How to prepare for a Walmart interview
You’ve landed an interview with Walmart. You know the job is perfect for you, but you’re nervous about the interview process. Where can you go for assistance? Well it’s your lucky day! Two of our recruiters, Justin Weimer and LauRon Principe put together the 6 things you need to do to prepare for an interview with Walmart.
1. Know the role.
Understand the role you’ll be interviewing for. Ask your recruiter what blind spots might be there and how to best prepare. Your recruiter is your biggest advocate throughout this process, so use them! An example of a great question to ask your recruiter is, “What did the team ask for in an ideal candidate, but might not be getting with me?” This will help with preparing and focusing in on those pieces to make sure your hiring panel knows you are capable of learning. Finally, bring a couple of examples to sell yourself for this particular role.
2. Do your research.
Review Walmart’s LinkedIn page and corporate website to understand what the company has been talking about lately. Similarly, look up the profiles of your interview panel. If the interview panel information is not provided beforehand, ask your recruiter so that you can learn about who you will be meeting with. This will help you be prepared and will make the feel valued.
3. Visit a store.
Go into a Walmart Supercenter, Neighborhood Market, or convenience store. Look around and talk to associates. We’d like you to be able to speak about a store and what you see and experience when you walk in and out of a Walmart location. To help with this, imagine that you are walking alongside Greg Foran (EVP, CEO of Walmart U.S.) and you have the opportunity to tell him the things that are working and the things you would improve. What would those things be?
4. Understand the interview structure.
We do behavioral interviews, a style that helps the hiring team understand your thought process and how you could potentially work on their team. This is situational based and includes a follow up question to reiterate a time you have been in a situation similar. Be prepared for this.
5. Prepare questions.
Your interview panel will give you time to ask questions. This is your opportunity to ensure that the role is a good fit for you, and the types of questions you ask will say a lot about who you are as a candidate. This is a time to build rapport with the team. A few good types of questions include:
- Questions specifically related to the company: financials, recent company changes, etc.
- Questions about projects or strategy: what are they working on, what are the objectives, what are the current strategies to achieve that objective, etc.
- Questions about team dynamics and expectations. For example, “What is the one most important thing on your team, and why?”
6. Dress for success.
With today’s global workforce, sometimes interview attire is forgotten, but it’s important to remember who you could potentially be speaking with. For example, you may meet an executive, the leader of your organization, your potential supervisor and/or your future supervisor/mentor. Our best tip? Wear a suit and bring your resume, a pen, and a notebook.
These items can help prepare you for an interview, but from there, it’s up to you! Just remember, above all else, everything we do relates to the customer. As Sam Walton always said, “The customer is the boss.”
Good luck!
