I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Grainger (Dallas, TX) in June 2009
Interview
I started with a phone interview with a recruiter and everything went well. My next interview was with a District Sales Manager & Account Manager and everything went well. The next phase was a one on one interview with the same District Sales Manager and he spoke about how there was not a particular position available but he thought I would be a great fit for the position and he wanted to put me on their "Benchmark" program and basically thats when you wait for a position to open up which could be in 4-6 weeks or 4-6 months. In the meantime I was asked to meet with another District Sales Manager and it seems that the interview was going well until he asked if I knew anything about the company and I informed him that a friend used to work there and he didnt know the guy personally, but later I found out there was some association between my friend & a previous VP of Sales and so he assumed I was affiliated with the VP as well. After that meeting I was removed from the "Benchmark" program and was told that I am no longer in consideration for a position. Please make sure you play the game exactly the way they want you to because this is a company that do not base things off your qualifications but more so on who you know and how they can keep their good ole boy network sealed.
I applied online. I interviewed at Grainger (Saskatoon, SK) in Apr 2026
Interview
Initial interview was easy, just asked about what you know about the company and STAR based. Although was told I would be interviewing in the next round and they really put that into my head only to get a one sentence email at 1am saying they went a different direction. Extremely misleading.
They asked STAR questions and very template questions just to fill in the pages per the manager. Although it could change since I went through this 6 years ago. They are stock driven, so learn a little about their market price and how they play in the industry.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me a time when you have to make a very difficult decision.
They do interviews in the typical STAR format. Very tiring as they ask you a ton of questions. If you can handle that kind of thing you'll be fine but the average interview is like 40 minutes of straight questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Desribe a time where you had to deal with a difficult customer. What was the issue and how did you overcome it.