My interview at Hot Topic was super easy. I was applying for the Assistant Manager position, part-time. The store had no full-time assistant, just two part-time because they did not make enough money. The person I was interviewing with was actually the assistant who I was going to be taking over for. His store manager was about to leave the company, and he was still interviewing for the store manager position. So the part-time assistant position that I was interviewing for was not even technically open yet, and would only be open if he was accepted as the store manager. He had no expierence with interviews before so it was very informal and relaxed. He just wanted to know mostly about if I could merchandise the store, because the three managers that would be left after their current store manager left were all men and did not merchandise very well. Besides that, he wanted to know that I would be able to be a manager and not my coworkers friend, and that I had some knowledge of music. He told me that even if I did not know 90% of the music that they carried, it did not matter because I could learn it over time, which was very reassuring. After that, I had a phone interview with the district manager, which was super easy! She was very friendly and it lasted all of five minutes. She just wanted to know if I could merchandise, what kind of music I liked, and she also asked what I did in my spare time. I told her I read quite a bit and we actually talked more about what books we both liked and read recently than we did about the actual job for the short interview she gave me.

I was initially hired as a keyholder so I only had to interview with my district manager since my store manager recommended me. She was very laid back and asked me about past managerial experiences and how I would react to employees not working.