Kmart Job Application: Fill & Download for Free

Since most of the other users provided full answers regarding the classic errors made such as low research on the company’s profile, the lack of preparation for the interview or even some gaps between the facts discussed at the actual interview and some information presented in the resume.Skipping the other advice, I would say that from my point of view, the biggest mistakes would be related to non-verbal communication and appearances. And those things reflect on the interview itself as every experienced manager would get a sense of the candidate's personality only by looking at him.For example, eye contact is very important. Usually, those applicants who are afraid to look directly into the eyes of the interviewer tend to lack confidence or they seem to be unprepared. More guides on this matter are presented in this article on Chron (The Importance of Eye Contact in a Job Interview).Another sensitive topic regarding the non-verbal communication would be your clothes. Even though there are numerous companies which do not require a dress code, you should present at the interview well dressed. Remember that you are never overdressed.It’s important to answer the interviewer questions, but it’s way more important how you answer them (with your body language and voice tone of course). There are tons of articles on the web on with comprehensive guides and answers for nailing a job interview for companies in different niches (i.e. Kmart Job Application and Employment Resources | Job Application Point) but the most important role is played by the way you impress your manager with your answers.To conclude, I would only have to say to make eye contact, dress properly, be relaxed and prepare your answers. You should make it look like a natural conversation.

It was late October, 2006. In order to escape insomnia and burnout from school and a bad family environment, I went to live on a farm in Doylestown, PA, US. I worked for the local Kmart store from 9 - 6pm during the retail season (Nov - Jan). The exact ad I saw on their window right near the entrance was “Help Wanted, Good Pay”.The minimum at that time was $5.15. (Which in my opinion, was way too low compared to the cost of living in 2006). The position paid $9.25 an hour. I worked as an “Utilities and Receivings” associate. The hiring manager (HR) at the time was Mary Ann.You start off clocking in before 9am and then you need to go to Receivings, which is basically a garage door located at the back of the store. The Receivings Manager(Doug, a nice Jamacian guy in his 40s), would open this garage door every morning at 8:30 and there’d be a truck container filled to the brim with boxed items. The boxed items included dog food, seasonal items, bathroom products, stationery, games, and all kinds of junk that Kmart wanted to sell to the locals. Kind of like what you see before you lose in the game Tetris: blocks of every shape, size, and pattern filled the screen as the game over sign flashes before your eyes.We’d pull out a conveyor belt, which has rows of wheels on top. One end of the conveyor belt goes into the truck, the other end stays on the warehouse floor. That way you put a box on top, and just push. The box would zip down this conveyor belt. This is so that the items from the truck container can get to the warehouse floor in the shortest time possible. Each box weighs anywhere from 5–50 pounds. i.e stationary vs cat litter.This requires one or two guys in the truck container to push boxes down the conveyor belt. On the warehouse floor, we’d have bunch of guys to grab the boxes and put them on their respective pallets. Once a pallet is full, we shrink wrap them and pull them out onto the sales floor for the sales associates to unbox and organize onto the shelves.This process usually goes from 8am - 12pm. We have to finish the whole truck (about 2000–2500 pieces) every morning. Since the truck is docked and waiting for us to unload, the trucking company charges Kmart money for that time. So we’d have to haul ass and hurry up.Once we’re done with unloading, we’d have an hour lunch. After lunch, my job is to go out and collect carts. You’d push one cart inside another so they are attached. You do this until you get about eight or nine carts. So now you have this long chain of shopping charts right? You’d then slowly push and guide this chain of carts into a small opening at the entrance of the store so that when customers walk in, they have a shopping cart to put their items in. You’d have to watch out for cars, customers, and weave that cart snake carefully into the cart container.Also if there was a customer that needs help getting furniture into their car, you’d stop what you’re doing and help them load it.All in all, it was grueling work. You’re on your feet and doing manual labor for 8 hours straight, with an hour lunch in between, and another 15 minute break in the afternoon.In addition, they don’t allow you to clock in for 40 hours because that would be considered full time, and they’ll have to pay all sorts of benefits. Instead, you’re scheduled for 38.5 hours. That way, they just pay you hourly, and no more.Now, for my sole purpose, this kind of work lets me reset mentally, and get some exercise. I didn’t have to use my brain. I could relax, resolve my inner demons so I can hopefully relieve some of my insomnia, and get myself back on my feet.But for the guy who wants to get ahead in life, or contribute to a family, it doesn’t make sense. You literally take home $1168 every month (US tax is around 18% for this salary range). No raise. No promotion. You’re just a muscle peon that works during seasonal sales where retail traffic is at its highest.Around January, they will let you go. And if you have performed nicely and they decide that they want to keep you, they’ll cut your hours down to around ten a week. That means you work two hours a day. You take home a few hundred bucks a month. With that kind of money, you can hardly feed yourself.I soon quit Kmart, and then went to Lowe’s, and finally to Target. The work is all the same. Very blue collar. Very physical. The thing that mattered most is how many hours you get, and if you can raise a family with the money after taxes.Lowe’s was okay, but Target was better. Actually, out of all the retail places I’ve worked, Target treated me the best. I did Planogram, which was a position that started at 6:30am. It’s also grueling work because you have to make sure the shelves, theme, price tags, and items are all stocked and put exactly the way it is on their planograms. The positive is that they give you 38 hours a week year round, so you can actually have consistent income.Now, to answer your question.These non-minimum positions go unfulfilled because they have no future, no promotion, and they require the applicant to literally bust their ass for a paycheck that barely cover life expenses. With nothing leftover to save. The hours fluctuate, there are no benefits, and the cost performance of such a deal is only high for the company.Not you.People know this, or eventually will know this, and good people leave for better opportunities. So these positions go unfilled because the available pool of workers that take them are usually not educated, have some medical issues, maybe do drugs and cannot show up every morning, or simply can’t take the physical labor day in and day out, drop out. The ones that can and are fit for the position move on quickly as they figure out how crummy the situation is.How I remembered my coworkers in detail:After a few weeks on the job, I pretty much assessed where and how the drama unfolds.Aaron was a 22 y/o, who lived with his mother, and never finished high school. He had a child with his ex-girlfriend and was about 300 pounds overweight. If he lost weight, he’d look exactly like Leonardo Dicaprio from the movie Titanic. His had a light, fair complexion, with blonde hair. Due to his weight, he doesn’t seem to have a lot of ambition or energy in his life. His breaks were too long and he moved too slow. I felt terrible for the guy because even though he had potential, he does not have the know how to get himself to the next level.Then, we have Doug, the Receivings manager. He was a 45 y/o divorced guy from Jamaica. He had a very strong paternal presence about him and he treated his workers great. He understood the beauacracy of the retail environment and does his best to accommodate those around him. What I remembered most was his tiredness from life. He’d lost hope in marriage, and just simply tried to work, earn some money, and enjoy his life when he retires in a couple of years. I remembered him telling me about trying to get a Driver B license so he can drive dump trucks and earn fifty grand a year. Obviously his current managerial position at Kmart did not look promising.There was another receiver by the name of Maggie. She was a petite woman, and her geri-curl of a hair was graying but she looked to be about in her mid-fifties. Looking like something straight out of the 70's, her glasses were squarish, with curves around the corner. The frames were also gradient colored like quartz rocks.None of that bothered me one bit, as I really didn’t have any opinions on fashion. What got to me was the way she shouted and yelled at people. She was so filled with contempt that it seems like she never really said a positive word about anything or anyone. If someone made a mistake, she would be sure to let that person know in the worst way possible. I guess you can say she thrived on pointing out other people’s mistakes.When I first began, I couldn’t remember the twenty or so departments that got matched with their respective pallet locations and she was sure to yell at me for it. If I dropped it off at the wrong pallet, she would yell, throw boxes close to people, and drop them really loud in order intimidate. But it was bearable because Doug would tell me to ignore her and just keep going. Pretty soon, I made less mistakes and she’d yell less.However, there are some days where her temper would flourish and she would start throwing boxes around. By then I knew what I was doing so I wasn’t going to take any of her attitude. I also started throwing my boxes around, barely missing her as well. She got the message pretty quick and stopped her yelling completely. After that, she would make a few grunts and go about her way.Lastly, there was another guy in his 40's named Joey. Hard worker and positive attitude. But one day, I guess he forgot to take his medication and experienced a small seizure right after we finished unloading the truck. Kmart fired him right away because they did not want to deal with paying leave or have any kind of medical liability.

I pretty much have a bunch of questions I ask interviewers. I mean, I certainly evaluate the appropriateness of the questions, but my general rule is that if I’ve reached the point in the interview where I’m allowed to grill them, then they are worth it. If I feel uncomfortable asking my questions, that’s a sign that I’m not really with a company that I should be pursuing.It’s also worth noting, that I don’t do “rhetorical questions to, like, make me look smart and shit.” That’s stupid (and I’m not pretending I’m smart — after interviewing with people all over SV, Quora, Amazon, etc.; I’m 100% confident that those are the smartest people in the multiverse). When I don’t have any more questions, I’m not afraid to say, “Know what. I’ve got everything I need. You guys really went out of your way and answered my questions.” The people who feel the need to invent questions to sound good in an interview probably shouldn't get the job.Directed at a single person (I never do this one in panel interviews): “What is one thing you dislike about coming to work here every day?” (Literally my favorite question NOT because it trips them up, but because I actually get real answers — no shit. The director who interviewed me at Facebook and my interviewer at Okta had really great answers to this question. Amazon? No offense big Zon … but your people didn’t.)Generally, if I’m interviewing with a company where there is notable competition, I will ask some version of: “Can you tell me a bit about what makes [AWS, Microsoft Asure, IBM Cloud or Oracle Cloud (snerk)] different than the competition?” OR, “If I’m a customer, why should I choose Progressive over Nationwide?” I really do want to know the answers to those questions. This is important because their hiring team SHOULD know the vision of the company and what differentiates them from the competition. If they don’t? Oooh. Not good.“If I were your perfect candidate and I had competing offers, why should I come to work for Ozcorp over Weyland-Yutani or Lexcorp?” (I mean, besides them not being in the same universe and all.) Look. Hiring is important. Attracting the best talent is really important. I’m not saying I’m the best (I’m not — duh!), but they should want the best and they should know WHY they deserve the best even if it’s not me.“When you describe what Quora does to someone who has no clue about this sort of thing, what is it that you tell them?” I like this question because a good team should be able to explain the corporate mission and how it improves the world. Look, every company believes its own mission statement. You may not, but do you really want to work for some company where even the employees don’t believe in their mission? (Kelly Marie Antoinatte Battles IV at Quora had a GREAT answer to this question.)Side note on this one: I practice interviewing every now and then. I am not ready to admit the kinds of practice interviewing I do, but let’s just say that I do a LOT of practice interviewing. I mean … it’s like a fucking hobby for me. (We can get into this later Brill). Several months ago, I interviewed with Kmart. Why would I do that? Because I’m desperate to see what they ask. When I asked the store manager this question (BTW, this interview was the best time EVER … oh god, it would make for an SNL skit), he said, flatly, “We’ll pay you well because there’s no future here. Suck on the tit while it’s available.” If that’s the sales pitch, that company has a HUGE problem.“It’s really important to me to know how much you’re invested in the improvement of your employees. Can you describe the process for taking an under-performing team member and coaching them for improvement? Without revealing specifics, can you provide anecdotes?” — Seriously. Who the hell wants to work for a company where, if you run into a rough patch, they basically push you out the door?Those are mine. I don’t ask them all the time. I have them memorized. I write them down before interviews so that I can flip open my note book and jog my memory. I really do think that as a candidate for any company, if you walk in there desperately needing the job (or, at least SHOWING that you desperately need it), you’re fucked. You really should screen them. You really should show that you know what you’re doing. And, one last thing, I really do recommend filling out applications for jobs you’d NEVER consider. The art of interviewing is hard to learn and while I’m not a good fit for every job, I’m at least confident enough in what I do that I know when to walk away from a process with my head held high. YMMV.