KinderCare Learning Centers interview questions

I applied for this position online through Snag-a-job. This particular field has a high teacher turn over rate, so for just about every position I applied to, I was called back immediately. The Asst. Director told me, and I quote, "When I saw your resume, I told my boss, 'I don't want anybody but HER!'" I went into the interview without much confidence when she told me how many people applied for the job, but hearing this boosted my confidence. I found the interview process to be fairly smooth and easy. The Assistant Director took care of the hiring process for the most part, and I met with the actual Director before my training began. The Asst. Director was impressed by my resume and tried to speed the process along. My interview with her was very short. She simply went over my resume again and asked me a few simple questions (asked for me to detail my experience and what I loved about working with children) just to make sure I was as competent as my resume stated. She consulted her boss (the Director of the entire center) after meeting with me, and the Director called me in for a "follow-up" interview in which she basically stated that I was as good as hired but wanted to meet with me herself. She asked me many questions about my experience--mainly my experience with the specific age group with which I would be working--School age children (ages 5-12). She asked me if I had experience creating fun lesson plans and activities for that age group and experience tutoring or helping with homework. She mainly used this meeting as an opportunity to detail the job description and talk about salary and responsibilities. The training and hiring process is what is complicated and takes much longer. KinderCare is a large corporation, so they can do nothing (including hiring or firing employees) without approval from a corporate level. There was a lot of paperwork, background check, drug testing, etc. I spent a whole work day (about 6-7 hours) reading manuals and training work books and becoming familiar with all KinderCare policies and paperwork.

I originally found the job posting on Craigslist and it led me to their website to begin the application process. A few days later, I received an email requesting a phone interview. A week later, I had an in-person interview with the Director of that location. The Director wore sweat pants. Despite our contrasting wardrobe choices, the interview went very well and I progressed onto the final stage: an interview with the regional director. (This time the Director wore slacks.) The third interview went wonderfully. They even made comments like "Can you start tomorrow?" and "You are exactly what we've been looking for!" They said they would let me know the following week. One week later, I sent a follow-up email to the Corporate Representative. No response. 4 days after the 1st email, I sent an email to the Director. No response. 4 days after the 2nd email, I sent an email to the Corporate Representative that gave me the initial phone interview. No response. 20 days after my 3rd interview, I received a phone call from the Corporate Representative telling me that they chose another candidate.