Kohl’s Sales Associate Job Description & Interview
Job Description and Duties
What Does a Kohl’s Sales Associate Do?
Primary job duties of Kohl’s sales associates consist of working sales floors, answering questions about services and merchandise, and ensuring customer satisfaction. Additional job responsibilities may include stocking shelves and organizing displays. The Kohl’s training process includes both verbal and visual orientation and typically takes place over the course of a week or two.
What Experience is Necessary?
Kohl’s uses the hiring process to screen for friendly, hardworking, and motivated sales associates. The position of sales associate typically requires no previous experience for employment consideration; however, Kohl’s hiring managers may favor workers with experience in customer service during the selection process.
Salary and Compensation
How Much Do They Get Paid?
In entry-level job titles, Kohl’s sales associates typically earn hourly wages of $8.00 to $9.00. With more experience and time at the department store chain, Kohl’s sales employees may get pay increases. Hours and availability generally vary by experience.
Most sales associate employees work part-time, or between 20 and 30 hours per week. Kohl’s offers full-time sales associate jobs, as well.
Are There Any Additional Benefits?
Eligible Kohl’s associates also receive several employee benefits. Kohl’s employment benefits range from 401(k) retirement plans and merchandise discounts to paid time off and healthcare coverage. Salary options, job benefits, and availability of hours vary by department store location.
Next:
Review the Kohl’s Application page.
Kohl’s Sales Associate Interview Video
Video Transcript
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: I’m a sales associate, so that means I’m working customer service, doing returns, I work on the floor returning items, organizing things. I often mark things for clearance, and I pull stock. I also work registers when we’re busy, just help out customers find things on the floor.
Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: It can be kind of busy around holidays, but typically during the week it’s slow. There’s kind of a couple of customers that’ll stop you and ask like, hey could you carry this down for me? Or I’m looking for like a lemon squeezer or something. And you’d kind of help them locate those items in the department. Sometimes I’m scheduled to do queue, like pulling stock and replenishing the floor, but other than that it’s not that bad. It’s pretty easy.
Interviewer: What was your favorite part about working there?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: I enjoy working the register. I really enjoy talking to customers and working the registers. Probably the easiest part because your day goes by so fast if you’re busy. I think that’s probably my favorite part.
Interviewer: Please describe the application and interview process.
Kohl’s Sales Associate: You apply online, they ask you to upload a resume, but if you don’t have a resume you can fill in all the information manually. You don’t need to have any kind of retail experience, I personally didn’t, and they accepted me as, well I’m a seasonal employee, but they are willing to bring you on as a full time after the season. After you apply they will email you whether or not they want to interview you, you schedule your interview online, you choose through a series of dates and times that are good for you, you pick that time, they’ll send you a confirmation email, and then they’ll do a followup email after your interview asking when you want to do your orientation. You kind of schedule all of your orientation stuff online, and then your first day of orientation they’ll give you your schedule for the next two weeks. Orientation’s basically going over policies, procedures, dress code, all that kinds of stuff.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: They ask you situational questions like, what would you do if you saw a customer stealing? What would you do if a customer was looking for something and you can’t find it yourself? Things like that. They ask you why you want to get into retail, why you specifically chose Kohl’s, things like that.
Interviewer: How were you notified that you received the job?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: They contacted me through email, I think it took them two days to get back to me about whether or not I got the position. They emailed me saying that they were interested and they wanted me to come in for an orientation, so it was pretty fast.
Interviewer: What set you apart from other candidates?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: I have a long history of working with people and being pretty passionate about helping others, so I think they’ve really incorporated my past of working with people and the compassion that I express for helping others to really bring me on board.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: It’s definitely good if you do know someone that works there to use as a reference or so, but it’s not required. Just be confident, I think if they bring you in for an interview, just be confident and try to be open to your availability and everything, and that’ll most likely get you the job.
Kohl’s Sales Associate Interview Video
Video Transcript
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: I was a sales assistant, and I was there to assist customers in finding what they wanted and helping them to find a place to try it on, taking the cash, and restocking.
Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: Believe it or not, it’s intense because you cannot look like you’re not doing anything. You always had to do something, but that part is also enjoyable. The managers were good in helping when there was a problem.
Interviewer: What was your favorite part about working there?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: I like to talk to people and help them out. I do.
Interviewer: Please describe the application and interview process.
Kohl’s Sales Associate: This is when they had the computers for people. I started at Christmastime when they take just about anybody. You filled that out. Then, you came in for a quick 10, 15-minute interview after they ran a background check. The interview process was cursory.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: Why do you want to work here? Have you had experience? What was your experience? What hours can you work? Do you need flexible hours? Do you have any time that you want off? Of course, at that time, they were still asking for references.
Interviewer: How were you notified that you received the job?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: The total took about three weeks because I applied in October, and they still had time to do that.
Interviewer: What set you apart from other candidates?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: At the time, it was probably enthusiasm. I was between jobs, and I wanted to do something part-time. At Christmas, for the holidays, you worked full time, and you had a lot of good training. Then, I worked part-time when I was in school.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: To be completely honest, if you don’t like something, they’ll find out really soon. You have to be reliable.
Kohl’s Sales Associate Interview Video
Video Transcript
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Kohl’s Sales Associate: My job title was sales associate. Duties are to smile and say hi, greet all customers, go above and beyond expectations for customers unsatisfied with something we have. Or we don’t have something they’re looking for… go out of my way to make sure we have it, call another store, order it from the kiosk, basic stuff like that.
Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: The employees. They’re not your friends, but they’re you’re friends. They’re there to help you, the people that came before you and the people that came after you. They help you with the stuff you don’t know. Everyone’s nice to each other, the people that work under you. Everyone comes across as a team, basically. It’s all about effort and reaching your sales goal, making sure the customer is satisfied.
Interviewer: What was your favorite part about working there?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: My favorite part was customer service. You get a bunch of different people in different moods, and I like to interact with people. I think that was my favorite part, between that and doing registers during the holidays. That was always fun.
Interviewer: Please describe a typical day as an employee.
Kohl’s Sales Associate: Depending on your department, you come in, look at your bulletin, see who’s working with you, know what your goal is for the day. At Kohl’s, we have a credit goal – for people that work at Kohl’s – they have a credit card, try to get people to open up a Kohl’s card. You put the stuff in your Kohl’s card, and every fifty dollars you spend, you get cash back. You have a credit goal every day; like today, the goal is 24. So, we try to get 24 people from the time we open to the time we close to open up another Kohl’s card. But there’s millions of people that have Kohl’s cards throughout the world. We could get people to re-open it or re-apply and put more money to your Kohl’s card. Signing people up for emails, every time you get email updates. Every time you sign up for emails, you get a 10% discount off purchases after you come in and sign up for that. So, there’s basically goals you meet every day. That’s outside of selling people our products, displaying the new things we have. We have new lines coming out – new Marc Anthony clothes, new Jennifer Lopez clothes, new lines that we’re adding basically every month.
Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: The application… I believe they’re doing it online now, but when I started, there was a paper application. You turn it in and the interviews – there’s always a group interview. Those are really iffy for me, but I did it. So, there’s normally between six and eight people in each group interview, and they do all of their interviews that way. You do the background test, you do a drug test. Everything comes back, you start work as soon as possible. The more hours you’re available, the more hours you get on your paycheck.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: Questions that I got was… “What can you bring to Kohl’s?”, “How can you stand out?”, “What is your definition of customer service” Previous job history – like if you had another job, they’d give you a scenario. Like if you were put in a bad situation with an upset customer, how would you handle that situation? Another question would be like: “If you were busy and your boss told you to do something, and another customer came in and wanted you to do something, would you do what the customer wants or would you do what your boss said first? Are you going to go to get help? How would you handle that situation? So, it was basically how would you provide the best way to handle situations like that.
Interviewer: What set you apart from other candidates?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: I was more outspoken when he asked the question. Everyone wanted to be shy. I was first to raise my hand, answer the questions. A lot of people… you could tell when people after you were feeding off the question, they were feeding off something you said. So you make sure as soon as he asked the question, you’d know – no time to think about it – you’d know off hand what you’re going to say. Don’t hesitate. Feel comfortable talking to your manager. Because if you get hired, this is who you have to deal with at the job.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: The best advice would be to be honest during the application. Be honest toward your job, dress appropriate, and apply at a job that you would feel comfortable at. Nobody wants to go to a job that you really don’t want to work for. Once you get hired in, you’ll dread going to work every day. So, just feel comfortable with the job, before you even apply.
Kohl’s Sales Associate Interview Video 2
Video Transcript
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Kohl’s Sales Associate: I was a sales associate at Kohl’s for six months, outside of high school. I worked the floor, fitting rooms, stocked merchandise, then, occasionally I did the register.
Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: I thought it was really friendly. Who I worked with made me really love the customer service and the customer interaction.
Interviewer: Please describe a typical day as an employee.
Kohl’s Sales Associate: Clocked in, talked to the manager about the department I was assigned. I was usually assigned to the juniors department, but I came and asked the manager exactly what needed to be done, whether it was a new shipment of clothes needed to be stocked. I got specific duties each day. Generally they didn’t really vary that much then I worked if they needed registers, they would call me and ask to work the register if it was crowded or something like that. Then, have a break and continue working until the shift ended. Then I would always say hi or bye to the manager whenever I was leaving. Then you clock out, and then my day was over. Then I would check on what day I had to work next, and over the course of the next week, just trying to be a good employee for them.
Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: The interview process… they really focused on your references. Asked me a lot about those, and I think they even called up some of them actually, to see how personable I was, or if I had good customer interaction, which they also focused on, how I interacted with others. They give you a situation, like: “This person does this and how would you react to that?”. I think they really focused on that, because they want to serve their customers, so they focus on that a lot.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: Past experiences, definitely. Who are the references on my application, and obviously why I wanted to work there, because they want you to be a good employee and serve them well. Be a good person in the store. Make them look good, so they definitely asked about past experience.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Kohl’s Sales Associate: Come prepared, definitely be familiar with the company, and what the company offers. And, have your references, I would say for sure, so definitely be prepared for the interview.
Osose says:
I’m trying to apply to Kohl’s. I would love to work here, and I’d bring a positive attitude to the table. And I think the sales associate position is perfect for me.