Here are some Purchasing sample interview questions you can use to help you prepare for job interviews. In order to gain feedback, I suggest practicing with a partner or your Career Coach, which will help to improve your responses. If you practice alone, make sure you answer the questions aloud. Just writing your answers down or thinking about your answers will not fully prepare you for answering questions verbally in an interview.
1. Tell me about how you have negotiated a good price on a service?
2. Tell me about how you have negotiated a good price on a product?
3. What do you leverage in negotiations?
4. Describe how you handled a particularly difficult negotiation in the past?
5. How do you cultivate back up vendors?
6. What systems have you processed Purchase Orders on?
7. Tell me about how you have effectively interfaced with the Inventory Control department in the past?
8. Describe how you might partner with a Planning Department?
9. Tell me about a time when a vendor was late on providing a product, and how you handled it?
10. Tell me about how you have handled an unhappy internal customer in the past?
11. What would you do if a product or part that was needed was unavailable?
