I submitted my resume via email and was contacted a short while later by the Sales Manager I would be reporting to.
It took so long that here is my timeline for the interview itself:
11:AM Showed up on time. Sales Mgr. was with a customer. Receptionist-- who was very nice, asked me to wait and told me to help myself to coffee from new coffee machines they had just received.
11:45AM Sales Mgr. invites me into his office. Cool guy, we spoke for a while and I felt very comfortable. All good, until he told me I had to meet with two other people in the sales department, one guy was his boss, the Head Sales Manager, the other guy was the head of the BDC Dept. AND I should come back to him when I finished. That's four interviews in a day, if you're keeping tabs, kids.
12:15PM Head Sales Manager is with a customer, so again, I wait. Almost 45 minutes. I'm actually keeping tabs now. It's been over an hour since my arrival. He finally calls me in and it takes about ten minutes at most. The gist of it: if the guy who interviewed you liked you, I like you. Told me the new dept. they were setting up was a "gold mine" (far from it in retrospect). I mention that I was told to speak to the head of the BDC dept. So, it's off to reception again...
12:45PM New Receptionist. Very snotty this time. Tells me she'll call him and let him know I'm waiting and goes back to chatting with her friend. Very professional-- not. I might note, there were also customers milling around and she was ignoring them too. Big red flag that I should have seen and walked out on. Instead I go sit down in the waiting area where there is a big screen TV.
1:45PM There's only so much daytime television a girl can watch. It's been an hour, and no BDC Manager in sight. I call my boyfriend, who tells me that if this is how they treat prospective employees, I should leave. I scoff and tell him they're busy, it's probably normal. Hang up and go back to snotty receptionist. She never called anyone, I can tell by her bovine/nervous stare. Tells me to go back to the waiting area. But not for long...
1:50PM Finally meet with BDC guy who reiterates what the General Sales Mgr. said. Nice enough, but by this time I am fried from waiting so long between interviews.
2PM Go back to the office of the original guy who interviewed me. Lights are turned off and no one's home. He had some meeting, blah, blah. I finally heed my boyfriend's advice and high tail it out of there. Something I should have done over an hour ago!
Looking back, the way the job interview was conducted was an overall indicator of Sonic Automotive, the company. A disorganized mess, to say the least.