Let's Wait And See.

I got a call Thursday that was kind of unexpected. I really shouldn’t say unexpected but it did surprise me. It was from a grocery company based out of North Carolina. I had applied for a number of positions with them through “Careerbuilder.com” but I’ve never received a call from any company I’ve applied at through them. I always call the company three days after applying and then every three days after that. Well, the company that called me was on the list for me to call on Friday.

So I answer the phone and the lady tells me who she is and tells me that she has seen my application on Career Builder. She says that the resume was sent in for a job in Virginia Beach and wanted to know if I had chosen that area because of family or any other reason. I explained to her that yes, my brother does live there and it’s always nice to be near family but I’m certainly not stuck on the idea of living there. She tells me that they are looking to hire for positions in the northern Virginia, Washington D.C. area and would that be something I’d be interested in looking into. I say of course, I’m willing to look anywhere. She then said she wanted to set up a phone interview that would take about an hour and would tomorrow or next week be better. I said Friday was fine so she said she’d call at 2:00 pm.

Friday at 2:00 comes along and the phone rings right on the dot. We proceeded to chat for over an hour and a half. I was asked things about grocery stores that I haven’t dealt with in more than five years. I really had to think about the things she was asking about. Actually it was a nice little exercise for my brain. It’s been kind of dormant lately.

I guess I had applied for an Assistant Department Manager position because she asked if I might possibly be interested in moving higher up than that? She told me she saw on my resume that I had managed a store in L.A. and been an Assistant Store Manager in a few markets. I told her that I would definitely be interested in moving up the chain of command.

At the end of the conversation I asked her what the next step would be and she said that what they were looking for was to possibly place me into their Management training program and then to place me as an Assistant Store Manager in the D.C. market. This, of course, would be dependent on the results of a package she was putting in the mail for me. The packet will contain an employment application along with a number of assessment tests. Once done with the entire package I am to call the number enclosed and they will give me a link to access on line to take yet another test. When all this is finished I’m to send the packet back to her.

If the company likes what they find in the packet they will call me to set up a face-to-face interview with three District Managers. They’ll fly me in to the area, rent me a car and put me up in a hotel for three days. She said the interview would be on the second day and be in the morning and should last around two to three hours. During the rest of my time there I would be encouraged to visit some of the stores and meet some of the people that work there. I would also be able to take some time and visit the D.C. area. Pretty cool.

So now I wait for the packet and hope for the best. I did ask her during the interview about the cost of living in the area and said it was very high but that they are competitive with their pay. She said that this was obvious as they have managers that work in the area now and that they are able to afford to live their so that’s a good thing. Let’s see what happens.