I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Waitrose (Newton Mearns, Scotland) in Jul 2013
Interview
I applied through their website and it was a series of easy questions and answers .I was contacted by automated emailing system inviting me to group interview. It was THE WORST INTERVIEW EVER! I wholeheartedly was completely put off of this company because of how the interviewing was conducted. Groups interviews are so unfair and biased. We had to write down 5 answers on paper, why we wanted to work here, what we could offer, our favourite meal, our ambitions, where we seen ourselves in 5 years time. The snobby woman beside me who harped on about her speciality butterflied chicken and herby potatoes and so on obviously swing it as I just mentioned spag bols I cooked for my family. This went on for ages in a tiny little office with no air con and 15 of us crammed in, no window open in the height of summer. NO water, no comfort break despite this halfwitted interviewing technique lasting almost 2 hours. The next thing, we are split into groups of 4 and have to make a tower out of newspaper and sellotape, testing who is bossy and who is shy. etc. After getting black and all dye off the newspaper one of the managers did allow us some wet wipes. THEN we had to go in groups of two halves of the room and one had to scribe, the others had to shout out what made a great sales assistant. We then had to have one of us read them all off and all of us had to contribute points. THEN we had to play act products in a basket, how we would sell them and we tried to be pushy customers and aggravate one another. Some school leaver lads were supposed to try and sell washing powder and had not a clue what to say just this cleans clothes. It was so embarrassing and pointless. Then after this rubbish, we all sat in silence as one by one we got a quick one to one interview with the line manager and she let us go then all at the one time, leading us down a lot of stairs and no facility for disabled and we didnt get a drink or even shown where the bathrooms were . It was a farce and not a company I would have liked to work for after the mental and physical tasks exhausted me.
A group interview with others - straightforward questions shared with the group. A one to one interview after this with the section manager - this was also very informal. I was offered the job and accepted.
Good combination of online testing and in person situational questions in store. Testing beforehand had a range of questions including scaled responses and videos. In store questions were more team building
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Situational questions - including how you’d respond to customer enquiries
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Waitrose
Interview
Group interview followed by 1:1 interview and right to work checks. As a group we had to respond to a list of scenarios and say what we would do in given situations.
