Applied for the position online. Was contacted via email by Staples HR within two weeks, wanting to schedule a "screen" interview. Was able to set that up without any problems. Phone interview took about 55 minutes. HR person read all of the questions right off the script. All of it was the basic HR Q&A - strengths, weaknesses, last job, why do you want to work for Staples, tell me about yourself, tell about your business development experience. Although the interview was 100% scripted, the interviewer was very nice. Was told I would hear back from someone within 10 days, which I did. Was contacted via email by an administrative assistant who wanted to schedule a phone interview with the District Sales Manager. Was able to set that up without any problems. DSM called right on time and we visited for about 25 minutes. Real good guy, wanted to know about me and my background, why I wanted to relocate, what I considered the biggest challenges for business development. I thought it went real well. Was told the next step would be a one-on-one with the finalists, and that I would hear something by the end of the week - which I did. Was told I was not being advanced because I was from another state and that there were a number of other qualified candidates from the area where the position would be based - and that by focusing on just candidates from the immediate area would reduce the "risk" for both Staples and the candidates. DSM seemed like a great guy, but was disappointed he chose to put geography above qualifications. Guess I felt like if I was a strong candidate - which he told me I was - then the area code I lived in shouldn't make that much of a difference. But it did. In fairness to the DSM, he told me - via email - that he was forwarding my name to his counterpart who was in the state where I currently reside, so that was a nice consolation prize.