Dillard’s Interview Questions & Tips

How to Get a Job at Dillard's

Dillard's department stores are prevalent in large malls and shopping centers across the country. Each retail location routinely staffs hundreds of employees. The retailer conveniently hires new workers for entry-level store jobs and more advanced retail career opportunities alike. With vacancies across the country, interested candidates may visit a store in-person or complete the necessary hiring materials online.

Preparing for the Interview

Company hiring representatives usually contact job applicants for an interview either by email or phone. Applicants should try to schedule the interview as soon as possible. Preparation may be significant for individuals who are serious about employment with the retailer. While not entirely necessary in some cases, researching the company beforehand may help instill confidence during the interview. As an upscale department store chain, Dillard's expects applicants to wear professional attire for the interview. Business or office-style clothing is generally acceptable for both men and women.

Types of Questions to Expect

Applicants undergoing job interviews usually participate in a one-on-one interaction with a store manager. Interview questions typically revolve around customer service and communication skills and include inquiries like: "How do you define customer service?", "Describe a time a customer came to you with a problem," and "What would you do if a customer came to you with a discount?" Additional questions also pertain to fashion sense, style, organizational skills, and availability. Answers should be professional above all else, though an animated tone may help to signal excitement for the job. Eye contact and proper body language are also very important, as applicants should talk to Dillard's interviewers directly and avoid fidgeting or looking elsewhere.

Dillard’s Cashier Interview Video

Video Transcript

Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Dillard’s Cashier: Dillard’s, I was a cashier. I was a cashier at Dillard’s, for the men’s department. I had a section or a hub, and not only that, people from other departments can come to you if you want to ring somebody up too, so it wasn’t an entitlement to just one area. It was multitude of areas. Some people may bought something from the woman’s department. Somebody might have bought something from the suits department, or not the suits department, but from electronics, or you know, appliances, or bedding. You can ring them up still.

Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Dillard’s Cashier: Dillard’s was nice. Dillard’s was more of a high-scale environment. It was a little pressured at times. When I was there, Dillard’s was competing with Neiman Marcus at the time, for one of the best retailers in the area, so it was a little high volume. It was still friendly, but we was told, “Try to get the sale. Try to get the sale.”

Interviewer: What was your favorite part about working there?
Dillard’s Cashier: Dillard’s, yes. If you was in the company long enough, and I do believe it was six months or more, they have profit sharing. Profit sharing is a way to own stock in the company. How that model went, basically, is this: You bought a certain amount of shares within the company at that particular price. They would take those shares from your check, and when you got paid they show you, detail, how many shares you had at what price. You can kind of monitor your shares on the stock market, or you can just look it up online. If you wanted to cash in your shares, there was a number for you to call, in which you were able to cash your shares in, and it was in your check.

Interviewer: Please describe the application and interview process.
Dillard’s Cashier: The application was the same, similar, computer based. Dillard’s took me a little longer. When I was interviewed I had to wait approximately 10 days. It was seasonal help for the most part. I did the application process around mid-October. I waited about a week and a half, two weeks, was hired, conducted the orientation process, where in my field, they had an area like this, told you how to use the cash register, told you how to impute things, told you if it was a credit card took in, or if people paid by check, you know. There was prompts on the actual cashiers to actually do that.

Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Dillard’s Cashier: Interview questions, basically, “How good are you at math?” In fact, you had to take a math test there. The math test consists of various addition subtraction problems, so that’s basically working as the cashier, you want to make sure you give the person their change, and you don’t want to take too much from the customer too. So the math pretty basic, basic arithmetic. Also, another part of it, customer service, being a people person, whether or not crimes were committed. Did you commit a crime or anything like that? They check references. Basically, they called one of my references at the time, just to verify what I did, and so on and so forth.

Interviewer: How were you notified that you received the job?
Dillard’s Cashier: About two-and-a-half weeks, was reached out. I was reached out by phone, then confirmed of the job by email.

Interviewer: What set you apart from other candidates?
Dillard’s Cashier: I like Dillard’s for a person who really wants a career goal or a person of a senior, I think not myself, but people that are able to work at the retirement should go there, because it’s one of those places where you have a nice, flexible outing. What sets me apart from them, and again, like I said, my charisma, my charm. Basically, I’m just up front and honest. That’s pretty much it.

Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Dillard’s Cashier: I’m looking for a first time or a part-time job, always check the retail department first. Retail departments are basically a better place for you to find jobs, especially for seasonal help, college students especially, just looking for a couple bucks here and there. It’s the easiest part to do. It can also land your full-time job too.

Dillard’s Stocker Interview Video

Video Transcript

Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Dillard’s Stocker: My job primarily consists of supporting all of the whole store basically. Every department jumped on us. They wanted us to be for them and do for them. Anything that needs to be done, it came through us. We were the support system through the whole store.
So, you’ll have men’s, women’s, the perfume, to name a few. They have some things broke up in designer names like Polo was here, North Face was over here and it’s just different designer names. And our job would be to get a truck early in the morning. First shift would unload the truck. Then the people come in throughout the day, break down a truck, break down the boxes, take the merchandise, put it out there for the people to salespeople. The salespeople, they will take the merchandise, put it on the floor, empty out the boxes, put the boxes back in area. Then later on at night you would go back and collect the boxes. If anything needs to be moved, any issue or any stands or anything needs to be moved. We would design the store, move it to where they need to be moved to.
Being on the dock was very demanding, very, very harsh, very hard. But at the same time, it was work, it was constant work. There was no time to sit down. There was no time to chat with your friends or whatever. You’re always moving, always doing work. Hours flew by. Yeah, it was very out there.

Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Dillard’s Stocker: I liked the work environment. It was free, laid back, free. You knew what you were supposed to be doing. You didn’t have a boss over your shoulder at all times. It’s pretty much independent. You took responsibility on your position, you know what needs to be done, you know you support everybody, you know the other people couldn’t move out of their area.
So, a perfume person couldn’t go over to women’s shoes and be mingling over there. They were in that area for the remainder of the day or whatever their shift. They could not come to the back to the dock to talk to us or they were supposed to be on the floor trying to sell, that was their main thing. Because they don’t get paid like we get paid. I think they get paid less than we get paid, but they get commission, so they get more. If that makes sense? So, we would get a hourly base rate, but we couldn’t sell anything. But we were basically the set up. And they would get commission.
But the people were nice, that worked there. It was a really nice environment. Good people, really free. And a lot of people took a lot of responsibility on things that they should do and shouldn’t do. If you messed up somewhere, you had to own up to it and eat it. You could not say, “Oh, I didn’t do that.” You had to say you were there this point in time, because if you did that and they find out you’re lying, you’re going to get fired.

Interviewer: Please describe the application and interview process.
Dillard’s Stocker: The customer service branch where they deal with buybacks, take backs or returns. That area right there, you have to go up to that area because you can’t just go up to a register, in a register to fill it out. Or you can’t just pop up online to fill out. You have to actually find out what’s open and what you’re applying for, because they’re not really open for that.
So, you go up there, you tell them you’re interested in the position. They’ll tell you to go to dillards.com and tell you the store. This is how I did it. They told me the store number. I went on there, I filled out the application. And they call you back, and ask you for your availability. You go in for an interview, you talk to them for a while. Basically, your past work experience, what you been through, what can you offer to the team, because it’s a team effort.
If you don’t pull your weight, and if you’re not a team player, then this is not a good job for you. But if you’re a team player, you feel like you want to put yourself toward something or toward a goal or toward getting something done, then this might be the job for you. So, they call you, they talk to you. Then after that she says, “I got to get back to you.” So, she gets back to me within 48 hours, she lets me know she’s interested. She tells me, “Hey, can you come in to fill out paperwork or fill out anything.”
There’s no drug tests, so you don’t have to worry about drugs or anything or taking a blood sample or anything. But if you are under the influence, because I guess they read you or whatever, they can read you. Just don’t be obvious. Try to be professional, keep yourself neat, clean cut, not red eyes, drunk, smell like beer, alcohol. It’s not for a job. But if you go in there willing to work, want to work, they’ll schedule you. And that’s it.

Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Dillard’s Stocker: Yeah, they asked me why would you choose Dillard’s over Nordstroms, and I simply just told them I would choose Dillard’s over Nordstroms because I like the brands. Told them I like their brands, I like their sales. They’re really big on their sales, and you get a percentage off, 15% off, when you work there. So, I mean, that’s part of the perks of working here. They have this all night sale New Year’s Eve or something like that and you get 50% off, plus your 15% also, that’s 65% off of stuff. So, you can really clean up on some nice clothes there. I know that it sounds crazy that you’re working to clean up on clothes, but I mean people do it, and they got really nice brands there.

Interviewer: What set you apart from other candidates?
Dillard’s Stocker: Like I said, it took 48 hours. They reached out to me within 48 hours. She said she needed to schedule me in. Told me to come in, fill out the paperwork. But then I wasn’t scheduled for orientation until the week later.

Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Dillard’s Stocker: Just be yourself. If that’s something that you want to pursue, just be yourself. And even if it’s not on a dock, if you’re yourself and you’re passionate about clothing or you like different designers, then go for it. You would appreciate it. But know that that job is going to be time consuming. It’s not a walk in the park, like you can just have that job, have another job. When I was working at Dillard’s, that’s all I got to do is go work at Dillard’s. You get paid every week though. That’s the perk about working at Dillard’s.
So preferably, if you want to tell them you want to work, just be up and honest with them about your availability. So, if you can just work evenings, tell them you could just work evenings versus you’re open all the time. Because if you say you’re open, you going to have no time for yourself. They’ll schedule you all over the board. And the one thing that they pet peeve on is you saying to them after they hire you, because I seen some people get fired like that, after they hire you tell them, “Well, I can’t make it or I can’t come in these days or I can’t do that.” The upper management doesn’t like that.

Dillard’s Sales Associate Interview Video

Video Transcript

Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Dillard’s Sales Associate: I was a sales associate and I help in the women shoe department and also in men’s suits.

Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Dillard’s Sales Associate: When in initially filled out an application and they took me in right there. I talked to the manager and then I met with them one more time and then I was hired.

Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Dillard’s Sales Associate: Former work experience pretty much and what I was looking to do there. That’s pretty much it.

Interviewer: How were you notified that you received the job?
Dillard’s Sales Associate: I found out within a week and they called me, let me know.

Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Dillard’s Sales Associate: If you don’t want to work in retail I wouldn’t recommend working at Dillard’s but I loved it. I like the job a lot. Nice people working there and it is great experience.

Dillard’s Stock Associate Interview Video

Video Transcript

Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Dillard’s Stock Associate: My first primary job was I was like a stock boy. I just stocked the material. Then I worked so long … I was there for about a year. Then they liked my work. Then they made me a manager. Now, all I do now … I still stock, and going on, but I mostly like make the people that come in … I give them the time to come in and going on, but I still work with the people that work with me.

Interviewer: Please describe a typical day as an employee.
Dillard’s Stock Associate: My day, my shift is I come in, check everybody that … check the time clock and going on. Then I come out. I might walk around store, going on, just browsing around. Then I help one or two of the peoples. If they got a heavy load, I help them with it. That’s it. That’s my day.

Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Dillard’s Stock Associate: When I applied, it was just … I came in and I filled out the application, and I called like three or four days after I left, and they told me to come in, and I was hired.

Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Dillard’s Stock Associate: Nothing but have I ever worked in a position like that been going on. Have I ever worked in a store that I carry material and the things they do, like working with perfume and all this kind of stuff?

Interviewer: How were you notified that you received the job?
Dillard’s Stock Associate: I waited for about a week. Then they gave me a call, and the manager told me to come in. He wanted to talk to me, and we talked for about twenty minutes, and he told me I was hired.

Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Dillard’s Stock Associate: I would say just come in and have a positive attitude. Come in like you really know you got the job, and then just go from there.

Related Links:
Dillard's Application