Retail Jobs more geared toward "leadership" people.

[Rageaholic]

It's what I have observed in my experience. The typical answers expected of applicants are those that would imply that they are

a. Super Extroverted.
b. Likes to lead people.
c. Thinks really highly of themselves (look at some of the questions on applications)

I'll be honest. People like that drive me batty, but I can see why they would be better for a certain job than others. My issue? They think that people who don't fit in that little niche have no future. I applied for jobs STOCKING SHELVES and have been asked questions about my leadership ability. :facepalm:

WTF is wrong with this?

[Greenday]

I applied for jobs STOCKING SHELVES and have been asked questions about my leadership ability. :facepalm:

WTF is wrong with this?

Nothing. No matter what job I've worked at, there always comes a point where someone needs to step up and tell others what to do to get things moving. It's not natural to me, but it's better than sitting around and waiting.

Let's say the store is being reorganized and a lot of things are being left up to the crew stocking shelves. There will be arguments about where things should go, who should do what, etc. and your boss could be a lazy POS or isn't there. Someone clearly needs to take charge and if all the store has are people who don't have leadership ability, then nothing will get done.

[Andara Bledin]

Just because you're thinking about nothing more than stocking shelves doesn't mean the employer is focused on looking only for someone to stock shelves, regardless of what the current job description says.

Pretty much 90% of everybody who wants a job can do that one, so they need a way to narrow the field and pick the candidates that will provide better value. Leadership abilities is just one of many potential areas that can be used to narrow down the potential pool of employees.

And that works the other way, too. It could be that they want someone who will be a stock drone with no other ambitions and the people who score high in that area will be the ones cut as opposed to being kept.

[Ginger Tea]

I've been commenting that my job skills are none existent now after 9 years doing my fridge monkey work and that I would be lucky to get a job pushing shopping trollies around a supermarket car park.

But as Andara put it, sometimes they want someone who is willing to start at the bottom and work up, others they want someone who would be complacent with the bottom rung.

The question I hated the most in interviews and mock ones as they were the ones that suggested it (and the WTF answer "perhaps doing your job"), were "Where do you see yourself in x years.", I never expected to sink 9 years of my life into my last job, the longest I've had before that was 3 or 4 years.
I'd like to say "living and working in Japan (or Korea as my 2nd choice)." but I know I would have to scrimp and save for ever and a day to do that and I need a fixed regime to learn a language, I cant just get a teach yourself book and be done with it, yet the only Japanese class at the time I took mine was a 10 week one with a long gap till the next level up, which my rota royally screwed over even contemplating.

Hell my bakery job started off as a means to save up for driving lessons to enable me to resume IT work onsite as that's where the market lent, I was offered a full time position for more money than the entry levels I was applying for in my old field, so I reallocated the money for lessons into the pub.

[Rageaholic]

The question I hated the most in interviews and mock ones as they were the ones that suggested it (and the WTF answer "perhaps doing your job"), were "Where do you see yourself in x years.", I never expected to sink 9 years of my life into my last job, the longest I've had before that was 3 or 4 years.

I hate that question too. As with most interview questions, you have to lie. Why they can't see through that, I don't know, but it seems like the way it goes.

For some funny, here's what an honest interview would look like.

[Ginger Tea]

Not clicked the link yet, but if it's not Winston Zedmore saying "if the pay is good I will believe anything you say." or however it goes, I will be dissapointed.

[lordlundar]

Not clicked the link yet, but if it's not Winston Zedmore saying "if the pay is good I will believe anything you say." or however it goes, I will be dissapointed.

It's not, but it's still worth the view.

[Andara Bledin]

My old boss asked that question. He asked it of people who were already working for him, too. He genuinely wanted to know what sort of ambitions people who worked there had.

Hell, he tried to push me into doing more pretty much the whole time.

It's not that difficult a question, really. We all have plans for the future. You just need to articulate them in a manner that would be palatable to employers.

[Ginger Tea]

I lack goals and ambition, I have all this free time to do stuff and I do nothing, so when they will ask what have I done since March, well honestly, not watching a lot of movies even though I have about 200 in my room unwatched and have only cleared half a dozen in the last two weeks.

I'll probably come across as someone who has nothing going for him outside of work, which after the hours went south, that's kinda how I became.

I will probably get my next job via an agency as they are less interview centric and we had dozens of people who had never worked in the food industry in their life come in and be allocated a job and they got on with it and outside of this one, most of my others started off as a temp job where I proved my abilities doing the job than BSing in an interview.

[Andara Bledin]

You have goals. Everybody has goals. They may just be to keep on keeping on as you have been, but it's still a goal.

Everybody wants to be financially stable. Everybody wants to be healthy. Everybody wants a certain level of independence.

You may certainly lack the ambition to realize any of that (I know I have precious little, myself), but you do have goals. All you need to do is figure out how to tell the interviewer what they are in a manner appropriate to the interview process.

[LewisLegion]

I hate the pressure for advancement. I have Asperger's and as far as my needs go I am in what is pretty much my perfect job. I deal with paperwork all day, my 'teammates' are all in different cities, I don't have a boss breathing down my neck, no one hanging over my shoulder monitoring me. I'm able to come in when I want (so long as I put in my 40 hours and my boss knows how to find me), I can work at my own pace, in my own way, decide my own breaks, etc.

Yet I contstantly get asked if I'm going for this supervisor position, or that new position in the call center, or if I want to go into a higher finance position. No. No no no no. I want to stay exactly where I am, doing exactly what I'm doing. Thank you.

[HYHYBT]

Why should they care where I think my life will be in five years? Why is that even an interview question in the first place, much less such a nearly universal one? More specific questions that an answer to that one might *possibly,* but not necessarily, cover might be relevant in certain circumstances, but in that case they could just ask those.

I don't think there's ever been a point in my life that was what I thought it would be five years before. And of course things like being financially stable aren't the kind of answers they're looking for, or else they'd ask a different question.

[Kheldarson]

What I dislike is you get all these people with the leadership skills, and then do nothing with them.

Like I've got the skills and drive, and have had managers tell me that, but then interviews come up and...nothing.

[Andara Bledin]

And of course things like being financially stable aren't the kind of answers they're looking for, or else they'd ask a different question.

In my boss' case, that was exactly the sort of thing he wanted to know.

Other people? Who knows.

[Pixilated]

I hate that question too. As with most interview questions, you have to lie. Why they can't see through that, I don't know, but it seems like the way it goes.

For some funny, here's what an honest interview would look like.

I'm not sure they're listening to the answer so much as watching how you behave while you're answering. Other than that, I have no clue either. They must know that potential employees will say whatever they think the interviewer wants to hear, regardless of whether it's accurate.

Loved the "totally honest interview," by the way!

I hate the pressure for advancement. *snip*
Yet I contstantly get asked if I'm going for this supervisor position, or that new position in the call center, or if I want to go into a higher finance position. No. No no no no. I want to stay exactly where I am, doing exactly what I'm doing. Thank you.

I sympathize. The attitude seems to be that there's something a tad ... suspicious ... about people who aren't engaged in a mad scramble up that corporate ladder. When I went into journalism, I wanted to be a reporter. Period. I became an editor ultimately but had virtually no real authority (which suited me fine) and all it did in the end was drag out my stay in a dying profession for an additional decade. Other than that, it was largely a waste of time.

You have to do what makes you happy. People who think there's something "wrong" with you because you aren't yearning for advancement ... well, you'll probably never get them to believe you, so I wouldn't waste the effort.