I have had the unique experience of interviewing with an in-grocery store Starbucks as well as a Starbucks corporate store. I worked at both after interviewing and am currently still employed at the Starbucks corporate store. Although they are both technically Starbucks, the interviews were extremely different and I found the in-grocery store Starbucks’ interview to be comparably less effective than the corporate store.

To give some context, I had originally applied to work as a cashier when I was interviewed for the in-grocery store Starbucks position so I was not prepared to answer specific question relating to that position. Even so, the questions that were asked of me were not really about the job itself and more about my availability. Rather than asking about my previous experience in customer service, it was more of a yes or no question of whether or not I had any experience and I wasn’t asked to go into detail about it. I felt as though that this was ineffective because my ability/skills in customer service seemingly did not matter and it felt as though it was rush to fill a position and it was not explained to me what the job would entail.

In comparison, I thought the Starbucks corporate interview was more effective and thorough. I was told the mission statement and what goals that current store was working towards and was asked how I would be able to contribute to that goal. My previous experience in customer service was also put to the test in scenario based questions that would gauge how I would approach scenarios like having a bad customer. My approaches to interacting with coworkers was also evaluated. The interview itself was a way to get to know me while also seeing if I would perform well. I felt that it strayed from an “unstructured interview which consistently receives the highest ratings for perceived effectiveness from hiring managers, though dozens of studies have found them to be among the worst predictors of actual on-the-job performance” (Bohnet, 2016).

Reference:

Bohnet, I. (2016, July 18). How to take the bias out of interviews. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/04/how-to-take-the-bias-out-of-interviews