Wal-Mart wouldn't hire me because I was "non-competitive?"

Question

A few years ago I applied to Wal-Mart to work in their pharmacy so I could get some experience before applying to pharmacy school. I had an interview at a Wal-Mart pharmacy set up nearby. The morning of my interview, the pharmacist called me up and told me that he could not interview me because my application was "non-competitive" (I believe that is the term he used). He told me that he had no idea what it meant. He was just told by the store manager that I was "non-competitive" and could not be interviewed.

I had a friend ask a manager at HER store what that could mean. She said her manager would pull up my application in the general system and get back to her. Well, the manager did get back to her and said she couldn't explain why I was not allowed to come in for an interview.

So, my question is, what happened? Before you answer, you should know that I had just graduated with a Master's degree at the time. I'm wondering if they thought I would request more than $8 - $10 in pay. I just wanted the experience. I also applied to 2 separate stores (each about 1 hour away from the other), so I don't know if that could be it. The pharmacy at the other store never even called me for an interview though, so that couldn't be it. I have also been interviewed and worked for another pharmacy chain and a hotel chain, so I can't see it being an identity theft issue where someone with my name pops up in their system as being someone they shouldn't hire. I'm just confused.

Oh, by the way, I did get the pharmacy experience from another pharmacy, got into pharmacy school, and now work for a retail pharmacy chain as a pharmacy intern. I expect to graduate with my Pharm.D. in about 2 years. So, no, not getting hired by Wal-Mart was not the end of my world. It's just funny that retail pharmacies will hire me, but Wal-Mart won't. Guess they don't hire just anyone.

Answer 1

My husband was just told the same thing by Wal-mart after he worked for them through a consulting firm and then was offered a position full time with them.  They ran a background check, which we have a copy of and all it says is non-competitive and it had something on there about being a high alert for identity theft. We recently moved and the addresses didn't match.  They said since it says non-competitive he is non-hireable at Wal-mart but could not offer any other explanation. The recruiter gave him the number to the background check company to ask them.  He called the background check company and they told him they would only release the information to why it said non-competitive to Wal-mart.  So he called the recruiter back and is currently waiting on a call back.  The recruiter said she would call and try to find out why they put non-competitive.   (This just happened this morning.)   I will post more as soon as he gets an answer.

**** UPDATE**** After several phone calls all we found out was that non-competitive is just a word Wal-mart uses for nonhire-able.  The reason for them marking it non-competitve is still a big question.

Answer 2

I think you're misinterpreting the statement.  Usually, a large employer like Walmart will take all the applications and separate them into "interview" and "no interview" categories.  What they probably meant was that your application didn't make their cut.

Answer 3

ah, but did you tell them you were a top contributer on yahoo answers?

Answer 4

Non competitive sounds like you signed a non compete form at another job.

Call the store and ask to speak to the store manager. I would just explain to him/her that you were wondering what that terminology meant.

Answer 5

walmart is a powerful corporation, when you sign up for them you must take a vow that you will work as hard as you can to advance their interests, apparently you might not have been qualified to work for them

Answer 6

By "non competitive" they mean that your application was not in the top tier of applications they received for the position. That of course is based upon the parameters and expectations of the position.

Most likely what made you non competitive was 2 factors:

1. Your excessive level of education

2. Your plan to attend school in the immediate future.

Both indicate a short tenure at walMart, and one of the key determinants in hiring at retail is to limit job turnover.