The day after the IKEA Job Fair I drove to the their temporary offices in an office park near the store site for my interview. I am curious about this interview because the bar did not appear to be very high in terms of qualifying for an interview.  And given the number of applicants, these interviews had to be awfully short. Entering the office, I was greeted by 2 women sitting at a makeshift desk. In fact, ‘makeshift’ is a good descriptor for the entire office. There were posters tacked up on the walls, desks crammed together with computer systems and wires and extension cords running wild. Filing cabinets littered the room. Casually dressed people scurried all around the office. There was chatter in the air and it felt very much like they were planning something big, and they were under pressure to do it quickly. There was an undercurrent of electricity that was palpable. I loved it. It was exactly what I had hoped for; and I wanted to be a part of it. In some ways it reminded me of the planning of a product launch meeting (If you’ve been involved with one you know exactly what I’m talking about). I sat for a minute taking in the atmosphere when a young man in his early 30s introduced himself as the interviewer. I’ll call him Martin. He told me that we had to search for a room for the interview. We stepped out into other offices in the building searching for an unoccupied room. It was not easy and I had my first sense that they were not as organized as one might expect. This became a consistent impression; this lack of organization that I guess is just a by-product of the task at hand.

Anyway, it had been many years since I was interviewed, but I have interviewed literally 100s of people in my career. I know a few things about interviewing, including the fact that most hiring decisions are made in the first 10 minutes. Armed with this insight, I took immediate control and Martin ended up talking about himself for those 10 minutes as I asked him plenty of questions about his experience and how he got where he was. Not only do people love to talk about themselves, but I was truly interested in understanding the hierarchy here and what IKEA people valued. Martin was a sharp guy who had deep experience in commercial plumbing and HVAC supply sales. He was hired as a department manager a few months ago. He seemed remarkably familiar with the IKEA game plan as well as many details of his job. I told him so and we bonded over his training experience which he admitted was compressed and challenging. I also showed empathy for the fact that he was commandeered into interviewing. He said that all managers are involved, regardless of their area of expertise. We commiserated over how enjoyable but tiring a few days of interviewing can be. (and they are…believe me).

Martin shared that they were told that the average interview should last 10 minutes! I said that maybe we should get to it then, and explained exactly why I wanted to work for IKEA. He made some notes then 15 minutes into this interview he surprised me by pulling out a sheet of paper with questions on it. Didn’t expect that…not really sure what I expected, but not a patterned interview. And they were all classic questions like: Tell me about a time when you had a disgruntled customer, or a time when you went above and beyond on an assignment, or when you had conflict with a co-worker. Now, having interviewed often, I have a good idea of what the interviewer is looking for, although I’m not at all sure Martin was a trained interviewer. Still, I provided concise responses, all in the STAR format. (Situation, Task, Action, Result). It made it easy for Martin to take notes and the answers were pretty great, if I do say so myself. His next question made me laugh, literally. He asked me to sell him my watch! Talk about cliché! After a good chuckle I realized he was serious. So first I determined exactly what he was looking for in a watch and why. I then filled each need with the features of my watch, carefully converting each to a tangible benefit and gaining his agreement on value. I summarized, and closed him by asking if I should get him the gold one or the brown one. He took both. Then he said, “OK, you sold me but you just found out that the watch is out of stock. What do you say to the customer?”  I told him the sad truth that the watch was out of stock but we can send it in two weeks. “Meanwhile, I do want to tell you that we have several other choices that align with your watch needs and are actually a bit more contemporary in style. Let me show you a few to see what you think.”

I saw Martin look down and write AWESOME! in capital letters. He told me that 90% of people just say that they’ll ship the watch and very few try to help the customer with a different watch. Seemed surprising to me, but I told him that I was an ‘instant gratification’ guy and when I make my mind up to buy something, I want it immediately. That’s why I buy my electronics from Best Buy or Fry’s instead of saving some money and waiting for a shipment from Amazon. I also told him that, being an instant gratification guy, I wanted to know if he was going to hire me today and when I would start.

He was taken aback and said, yes, he would recommend me for hire but there was a whole process on the back end including group discussions on all recommended candidates, salary determination based on experience, background and drug testing. “Great, let’s get the testing out of the way now,” I said. Of course he couldn’t, but told me I’d be contacted in a week or two. I summed up for him, re-explained why I wanted to work at IKEA and made sure he wrote it down so that others who see my resume will understand.

Before leaving the office Martin introduced me to the store manager who was a former Starbucks executive, as well the Operations manager who came from Target. It was a fun hour spent in the office, and my interviewing experience certainly served me well. In fact, Martin told me on the way out that it was the best interview he’d ever done! I still got it. Ha!

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