Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG®) is a prominent player in the global hospitality industry, renowned for its diverse portfolio of brands stretching across nearly 100 countries. With a commitment to delivering unique and memorable guest experiences, IHG® has firmly established itself as a trusted name in hospitality.

Joining IHG® as a Data Analyst means contributing to this legacy by leveraging your technical skills in data analysis, data visualization, and statistical modeling to drive strategic business decisions. This role demands proficiency in tools like SQL, Python, and various data visualization software, along with strong problem-solving and analytical abilities.

Thinking of joining IHG® as a Data Analyst? This guide from Interview Query will walk you through the interview process, commonly asked questions, and invaluable tips to ace your interview. Let’s get started!

Submitting Your Application

The first step is to submit a compelling application that reflects your technical skills and interest in joining Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG®) as a data analyst. Whether you were contacted by an IHG recruiter or have taken the initiative yourself, carefully review the job description and tailor your CV according to the prerequisites.

Tailoring your CV may include identifying specific keywords that the hiring manager might use to filter resumes and crafting a targeted cover letter. Furthermore, don’t forget to highlight relevant skills and mention your work experiences.

Recruiter/Hiring Manager Call Screening

If your CV happens to be among the shortlisted few, a recruiter from the IHG Talent Acquisition Team will make contact and verify key details like your experiences and skill level. Behavioral questions may also be a part of the screening process.

In some cases, the IHG data analyst hiring manager stays present during the screening round to answer your queries about the role and the company itself. They may also indulge in surface-level technical and behavioral discussions.

The whole recruiter call should take about 30 minutes.

Technical Virtual Interview

Successfully navigating the recruiter round will present you with an invitation for the technical screening round. Technical screening for the IHG data analyst role usually is conducted through virtual means, including video conference and screen sharing. Questions in this 1-hour long interview stage may revolve around IHG’s data systems, ETL pipelines, and SQL queries.

In the case of data analyst roles, take-home assignments regarding product metrics, analytics, and data visualization are incorporated. Apart from these, your proficiency against hypothesis testing, probability distributions, and machine learning fundamentals may also be assessed during the round.

Depending on the seniority of the position, case studies and similar real-scenario problems may also be assigned.

Onsite Interview Rounds

Followed by a second recruiter call outlining the next stage, you’ll be invited to attend the onsite interview loop. Multiple interview rounds, varying with the role, will be conducted during your day at the IHG office. Your technical prowess, including programming and ML modeling capabilities, will be evaluated against the finalized candidates throughout these interviews.

If you were assigned take-home exercises, a presentation round may also await you during the onsite interview for the data analyst role at IHG.

Quick Tips For Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG®) Data Analyst Interviews

• Should contain three tips for interviewing for this specific company based on interview experiences.

Example:

You should plan to brush up on any technical skills and try as many practice interview questions and mock interviews as possible. A few tips for acing your IHG interview include:

• Understand IHG’s Business Model: As a global hospitality company, IHG may expect you to understand industry-specific challenges and solutions. Study IHG’s services, market presence, and recent ventures to understand their data needs.
• Be Data Driven: IHG’s data analyst interviews assess how well you can provide business-driving insights from data. Brush up on your knowledge of statistics and probability, given these questions can be some of the hardest to solve.
• Embody the Spirit: IHG values a collaborative and customer-focused culture that values innovation. Practice responding to behavioral questions with answers that touch on IHG’s core values.

Typically, interviews at Intercontinental Hotels Group (Ihg®) vary by role and team, but commonly Data Analyst interviews follow a fairly standardized process across these question topics.

• What retention rate is needed for Smart Sales Incorporated to break even with a two-year contract? Smart Sales Incorporated is considering a subscription model for its POS systems. Calculate the retention rate required to break even with the traditional one-time sale model over a two-year contract period.

• What retention rate is needed to break even in four and six years if the two-year target is missed? If the company does not break even within the initial two-year contract period, determine the retention rates required to break even in the subsequent four years and the next six years. Assume the costs for subscription and one-time sales are equivalent.

• What retention rate is needed for Smart Sales Incorporated to break even with a two-year contract? Smart Sales Incorporated is considering a subscription model for its POS systems. Given a two-year contract duration, calculate the retention rate required to break even with the traditional one-time sale model.

• What retention rate is needed to break even in four and six years if the two-year target is missed? If the company does not break even within the initial two-year contract period, determine the retention rate required to break even in the subsequent four years and in the next six years. Assume the costs for subscription and one-time sales are equivalent.

• Write a SQL query to select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department.

Note: If more than one person shares the highest salary, the query should select the next highest salary.

Example:

Input:

employees table

|Column|Type| |---|---| | id | INTEGER | | first_name | VARCHAR | | last_name |VARCHAR| | salary | INTEGER | |department_id| INTEGER |

departments table

|Column|Type| |---|---| | id | INTEGER | | name | VARCHAR |

Output:

|Column|Type| |---|---| | salary | INTEGER |

• How do we deal with missing square footage data to construct a housing price prediction model? You have scraped 100K sold listings in Seattle over the past three years, but 20% of the listings are missing square footage data. How would you handle this missing data to build your housing price prediction model?

• What kind of model and features would you use to predict restaurant food preparation time? You want to predict the time a restaurant takes to prepare food from the moment an order comes in until it is ready. What type of model would you build, and what features would you include?

Embarking on your journey with Intercontinental Hotels Group as a Data Analyst could be your next great career move. To truly shine in your interviews and understand what it takes to join IHG®, dive into our IHG Interview Guide, where you'll find thorough coverage of potential interview questions and detailed guides for various positions. At Interview Query, we equip you with the tools, insights, and confidence to excel in your interviews. Explore our extensive collection of company interview guides, and don't hesitate to reach out with any questions. Good luck with your interview journey!