Applied online for the position. I expected that it would take a while to hear back but to my surprise I was contacted the next evening and asked to come in for an interview. I am currently employed so she was very friendly and asked when would be a good time for me as she didn't want to interfere with my job. I was off the following day so surprisingly she set me up for the following morning at 9AM. I was told that i would interview with her and the Store Manager. I arrived a few minutes early and approached customer service as she requested. The young lady let me know that she didn't think she was in and called back to ask someone. She finally asked the manager himself and it was clear that we wasn't even aware that he'd have an interview that day! Excellent communication and preparation... She arrived after a short wait and I had to sit outside her office while she printed the required forms for the interview. The interview itself was neither difficult or exciting. The company uses an 8 question structured interview. He and her took turns reading questions from a document and writing answers; such as "How would you handle an inventory issue?" or "Tell me about a time when you led your team to accomplish an overwhelming workload. " They were all common situational questions to gauge people and retail skills. They briefly discussed what I was looking for in pay and where I worked. They also asked about my typical schedule and were quick to inform me that the job included mostly late nights until midnight or later and weekends. They gave each other the unspoken "glance" when I mentioned that I normally worked mostly days in my current position but I'd expected that there would be more nights. This almost made the job undesirable for me, not because of the hours but because of their attitude about the position. It made me feel as if they were looking down on the Assistant Managers if their operation. They advised that each interview was given a score based in the answers and that the job typically goes to the highest score. They also said that company policy requires that atleast 3 interviews must be conducted for each open position before a hire can be made. I was not impressed by the interview and had already decided that I'd probably not accept the position if offered. I am an experienced Manager with 15 years behind me. I conduct interviews every day and never want to give the impression that I received. I received an email thanking me for my interest but we are "pursuing other candidates" the following week.

I had 2 interviews. First interview with the Lowe's recruiter and she was super and in the end explained that she would assist/be an advocate to get me close to the annual salary I desired. She forwarded me to the SSM for an in person interview at the store. He gave a really fair and hard question interview. He took the time to get to know my style of leadership and welcomed ideas that I shared with him in my past positions. I got an offer and I asked both SSM and recruiter if we could get closer to my desired annual salary. Both were gracious and forwarded my counteroffer to higher powers at be. Painless negotiation and in the end, I accepted their final offer, they met me 97% of what I asked for and the ability to bonus 2 times a year has me way over my compensation. I am excited to become a part of the Lowe's family.