What They Look For
Texas-based sporting goods retailer Academy Sports + Outdoors provides exceptional customer care and employs high-caliber workers to ensure customer satisfaction. With departments for hunting and fishing, camping, and team sports, Academy Sports + Outdoors needs a vast array of skills and knowledge sets in each store. To find quality crew members, Academy Sports + Outdoors utilizes structured interview processes that examine competency and personality traits. Careers at Academy Sports + Outdoors exist in customer service and management, and interview processes vary by job area.
Customer Service Jobs
For customer service job titles with Academy Sports + Outdoors, such as cashier and sales associate roles, applicants usually participate in phone interviews followed by face-to-face interviews with store managers. Phone interviews are brief and usually cover availability and interest in the job. Face-to-face interviews last about 20 minutes and feature a mix of basic and behavioral questions.
Typical Interview Questions
Basic questions include: “What are your plans for the future?” and “What makes you right for the job?” Some behavioral questions featured in the interview may consist of: “What was your best customer service experience?”, “What did you do at your last job to become more efficient?”, and “How do you handle a customer that is upset?” Hiring decisions are typically made during the Academy Sports interview session, and successful applicants often receive job offers on the spot.
The Hiring Process for Management
Management positions require Academy Sports job hopefuls to complete multiple rounds of interviews. District managers and recruitment personnel usually conduct interviews, and interview formats may be 1:1 or panel. Topics typically covered in a managerial interview include team leadership, customer satisfaction, and store operations. For most questions, Academy Sports + Outdoors hiring staff looks for past success in management or retail sales. Managerial candidates usually wait about a week after interviews to receive job notification.
Interest in Sports and Outdoors Actvities
Committed to promoting outdoor and active lifestyles, Academy Sports + Outdoors hires workers with passion for sports and camping. Throughout the interview, applicants need to exhibit a passion for sports and an appreciation for Academy Sports + Outdoors. If needed, job hunters should perform research prior to the interview and gain thorough understanding of the Academy Sports + Outdoors. Topics applicants want to be knowledgeable on include, company history, target market, and products sold. A comfortable understanding of popular sports and outdoor lifestyles also benefits candidates.
Best Ways to Dress and Act
Job seekers need to show up early and dress in business-casual garb to Academy Sports + Outdoors job interviews. Applicants want to answer all interview questions with honesty and positivity. Every answer should give a strong reason why an applicant is the right fit for Academy Sports + Outdoors. When speaking, candidates need to demonstrate confidence and professionalism by maintaining good posture, speaking clearly, and holding proper eye contact with interviewers. Job hopefuls also want to show enthusiasm for the position with the sporting goods store chain. When given the opportunity, applicants want to show interest in employment by asking about advancement opportunities and company culture. At the conclusion of Academy Sports interviews, applicants need to thank interviewers for their time.
Academy Sports Sales Associate Interview Video
Video Transcript
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Academy Sports Sales Associate: I was a footwear associate, basically helping customers find their shoes and recommending different types of shoes, then restocking after that and cleaning up at night. We had a bunch of people doing closing duty and that’s just restocking all of the shoes and doing all that kind of stuff.
Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Academy Sports Sales Associate: It was a good environment, happy environment. Everyone was always smiling, talking to each other. They really wanted everyone to work as a team and get together. That was one thing that was really good about it.
Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Academy Sports Sales Associate: The application was all online and then I went in for a follow-up just to talk to them about it. Then I got an interview set up after they called me. They said they looked at my application and called me. I got an interview set up and I think I started working three days after that.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Academy Sports Sales Associate: Just what I’m involved in. This is when I just graduated high school. What I’m involved in, if I’m able to work holidays, weekends, that kind of stuff. Then they were just asking how, not clean but what I do in my spare time if I’m a clean type of person, like things organized. That’s what a lot of the job was, organizing. Just basic stuff like that.
Interviewer: What set you apart from other candidates?
Academy Sports Sales Associate: I really was good at getting my section done and I just wanted to go ahead and get everything done. I wanted to get my work out of the way.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Academy Sports Sales Associate: You really have to work. You have to want to work. We got part-time and we got around 30 hours a week, so it worked out pretty well. Basically, just be committed to the job.
Academy Sports Customer Service Representative Interview Video
Video Transcript
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Academy Sports Customer Service Representative: I was a customer service associate at Academy Sports. I worked in their sports equipment section. Also, I did some of their hunting and fishing type stuff. The job duties were stocking the shelves, making sure everything’s cleaned up and nice round store presentable for the customers. Answering any questions that any customer might have. Showing them product behind some of the counters, the restricted products we can’t let the customers handle 24/7.
Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Academy Sports Customer Service Representative: It’s very, very open as far as pace. You’re not constantly busy; you have a lot of time in between customers usually. There’s not really any rushes coming in. It’s very relaxed; it’s just from time to time when customers do have questions, now just during different seasons, you do get a lot of different rushes like around Christmas and different holidays. You will get more people coming in at once, which is when it gets a little busier, but it’s generally pretty laid back and relaxed.
Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Academy Sports Customer Service Representative: The application and interview process was pretty formal, as far as how the Academy handles it. I went in and filled out an application. It was about 2 weeks and I went in back to follow up with the manager. I finally did get to speak with him. Then, we went ahead and scheduled an interview. From there, they have a set of questions that they do ask you. They go through some of that. They get some more of your information as far as your age, tax information, hiring procedures. Then, from there, they do your training once you are hired. There are some videos that you do have to watch and also some different safety procedures that they go through with you.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Academy Sports Customer Service Representative: … me the standard questions, job experience, what you would do in one situation or another. Not anything too, I would guess, invasive or too stressful, just very simple questions.
Interviewer: How were you notified that you received the job?
Academy Sports Customer Service Representative: It was about a week after I did the interview that they informed me, within a week. They went ahead and called me and told me that I did get the job and that they would like to train me. They got my availability, obviously, when they did the interview. I had filled out an availability schedule. Once I got hired, I came in, did the training with them, but we schedule everything right there on the phone as far as the one the job training and the safety precautionary videos that I had to fill out and watch and participate in the training for.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Academy Sports Customer Service Representative: Have a background in sports is good, but not necessary because they do have other clothing retail and counter jobs as well. If you have a specific area that you can aid them in, that would be very good. I’m versed in fire arms so I was able to help them out with the fire arm world a lot. I also did play sports so that’s why I got sent to that area. Basically, be presentable, be positive, be willing to work with customers and talk with them and go ahead and find out who the hiring manager is and try to speak with them. Don’t be too invasive or too pestering because they don’t like that, but definitely try to make an effort to talk with them and get some face time with them. Also, go ahead present yourself, introduce yourself, have a resume. That’s number one. Let them know about any college plans you may have because that’s a great, great, great way to get a job. Basically, that’s about it. Be ready to work with them; be ready to be friendly and presentable.
Vivian says:
I have an initial phone interview next week with Academy Sports , has anyone ever had one of these and if so what type of questions do they usually ask?
Geri says:
I have an interview with a Sports store. I never worked in a sports store or even retail. So wht kind of ?’s do they ask? Do I need to know about Sports equiments?
deezy says:
Wear a suit to the interview!!!!!!!! Whatever you do, be very prepared. Study material of the company. Understand their core values, core capacities, and know how they can become core competent. Understand all aspects of sports and products the right customer should get. Sometimes a customer may need a different product than the other one. Know some good sales pitches for the interview in case you have to give an example. Understand what makes that company unique, understand their values; know if they are costly to imitate and how unique all of the companies resources are. Basically what this would mean for the sporting goods store it this; know about sporting products, tell the interviewer what you like about their company and why they are unique. Use these as good examples for why you want to work for that company.
Be energetic; My first interview after college was at 8:30 in the morning. I wore a suit and looked very nice. I was tired, nervous, and unprepared. I thought how hard could it be though. This lead to monotone answers. I literally walked out laughing to myself on how bad the interview went. I said to myself, “man they are probably in there laughing at some of the stuff I came up with.” Ever since then I came up with my own formula:
Knowledge of company + Good Sleep + Interview Questions Practice + Company Research = Energetic Confident Interview
angela says:
i had two interviews in one day at academy, i was told theres three interviews, what should i expect next?
bob says:
Probably a third interview Angela…
Khanh Vo says:
I really want to work at Academy’s, but I have no work experience at all and I really want Academy’s to be my very first job. What kind of experience do I need, in order to have a good chance at working at Academy’s? I am 18, and currently a senior in high school. Please give me tips and pointers! Gladly appreciated. Hope everybody is having a nice day!
Thank you
Thumper says:
Had an interview at academy I felt it went well I just had a moment of silence when I couldn’t answer a question. But the rest were good and answered. Be prepared to answer tell me a little bit about yourself. I applied online and got called two days later for the interview. I was not hired on the spot and they said If they decide to bring me on the team they would call me. Manager that interviewed was somewhat unprofessional and did not go over salary or if it was full time or part time. My interview lasted no more than 15min.
micah says:
I did not have a phone interview or a second interview I got hired on the spot .The managers were nice who interviewed me in asked basic questions since I only had one job before in just graduated .However ,the background check is taking forever today makes two weeks !
KeErria says:
I had my first interveiw with academy on yesterday, it went really well. I arrived on time it was scheduled for 2p.m i had to wait until the manager showed up from her lunch break. I answered the interview questions to the best of my abilities & they told me they were still reveiwing other applicants and theywould give me a call back if i meet the qualifications.