Interview questions for grocery job

[Night Elf]

So I found some questions online that the grocery store my son applied to ask during the interview. How would you answer these?

1. Why do you want to work at Ingles?

2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

3. What can you contribute to our company?

4. How would you deal with an irate customer?

We can come up with strengths because he has a good work ethic. He's always on time. He's dependable and responsible.

[Toocrazy!!]

I'll be following along, DS has his first interview Wednesday and we've been talking about similar questions. These are our thoughts so far. 

1. Nice store, good product, workers seem happy and friendly. 

2. Dependable, reliable, honest, quick learner. No idea on what weaknesses to actually say. I hate this question! 

3. Contribute by being a good worker, doing my job well and being part of the team realizing everyone has a part to make the store run well. 

4. Listen to their complaint, do whatever I have the ability to fix, escalate it to a manager or supervisor if necessary. Follow any guidelines I'll learn in training. 

 

Good luck to your DS! 

[JIN MOUSA]

For the weaknesses question, I've heard this idea that your greatest strength, mis-guided, becomes your greatest weakness. I'm not sure that's entirely true, but I try to to frame my weakness as strength run amok. So I'll talk about how I'm aware of that tendency and efforts I make to reign it in. 

[almondbutterandjelly]

Ha ha greatest weakness as an interview question... I'm too punctual, I try too hard, I am a perfectionist.  You know, stuff that's actually a good thing.  

[Night Elf]

For his weakness, what if he says he's shy probably because of his Aspergers but in his last job he learned how to work with people and as part of a team? We're not sure if he should mention the Aspergers or not. He didn't at his last job.

[regentrude]

1 hour ago, Night Elf said:

For his weakness, what if he says he's shy probably because of his Aspergers but in his last job he learned how to work with people and as part of a team? We're not sure if he should mention the Aspergers or not. He didn't at his last job.

I would absolutely not mention the Aspergers in the interview. If it becomes relevant. he can disclose it after he has been hired.

[marbel]

The weakness thing is a difficult question.  I agree that he should not mention Asperger's.  Also don't say things like "I try too hard to make the customer happy"  or "I take my job too seriously."  They don't sound sincere.  

Was there a weakness pointed out at his previous job?  That might be a starting point for you. Or, use the shyness but don't add the Asperger comment. Lots of people are shy and work to overcome it. 

[Night Elf]

His true biggest weakness is he can't work fast for hours. He can start off fast but he gets tired. That's why he left his last job. He was given a quota of how many items to shelve in a one hour period and he wasn't meeting it. His manager talked to him several times but it was very stressful. I doubt they would have fired him over it but it made my son feel bad so he quit. He was there 1 year 1 month. I can't see a way to put that into a positive light.

I think he should go with the shy thing but he won't mention Aspergers. I didn't know if he should or not. It just seems the easiest thing to say it was a weakness but his last job helped him be better.

He stocked groceries. He followed procedures. He pitched in where they asked him to do so. He rarely broke jars, maybe 2 in the year he was there. 

He's very mathematical, logical thinking. Does his best and doesn't cut corners. Didn't call out sick a lot.

He doesn't like customer service. He doesn't want to be dealing with customers which is why he doesn't want to be a cashier. He understands he might be asked questions by a customer but he thinks it won't happen a lot and he's okay with occasionally. I don't want him saying this is a weakness either. I don't want the manager thinking my son doesn't get a long with people.

He wasn't strong and was slightly overweight when he started his last job but by the time he left, he was lifting 50 lb. bags with ease and had lost two pants sizes. 

[Night Elf]

3 hours ago, Toocrazy!! said:

I'll be following along, DS has his first interview Wednesday and we've been talking about similar questions. These are our thoughts so far. 

1. Nice store, good product, workers seem happy and friendly. 

2. Dependable, reliable, honest, quick learner. No idea on what weaknesses to actually say. I hate this question! 

3. Contribute by being a good worker, doing my job well and being part of the team realizing everyone has a part to make the store run well. 

4. Listen to their complaint, do whatever I have the ability to fix, escalate it to a manager or supervisor if necessary. Follow any guidelines I'll learn in training. 

 

Good luck to your DS! 

Thanks. I'll show him this.

[Toocrazy!!]

14 minutes ago, Night Elf said:

His true biggest weakness is he can't work fast for hours. He can start off fast but he gets tired. That's why he left his last job. He was given a quota of how many items to shelve in a one hour period and he wasn't meeting it. His manager talked to him several times but it was very stressful. I doubt they would have fired him over it but it made my son feel bad so he quit. He was there 1 year 1 month. I can't see a way to put that into a positive light.

I think he should go with the shy thing but he won't mention Aspergers. I didn't know if he should or not. It just seems the easiest thing to say it was a weakness but his last job helped him be better.

He stocked groceries. He followed procedures. He pitched in where they asked him to do so. He rarely broke jars, maybe 2 in the year he was there. 

He's very mathematical, logical thinking. Does his best and doesn't cut corners. Didn't call out sick a lot.

He doesn't like customer service. He doesn't want to be dealing with customers which is why he doesn't want to be a cashier. He understands he might be asked questions by a customer but he thinks it won't happen a lot and he's okay with occasionally. I don't want him saying this is a weakness either. I don't want the manager thinking my son doesn't get a long with people.

He wasn't strong and was slightly overweight when he started his last job but by the time he left, he was lifting 50 lb. bags with ease and had lost two pants sizes. 

I think the shy thing is a good option, without the Asperger's mention. 

My son isn't shy really, but he's not a people person. He has good manners and is friendly and polite though, so I think he'll be OK if they stick him at a cashier position. He is still in high school, so he won't be there full time or for long hours at a time, so I think he can handle that much interaction :)

I'm thinking he should say he plays too much Fortnite in his off time as his weakness! His actual weakness is he is so SLOW! Everything takes him so long - sometimes because he overthinks, but a lot of the time he just doesn't move. I'm so curious to see how that pans out when it's a customer or a boss - and not his parents - telling him to hurry up!

[Pen]

Some companies knowingly  hire people with special needs and may get tax or other incentives for doing so. In that case there may be more understanding for some problems that may be involved. 

I don’t know if Ingles is such a company nor if your Ds is considered special needs. 

 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

When my eldest was interviewing for jobs, we came up with this for the inevitable 'state your weakness' question, making the reply more job-specific rather than about personal weaknesses. It also then spins it as a positive.

"I anticipate that there will be aspects of this role that I'm not experienced in/familiar with. However, I will ask for direction/assistance when necessary, and I'm keen to learn new skills."

 

Good luck to your son!

 

[Xahm]

For his weakness, maybe "by nature I'm not very outgoing, but in my last job I learned a lot about working with people and as a team and I'm much more comfortable in those situations now. I look forward to continuing to grow in this area."

[Kanin]

14 hours ago, xahm said:

For his weakness, maybe "by nature I'm not very outgoing, but in my last job I learned a lot about working with people and as a team and I'm much more comfortable in those situations now. I look forward to continuing to grow in this area."

That’s a great way of putting it!

[Night Elf]

They did not ask him any of these types of standard questions. The interview lasted no more than 10 minutes. Ugh.