I received a call from the corporate recruiter, the following week I had an interview with the warehouse manager. This was probably the best interview I've ever been on, in the beginning. The Manager felt like family in conversation. I was able to provide a ton of tips on space management and process improvement. Over the hour and 21 minutes including a tour with the manager I noticed the workers seemed downtrodden, not a smile in the whole place. I was let in on how he fired a guy recently and had plans to fire another. The last portion of the interview was spent 1/2 & 1/2 lean management kpi watching to crack the whip and more questions. According to the manager it's a top preforming warehouse, so it's understandable.
The next day I get a call from the parent company United Stationers to set up a second interview with the higher ups. He was collecting notes on my experiences and starts off by saying "it seems you have no experience in warehousing." Talk about a slap in the face, apparently 8 years of warehousing management in the Air Force followed by warehousing for a company within the fortune 15 does not count? Continuing on I reiterated my experiences on my resume. He chooses to focus on my ancient Unix programming exp and starts trying to talk about their accounting program. This is where it hits me. The whse manager has a BA in Public relations and this guy wants to know tips on unix programming. Was I being led on to provide free consulting..? In the end I was told they would call in the next few days, two weeks later I get the standard thanks but no thanks email.
