Rejected at first hiring event, try again in Nov?

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Aug 1, 2014
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I talked up the Target seasonal hiring event to a family friend. He went to the hiring event last weekend and was rejected. He’s 19, a college student (2x a week) with retail experience, he says he gave 7 day availability. I thought he’d a a sure thing, honestly.

My daughter is a minor, still in HS and was offered a seasonal job. (I didn’t tell anyone she was my kid. She did it solo)

Should he retry at the November event? Should he try the other smaller Target in town? Or is it a lost cause?

I was thinking I could coach him a bit. Or that something was incorrect/ flagged about his application I mean, maybe he could have wear a collared shirt? He’s typically shy, maybe act more assertive at the interview?

I’m also thinking his 7 day availability may have been crap. Like sometimes he takes his brother to scouts (he was an Eagle Scout and is a junior scoutmaster I think?). It’s seasonal work. They won’t be doing scouting over the school holidays. Or he can ask for a specific day off. I think he should have left those commitments off.

Like I say, my minor daughter got in with a more restrictive school schedule.

So.... Should he try again or no?
 
Trying again never hurts. Will he get a job on his second attempt? No clue, but two rejections isn't any worse than one.
 
Since you know the interview questions, maybe practice with them. I will pass on anyone that talks about interviewing or job offers, seems like they are saying what I want to hear, they want to work at Target because it's close to their house.
 
I’d say try again at another Target. Who knows why they reject people, it seemed pretty arbitrary to me at times. Maybe he doesn’t interview well, but he sounds like the type of person I would have been glad to have on the backroom team. Wearing a collared shirt would be good, and interviewers are always happy to hear that the interviewee doesn’t have vacation plans during the holiday season. Good luck to him!
 
What position were they applying to makes a huge difference regardless if it is seasonal? Usually they will indicate where they think you best fit seasonal wise. Consumables should ideally be more restrictive in whom they take for example. Also it matters how they frame their answers. People are usually their best when they interview and you have to sniff out the cons once in a while. For the ones who are dicey (short and not through explanation to answers) , those ones go straight in the trash.

When interviewing the TL only ensures that what is stated on availability has not changed since HR wrote it up. If HR accepts the availability before an interview happens then availability is not the issue. This includes those HR hire on the spot events that Target holds at this time.
 
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If he's shy he may have interviewed poorly. TM's still need to be able to communicate well with leaders and guests and teammates, and need to show that in the interview.

If he's shy he's not a guarantee for every workcenter, so if the only ones that were a good fit didn't work with his availability, then there's a turndown. If they decide he might be a good fit for inbound, for example, but he's only available evenings, that's a turndown.
 
Sounds like he bombed the interview.

This past weekend I had someone tell me their former manager was a bitch ass punk that fired them because they were two minutes late. They were doing GREAT in the interview until this comment. And everything they said up until that point flew out the window.

Also, had someone tell me the only reason why they wanted to work at Target was so their mom could get the discount. When I told them mom wasn’t eligible, they said this is a waste of time then. I agreed and walked them out.
 
If he had 7 day availability and was rejected for a seasonal availability he must have had some red flags. The second time he might have another person doing the interview though so who knows. Doesn’t hurt.
 
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ASANTS, but my store got a lot less fussy about who they hired when they were down to the wire to meet their quota. They made it, but to say that they would have hired anyone with a pulse was an understatement, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if my ETL made an exception and ordered a defibrillator...😁
 
I don't necessarily interview well. I'm a fast learner, very good with math and computers, etc. There's almost no task you can give me that I can't easily learn to do, but I'm not particularly outgoing. It's not that I'm awful with people, I'm just an introvert, and being an introvert doesn't help when interviewing.

It's possible he's similar.
 
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