To ask if anyone works for Waitrose and can talk me through the interview process?

[COCKadoodledooo]

Please?

Have an interview there tomorrow afternoon (customer service/cashier position). Kinda surprised that it's a 2.5 hour slot. Have the job and person specs and surely talking about those isn't going to take that long! So what other tasks might be involved please?!

Hi. I used to work for John Lewis and have interviewed twice as I was only ever temporary and had to interview again.

Both were 'group' interviews. We were put in small groups (3-5) and had to first each try and 'sell' some bizarre object to the rest of the group. In the group there was an employee of JL assessing us. Then, in the same group, we had to build the tallest tower we could ouut of paper clips and A4 paper (no, I'm not joking). This was to see who had leadership/team work qualities. We also had to prepare answers for questions like what is your biggest achievement and share these with the group.

I'm pretty sure some of the candidates were for waitrose, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was the process you had to go through as well.

Yabu.

I don't work for Waitrose - although have friends that do. Its meant to be a really good place to work.

One thing I would say from a customer point of view is that the staff always seem very helpful (e.g. more than happy to get something for you you've forgotten at the till), prepared to go the extra mile, courteous and happy - seems a nice place to work. And its more than one branch of Waitrose I've noticed this in.

So from an interview point of view I would try and show as far as possible that you're 'their type of person' and are aware that Waitrose's customer service/satisfaction seems to be a big focus for them.

SlackSally thanks - I'd suspected as much but wasn't sure. Those kind of things fill me with dread (mind you, it's 13 years since I last had to do one!) so finding out it's likely beforehand has definitely helped!

pleasenap I know what you mean and I said as much on my application. Have been in customer service roles since 1996 and it is v important to me to get it right too, hopefully I can get this across tomorrow.

Thanks all.

No problem COCK (sounds very rude calling you that!).

It really isn't as scary as it sounds. With the 'selling' thing, just try to be imaginative. E.G. if you're given a mop (it will be something mundane like that), then you could obviously highlight it's cleaning qualities, but also say things like it is small and easy to store/comes with attachments/makes a good alternative hair do.

With the tower thing, the best way to do it is to make lots of quite thin 'sausages' of paper, secured with paperclips, then stand some of these up with a few sheets of flat paper on top, before repeating over and over again.

And just have some achievements ready to discuss. Doesn't have to be anything spectacular. Mine was getting really good A level results...

I worked on the tills at Waitrose a few years ago as a student and from what I remember, the interview was a group of about 6 or 8 of us and included a couple of interactive tasks, role play and then a few simple maths questions (on your own, pen and paper) - really really simple ones, basically checking you can count change!

Nothing to worry about, just be keen, polite and friendly and I'm sure they'll take you on.