I was contacted to schedule a phone interview about a week after filling out the online application. The interview took about 45 minutes and consisted of mostly information about the job, salary, training schedule, benefits, and a few situational questions. I was then set up with a second phone interview for the following friday with the same person. She asked me a lot of situational questions during this interview, and it took about 45 minutes as well. She told me that I would be set up with an in person interview with a manager at a store and that I should hear something within the next couple of days. The store manager called me about 20 minutes later to do the face to face interview on monday. I was very happy with the manager's prompt response.
I went to the store and didn't get the greatest vibe in the world from the people that work there. Everyone seemed kind of uptight. I was greeted by two managers and taken back to a small office. They seemed somewhat nervous but very professional. I was also nervous since this was my first job interview in almost 5 years. They asked me a series of situational questions that seemed pretty easy to answer. They only really stumped me with one, but after thinking for a little bit, I feel that I gave an awesome answer. At one point, they asked me a question and left the room for a minute or two, then came back to get my response. I was told that Verizon is tougher to get into than Harvard Law School. I find that kind of cheesy, considering none of the people working at that store would probably make it into Harvard Law School. At the end of the interview, I was told that I would hear back from them in 1-2 weeks about the final interview (4 interviews for a retail sales jobs seems excessive, but apparently the application process is really competitive). I was feeling pretty confident about the whole thing.
Two weeks passed and I hadn't heard anything. I sent the manager an e-mail and he responded within about 30 minutes to let me know that they would be making a decision the following evening, and he would let me know once a decision was made. I quickly responded with a short "thank you" message. Another two weeks had passed and I had not heard anything, so I sent another e-mail and never got a response. After about a week, I sent one last e-mail and finally he got back with me. He appologized for not getting back with me, and told me that he had turned it over to HR and thought that they would be in touch. He informed me that my interview went well, but they decided to hire someone that had been in cellular sales for five years.
I can understand their decision to hire someone else, but I really don't understand why it was so tough to get a response after my first face to face interview. It blew me away that the manager told me that he would do one thing, but didn't follow through and even ignored one of my e-mails. It has been a long time since I have had a job interview, so I don't know whether or not this is common practice with interviews, but I think a company should always stay in touch with their applicants, especially if they have gone through 3 interviews.
