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.