I Am Assistant Sales Supervisor. 

How did you get your current job?
I was given the job as a promotion from my prior position of sales associate.

What was the application process?
I had already submitted my resume prior to my employment, so I was simply required to be interviewed by upper management and given some test trials among the various floors of the store to evaluate my skills.

Did you have to interview for your current job? If yes, what did the interview process entail?
Yes, my interview process was a set of three interviews: two by assistant store managers, and one by the store manager himself. They were all individual interviews that became more than the typical formal interview.

If you can remember, what questions were you asked during the interview?
Some of the questions were “What did you want to be when you were a child?” “What was your major in college?” “If you’re caught in traffic, what do you usually do?” “What would you do on a given day, if you were to run the operation of this store?”

Do you feel your employer properly prepared you for your job? Explain.
Yes, but not intentionally. As I said before, it was my own inquiries and my ability to grasp situations on my own that made me successful at an early age. Their choice to throw me into a job with larger responsibility so quickly only supplemented by education in the company.

Was there training for your current position? If yes, what did it entail?
Yes, I was actually given control of each floor in the store at various points in time and asked to run the overall operations of the floor for that given day.

Do you feel your educational background prepared you for your job? Explain.
In a way, yes. It helped eliminate my prior shyness and established a sense of how to interact with other individuals in a professional manner.

If applicable, do you feel your internship experience helped you prepare for your job?
I didn’t have any internship experience, so this question would not be applicable to me.

If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
Be very vocal. I started off as an associate and only through asking many questions did I reach my position as fast as I did. Most of the time, I voiced dissenting opinions to other managers and that gained their attention. Most associates tend to stay quiet and sell, but the real way to elevate yourself is not through numbers, but distinguishing yourself as a proud individual.

What skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a position like yours?
Having social and organizational skills I believe are much more important to my position than technical skills. My job is a very vocal one where I must communicate for each working day I am at my job. Being able to communicate effectively and keeping my floor’s operation in order is essential to being successful at my position as well as furthering my sales career.

Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
Education is absolutely key to almost every single career. However, I feel training one in patience (if that is possible) is absolutely vital to being successful in this industry.

What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Be calm and collected. Always voice your opinions as well as listening to others. Don’t let someone’s voice be overwhelmed by your own, because that person may be saying something important. Always be patient. But in the end, have faith in everything that you do, because risks will need to be made more often than not.