Payless shoes interview questions

Payless ShoeSource applicants may be asked to participate in several job interviews to gain employment with the footwear company. Most entry-level shoe store applicants need only complete a single question-and-answer session with a store manager. Depending on the number of applicants, a group interview may be required to handle the overload. Applicants looking for advanced work may undergo more than one interview, usually with a district manager or corporate representative. Outside of these interviews, applicants don't endure much else prior to hiring, save for a training or probationary period with the company.

Common Interview Questions

Employees often perform many different duties. To that effect, interviews with the footwear retailer often cover how well an applicant accomplishes various tasks and demands common to the job. Common questions include:

• "Tell me about a time when you had to solve a difficult problem."
• "How do you close a deal with a customer?"
• "Why do you want to work with Payless?"

What the Company Looks for in a Candidate

Payless ShoeSource interviewers look for several things when meeting with applicants. Following these factors may increase hiring chances greatly with the shoe store chain. For example, candidates with a good vocabulary and comfortable speech are highly sought-after due to the social nature of employment in retail. How applicants present themselves extends to how they look, as well. Proper clothing and appearance is required for each interview, and applicants must be willing to adhere to the employee dress code. Schedule flexibility is a major factor in selecting new associates, since workers may be asked to work nights, weekends, and holidays.

Video Transcript

Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Payless ShoeSource Keyholder: I was a key holder. Basically I was in charge of opening and closing the store, as well as training other associates. I was in charge of the deposits, taking the deposits to the bank afterwards, making change, and things like that. A group lead position.

Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Payless ShoeSource Keyholder: The stores usually only have two to three people in there at a time because most of the stores in this area, they’re not too big, and you can pretty much watch the store from the front. I was usually only working with two to three people, and maybe a manager or the supervisor in the back room, but not really out on the sales floor with you.

Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Payless ShoeSource Keyholder: It was pretty basic. What I did was once I did my online application, then I came in for the interview. The interview was just basic questions really. Any customer service experience? A lot of scenario questions is mainly what they had too. Like what would you do if any employee came to you about such and such problem? I would say definitely brush up on all the normal scenarios. If someone came to you and they say they didn’t make the deposit and they were late on it, what would you do, would you go to a manager? Things like that, questions like that. How would you handle an irate customer? That’s basically it. They like bilingual as well because Payless, it is the majority Hispanic company. We have a lot of Hispanics who come there, so they really like if you can speak Spanish, just to communicate with them.

Interviewer: What set you apart from other candidates?
Payless ShoeSource Keyholder: I am a very social person. With Payless because that’s mainly what you’re doing. You’re talking to customers, you’re trying to add on accessories and things like that. You’ve got to be able to be face to face with them talking to them, asking them probing questions. Definitely the biggest thing they like is open ended questions. Questions where you cannot say no or yes to. You want a question where they have to explain to them what color are you looking for? “Oh red, blue, nothing.” They can be like, “Oh no, ” or stuff like that. Being able to be face to face with someone, social with someone, talking to any type of person, and really being able to get through to them, not really … I don’t know the word for it, but one of them people who … You can’t be one of them people who someone just stops and you stop. I guess with the close ended questions. If they be like, “No, ” and you’re like, “Okay bye.” No stay, you got to get able to go, “Okay well” … Push more. You got to be able to push more to really try to connect with the customer to see what they’re doing and what they’re looking for.

Interviewer: How were you notified that you received the job?