I had an experience with the Sherwin Williams (SW) Manager Training Program (MTP) hiring process that blew up in my face (but I did everything well; I didn’t know what was coming). They did not offer me the job, but I got through all 3 stages of the process. In all, because of the holidays and “phone tag”, about 3 months of my time was wasted. It could happen to you. To start, the Area Recruiter for Arizona, Colorado, Salt Lake City (Utah) and Las Vegas called me after finding my resume on CareerBuilder.com. Step 1 in the process to be hired as a Management Trainee (MT) is about an hour-long phone interview. This interview will require STAR format responses. (Google STAR interview). I did as well as I could and the recruiter was positive. You will be required to relocate to a store as an Assistant Manager after your 6-8 week training period. If you are not willing to relocate within your district, it will be a deal-breaker. So the best response is “I can go anywhere! :)!” I said I was definitely willing to move but my preference was Phoenix, AZ. Probably best to not even include a preference. You may end up being placed in a rural store (Google Sherwin Williams stores on Maps to see rural stores). However, she said they took into account people’s preferences, so I stated what mine was. Step 2 is to visit two store managers at two stores near you. I visited both a paint store and a floor-covering store, but I don’t have enough room to tell you about the floor-covering store (it was brand-new and looked like an empty-warehouse place of suffering). I then went after the paint store. I am 23 years old, male, non-Hispanic Caucasian with a BS Business Administration degree from a 4-year University, major: marketing, GPA 3.5. I currently work at The Home Depot as a store-wide merchandiser. Customer Service a big priority, inventory systems, paint department. My education or experience should have made me a preferred candidate for the job. Now, my paint store visit. I was on time and dressed nicely. The store manager and was only 28 years old and 3 years in to Sherwin. He was cool. I met his assistant manager who was only two months in. Both of them went to the same university I went to and did not have to relocate (to another town) for any position they held so far in SW (this is rare). You fill in a worksheet and it takes 1.5 to 2 hours. Step 3, the final step, is an interview with the District Manager, so in my case the guy that oversees almost all stores in Arizona except for Phoenix, AZ (close to 20 stores in Phoenix and Denver). I shaved and put on my suit (looked awesome) and showed up on time at the district office. I did the best I could at this interview, but he talked more than I did. He was serious the whole time, but I tried to smile and nod when his voice increased in volume. One situational question about dealing with an irate customer, but nothing else too hard. He started at a rural store in Kansas as an MT and told me that when he was there, 15 years ago, it must have seemed like the longest year of his life. We talked about placement after training (remember, say anywhere) and advancement to store manager. I thought asking about how I could advance to store manager in the minimum 12 months would make me seem hungry and driven. Bad idea, as he elaborated about how different people take different amounts of time in the assistant manager role and that the initial period before promotion is extremely important to gain experience. I also said that my preference for placement was “urban areas” or, if possible, Phoenix, AZ. I did not push this. He went into depth about the importance for people to go where they were comfortable being for a period of a year or more (so it’s OK to want an urban store?) and that some people said they would go “anywhere” and implied that they were good for rural stores. He did say that they had “a lot of opportunity” in Phoenix and Denver, CO. At the end, he said I would be contacted “later on in the week.” He was positive and gave me the illusion that I could get hired. It was Monday. I went home and sat tight. No one called. One week after the interview, I called the recruiter and she said that candidates would find out about the job one to two weeks after the interview and that she would get back to me in the next few days. Another week passed. No one called. Finally, three weeks after the interview, I called the recruiter and left a polite message. A few days after that, I received an email saying that SW was not interested in hiring me for the MT program because I did not match their “unique hiring needs.” That was a low blow and a disappointment. PROS of the position: Pay and Bonuses. Transfer anywhere. CONS: 44-hour weeks (four 9-hour days weekly), you work either Saturday or Sunday (maybe even both) every week, the store closes at 7 pm, tinting paint, holding customer hands, retail, advances to store manager or sales rep (more hours, stress, responsible for sales).