I have a friend who was hired at the Tampa store. She applied months before the store opened. They had over 10,000 applications and hired about 400 people, nearly all of them part time. Their interview process consisted of mostly psychological testing. She has a Masters degree, is tri-lingual, fluent in English, German, and Spanish with lots of both mangerial and retail experience. Plus, she's a cheery, dynamic, and genuinely nice person. Yes, she go hired, but only in a part time $8/hr position working as an associate on the floor, and mainly because of her foreign language skills.
With the high unemployment down here, it is a very competetive company to get into. I'm sure they have at least a few hundred people still on this list to choose from as vacancies arise. And, nearly all those part-timers they hired are aiming for full-time. They already have more people directing traffic in the parking lot than Lowe's has in the whole store.
Don't count on your resume to get you in. And nobody wants to return a call to someone who wants something from them. It's still all about the legwork. Resumes are excellent creative writing exercises but,
IMO
, not of much use beyond that. I'm a hiring manager and I just don't have time to look at the dozens blast mailed and emailed to us every week. Plus, we also know that most of them are just professionally prepared "spin." Anybody who has $100 can get a stellar resume. Maybe I'm jaded, but I trust very little of what I read in a resume. I'm still waiting for one that says, "I'm lazy, moody, tempermental, and hard to work with."
Unlike what they tell you in school, nobody's resume is impressive or eye-catching after you've seen a few thousand. I totally agree with the suggestion to hit the personal contact venues; whether job fairs or cattle calls or even drop-bys. You get to make an instant impresson, good or bad, that no resume can match.
Don't feel bad that nobody has contacted you back. Personally, I only contact the people whom I want to interview. We get hundreds of apps that don't make the cut and they never hear from us. Sadly, common courtesy isn't big in the business world nowadays. But, one of the best jobs I ever had didn't contact me for over four months after the interview; not a word for months, then an offer.
The other thing to remember is that job hunting is only 1% about your qualifications. There are thousands of highly skilled and talented unemployed people. Luck and timing are the key. It's all about being the right person in the right place at the right time. Good luck!
