I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Books-A-Million in Feb 2011
Interview
I was called after filling out an application online, I had an interview with one manager and the next day I was called back to interview with another manager. The managers seemed nice and friendly enough. Both interviews took place in the cafe, where we sat down amongst some customers, so it was a little awkward. During one interview I was interrupted by the manager having a long conversation with a customer in the cafe. During the interviews, the things that were stressed the most were the Magazines for Millionaires discount cards and magazine program. I was basically told that if I wasn't sure I could sell them I should look elsewhere. I was also asked "What was the last book you read and how did you like it?" "Why do you want to work here?" and things like that.
I was then called back a couple days later to be told they were doing my background check. I called back a couple days later to ask if it came back. Not yet. Then I finally got another call saying it went through, and I was to come in to fill out paper work and bring my ID and social security card. I went in to the store, was taken into the messy back room and had to fill out stacks of paperwork. There were many papers I wanted to keep for reference because they detailed expectations and important information to know when working there, but was told I could not keep the papers.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
What was the last book you read and how did you like it?
I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Books-A-Million (Louisville, KY) in Aug 2025
Interview
Quick phone call to set up time. In person interview in back room. Didn’t ask many questions mainly talked about selling their rewards program. Person seemed interested to be doing the interview.
Easy standard questions know about About the company. need a business plan 30/60/90 . It was about a 2 week process. Had multiple interviews and a panel interview . Final interview in Atlanta
Sales Associate applicants have rated the interview process at Books-A-Million with 1.9 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 59% positive. To compare, the company-average is 58.4% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Sales Associate roles take an average of 9 days to get hired, when considering 43 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Books-A-Million overall takes an average of 12 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Books-A-Million as a Sales Associate according to 43 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 26%
Background check: 22%
Personality test: 11%
Group panel interview: 11%
Skills test: 9%
Drug test: 6%
Presentation: 6%
Phone interview: 4%
IQ intelligence test: 4%
Other: 1%
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