went in on a monday and handed an assistant manager my application. he did a quick micro-interview. on the spot he set up an interview for two days later, wednesday. that interview was supposed to be with another asst mgr, but it ended up being the same guy, which was good. we had a really good interview. he was engaged and interactive and conversational. he said he would strongly recommend me to the store manager. there was a minor hiccup with him getting back to me, but then eventually i was scheduled to meet the store manager the following friday (ie a week and half later). the store manager interview was terrible. she was very distracted the entire time, not at all present. she kept looking away at people passing by where we were sitting. she was the opposite of the asst mgr. she was robotic with the questions; she wasn't engaged or conversational. she was dwelling mostly on negative aspects--it had that "gotcha" feel to it. it felt uphill the whole way, as if she had made her decision in the first couple minutes. i am perfectly qualified, both in experience and temperament and a host of other aspects (concrete and intangible), but she didn't move towards that. i've been shopping at trader joe's for over 25 years. i know their product and their concept. the interview was completely counter to all past experiences with the chain (i'd guess i've probably been in 30 or more different stores over the years) as a customer. when she called the next day to turn me down, she said simply, "we're not interested in continuing the interview process." when i expressed surprise and asked for elaboration, she just repeated the same thing. lame.

The interview process was absolutely wonderful! I didn't feel stressed or nervous and it felt like I was just chatting with a friend! Trader Joes is a great company and the interview was great.