I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Staples
Interview
I was contacted by an HR rep who saw my resume on Indeed. I did a phone screen with her, and she said she would be in touch either way about an in person interview. I was able to ask about salary expectations and the benefits package during this conversation.
I was told that my direct boss was out on leave due to a shoulder injury, so instead of being interviewed by him I was interviewed by his boss the Regional Sales Director. He has the final say on who is hired, and was pleasant during the interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Fairly standard questions, "what is your greatest sales achievement?", "describe a time you overcame a problem during a sale" etc. etc.
I applied online. The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at Staples in Jan 2011
Interview
I ran through a gauntlet of interviews - Phone interview with the recruiter, then a 1 on 1 with the hiring district manager, then a 1 on 1 with a district store manager, then an interview with an HR manager on the phone, and finally, a 1 on 1 interview with the regional sales manager. Even though I got to the final phase of the interview process and was confident of the job offer, the last interview was not easy. The regional sales manager asked me what I would do in certain hypothetical situations. This entire process took more than a month, and since everyone mentioned is busy and short on time, reschedules are rampant. Another thing I was annoyed with was that I had to repeat everything I said before over and over again. Never did I know that once you have obtained the job, you communicate the same way among different teams and departments. So this interview process prepared me for this aspect of the job, more or less.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time when a customer with yours wasn't satisfied with your product/service, and how you turned the situation around.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Staples (Reston, VA) in May 2012
Interview
I was contacted by a company recruiter first by e-mail. Then she called me and talked to me about the job and inquired about my qualifications and experience. Then she forwarded my info to their Regional Manager who called me and I went through another phone interview. Then he offered me to have a 1:1 with him in one of their stores. I came up to the store and he showed me the workplace and told me a lot about what my job would consist of. Then we had a standard interview with such questions like "tell me about your three weaknesses" and stuff like that. Overall, he was very nice and told me that they have their own apprenticeship program and they usually choose people from it first to employ and then all outside candidates start to be reviewed. I got a nice e-mail from him after the interview with a word of thanks, but noone contacted me about this job in 1,5 weeks now.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Did you ever have to search for a new business and not only for existing customers?
