Adventures in job interviewing

I had an interview with Best Buy yesterday for holiday position. It was the oddest interview I have ever been through. I filled out my application and then took their moronic personality test. They called me a couple days later for an interview. He was some low level management flunky who asked me the same by the book questions that I had been asking people for the last 15 years. It would be nice if these people weren't robots or trained monkeys.

He talked to me for about 20 minutes and asked me if I could come back tomorrow for a third interview. This is odd that I have to interview so many times for a seasonal job. It's especially odd considering that the interview I did with him was my first and he wanted to set me up for the third one the next day. I guess they don't do math at Best Buy.
So I have to meet with the general manager of the store to get a seasonal position. This is a job where I will work three weeks. One week of training, the week of Thanksgiving, and the week of Christmas. That's it. I have to meet with the manager of the store?

When I was in retail management my store manager would NEVER have interviewed all the prospects for seasonal hiring personally. I can't believe bestbuy is making them be this critical of who they hire. They can't offer anything how can they be critical?

So I am getting ready to head to that and see how it goes. I tend to interview better with women so maybe this will get me in the door.

Hope it goes well for you lendme. Hopefully, you will get more hours as the time nears. That has happened for a few people I know, as the time draws nearer, they did get more hours.

I am thinking, based on how the hiring is in this area, the interviews for places like hrgregg, bestbuy are more thorough, sadly, due to theft. Electronics is a big market apparently on the "hot" lists.

Hey Lendme I work at Best Buy as a sales supervisor . If you have any questions shoot me a PM and I can hopefully answer them for you. As far as the seasonal stuff goes. If you are a good, hard working employee, (don't show up late, call off, etc) then generally you will be asked to stay on after the holiday season. It usually starts part time, then if you make good sales you will get full time after a few months depending on your availibility.All in all Best Buy is not a bad place to work. Pay kinda sucks starting out , but you can make a living after a couple years.

Thanks for this information Atctz. We all get so disgusted with the lack of opportunity, it's good to know that it may start out bleak, but the possibilities are there.

Well I got it. She asked me a bunch of questions, some of which seemed to be trick questions.

I am interviewing so much lower than my normal pay grade, I have a lot of retail experience, that I got frustrated answering question that I would ask a high school kid. She asked me what should happen to shoplifters. I told her that was an odd question to ask because in the position that I am applying for it isn't up to me whether they get prosecuted or not.
She said "yes you're right and I don't want you even involved". Before I could continue she said "should they be apprehended or just let go?".

I told her that in my experience, if I have to worry about apprehending a shoplifter that I have already failed. The key to stopping shopliftig is in the customer service you give someone. If they are there to steal and know you are aware of them they will either buy it or just leave.

After I told her that she offered me the job on the spot, no reference calls or anything.
She asked me a question and it seemed like she tried to steer me wrong but I stuck with what I know works and that seemed to be impressive enough to win me the job.

She offered me more hours too and said that there is a possibility that they could keep me on. The money is fine for what I am doing.
I join the ranks of the under-employed. It's an improvement.

Congratulations, lendme!!! Hopefully it will go beyond the holiday season, will give you recent work experience and hope for a better job in the future! You deserve it!!!!

Great news lendme. It's not perfect, but at least it's a start. Could lead to management as well.