Archived Interesting Situation

[tmc1486]

So my fiance finally got an interview to work at the Target I work at. She had an first interview with our Flow TL who asked her 3 questions and told her she will be notified about a second interview. Is this normal? After conferring with the Etl-HR, he told me that her packet was filled with answers. I am just confused on how if you ask only three questions and the whole interview packet is filled. Sorry ranting a bit there.

 

[AllThingsTarget101]

Usually they pick 3 for team member interviews and fill those 3 out. My "promotion" to AP was only 3, and one was not even really a question.

 

[tmc1486]

Don't they have a second interview right away?

 

[PinkZinnia]

tmc1486, not always, it depends who is available to do second interviews. Sometimes they get pulled away, sometimes no one scheduled second interviews for a certain time slot. Ideally, yes they do them both the same day, but not always.

 

[sigma7]

There's only seven questions. 4 are sort of "get to know you" type questions and then there are situation based. The situation based ones are usually the questions people remember. The other ones are very basic interview questions.

 

[tmc1486]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

 

[RetailWorld]

If she was told she was getting a second interview, she should be fine. Most likely the Flow TL is waiting to see when an ETL is available to do the 2nd interview.

 

[HRanon]

If we tell someone at my store we'll notify them if we want a second interview, it usually means we aren't hiring them. For me if there's going to be a second interview it either happens right away or I talk to the applicant and schedule a second for another day.

 

[PinkZinnia]

My second interview was with ETL-HR it was only one question - one of those star ones - the situation, what you did, who was involved and the outcome.. Then it was us just chatting. At one point I said - you aren't going to ask me where I think I will be in 5 years are you? She was sort of taken aback and said, oh no.. I'm glad she didn't because my answer probably would have been - dead.

She was there for about a year and lots of times when she saw me on the floor she would say - Hey Pink, what's your 5 year plan? My answer was usually, let me make it through the day and I'll get back to you. The conversation would confuse other tm's if they were around.

 

[tmc1486]

If we tell someone at my store we'll notify them if we want a second interview, it usually means we aren't hiring them. For me if there's going to be a second interview it either happens right away or I talk to the applicant and schedule a second for another day.

I hope this isn't true about my store.

 

[Mhugh220]

While I was with Target our TLs did phone interviews - hated it. But the idea was not to waste the applicant's time by having to come in twice. Interviews should be scheduled back-to-back and if the TL doesn't recommend them then the ETL doesn't have to interview.

When I interviewed TMs (as an ETL), if they were hired I told them, if not, I told them we still had more applicants to interview. I had some really interesting interviews. I hired one kid because he looked like he had a school-shooter type of personality. Home schooled, quiet, socially awkward, etc. I couldn't be the one to ruin his day.

First, the phone-interview process was not a great filter. Second, I hired him so the TL that recommended him would learn how to filter better. This kid had zero personality, zero work experience, and was a creeper. I literally put nothing down for the questions I asked him. I had to make shit up for HR so he was hired.

Turns out he lasted one night because he couldn't handle flow.

I had several interviews where I literally drew pictures because the shit they were saying just didn't make sense. I definitely enjoyed the interviews with applicants who didn't speak English. Very awkward when you ask a question and they just stare at you because they have no idea what you just said. I can do Spanish, but for French I can only ask what your name is.

 

[commiecorvus]

I'm curious @Mhugh , at my store the ESL folk always seemed to some of the hardest workers even with the translation issues, did you find that to be true at yours?

 

[Mhugh220]

I'm curious @Mhugh , at my store the ESL folk always seemed to some of the hardest workers even with the translation issues, did you find that to be true at yours?

For the interviews I mentioned English wasn't even an option. If you can speak enough English to get through an interview you're golden. I speak Spanish but I also made sure the applicant knew enough English to get by.

The best TM I ever hired was from Romania, spoke a little English but learned English fast. She could be an ETL or actually use her degree if an employer was willing to accept the small language barrier.

I had excellent TMs and horrible TMs regardless of their preferred language. My Spanish TMs worked hard but like the spoiled US born TMs, a few only worked hard under supervision.

In general, the majority of TMs who weren't born in the US did work hard all the time.

 

[commiecorvus]

I'm curious @Mhugh , at my store the ESL folk always seemed to some of the hardest workers even with the translation issues, did you find that to be true at yours?

For the interviews I mentioned English wasn't even an option. If you can speak enough English to get through an interview you're golden. I speak Spanish but I also made sure the applicant knew enough English to get by.

The best TM I ever hired was from Romania, spoke a little English but learned English fast. She could be an ETL or actually use her degree if an employer was willing to accept the small language barrier.

I had excellent TMs and horrible TMs regardless of their preferred language. My Spanish TMs worked hard but like the spoiled US born TMs, a few only worked hard under supervision.

In general, the majority of TMs who weren't born in the US did work hard all the time.

We often hired family members so their family would do the translating and they would be guaranteed to live up to the level of their husband/brother etc.
The only problem was the ETL HR tended to default to treating them like they were kids instead of adults which they put up with but tended to make them not respect her .

Many of them spoke three languages, just not English very well, had degrees in their own country, some had owned businesses, a few had escaped their countries one step ahead of governments or gangs that wanted to kill them.
Like you said about you Romanian TM with proper training, language, and support they would have been good ETLs but there was no way that would happen.

 

[Mhugh220]

We had an older El Salvadorian couple, the best TMs. Husband spoke alright English when needed and wife didn't say a word of English, worked for Target for many years. I barely ever had to tell them what to do. They may have been after hours but I feel they truly cared about the store. They could always find something to do, knew more about the process than anyone, and took pride in their work.

They always came to me privately needing more hours. I always hooked them up with 40 hours even when we didn't have them. I knew they needed the money and they definitely worked hard for it. Needlesstosay, After doing this with a variety of TMs I overspent hours a lot.

 

[commiecorvus]

We had an older El Salvadorian couple, the best TMs. Husband spoke alright English when needed and wife didn't say a word of English, worked for Target for many years. I barely ever had to tell them what to do. They may have been after hours but I feel they truly cared about the store. They could always find something to do, knew more about the process than anyone, and took pride in their work.

They always came to me privately needing more hours. I always hooked them up with 40 hours even when we didn't have them. I knew they needed the money and they definitely worked hard for it. Needlesstosay, After doing this with a variety of TMs I overspent hours a lot.

You sound like the kind of ETL that Spot needs more of.

 

[Mhugh220]

I had a lot of conversations with my STL on overspending. Got away with it because I used those hours productively beyond Logistics responsibilities. Other ETLs bitched about hours but overnight team made that store shine. Im talking pushing reshop, setting aisles, zoning, FIFO and clean market coolers. I had a good team. Enjoyed working with them.

And tons of free food from outside vendors or Target food.