Cintas Management Trainee Interview

Interviewed Jul 2011 in Puyallup, WA (took 2 weeks)

I met a very nice HR manager at my school’s career fair. She was pleased that I was willing to work for them. I met with the GM at a Starbucks and the initial interview went well. I received an email a few days later for a plant tour with one of the managers. However, the GM showed up to do the tour and explained that the manager who was supposed to do the tour with me that day had to come early the previous day to resolve a particular issue and worked long hours, therefore the manager was off that day.

We did the plant tour and we continued with the interview at his office. He asked me some questions about my previous job and he was pretty impressed about my resume. He asked a question about how I was able to manage some of the very expensive equipment in my inventory, and I think that he didn’t understand how someone could handle such a huge responsibility. I don’t know if he was intimated but he tried to offer me a different position which was a plant supervisor. I told him that I was not interested in that position. I applied for a management trainee position and that was what I was there for. He told me that the position was cancelled. I was surprised because they wasted my time for no reason. After I told him that I was willing to relocate within the state, he offered to contact another general manager in Everett to see if a management trainee would be opened in a near future.

I emailed and called him later but never received a response. I was happy about the outcome because after reading a post on this site from a current management trainee who mentioned cleaning restrooms at customers’ site (part of Cintas’ service) due to staff shortage… Cintas can count me out… I did not go to college to clean restrooms.