So, a couple of years ago I was unemployed and looking for work, im educated to masters level and specialise in software but times were hard so I had applied for a few different types of job.
The first interview I got was for a retail job that was minimum wage. When I arrived they first did a group interview which was like a QA with all the applicants and store management in one room (I was sat on the floor like I was a child), lasted around an hour, then we had to do a role play session which also lasted around an hour at which point we were told to take a lunch break.
We then had to go back and do another hour as a full group discussing our experience, interests and how they would be useful to the role, finally we each individually did a private one on one interview but obviously we all had to wait our turn for that, which took over 2 hours…. because it would have been unreasonable to just call us when they were ready.
I didnt get that job due to being “over qualified” but it blew my mind that a retail company paying minimum wage would be so ridiculous to make me waste basically a full working day to interview for a job where I would be operating tills and required zero skill.
The very next day I got a call for an interview for a significantly higher paying job in my actual line of work which was highly specialised. We did a 10 minute chat on the phone and then a 30 minute in person interview a week later. They offered me the job the day after and I worked for them until the job was complete.
Anyway, I felt that story fits here and it came to mind because ive been in very similar situation recently, although it was less extreme in the interview process.
Minimum wage jobs seemingly are just testing to see if the monkey (me and you) will dance for them, skilled jobs care if you can get the job done and thats it.