W.W. Grainger Interview Questions & Reviews in Chicago, IL Area
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Updated May 27, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
Ratings are reflective of location and job title.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 19 ratings 
“Average” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 19 ratings
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| 1–10 of 19 W.W. Grainger Interviews | Sort by |
Information Technology Manager at W.W. Grainger
Posted May 24, 2012 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Apr 2012 in Lake Forest, IL (took 4 weeks)
I submitted my resume via the grainger.com careers website and was able to connect with an internal recruiter a week later. What followed was a 30 minute phone-screen type interview to see if I was a good fit. The recruiter was very good and asked intelligent questions about my background. Then she said that she would forward my resume to the hiring manager for his review to see if he wanted to move to the next step, which was an in person interview. He liked my background so an in-person interview was scheduled. This was on-site at the company with four separate senior people over 2 hours. Most of the people that I spoke with spent the first few minutes of the interview to introduce themselves and to let me know what their role was and how I would interact with them if I was hired. Each person spent 30 minutes with me--they asked some of the same questions, but each had their own "hot button" questions that were different. The interview questions focused on my background and experience--there were many behavioral questions asked too. For example, "how have you handled change management in the past?" and "how have you gotten someone who didn't directly work for you to do something they didn't really want to do?".
I must have done well in that interview session because they asked me back for a second round. The second round was much the same, except it was two hours with four different people, each allotted 30 minutes each. These interviews were tougher--they really pressed me on my examples and wanted to know why I made some of the decisions I had made in the past. They also asked me "why I wanted to work for Grainger" and "why I was interested in this particular job". Also, one of the people talked about the job and the fact that it had high-stress times and wanted to make sure I was OK with that.
Ultimately I was told that I had made it to the final two candidates but did not get the job. I believe that it was because I didn't really hit it off with one of the 8 people that I interviewed with--one of those in the 2nd in-person interview round. Overall, it was a positive interview experience, I just wish I could have had a 2nd interview with the person that I didn't hit it off with to see if we truly were not on the same page or if it was just that one or both of us were "off" that day.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Finance Development Program at W.W. Grainger
Posted May 27, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 in Lake Forest, IL (took 2 days)
Had 3 separate 1:1 interviews in a row, as well as lunch and a tour of the facilities.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Territory Sales Associate at W.W. Grainger
Posted May 20, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed May 2011 in Lincolnshire, IL (took 3 days)
Pretty basic interview about background and skills.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Drug Test and a Background Check.
More W.W. Grainger Territory Sales Associate Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Financial Analyst at W.W. Grainger
Posted May 19, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Apr 2011 in Lake Forest, IL (took a day)
First had a short phone interview with HR. Then I went in for an afternoon of interviews. Met with the 2 Finance Managers and also a VP. The interview questions were mostly about things on my resume and accomplishments/situations from my past. It was somewhat frustrating because I was asked many of the same questions from each interviewer (ie. "tell me about a time when you...").
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Sales Administrative Assistant at W.W. Grainger
Posted May 10, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Apr 2012 in Lake Forest, IL (took a day)
There was a little bit of phone tag to get the initial phone interview with some lag time inbetween responsed which kept me hanging on wondering what was going on but the HR representative was extremely nice and helpful when we finally caught each other. It was a general conversation about my past experience going into detail what I liked and didn't like from my previous positions as well as questions about my biggest accomplishments at each. It went overall really well and we were on the same page that I would be the prime candidate for the position until we discussed the range of pay. When she expressed the range I could not agree even to their highest offer. She was noticably upset or let down this was apparent even over the phone. Although this was the ideal job at a company I really wanted to work for there was just to big of a gap to go any further. She said she would keep me in mind for any future positions so I hope that happens.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Analyst at W.W. Grainger
Posted May 9, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2011 in Lake Forest, IL (took 8 weeks)
Grainger recruiters called me for 3 different positions at the company after seeing my profile on LinkedIn. I had 3 phone interviews for separate positions and came onsite for 1. I ended up talking with 3 different recruiters and 4 team members. Not one person ever followed up with me about any of the jobs.
I understand not being able to follow up with every applicant, but after all I did, I thought I'd hear something back either way.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
More W.W. Grainger Analyst Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Technical Support at W.W. Grainger
Posted Feb 16, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2012 in Lincolnshire, IL (took a day)
They finally called me after about 2 weeks and scheduled a phone interview for a week later. even though it was the same girl. I thought it was weird. So the phone interview went well and she said they would call me back for a one on one and never heard from them again. Their loss!
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Territory Sales Representative at W.W. Grainger
Posted Jan 12, 2012
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2.0
Easy Interview
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Overall Negative Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 in Chicago, IL (took a day)
I was contacted by a 'Senior Recruiting Official' out of Tennessee who left me a message stating she would like to set up a time to speak with me about the position. I called her back like 3 minutes later and left a message stating that anytime after 12:00PM would work well for me. I never heard back so around 2PM Eastern Time I called her and we agreed to have the 'interview' right then. She described the position as 'walking door to door to sell products to mom and pop mfg shops' and told me the starting pay was $27,000 - non-negotiable. She also told me specificially how many paid days off there are (21 including holidays) which I found a bit odd but my guess is she was trying to justify the extremely low pay. After dicussing the position and its benefits she asked me why I applied and why I think I would make a good fit. When I initially started to answer 'why I applied to Grainger' she told me to stop because she couldn't understand what I was saying so I started over and tried to be more specific. I was very surprised when she told me she didn't understand what I was saying because I was being quite clear and have told a similar story in many job interviews w/o being told that.
After reading a bunch of these reviews I began to notice a pattern of people voicing their displeasure with the poor management of Grainger as well as an abundance of long-term employees (my interviewer included) whose skills are no longer relevant in today's economy. Basically it sounds like Grainger is on the way out and I personally won't dont' care to be part of it.
I was not told when the 'hiring manager' would get back to me by but suffice to say that I have no interest in working for this poorly run company.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview.
More W.W. Grainger Territory Sales Representative Interviews
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Marketing Analyst Internship at W.W. Grainger
Posted Jan 6, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2011 in Lake Forest, IL (took 4+ weeks)
Applied through university job board. Went through on-campus pre-interview dinner and interviewed the following day. Only interviewed with one analyst. Great vibe from the analyst. He wasn't supposed to interview but the VP was unavailable that day. Followed a couple weeks later with three 45 minute interviews at the corporate headquarters. One with an associate and two with managers. Mostly just walking through my resume. They were very interested in my technical background and modeling experiences.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Senior Inventory Analyst at W.W. Grainger
Posted Jul 20, 2011 — 0 of 1 people found this helpful
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Feb 2009 in Lake Forest, IL (took 1+ week)
I had a very simple phone interview with an HR screener. She asked me various resume questions, then she gave me a mini skills test by asking me two basic supply chain questions. I only remember one of them: "If you have 100 widgets, then you increase the number by 10%, then you decrease the number by 10%, do you have more, fewer, or the same number of widgets compared to the beginning?" You'd have fewer (100 + 10 - 11 = 99). Then I went in the office for a second round interview and had four one-on-one interviews with managers.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
Grainger pays well. I had a salary range in mind and they met the high end of it on their initial offer, so I felt no need to counter. I wish I would've negotiated a better vacation allowance though.
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview, a Drug Test and a Background Check.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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