I found the posting through a Teach For America alumni jobsite. I sent them an email and was contacted the following day by an HR representative out of Chicago. We talked about the position and she wanted to interview me immediately. I waited for two hours and then did the interview since I was working. Initial interview was looking for big names. Places I was interviewing, colleges I attended or considered, and previous employment. Following the interview I was sent an email asking me to fly out. I declined the interview after looking at the cost of housing in LA and looking at the poor company rating on the website. HR contacted me and asked for a salary number that I would need to consider the company. I said in the 70-80K range to make it work for my family. She said that it was within the range they offered for the position so I agreed to fly-out and interview. I paid for the taxi to the hotel and my meals. Upon arriving the following day at Mcmaster I was given a 120 dollar check to cover miscellaneous expenses. They provided a town car to and from the company. Both tip and the upfront cost were covered. Upon entering I noticed that they were renovating the warehouse. I was given a paper to fill out that asked for information about previous employers, school, and salary expectations. They even went so far as to ask what I was paid previously. It was odd that they don't have a website for you to enter all of this on a website beforehand to consider. I gave them the information and wrote down 85K for my expected starting salary. I knew ahead of time that they paid well and so I shot for what I had identified as what would make me want to move to LA. In retrospect I wouldn't have written down my previous salary information. They gave me an itinerary and provided me a place to put my belongings. The first onsite interview was just walking around the warehouse, listening to phone conversations, talking to a manager in marketing, and also sitting down and looking at the catalog. Ask lots of questions. In addition, know the following beforehand: -McMaster chooses it's customers based on specific criteria -Privately owned -They manage their slow growth -They only give catalogs to those whom they deem strong potential customers -They want long-term relationships -If deemed worthy you will be given deals on shipping and they will locate items outside of their catalog for you -They allow warehouse employees one mistake a month -They don't discount for anyone -They don't do bulk one time shipments because they're business makes money on things that are needed immediately and business's are willing to pay a premium for -Their warehouse is set up out of order so that employees don't get lazy and make assumptions. -They strive to limit the amount of walking that employees do during the day by placing high turnover products closer to the fill lines -They are hiring managers to step in and make improvements to their current system -Many small tweaks over time to achieve efficiency leads to big innovation -What ever your background focus on critiquing the system and how it can be improved -The McMaster way is the way-unless you know how to improve it -This isn't a start-up and thus salary is great, but don't expect to make dynamic changes -LA is changing their face and a manager that comes in right now could have a big impact on the future of McMaster in LA-at least what they implement will be there to stay -The website is user friendly -McMaster is the Apple of Maintenance, repair, and operations After this initial interview we were allowed a bathroom break. I was interviewed by a higher up manager who had 8 years of experience and came from TFA, We talked about TFA and the interviewer took copious notes on her copy of my resume. Behavioral questions. Focus on what you did in the past to improve a process. Next we went to lunch and I was interviewed. I underestimated how odd this would be as I'm trying to eat a sandwich and stuff my face simultaneously. The interviewer who was also a TFA alum wanted me to give convincing data that demonstrated how I succeeded in improving a process. I struggled as a teacher and did not give a convincing story for how I was amazing as a teacher. Upon returning I was taken in for another final interview. This one we focused on McMaster and how it goes about operating and why they were do what they do. We talked about how if they were a public company the short term expectations would lead a CEO to send a catalog to everyone double sales in one year and then 5 years down the road you wouldn't have any where for logical and clear growth.

Incredibly drawn out and tedious interview process with 9 total “interviews” for the entire process, including 5 on the on-site final round. Open-ended questions about yourself and different processes/projects at the company.