I've read several reviews on this website to try to get prepared for this process. The steps in my process were the same, however, the order that they were done in was different than anything else I've read. Maybe it was just a unique experience or this one district doing things different, but it doesn't matter.
I applied online through what I thought was just an "open" application. After about 3 weeks, I received an email from a recruiter who stated that she was impressed by my resume and past experiences and wanted to schedule a phone interview for my earliest convenience. I told her since it was just a phone interview, that we could go ahead and schedule something for whenever and I'd just take a break and take the call. We set up an interview for early that afternoon.
The recruiter called me at the agreed upon time. She stated right out of the gate it would take approxmately 30 minutes and walked me through what we'd be discussing. We started and she basically outlined my experience, and asked me specific questions about each of those experiences. What I liked most, least, why I'm leaving, etc. She asked about solving guest problems, keeping guests happy, "winning them back", conflicts with supervisors....all the things you'd expect. After she gave me a chance to ask questions (I asked about pay and benefits), she explained to me the MTP program(approx. 6 weeks of training and a week at corporate HQ in Cleveland) and the hiring process. I was told out front that there would be a phone interview (just completed), a store visit, and a face to face with the district manager, not necessarily in that order. We mutually agreed to continue the process, and she said she would forward my information on to the district office and I should receive a call within 2 weeks to schedule the next step. I received a call within an hour from the district office wanting to schedule a face to face with the district manager. I called back and we scheduled an interview for the following Monday at 8am at one of the local stores.
I arrived to the store for the interview approximately 10 minutes early, and had to wait almost 20 minutes for the DM to arrive. We did the interview in the store manager's office. It took a whole hour. It felt like more of a conversation. She asked me to describe a time when I had exceptional guest service, and on the flip side a time when I had terrible guest service. She was gauging what I feel is good and bad service. I've worked in retail my whole life, so my standard is pretty high. She asked how I keep people motivated and what I do to influence sales in my current position. Then, we started getting into specific locations and talking about relocation. She told me during this interview where she was planning on putting me. To wrap up, she told me that I still needed to do a store visit, and that she needed to contact the store, so she asked me to leave the room. She wasn't able to get ahold of the manager at the store she called, so she told me she'd email me the information later that afternoon, as well as a list of questions she wanted me to ask. I received the contact information for the store manager of the visit store, and she asked that I complete it within a couple of days and call her when it's complete. Other people had stated that Sherwin set this up for them, but in my case, it was the last step in my process and I was allowed to set it up on my schedule.
I set up the store visit for Wednesday of that week, in the late morning to accomodate their early guest traffic. This also took about an hour. I met with only the store manager since the assistant was not in. The DM had wanted me to talk to both, but I got the perspective of the differences in the positions from the store manager. We basically went through the list of questions one by one and touched on them, chatted about the company in general, what the training at HQ is like, and then I got a store tour. I called the DM to let her know I finished the store visit, and we again had a chat about possible locations (Different ones this time) and she informed me that the recruiter would be sending me an offer, but she was out of the office this week so it wouldn't be until next week. All of the hiring paperwork is done online, so I'll receive an email with an official offer that I'll accept or not accept online, then a seperate email to start the paperwork.
Overall, great process, and very thorough. They want to make sure that you know what is expected, and what you're getting into. The DM told me during the followup phone call that Sherwin has very strict policies and expectations, but I will succeed as long as I stay within those guidelines.