working properly, from the header to the line item, if that is what was put in place, the vendor details are being captured correctly and any custom fields that we added on the header of the invoice are correct and the same for the line item, check that the expense codes all loaded properly for use and last but not least the approval workflow, we want to make sure that it is working properly before we roll this out because we do not want an Invoice approved automatically based on a dollar amount in error if there was another rule that we put into effect and then it extracts overnight and if the client uses a connector, it will feed into their ERP system and create more work than needed for the client."

What do you feel are the primary features and benefits of the Java programming language?

"When I started working with Java three years ago, the first huge benefit was the fact that the Java syntax was based on C++. At that time, I had a great working knowledge of C++ and my transition to Java was absolutely seamless. The other amazing feature that I've come to appreciate with Java is how robust the memory management is in exception handling and automatic garbage collection."

As a company that utilizes Java, Concur Technologies and your interviewer want to make sure that you have an understanding of the Java programming language and they do so by asking this question. Obviously a language packed with unique features, talk about the features that you can speak the most knowledgeably about and tie your direct experience to.

What unique values can you bring to Concur Technologies in your user experience design skills?

"I have really taken pride in my ability to add value to the business needs of the customers that I work with. During any design project, I take the time to work with end users to find their wants and needs out of the program. Then, as I create the UX design, I keep their needs at the forefront and do anything possible to exceed their expectations."

While your interviewer has shown confidence in your technical abilities to succeed at Concur Technologies as a UX designer, this question is helping them gain insight into your ability to see the big picture in the work that you do. As you think about the unique personal values that you would bring to the role, try and paint a picture of your work tying to the end user and how you can help make it more productive, enjoyable and satisfying for them.

"As you can see from my resume, I have formal training and experience in user experience research and I know that this would benefit the work that I would be doing here at Concur Technologies if hired for this position. I pursued this additional training in my career because of my passion for the customer journey in the programs that I design."

"The unique values that I bring to Concur for my user experience design skills are my ability to utilize my effective listening skills and my discussion capabilities to learn what the clients' requirements are to create unanimity. I also suggest product enhancements, improvement ideas, and my recommendations to the client when I see fit. I proactively ask that we have decision-makers invited to these calls, to avoid multiple calls reviewing the same content if possible, creating a positive and seamless customer experience."

Concur Technologies Interview Questions

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1. If hired here at Concur Technologies, what do you feel would be the biggest hurdle for you to overcome from the start?
2. Here at Concur Technologies, we strive for continuous delivery and continuous deployment with our software. Are you familiar with these processes in your current work?
3. As a consultant with Concur Technologies, your role will be vital in gather information from our customers in building new technology for them. What would be your goals in an initial consultation with a new or existing client?
4. Here at Concur Technologies, we ask our test engineers to follow specific QA protocols. What role do you feel QA plays in software development and testing?
5. Talk about your previous user interface design experience in detail. Why do you feel that this experience will translate well to this role with Concur Technologies?
6. How do you stay organized and on track when working on multiple projects or duties at the same time?
7. Our implementation consultants here at Concur Technologies often face conflicts with our customers while onsite during implementations. What interpersonal skills do you use to handle conflicts with clients?
8. What experience do you have in the different types of software maintenance?
9. At Concur Technologies, we take security risks very importantly in our products. In your experience, what are the biggest security risks in software and what is your experience in any prevention methods?
10. What programming languages would you consider yourself fluent in?
11. We encourage innovation at Concur Technologies. When have you created a new product or service?
12. Do you consider yourself stronger in C++, C#, Java, or Python?
13. When do you consider a project to be finished?
14. At Concur Technologies, we rely on a full team effort to deliver top quality products to our customers. Tell me about a time that you worked well as part of a team. Are you comfortable in a similar role here?
15. What software analysis and design tools do you have familiarity working with?
16. How would you say that you would help bring sound data governance philosophies to this role at Concur Technologies?
17. In your experience in software testing, would you consider yourself proficient in both testing and debugging processes?
18. If you were asked to review a colleague's code that they had written, what key things would you look for?
19. Can you describe the software development lifecycle?
20. Talk about a recent successful project that you worked on that required you to navigate some troubled waters during the project. What were the roadblocks and how did you overcome them?
21. How would you handle a situation where a colleague was being very difficult to work with?
22. Would you say that you are a goal oriented on the job? What would I be able to do as your manager to help you achieve your goals if hired here at Concur Technologies?
23. How do you measure the success of a data integration project?
24. Give an example of a time that you used a universal design practice in your work as a UI or UX designer. Why was it important to do this?
25. In your mind, when is monkey testing the most effective in testing new software?
26. What do you feel are the primary features and benefits of the Java programming language?
27. What unique values can you bring to Concur Technologies in your user experience design skills?

Concur Technologies Interview Questions

1. If hired here at Concur Technologies, what do you feel would be the biggest hurdle for you to overcome from the start?

2. Here at Concur Technologies, we strive for continuous delivery and continuous deployment with our software. Are you familiar with these processes in your current work?

3. As a consultant with Concur Technologies, your role will be vital in gather information from our customers in building new technology for them. What would be your goals in an initial consultation with a new or existing client?

4. Here at Concur Technologies, we ask our test engineers to follow specific QA protocols. What role do you feel QA plays in software development and testing?

5. Talk about your previous user interface design experience in detail. Why do you feel that this experience will translate well to this role with Concur Technologies?

6. How do you stay organized and on track when working on multiple projects or duties at the same time?

7. Our implementation consultants here at Concur Technologies often face conflicts with our customers while onsite during implementations. What interpersonal skills do you use to handle conflicts with clients?

8. What experience do you have in the different types of software maintenance?

9. At Concur Technologies, we take security risks very importantly in our products. In your experience, what are the biggest security risks in software and what is your experience in any prevention methods?

10. What programming languages would you consider yourself fluent in?

11. We encourage innovation at Concur Technologies. When have you created a new product or service?

12. Do you consider yourself stronger in C++, C#, Java, or Python?

13. When do you consider a project to be finished?

14. At Concur Technologies, we rely on a full team effort to deliver top quality products to our customers. Tell me about a time that you worked well as part of a team. Are you comfortable in a similar role here?

15. What software analysis and design tools do you have familiarity working with?

16. How would you say that you would help bring sound data governance philosophies to this role at Concur Technologies?

17. In your experience in software testing, would you consider yourself proficient in both testing and debugging processes?

18. If you were asked to review a colleague's code that they had written, what key things would you look for?

19. Can you describe the software development lifecycle?

20. Talk about a recent successful project that you worked on that required you to navigate some troubled waters during the project. What were the roadblocks and how did you overcome them?

21. How would you handle a situation where a colleague was being very difficult to work with?

22. Would you say that you are a goal oriented on the job? What would I be able to do as your manager to help you achieve your goals if hired here at Concur Technologies?

23. How do you measure the success of a data integration project?

24. Give an example of a time that you used a universal design practice in your work as a UI or UX designer. Why was it important to do this?

25. In your mind, when is monkey testing the most effective in testing new software?

26. What do you feel are the primary features and benefits of the Java programming language?

27. What unique values can you bring to Concur Technologies in your user experience design skills?