When the Cashier Job is Unattainable...

When my part time retail job stopped giving me my usual 15 to 20 hours a week due to budget cuts, my first reaction was ?It?s okay, this is temporary.? When the temporary status stretched to three weeks, my mind pressurized me to hit the panic button and I decided to aggressively find who else is hiring near me. Was I surprised! I contacted six retailers, and only one said that yes, they were hiring and that I should apply online. Keep in mind that this retailer, without naming names, is one of the Top 5 Companies to work for Women and Mothers. So obviously I had high hopes. What I didn?t expect was the intense interview process.

Another thing to keep in mind is that I had not applied for a salaried position with supervisory duties, but the lowest of the low on the totem pole in retail: the Cashier. After filling out an online application that took 30 minutes to complete, I waited. A week later, I got a call from the HR Manager who said she wanted to conduct a phone interview with me. Now this was bewildering for me, because not once in my retail experience have I had a ?phone interview? for a job that would probably not pay more than $9/hour.

But my surprises had only begun. The phone interview involved questions like, ?What does diversity mean to you?? and ?When have you had to go out of the way to welcome a new member to your team?? Yeah. I answered these, the whole time thinking what this had to do with ringing people?s groceries up and hitting Cash/Credit on a screen. Oh well. After the interview was complete, I was told to expect a follow-up in-person interview. Great, I thought, I?ve got this. My in-person interview was scheduled for two weeks later. This interview was similar in pattern to the phone interview and held by the same person. I wondered what the whole point was. Again I was asked questions like, ?Have you ever had to make a decision you later regretted?? and ?Have you ever had to bring a team of people together to get something accomplished?? By the end of this interview, I was flummoxed.

Anyhow, I was told that if they found my skills and availability applicable to their needs, I would get a call. Hmm. A week later and I get an email from them saying I did not get the job. WHAT? My initial reaction was shock. Major shock. I, who had worked in supervisory roles in retail for the past five years, did not get a job as a cashier? My ego felt smashed and a new job search loomed large.

While a friend reasoned that I was probably over-qualified, I think this was also a small testament to the number of people applying for these jobs in the current economy. Desperate times seek desperate measures and I guess this was the retailer?s way of dealing with too many candidates. Although the two rounds of interviews and the nature of the questions don?t make any sense to me still, the experience taught some important job-interviewing skills that I hope will come handy.

I still have three stores left to apply to in that strip mall?worth a shot? Why not!

--Posted by Aman Singh Das, Vault Editor