Best Buy Inventory Specialist Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – Very easy to engage in dialogue with the manager interviewing me, and the questions were very run of the mill.

Negotiation Details – There was none, the starting wage was non-negotiable

Interview Details – I got a call for my first interview several days after applying online for a seasonal position. It was for a position working in the back unloading trucks so for some reason I decided to wear a nice pair of jeans and a dress shirt to the interview instead of wearing slacks... I guess I just wanted to dress fit for the job I was applying for.. that was a stupid mistake because I was sent home and had to reschedule the interview because it's against their companies policy to interview someone in jeans. So let that be a warning to anyone thinking about doing the same thing I did. It took several more days of me finally having to call the HR lady to set up a new interview because I guess they had forgot about me.

I arrived for my first interview this time dressed in slacks, but the person I was supposed to interview with wasn't even scheduled for work that day.. seemed like they weren't really on top of things. So I interviewed with the Sales Team Supervisor. He asked me very basic questions for a packet and wrote down my answers.. they consisted of "why do you want to work here?", "what are your hobbies?", "why should I hire you, over all these other people?", etc... after answering several questions he gave me the go ahead to set up with the second interview with the department manager. Took me another week to get this one set up and yet again I had to be the one to call the HR lady to set it up.

The second interview I ran into the same problem as the first, I got there and the manager that was set to interview me wasn't there so they had to get another supervisor (this time from the department I applied for) to do the "Manager" interview. He asked me another series of questions from a packet.. such as "describe a time when you put the needs of others before your own", "tell me about yourself?", "describe a time when you were presented with a challenge and how you overcame it?".. etc, these questions were a bit harder then the first interview and the one about putting the needs of others before your own caught me off guard and I had to skip it, for some reason my mind went blank. He didn't seem to really care or to even be listening really. He said they would call me and let me know if I got the third interview.

I finally got a call a week later for the third and final interview for a seasonal part time position.. at this point I'm thinking this is pretty ridiculous. I go in for the interview and the Store Manager wasn't even there yet.. I had to wait about 15-20 min standing there before he finally comes out to get me. He asked me maybe 5 questions, pretty basic and straight forward.. and then offered me the position and told me it wasn't even part time but basically on a need basis and I would work my way up to full time... with the possibility of turning permanent after the holiday season. He told me it would start at $9.00/hr. and gave me a thing to go do a drug test, which I immediately went and did after the interview. He also had me sign the disclosure for the background check.

At this point I always worry because I have a misdemeanor drug charge on my record. I passed the drug test but because of that charge I wasn't offered employment.. even though they never asked me if I had a misdemeanor.. only asked about felonies. I waited for about another 3-4 weeks not receiving a phone call or letter from them if I had got the job or not. I finally got a letter with a copy of my background check several weeks later, but at this point I pretty much had figured it out on my own. Would of been nice for them to call and let me know though before hand.

So basically I went through all of that to be turned down for a barely part time seasonal position because of a misdemeanor drug charge almost 4 years old. Well I guess I'll just keep trying and stay positive that someone will eventually believe in me and believe that human beings have the capacity to change even though they made mistakes in their youth.

Interview Details – I was first interviewed by one of the assistant managers and they asked the basic interview questions that most companies ask to see what you say. They asked personality specific questions to make sure you were a person that they were looking for. Then you did got asked another set of questions by another assistant manager. The General Manager interview was also similar, but he was much more up front about things than the other two, most likely to make sure you fit the Best Buy mantra.

Interview Details – I submitted an online application and waited. Eventually I was contacted and told I needed to resubmit another online application since 45 days had passed. This resulted in a phone interview that also resulted in being called for a 1:1 interview.

In the interview I also found out that the original position I had applied for was not what I was being interviewed for. That was a little disconcerting since I had been preparing for several weeks to interview of the original position.

In the one on one interview I found several of the character assessment questions from the online application. Unfotunately during the interview, for some of the questions, I did not have really relevant job experience that I could apply directly so I really had to extrapolate to try to answer appropriately.

I feel that the interviewer was competent to evaluate a match between a applicant and a position.

When you apply online, be as honest with your answers about behavior and interpersonal relationships as you can. Don't try to 'say what they want', really describe yourself. I think this is the first level 'personality test' that is partially carried forward into the 1:1 interview.

The phone interview actually introduced the thought of yet a third possible position to interview for.

Be Flexible! - Not only about the possible position, but also be available for whatever schedule needs they may have.

I thnk I ended up not getting an offer only because my availability did not match their current needs.