I recently sat through a group interview for a part-time team member position at a new store coming to our area. Overall it was a very positive experience, one which I can honestly say I have never had on a job interview. I was one of about 25 people in a room and after introducing ourselves, our favorite food and why we wanted to work for the company we broke into small groups and were asked to do presentations based on topics chosen by the moderator. During our presentations and during the whole 2 hour process we were observed by four Team Leaders from the company and I am assuming being evaluated based on set criteria. Coming from an educational background this experience is akin to what I have seen at teacher conferences that is used to interact with each other. It is a good way to learn who is a standout, who has leadership qualities or who might be more of a follower. Unfortunately, they indicated that they would let us know if we would be ask to come back for a one-on-one interview or move to the next step within the next forty-eight hours, it has been more than 7 days for me so I am not optimistic. Having interviewed for a variety of jobs over the last three years, the custom of letting people know one way or the other seems to be dead. It has become rarer and rarer for companies to send thank you letters even to say, “Sorry we went a different direction with our hire”. I suspect they are looking for young, easy to train recruits who have no predisposition to a certain way of work. Despite having 11 years of retail grocery experience at a competitor, I suspect I am not what they are looking for, although I remain optimistic that they are just behind schedule with their notification and I will still get a call back. Overall, a positive experience and a pretty good strategy on their part of how to work through a large number of applicants and narrow down the field.