Application processed online through company www site. Received a call from the area District Manager within a week, and was asked to schedule a one hour phone interview with him, which was accomplished within the next week. The interview was pleasant, and questions were presented in a way that indicated the DM was looking for specific qualities in a candidate to match the needs of a particular store, staff and location. At the conclusion, I was asked to interview with the District Manager face to face.
I was well prepared and know my stats off the top of my head (LY vs Goal, ADS, Store Gross, P & L info, etc). My advice is to know yours or have it with you. This company is seriously results driven, expectations are high, and managers are expected to know their job well.
This was scheduled for 10 days later and went well, was relatively informal. very conversational and lasted a little over an hour. The DM was very open to questions and I found that he had an unusually impressive grasp on the strengths and weaknesses of his district, the store location in question, and the entire staff there. It is not unusual to see the DM's in the stores selling. Visits are very frequent and (at least in this district) great fun.
At that point, I was asked to do yet another interview with a different District Manager via telephone. It seemed to be a formality, but was a very interesting interview. That DM focused almost exclusively on my experiences, my adaptability, and very specific questions were asked about talent building, training and sales results. Again, the interview lasted about an hour, was conversational and very pleasant.
An offer was made several days later, and accepted.
