WH Smith interview tips?

McKneff

Eye contact, speak up and speak clearly.

Young lads wander into our place where I'm a receptionist,
some i feel sorry for they are painfully shy and almost whisper - Have you any vacancies please. Now i feel for them, my grandsons are that age.

Others come in, Jeans hanging on their buttocks, holey t shirts ' Gor any jobs goin' missus
mmmmmm enough said
Wish him good luck from us all.

j-josie

Thanks for that.
Now, once DS has got a job, all we have to do is get one for DD at uni and one for DH

McKneff

Let us know how he gets on Josie, if he gets a job we all like to know whether we have helped.

j-josie

Will do, McKneff.
You've all given him lots of information so I feel he is going into the interview well prepared, but getting a job isn't an easy thing these days, so he can only do his best..
Just browsed the internet and found DD's student union are advertising for bar staff so told her and she is going to ring them tomorrow morning as that is exactly what she wants to do, so maybe they'll both get employment:D

Cheers all and good night

jackomdj

Another good thing about WHS is they are keen to keep good staff & if your son gets the job, is good & goes to uni somewhere else they will, if possible, transfer him to a local store & also have him back at his local to home one during holidays! A possibility for DD too possibly?

Can you tell I am a bit in the know....I work at head office - not in HR though.

Nicky

j-josie

jackomdj, employment through uni (hopefully) is all part of his cunning plan and why he specifically wants the wh smith job. They seem to have a v good reputation as employers of students..

He feels the interview went well, no awkward pauses etc so is just waiting to hear now.

Gosh, I would love DD to get a nice part time job with wh smith but she is a different kettle of fish, bless her, with a fair few 'issues' and cannot be told anything. I actually found an ad for bar work at her student union with a closing date of tomorrow so left her to give them an urgent call today to get an application in, as this is what she professes to be her ultimate student job..work and socialise at the same time.
So I get home from work, ask her if she'd made the call..and no. And then she wonders why I get a bit frustrated. (This is after the big talk we had last night about how our household income has halved so we just can't afford to help her in the way we would like to and so she needs to get a job...)

So now she's in a bad mood with me because I don't understand the stresses she is under:rolleyes: (Not that having your husband lose his job just as your DD starts uni and then be unable to find any kind of work at all doesn't cause mum a wee bit of stress herself.....)

Oh sorry, I digressed into a DD rant. I love her to bits and she has had health struggles and done well to progress to uni at all but she can drive me bonkers!

jackomdj

Let's hope he gets it - it sounds as if it went well. If however he does not make sure he asks for feedback, assuming it is positive (or constructively negative) let them know he is still interested & ask if his can be kept on a list of potential employees.

One of the guys I used to work with started his WHS life as a part timer in a store, did as I posted above when at Uni, then back to store for a few months before he took on a finance role at HO. As I said (& you agreed) they are good with staff & keen to progress them when relevant to do so.

Your Daughter sounds like.................a student!!!!!! In an old life I used to work at Plymouth Uni & she does sound like many of the students I used to see!

reehsetin

jackomdj wrote: »

One of the guys I used to work with started his WHS life as a part timer in a store, did as I posted above when at Uni, then back to store for a few months before he took on a finance role at HO. As I said (& you agreed) they are good with staff & keen to progress them when relevant to do so.

sounds very different from the WHS i worked at, granted i left approx 4years ago though
they were ok for a school job wasn't exactly difficult (just a lot of running around and tidying up especially when none of the other bloody staff wanted to do anything!) but wouldnt recomend it for anything else, think my manager was earning what I earned as a sales advisor for another company
Head office was non existant when i was there dont think i had any interaction with them whatsoever, there was no communication just briefs on the new offers
all i can remember was one christmas brief that the manager read out
the systems were REALLY outdated i managed the entertainment section, it wasn;t a huge store but i could easily spend a day counting stock and organising returns etc

jackomdj

reehsetin wrote: »

sounds very different from the WHS i worked at, granted i left approx 4years ago though
they were ok for a school job wasn't exactly difficult (just a lot of running around and tidying up especially when none of the other bloody staff wanted to do anything!) but wouldnt recomend it for anything else, think my manager was earning what I earned as a sales advisor for another company
Head office was non existant when i was there dont think i had any interaction with them whatsoever, there was no communication just briefs on the new offers
all i can remember was one christmas brief that the manager read out
the systems were REALLY outdated i managed the entertainment section, it wasn;t a huge store but i could easily spend a day counting stock and organising returns etc

It was about 5/6 years ago that this guy moved to HO. I guess it is like any big organisation - if the relevant info does not get filtered down then you do not get to find out things at a higher level. This is not necessarily the case anymore since the intranet provides store staff with lots of info, however part time staff do not necessarily have access to this as it is usually in the back office.

Personally I can only say positive things about how myself & people I know have been treated.

Nicky

j-josie

So..all I can say is that they must have been putting the stamp on his rejection letter before he left the building, as he had interview at 3pm and this morning the rejection letter landed on the doormat!
DS is so downhearted as he really wanted this (and I worry that he's worried about family finances when that is not his worry to bear..).
I have suggested he ring for some feedback but he doesn't want to think about that just now. Will suggest it again when he's a bit more clear headed..

So now I am revising my opinion about horrid old WHSmith!! (but he'll still apply next year and hope for better results)

So we all feel yah,boo,sucks at the moment..... Pass the chocolate biscuits:o