Barnes & Noble Manager Interview Questions
& Process

I applied online for the Merchandising Manager position and also dropped off my resume at the store in person. About 2 days later, I received a call for a phone screen. Then, I was invited back for a one-on-one interview, which was split into two parts. First, I had a 'peer interview' with someone in a similar role or management. After that, I interviewed with the store manager in the cafe for about 1.5 hours. This part consisted of behavioral questions where I had to provide examples of my past accomplishments and discuss my work ethic and management style. They said they'd contact me the following week. The manager called the next week, informing me they chose an internal candidate for that location but mentioned another store was hiring for the same position. She offered to give me a good recommendation to the other store, which I accepted. While she called the other store, I reapplied for that specific location. I then dropped off my resume there too. The manager from that store called me the following week to schedule a face-to-face interview. Since I had already completed the phone screen and peer interview, this interview was just with him. He then asked me to come back the next day to interview with the District Manager (DM). I interviewed with her, facing more behavioral questions and some about my background. After a couple of days with no word, I called to check on the status. The Assistant Store Manager (ASM) mentioned they were about to call me because they needed to run a background check and emailed me a link. I completed and submitted the background check late on a Friday. Early the next week, I received a job offer.

It began with a phone screening, then I had three interviews. The first was with two store managers I'd be working with, the second with an assistant manager and a bookseller, and the third with the district manager. I just finished the third one yesterday and I'm waiting to hear back. The first two interviews covered typical questions about customer service, literature knowledge, and communication abilities. The last one had some unusual questions that made me pause for a second, but nothing too wild.

I went through 2 in-store interviews, one with the assistant manager and then the store manager. The very next day, I had an interview with the regional manager. They did offer me the position, but I ended up declining because the offer was $1 an hour less than the lowest amount I requested. They even said during the interview they could do something in between what I asked for, but that didn't happen. It felt like a waste of my time and theirs.