Powell's Books Interview Questions
& Process

It was a group interview with 10 people interviewing at the same time. The employee would ask a question, and then each of the 10 applicants would go around and answer it. The questions were mostly about your sales experience. Some applicants would talk for a really long time, and it was easy to forget what you were going to say.

This was one of the strangest interviews I've ever been in. It was with 3 people, and my immediate feeling when I walked in is that they didn't want me there. They explained in a robotic, scripted way that they'd be asking 10 long questions, but it was apparent they had no interest in asking the typed questions on their pages. Not a single question pertained to me as an individual or my skill set. They didn't even ask about the current role I was working in a different company, which was quite similar in many ways to the position I was interviewing for. They never once went off script of those ten questions until I asked my own at the end, which they seemed uncomfortable with. Instead, every question invited you to describe a very specific instance of something you did in a previous job. The questions were so long and rambling, questions of the type that not even presidential candidates are asked in debates, that it was hard to keep track of all the different points I was supposed to be making in my answer. Those ten questions could have easily been 50, and could have been much better asked in a back-and-forth with the interview candidate for a much better assessment of skills and capabilities. I understand that it was a way to glean how I behaved in past instances, but not having been in that exact role I'd been interviewing for, the questions seemed impertinent. The only thing I came away with after the interview was that they were already intending to hire someone internally and had to go through the interview process anyway. I was not offered the job, but the environment was so impersonal, unfriendly, and odd that I wouldn't have taken it anyway.

I applied online, and they sent me an email inviting me in for a group interview. There were 4 other people scheduled, but only 2 other people showed up for the interview. We were asked 6 questions, and it took about an hour. The order in which we answered was rotated; i.e., we would go clockwise starting from me, and then starting from the person to my left for the next question. The group format mostly seemed like a way to streamline the interview process by allowing them to interview more than one person at a time.

The interview was mostly a group round-table with around 8 people and 2 interviewers. They were hiring cashiers for the holidays, so they needed a lot of people quickly. I'm not sure if they do this for regular positions, but it felt laid-back. The group format lets you shine by listening to others' answers. Everyone gets asked the same question and then we take turns answering.