I applied in-person. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Office Depot (Redlands, CA)
Interview
I went into the store and asked for an application. They let me use a computer to fill it out in the store. Unlike most places the employees were happy to see another person applying. I got a call about a week later and they asked me to come back to the store for an interview.
The interviewer was the manager but he wasn't the one in-charge of hiring. The second interview is when you speak to the person in charge of hiring. He was pretty cool guy. We blew through the questions and chatted a little bit. He was honest with me and told me he was happy with everything but the hiring manager was unlikely to take me because I had zero experience in selling. Which I saw coming. After that we talked about sushi and I asked him for advice on some other things like interviewing do's and don'ts. He really opened my eyes to somethings. Didn't get the job but it was a positive experience.
The interview is straightforward and customer service focused. It includes questions about past retail experience, handling difficult customers, teamwork, sales goals, cash-register comfort, and schedule flexibility. The hiring manager asks scenario-based questions, explain daily expectations, and upselling of protection plans/services. The process is short.
Quick and easy process. Your standard interview questions. Nothing major or hard just your basic Human Resources questions. Glad that it was not a 37 step process like some interviews have turned into.
A phone call interview collected basic information, then an in-person interview took place at the actual store. I was asked several questions about my experience and given scenarios to respond to with solutions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a type of pen sold at the store, how would you pitch it to a potential customer?
Sales Associate applicants have rated the interview process at Office Depot with 1.8 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 65% positive. To compare, the company-average is 64.4% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Sales Associate roles take an average of 10 days to get hired, when considering 161 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Office Depot overall takes an average of 15 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Office Depot as a Sales Associate according to 161 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 30%
Background check: 19%
Drug test: 14%
Personality test: 13%
Skills test: 8%
IQ intelligence test: 5%
Phone interview: 4%
Presentation: 4%
Other: 1%
Group panel interview: 1%
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