I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at PetSmart (Orleans, ON) in July 2014
Interview
About a week after applying online I went into the store and found the pet care manager and personally gave my resume to her. It took about a month, but she eventually called me to offer me an interview. She said she had to dig through a lot of applications in the system to find mine, so without that follow-up step I wouldn't have had much chance of getting a call. She also said that the system had approved the answers to the personality test I had done (one of the most annoying parts of applying to jobs online...) which had it not would have killed my chances. The interview went well, and she mostly asked "tell me a time when..." and scenario kind of questions (e.g. a customer comes in and says he's setting up a new aquarium; how do you help him?). She also asked me about my own pets. I was a little surprised because she never really asked any kind of personal questions (e.g. what's your biggest weakness?), but that ended up coming later in the next interview. Despite not having any work experience (this is my first job), she seemed impressed by the volunteer work I've done, as well as my knowledge of fish keeping (something that I've been doing for close to 10 years). At the end of the interview she said that if I got the job she would call me within the next two weeks, and also admitted that she never calls candidates who didn't get the job. The whole interview took about 20 minutes. I didn't feel very confident after the interview because she said they rarely hire 17 year olds such as myself, and of course I didn't have any work experience either (other than my volunteering), but the same evening she called me and asked me to come in for a second interview with the store manager. This interview only took about five minutes. The more personal questions that I had expected in the last interview (strengths/weaknesses etc.) came now, and otherwise he just verified my availability and that was about it. At the the end he said as far as he was concerned I was hired, and it was just up to the pet care manager to make the final call. Over all it seemed like the second interview was just a second opinion to check that I didn't have any glaring faults that the pet care manager hadn't seen. Again the same evening as the interview I got a call from the pet care manager saying that I got the job!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I found a couple of the "tell me a time when..." type of questions difficult. One of the ones she asked was "tell me a time when someone came to you with a problem. How did you deal with it?". I actually couldn't think of anything, and had to tell her that. She said that was fine, and moved on. Clearly it didn't hurt my chances too much because I ended up getting the job.
This interview was simple and easy. The manager had a laid back atmosphere. Straightforward interview with usual questions. Took about thirty minutes to finish and it was only one interview.
Managers are very nice but pay isn’t great. Interview was very easy. Great place to work, but hard to live off of the income they offer. Have to have a love and passion for animals
I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at PetSmart (La Jolla, CA)
Interview
Interview with store manager, asked standard interview questions, including scenario questions. Interview took about fifteen minutes or so. I was offered the position on the spot. Overall it was the typical standard interview.