Hi. Chris Hauer.
Hi. Kate Johnson. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, Kate.
Chris, please, tell me a little bit about yourself.
Well, I'm currently finishing my Master of Education program at Lake Erie College.
And working on transitioning from a northeastern Ohio winter to
being a member of the Jacksonville-area community.
Why the move?
Well, my wife's job is moving down South, and I'm coming along with her.
That's very noble and admirable of you at the same time.
How did you hear about the position open with our company, here at REI?
Well, when I thought about the opportunity of changing locations and moving from
one physical location to another, I thought about making a career move
as well. And I was starting with my main interests and passions.
I love being outside. I love doing outdoor activities and I love working with people.
And I thought if I could use my experience as a teacher, helping people, and my
interest in the outdoors together, that would be a good place to start a
new career. And when I was looking online, I found REI's website and that
there were positions available in the Jacksonville area,
so I thought I would apply.
Great! So you have an interest in outdoor activities, so
this would be a great company for you to work at.
That being said, what else do you know about our company?
Well, I know you've been around for a long time, since the late 1930s,
and what really caught my attention the most was the idea that it was started
by people who had a passion for the outdoors and found a way to
involve others in their experience.
I like the idea, too, that your company is consistently ranked among the
top 100 companies to work for by Fortune magazine, and I thought
growing with a company that has that level of success would be
a good place to be.
Great. [Typing].
Why do you want this particular position,
here, within our customer service department?
Because I want to start in a position that allows me to learn
everything about the company, from the very basic level of interacting
with the customers, all the way up throughout the sales process,
marketing process, and the production of goods and services.
When I saw the opportunity for customer service, I thought it would align
very well with the skill set I have, and also with some skills I could bring
to the company that might be unique.
Can you tell me a little bit more about the skills that you would transfer from
your previous line of work to our department here?
Sure. In education, it's all about making the customer, or student, feel comfortable
and helping them grow. I feel that within a company like REI,
it's the same philosophy. Getting a customer comfortable with a product
and helping them grow as they advance in whatever sport they happen
to be participating in.
Why do you think that our company should hire you, specifically,
amongst our pool of candidates that are interviewing for this position?
Sure. I think one skill set that I have involves my background in education.
Teachers are among the highest stressed professionals in the workplace.
And REI offers a number of products that help alleviate stress by getting people
outdoors. And teachers also have a lot of down-time in the summers.
My thinking is that once I learn the ropes and advance within the company, I will
be able to market the services and products that REI offers,
specifically to the teaching profession.
I have to ask this question: given that are making a career change, here,
especially with finishing a master's degree in education,
if a position becomes available in your current field down here in the
Jacksonville area, how do you approach being offered this job versus being
offered a position in your field?
And I'm asking that in the now and in the near future.
Sure. That's a great question.
I'm not pursuing further educational opportunities within that profession.
I feel like this customer service opportunity - the chance to work in
a field that I enjoy as much as teaching
is a place that I could grow into long term.
Okay.
So what I get out of teaching is working with people.
And helping people become a little bit better than they were
when I first met them. And that skill translates very well into REI's mission.
And so I don't anticipate leaving a successful career for something
I've already done. I feel like this is a natural confluence of my two interests.
Chris, what would you identify as your greatest professional strengths?
I think patience is probably my greatest strength, that translates
across the careers. Being able to listen to a student or customer's difficulty
and help them overcome that difficulty with patience and compassion
is my greatest strength.
Would you consider any weaknesses that you have to be detrimental to the job?
I think there's a risk when it comes to compassion. I think people can
misinterpret compassion as being easy or willing to roll over when it's
important to understand that compassion is something that is earned, and it's
interactive, and I feel like if I establish clear boundaries
with customers, clients, students, they understand that.
I am understanding, I am patient, I am kind, yet, I'm also going to
people I interact with to a high standard.
To date, what would you say is your greatest professional achievement?
Personally, becoming a teacher, earning a Master's degree,
those have all been wonderful experiences for me, but the greatest achievement
would have to be working with young people.
And helping them get a little bit better at communicating
with the world around them.
Chris, can you tell me about a challenge or a conflict that you've faced
in the workplace and how you would deal with it?
Sure.Within the education profession, there are challenges every day.
You're dealing with hundreds of different personalities, and interests, and
levels of enthusiasm. So being able to engage students with content
in an enriching way, is part of overcoming a conflict or difficulty.
I think building professional relationships is another way
to deal with conflicts, understanding where people come from.
Prior to teaching, I was involved with a photography company,
photographing events like weddings, and bar mitzvahs.
Very, very important events in people's lives.
And a lot of times, conflicts would arise, so again, just like in teaching,
overcoming those conflicts with patience, and listening to the client
or customer's needs is very important.
Now you are interviewing for a position that is not
an entry-level position. And there is the possibility that those in our
company that were overlooked for this position may have some
animosity regarding the new hire for this position.
So how do you approach this potential challenge in the workplace?
The important thing is to listen to the people around me, and understand
that I am a newcomer, and that they know more about the work
environment than I will coming in.
I think because I have a friendly demeanor, and I'm not confrontational
when meeting new people, that in time, we'll have a chance to earn each other's
mutual respect and understand that we both want the same thing -
the company to grow and us to grow within the company.
Where do you see yourself in five years? Specifically within our company?
Hopefully I'll be able to develop a market that allows me to interact with
people within the teaching profession, and grow our brand using
that market as a target client base.
That's great.
Are you interviewing currently with any other companies, and if so, what interests
you about those particular companies as well?
Since I'm new to the area, I haven't had the opportunity to interview with a
wide variety of companies. I have looked at Bass Pro Shops, and I'm currently
scheduled to interview with them.
They have a similar mission and similar goals to REI. It's just that their product
line is more specifically tailored than REI's more diverse offerings.
We here at REI, you know, it is... being in customer service,
there are aspects of your job that are going to be a little less active
than I could expect you being in a teaching position
where I assume you're on your feet more, one-on-one, face-to-face with
individuals. Do you prefer a specific type of work environment?
Do you thrive in a variety of work environments?
And what does this look like?
I thrive in a variety of work environments.
I wouldn't expect to be sitting in a cubicle interacting with customers
unless I'm handling a phone call, and that's fine. That's part of the job.
But what I would expect is to be actively engaged with the customers
who come into the store, and helping show them the products that might
best suit their needs and introducing them to products that they might not have
considered before. So I would expect to be up, moving around, and
being consistently engaged with the customer, or trying to find ways to
improve what we offer to our customers.
Can you describe a time for me ever that you may have disagreed on a decision
that was made for you and staff members at work, and how did you deal with this?
Sure. Within the field of education, there are new initiatives being rolled out
all the time. And sometimes those initiatives get mandated.
You have to teach this way, this many times a week.
And when something like that happens, I think it's important to go back to
what you know about your profession or your skill set.
And be able to provide research that supports why you do what you do.
And I think when faced with a difficulty, again, it's important
to do what the boss says, and it's important to also advocate for what
might be best for the customer or student.
Alright. We're gonna move on to some cognitive behavioral questions.
And basically these questions are designed...they're not necessarily about
your past, your experience. They're sort of out-of-the-box questions.
And so, just do your best at answering them as we go through this.
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
That's a tough question.
I think, considering the traits of my dog, if I had to be an animal,
I would certainly want to be a domesticated dog.
They just have that ability to love unconditionally, they're
intensely loyal, and they just provide so many benefits to people.
That's something I like to do in my life as a human, too.
Alright. Next question.
How many tennis balls can you fit into a limousine?
Tennis balls in a limousine.
Well, I guess to effectively answer that question, I would need
some help. I would need to know what type of limousine, because
if we're talking about a stretch SUV, that's a much larger volume than
a smaller limousine. Are we talking two-door, four-door?
I also don't know what's in the limousine already.
Are there people in there, or is it empty?
Once I had those questions answered, I'd have to do some calculations
about the size of the tennis ball. How much area, or how much volume it takes
up. Calculate the inside of the limousine, and then make sure that math works out.
I could get that answer to you. I just can't do it off the top of my head.
Great.
Let me ask this final question.
Do you have any questions for us?
Well, I mentioned a couple times about being interested in helping grow a market
for REI. I'm just curious, as a new employee, or someone starting out on
a lower level, how open is upper management to hearing the ideas of
an employee?
We do try to have monthly meetings where we meet with a variety of employees
at random. So these aren't things that are necessarily scheduled regularly.
They're very semi-annual. They're very informal. We do like to hear our
employees' opinions, about our products, especially. And about marketing.
One thing that we don't necessarily do is the lower-level positions that are dealing
maybe with, collections or you know, the intake and distribution
of customer service calls - we don't necessarily talk to that group
of employees very often. But I'd be very interested to hear your opinions on that,
should you be hired for the position, and maybe ways that we could do better
as well, by reaching a larger group of our employees to benefit our company.
Okay. And the last question from me - what, from your perspective,
is the best part about working for REI?
I think the work atmosphere with our company is very welcoming.
And even in my position in somewhat upper management, those that I work
for that are above me, they're very - we're very good to our employees.
And I think because of the treatment of our employees, we retain employment.
It's very easy for us to get things done, because people want to do their jobs.
I have worked myself in positions where I've worked underneath people who
were more tyrannical in nature, and it's very difficult to want to do more,
and go above and beyond what you need to do in those situations.
So I believe that's the number one benefit of working in our particular
company, it's the atmosphere itself.
Great. Thank you so much for your time, Kate. I appreciate it.
Thank you so much. Take care.
You too.