Halifax Customer service advisor

peanuts92

Hey,

I really want to work in a bank for a part time job and have applied for a customer service advisor part time job vacancy at Halifax. I'm beginning to doubt my chances of successfully getting the job. I'll tell you a bit about myself: I'm a first year pharmacy student at university and i currently have a part time job at McDonalds where i work in the kitchen which relies upon teamwork and communication skills. However, i am aware that the job role involves dealing with customers and i currently have no retail or customer service experience at all. I'm really concerned about this as this is a huge part of the job and with no experience with dealing with customers they might just reject me straight away. I've heard that a few of the questions they ask in interviews are based upon your experiences of delivering customer service and dealing with different types of customers and such but in my case i don't have any experience and thus no real personal answer. In one way i have heard of young people being recruited with no/little experience as some young people have to start up from somewhere. However, in this climate i'm beginning to seriously doubt my chances as there will be candidates out there with retail and customer service experience that may also apply.
So my question is what are my chances in being successful? Do i actually have a chance? Also seeing how my university timetable is so overloaded i might be only available to wednesday afternoons, weekends and holidays so this may also affect my employability? What are your views on this?

Thanks,
John

InsideInsurance

Some would argue that most dont tell the truth during interviews. In particular when being asked the "give an example when..." type questions it is next to impossible to validate.

Whilst it isnt possible to know what exactly they are going to ask there are certainly broad themes that comes up and it isnt too hard to consider these before the interview. Either you can admit that you havent had to deal with such a situation but this is what you would do or....

dizzyrascal

What were the original advertised hours for this post? Did it say 0.5 or something like that? It doesn't sound like a student position to me and employers tend not to try to fit in with you and your hours and commitments. More the other way around, you will have be available when they need you.
You are right about the customer service angle though. You would need to be able to demonstrate that you have this competency or they are unlikely to give you an interview. Perhaps you could try and arrange some for future applications.

agrinnall

I suspect dizzyrascal is right, are you sure that they will even employ students in this sort of role?

peanuts92

dizzyrascal wrote: »

What were the original advertised hours for this post? Did it say 0.5 or something like that? It doesn't sound like a student position to me and employers tend not to try to fit in with you and your hours and commitments. More the other way around, you will have be available when they need you.
You are right about the customer service angle though. You would need to be able to demonstrate that you have this competency or they are unlikely to give you an interview. Perhaps you could try and arrange some for future applications.

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. It doesn't really state any hours at all or any figures, apart from the salary . It does state that it is for a part time position though.

peanuts92

agrinnall wrote: »

I suspect dizzyrascal is right, are you sure that they will even employ students in this sort of role?

I think it might actually be for a call centre job, the more i read the job description the more it talks about dealing with calls and not much else....I thought it would have been for a position at a branch. But apparantly the call centre in my area that i think it is that i have applied to is open like 8am-8pm weekdays and Saturday which would make it possible for me to work more hours...

dizzyrascal

Call centre work is better from the point of view of being a student. Lots of students do call centre work and if this company employ students then they are likely to understand the hours you are able to work etc. It's not face to face customer service but it does have many of the skills you might need in the future. Good luck