I submitted an application online and was contacted about 3 weeks later by a talent acquisition manager from Target’s corporate offices. We scheduled a telephone interview several days later where he asked general HR questions, availability for employment, work history, salary requirements (I asked for 55k and he said that was doable), why I wanted to work for Target, and three behavioral questions. He then said that he thought I would be a good fit for Target and wanted me to conduct another telephone interview with the recruiter from the region I would be working in.
I then had to take an online assessment, which takes about an hour to complete. It is not timed and is fairly simple. The next day the regional recruiter contacted me. The interview was nearly identical to the first one except she asked five behavioral questions that differed from the ones asked in the previous interview. At the conclusion of the interview she said that she wanted to schedule me for an in person interview at a store in my area.
After learning more about the job from both recruiters I decided that is wasn’t for me. I contacted the recruiter and withdrew from the process before the in person interview. Both of the recruiters I interviewed with were very nice and the interview was not stressful in the least. They were both knowledgeable about the company and they were great representatives of Target.
I get the feeling that they are in dire need of qualified candidates because I have been contacted several times by the talent acquisition manager asking me to reconsider my decision to withdraw from the process. If you are qualified and you have some leadership experience you will likely get the job.
As far as answering the behavioral questions, the best advice I can give is to make sure you have thought of at least eight different situations from your past that can be used to answer questions about your leadership skills, ability to overcome obstacles, accountability, etc. According to the recruiter, they are looking for situations that would have affected the greatest number of people, had the greatest impact on the business, required a large amount of planning or multiple steps, and required a large amount of perseverance to complete.
It would also be useful to think about areas you are improving on. They focus on personal accountability quite a bit. You have to be able to recognize your faults and tell them how you have addressed, or are still addressing, those faults to become a better leader/manager.