The interview consisted of two parts: 1) A presentation 2) group tasks. The presentation gave a backstory about the managers experience working for REI and then led into the history and basic principles that define the company. Part 2 was the group interview portion, which lasted for about 1 hour. We began doing a simple ice breaker game and then constructing three group presentations. The groups were rotated freely after each presentation. The first presentation topic was to describe/perform/depict what the phrase "real, alive, community" meant to us. The second topic dealt with a customer service scenario where you were the only staff member assigned to an area in the store with an abundance of customers in need of assistance; how do you respond? The third topic was to design and present the tent of your dreams. The atmosphere was extremely fun and relaxed. The managers are walking around taking notes as the presentations are being discussed, presumably looking for qualities indicative of team players or leaders. The presentation themselves were mainly a way of seeing how you interface with other people. Individuals with past retail experience made sure to showcase those skills. Something I should have done which nobody else did, was promote the co-op in the skits to show that you are comfortable asking people to join and then explaining the benefits.

I went in to meet with the head of the team somewhat informally, spoke about my customer service philosophy and how I would approach the team’s current sales goals, then signed my first intent letter to be put into an onboarding group for seasonal associates. Unfortunately I was never contacted to be placed into an onboarding group despite being led to believe the interview went great. The business’s needs must’ve changed, but it would have been nice to receive some follow up regardless.