Job Interview

skinny-on-the-inside

:rotfl:Just asking coz i went for one with them last week and wasn't what they were looking for without so much as even having a one to one interview for me to sell myself!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

'The Right Behaviours'?

Sounds like a lucky escape to me.

ukjoel

Lol - This type of interview makes me chuckle.

They spend so much money looking for people with the right behaviours and aptitude. This is based on their perfect person.

They then employ clones of themselves and surprise surprise ten years later when the companys in trouble they end up having to pay a huge amount to external consultants to give them a different approach to fixing it.

If you want to pass next time spend a day walking around John Lewis. Talk to the staff as if your a mystery shopper or customer. Watch their response, how they talk, when they smile, how they handle people.

Then emulate at the interview. Also with john lewis it helps if your not heavily overweight. Sound funny but walk around JL and look at the number or fat employees then compare to ASDA or Tescos.

vyle

ukjoel wrote: »

Lol - This type of interview makes me chuckle.

They spend so much money looking for people with the right behaviours and aptitude. This is based on their perfect person.

They then employ clones of themselves and surprise surprise ten years later when the companys in trouble they end up having to pay a huge amount to external consultants to give them a different approach to fixing it.

If you want to pass next time spend a day walking around John Lewis. Talk to the staff as if your a mystery shopper or customer. Watch their response, how they talk, when they smile, how they handle people.

Then emulate at the interview. Also with john lewis it helps if your not heavily overweight. Sound funny but walk around JL and look at the number or fat employees then compare to ASDA or Tescos.

Lol there are a decent number of overweight people in my store, but running around like a marathon runner to the whims of indecisive customers does use up a decent number of calories. Sweating like a proverbial in a suit on the TV department probably shrinks one down a fair bit, too.

Fuzzy_Duck

As another poster said, sounds like you had a lucky escape! Can't imagine what on earth they meant by 'right behaviours'! Anyway, keep in mind you did really well to get an interview. Give them a ring, get feedback and hopefully they will remember you next time a likely job becomes available.

If it makes you feel better I once applied for a job and had a woman ring me (at work just to add to my embarrassment!) and ask me why the hell did I bother applying, there's no way I could do this job, I was wasting her time, blah blah blah, and then suggest I apply for a job that's even less money than I'm on now. I felt a right idiot and I haven't really bothered applying for any more jobs since. I don't get paid enough money to adequately live off at the moment and I've been an admin assistant for three years. I thought I had enough experience to climb up the ladder a bit and apply for a slightly higher paid officer job but that call really knocked my confidence.

zappomatic

vyle wrote: »

Lol there are a decent number of overweight people in my store, but running around like a marathon runner to the whims of indecisive customers does use up a decent number of calories. Sweating like a proverbial in a suit on the TV department probably shrinks one down a fair bit, too.

I moved from working in a branch to head office in Victoria and fell into the same trap as many: eating the same amount of subsidised food but sitting at a desk instead of sweating away in a suit on the shop floor, with predictable results! Usually takes people about 3 months to notice and they soon stop having so many cooked breakfasts and afternoon cakes :rotfl:

vyle

zappomatic wrote: »

I moved from working in a branch to head office in Victoria and fell into the same trap as many: eating the same amount of subsidised food but sitting at a desk instead of sweating away in a suit on the shop floor, with predictable results! Usually takes people about 3 months to notice and they soon stop having so many cooked breakfasts and afternoon cakes :rotfl:

Ah yes, the subsidised food. I just discovered it after two years of taking a packed lunch. I forgot my lunch one day and then spied a delicious stir fried pork chow mein type thing for £1.40.

Every lunch time is now a battle of wills between my dull packup and a lovely meal.

As I may be transitioning to a more desk based job, I'd better resist (and save money, of course).

vyle

Fuzzy_Duck wrote: »

As another poster said, sounds like you had a lucky escape! Can't imagine what on earth they meant by 'right behaviours'!

For normal shop floor jobs, the behaviours are demonstrating team work and suchlike. For mine, we were arranged into groups and had to work out which order we'd save people from a desert island. They were things like a reformed criminal, priest, etc.

My group just had a laugh and created a ridiculous storyline/scenario to reason out what we'd do, while other groups got stressed and tried to say 'the right thing.'

Everyone from my group got a job, while most of the others didn't.

We also had to decide what order to put various "values" like...what's more important, customer service or something else. We thought outside the box and put customer service at the bottom, because it couldn't exist without the other qualities (as they were all part of customer service).

For managers, I expect it's a similar thing, but I know JL doesn't like managers to be 'too friendly' with their subordinates so they can maintain an objective distance. But it's not like we're rigidly forced to be robots, if anything I've never had a job where I've had so much freedom to do what I want.