Parts managers are responsible for buying inventory needed for production, and selling manufactured parts to clients. The parts manager must ensure that a healthy level of inventory is stored for use without overspending on materials.
When interviewing parts managers, the ideal candidate should have in-depth knowledge of the relevant industry. Be wary of candidates with poor inventory monitoring methods.Special Offer
How do you organize and prioritize your daily tasks?
Illustrates the candidates organizational and time-management skills.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?O’Reilly Auto Parts Specialist: They just kind of tried to get a general feel for how much you knew about cars I think. Like if you had any experience. If a customer, there is a lot of times where a customer will be like, “I don’t really know what this is but I need it,”, and that’s when knowing a little bit about it really helps. A lot of the stuff they do, besides basic application questions, like your job history, your work ethic and things like that. They really just try and get a feel for how well you know yourself around a car and if somebody has a question that’s not like I need this, how well you are able to fill in the blanks.
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.O’Reilly Auto Parts Specialist: I was a parts specialist, which is basically just like the person that worked at the counter, tend to the walk-in customers’ needs, so they’d come in and say they needed this part or needed help finding a part on the floor. Then you can look it up, and if you didn’t have it you could order it. Things like that, you were in charge of taking money and keeping the front of the store, as well as stocking. You are in charge of filling up the shelves.
A speedy session, the job interview generally lasts between 15 and 30 minutes. Hiring manager typically follow standardized processes for screening applicants and rarely ask additional questions outside of the required queries. Following question and answers, OReilly Auto Parts may ask applicants to take brief written assessments. Applicants for parts specialist jobs often take detail-orientation tests that ask candidates to find differences in part numbers.
Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?O’Reilly Auto Parts Specialist: You apply online, they don’t do paper applications, then you apply to whatever store you want to. Then the store managers would go through and if they liked your application, and everything looked good they would call you and set up an in-person interview. Then they would sit there and you just sit in the office and talk with the store manager, or whoever is in charge of running the actual store, and they ask you basic questions, interview questions as well as if you had any experience with cars or things like that. They had a short test, one of the tests they have you take is a test for dyslexia because part numbers are alphanumeric so it’s critical that you, if someone tells you this part number and you mix up a letter and a number it could be completely different. They test you on that and then you can miss 3 out of 50 and it’s still acceptable. After that, at least for me, they took me out back and looked at my personal vehicle. They had me identify whatever parts on it that I could to just see your general knowledge of how well you know yourself around a car. It’s not really required that you know anything about cars but it definitely helps.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?O’Reilly Auto Parts Specialist: It’s a good part time job, I wouldn’t make a career out of it although there are a lot of people who do make careers out of it. And you can do that, there is a lot of room to climb you can become a regional manager or something and they make good money and have good hours. But I wouldn’t really personally want to do that, I wouldn’t want to make a career out of it. But it is a good entry level or part time job, it’s a good job for that.
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