I hooked up with Kroger at a job fair for military veterans. The HR manager that was there was very straight forward and to the point. Next came a phone interview with the same person a few days later. After the phone interview, I was invited to the office in Irving for a 1 on 1 interview, again, with the same person. I thought it odd that I had to interview with the same guy 3 times. Each time was just a little more in depth than the other, but basically I did feel that some of my time had been wasted. During the 3rd interview, this individual laid out what kind of salary I could expect, what I would be making in 5 years, etc. Again, I thought it odd that he would be telling me what I would be making in 5 years. Once past this interview, I was issued an essay style "application". "Tell us in detail a situation you have experienced for this scenario...." and so on. I believe it was about 8 pages. I was to bring this with me for a 4th panel interview. The panel consisted of two store managers and a district manager. It was kind of a joke. We talked about the job for about 5 minutes and spent the next 45 minutes talking to them about places I'd been in the military, the airplanes that I'd flown in and worked on. They were completely enthralled. At the end, the district manager looked at his watch, declared that time was up, and that I would be getting their recommendation. Honestly, after 3 years, I can tell you that I wish I hadn't. It's almost like they wanted me simply on the merit of my stories. I'm not even close to the salary I was told that I could expect.....and my reputation is in good standing. I feel that the company was misrepresented by this HR fellow, but I will stop short of saying that I was lied to. The panel that I interviewed with all seemed to be good descent people, but I feel that Kroger goes out of it's way to seem like a big-time professional organization, without the big-time professional personnel. The interview might as well have been conducted at a bar over a few beers.
