How To Prepare For E-Commerce Roles In Summers

The answer is through the form of placements. The majority of the organizations that are coming to the B-Schools for placements are E-Commerce type organizations or have a similar stature to E-Com organizations. And there has been a surge in the number of offers rolled out to students for such roles and this has only increased to a staggering number during and post-pandemic. Every student from a tech background who is doing an MBA at some point wishes to work with an E-Commerce firm or work in an E-Com role.

The length and breadth of the roles that are being offered in the domain of E-Commerce are wide and far-reaching. From E-Com Marketing & Strategy to Category Management, the options are endless and the spread is very huge. For the sake of this article and to help you guys out, I asked two of my friends what it takes to get through an E-Com role and got to understand the following feedbacks.

1. First round is mostly a simulation that is based on your decision-making abilities. You are asked to rank decisions based on a situation. It is an elimination round.
2. The second round is generally a technical interview, where depending on the role you are interviewing for you will be asked specific questions. For ProdMan it could be wireframes or product-related. Ops/Supply Chain related for Ops role and so on.
3. The last round is mostly just an interaction/discussion. They'll discuss the role and if you have any questions, you'll be given a chance here

This is a synopsis from the Summers process of a friend of mine who had gotten through Amazon.

Next, I would like to present the synopsis of a friend who is working with Uber. According to her analysis -

1. One should be aware of the organization’s principles. She sat for Amazon’s process as well and she had learnt all their principles to the heart. Similar was the case with Uber.
2. She believed some experience or knowledge with regards to product management or category management is useful for E-Commerce roles. This only proves that you have some idea about what the roles entail, and you will be able to deliver accordingly.
3. Cases. She said that the most important cases are Go to Market cases. These cases need to be on your fingertips for E-Com related roles.
4. Situational analysis and technical roadblocks. You will be presented with situations that are in line with product development or technical roadblocks or even beta release. You as an E-Com enthusiast need to navigate through these conditionals and come up with a valid solution.
5. Having knowledge of the domain of digital marketing which includes the Google Suite, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing and so on and so forth must be taken into consideration. Knowing an extra programming language will also help in achieving this goal.

Broadly speaking, these are some of the tips that I found relevant while I was speaking to my friends who are working in this domain. This will help you get a better grasp on things and help you make evaluative decisions. All the very best!