It was a group interview but a very relaxed interview, nothing formal. It was a group interview of about twenty people, we were all invited after undergoing a phone screening to see availability. There were three store managers, they had us sitting in rows randomly with our names on the "Hello My Name Is" stickers. They started off by asking us to individually introduce ourselves to the group by saying your name, what you preferred to be called by, favorite outdoor activities and your greatest customer service experience from a company other than REI. After doing that the managers spent twenty minutes going through a slideshow presentation about what the job entails, the company history and benefits of working their. Then we did a group activity describing good and great customer service and then presented our lists and comparisons to everyone. Then we did a team exercise called "helium" they gave us a ten foot tent pole and told us to lower it the ground after placing it on top of our index fingers, not allowing us to grab it or take our fingers off. Once we completed the task we went to a different group then before and did another exercise where we were given a scenario of a customer asking for help, we got "cycling customer", others got "family camping trip", and "family hiking". The goal was to see how we would interact with the customers and answer their questions and needs, and to see how we would interact with them. After that we were asked to go to a table of items and select an item that interests you, the item you picked you had to sale to another person in the group. We had to find someone with an item we wanted and then went over how they would sale it. Each pair was in the front and did their sales pitch, the goal was to connect with the customer, not to just sale an item. So make conversation about what the person was looking for and present them an item and discuss how the item could be beneficial to what the customer described. Once everyone finished we were free to go.

Group interviews were friendly and well managed. Staff were kind and understanding. Good and thoughtful interview process. I appreciate the relaxed atmosphere at the store and when speaking with the interviewers.