Southlake- Easy interview with basic questions. The person who scheduled my interview was not the person who interviewed me and failed to mention this would be a group interview. As someone who decided to return to school needing a PT gig (after 11 yrs in SaaS sales & retail management), I was roped into a group interview with 2 teenagers. The dynamic allowed no room to discuss pay, answer questions relevant to my experience, or ask about growth. The questions I did answer, I felt obligated to downplay/condense in attempt to minimize awkwardness caused by experience and age discrepancy. The manager didn’t even mention if pay would be discussed upon receiving an offer (pay wasn’t in the job req). I did a quick Google search after realizing I was the only person with tattoos. There was no mention of the store’s policy for covering tattoos in the job req OR by the manager, who undoubtedly saw my arm tattoos. It’s 95° out, would’ve been nice to know I’d have to wear long sleeves. I can’t imagine if I were a different race, had tattoos, AND had experience. You can’t control who applies, but can control the environment. I ultimately took another offer. Seems a culture overhaul is needed.

I went into Altar’d State one evening. Immediately the manager came up to me and started talking to me. She asked me if I had a job and how much that job paid me. She repeatedly brought up how starting employees make 16 dollars an hour and she would love to have me join their team. Another girl was checking me out and once again brought up applying for a job. I talked to her about potential hours I could work as well as my previous retail experiences. She said I would be a perfect fit. Once I got home I applied for the job and took the personality test that came along with the application. I have taken multiple tests similar to this one and I have 5 years of retail experience. The test must be hard to pass because I felt confident when submitting it. However, the next day I received an email that said they had decided to proceed with other candidates. I understand that I may not have been an ideal candidate for the company despite my many years of experience, but I do feel it is wrong for employees in the store to come up to shoppers and beg them to apply because I did and was unable to even interview.