The job, a part time sales assistant at an establish high-street department store. The competition, two and half thousand other people, yes, TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED people applied for sixty minimum-wage-paid position at the new store opening soon in Sheffield. I was one of the lucky FIVE HUNDRED who was capable of filling the position applied for, making it through to the interview stage, which was more like a personality test.Group interviews always sound so daunting but in reality you are generally put with equally nervous respectful candidates and it makes the whole thing far less pressurised than an one-to-one and can relax more, allowing the 'real' you out. The interviewer told us to be ourselves over the two hours where it was up to us to involve ourselves. The company was in the lucky position of having plenty of capable applicants, allowing them to choose those whose personalities shine in the two hour 'interview'.
There should have been twelve candidates in this group but only six others, including myself turned up, all 'fighting' for one position, everybody felt awkward but the Scottish giant of an interviewer put us as ease with a few LOLzzz. He picked up quickly that we were a polite quiet lot, making his job far harder, but hey, that's what he gets paid for and to be fair, he was good at it.
There was that awkward 'introduction' bit, then a task which was unenthusiastically completed by all. Most companies want loyal employees, not this lot, when one candidate asked about future career prospects, the answer was 'unlikely', whilst my answer to 'Why do you want to work for...?', 'because they are a forward-thinking and innovative brand who stand out from their competitors' (massive lie) was quickly shot down by the Scotsman like I was at school. It really was quite bizarre.
A few months back I had been for a similar role at a similar brand I was surprised how important it was for them to hire only employees looking for a career in the company, this was the complete opposite.
I'm almost certain I didn't get the job but the experience opened my mind!
