To be baffled by Tesco's screening questions

[Hingeandbracket]

I applied for a job at Tesco but failed their questionnaire, which suggests situations and asks you to choose a multiple choice answer for what you would do in each.

I always struggle with these kinds of tests as it often seems to me that all are good answers - or none - and there isn't an obvious answer.

Does anyone who has passed this test have any tips about how it works?

I want to work and I am prepared to put myself out to help people - but it is very hard to see exactly what Tesco are looking for in these ambiguous questions.

[The80sweregreat]

I did get an interview once for Tesco in 96! The woman took an instant dislike to me.
I didn't get the job and was most disappointed! I didn't have to do the tests back then. When I had to do tests I was rejected straight away so obviously retail isn't for me at all!
I agree they are vague and ambiguous and just to filter people like me I suppose.
Let us know how you get on if you do the test again! I hope you pass.
Getting a job these days is hard going.

[blankethog]

Thanks for that @nickymanchester! Tbh I work in the store so only have experience of that! The agency workers that come into store defo get paid more than us though! Without giving too much away the Tesco I work at is very close to a distribution centre so often when a woman from the warehouse falls pregnant she ends up in store (too much heavy lifting in the warehouse) I wonder if she then gets paid a store wage or warehouse wage? It's definitely a very male based job though and I'd probably say there's more females than males that work in store, however much more men in managerial positions, like 8 out of 10 male. I do really love working there though😂

[ScrapThatThen]

I don't think the people who are saying they are easy have actually had recent experience of this kind of hell. These are widely used in the civil service and dh (with 20 years civil service experience, lots of sense and knowledge) cannot pass them. He may now need to stay in his current role forever. He also says that people widely apply for posts they don't really want just to get a chance to practice them otherwise they miss out on the job they really want because of the stupid test.

[ChrissyPlummer]

A friend of mine used to work in HR for a supermarket and said they used to get 15-20 people to interview and would do a group exercise where they’d split them into small groups and they’d have to come up with an advertising promotion for a product. One guy asked if he was in the right interview as he said he’d applied to stack shelves overnight (in the days before 24-hour opening)and had they put him in a management interview by mistake? He walked out when they said it was the right one for his job.

I’ve been thinking for a while whether I want to start looking but it really puts me off that I’d have to do this kind of thing for even the most basic NMW jobs that I could do easily. Other companies are as bad; requesting a CV but also an application form. Why? I long for the days when it was either a (simple) application form or a CV and covering letter. Even a Christmas temp job I had a few years ago had a form with competency style questions and then a phone interview, then an assessment day. I dread having to apply for jobs now.

[Bargebill19]

Agreed - and don’t get me started on the wanting three forms of identification dates within the last three months or your passport.
I don’t have a passport and live on a boat - so no electricity bill or gas bill etc and the council tax is only good for three months from April.......
National insurance number and birth certificate should be enough.

[MintyMabel]

distribution centre rather than a store (these are the warehouses that send out stuff to the stores).

Yeah, thanks for clearing that up...🙄

[MintyMabel]

Personally, I wonder if this isn't a case that could be raised under the Equal Pay Act? Warehouse staff generally get paid more than store staff (not just in Tesco)

You mean like the landmark case won by asda staff in 2019?

www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/asda-equal-pay-victory-has-widespread-repercussions-for-hr

[Oliversmumsarmy]

Dd and Ds have done all these tests and failed everyone of them. They were applying for jobs as shelf stackers.

Even with using common sense and customer is always right answering the questions some of them were really bizarre.

Dd normally works as a manager in a customer facing position.
She also works in a shop and with food.

She couldn’t get a shelf stackers job at Tesco or Lidl or Morrison’s but got offered a management role on £55k per year at a very prestigious company

I tried the tests too and failed as well.

Some of the questions really didn’t make sense

[Wemayhavemetbefore]

"He went into Sainsbury with a CV, was interviewed and got a job."

Did he go purely speculatively and ask to speak to a manager, or did they have a sign saying they were recruiting and asking people to drop off cvs? it seems a big difference these days is that you usually have to apply online rather than just showing up in person and asking - in some ways more equal access I suppose, but has its drawbacks as well.

[Meggie2008]

Tesco have "clean as you go" drawers that contain spill kits etc in each aisle, and you're expected to clear up things there and then instead of closing off areas to fetch cleaners/supervisors etc. They've even got a weird absorbent powder thing that you put on liquid spillages and then just brush up (all items found in drawer...supposedly. Although 90% of the time the drawer can be found empty or just with a wet floor sign in it...)

[wentawaycameback]

It was at the start of lockdown (his A levels had just been cancelled) - he asked at customer services and was told to bring his CV. It took 4 weeks before he got an interview and was given a job as an online assistant. The pandemic might have made them approach things differently. Also we are a holiday town and our Sainsburys needs a lot of temporary summer staff each year.

[Wemayhavemetbefore]

Ah, thanks wentaway - yes i guess at that point they may have needed to recruit very quickly - although on the other hand it took him 4 weeks to get an interview so maybe not!. Anyway, well done to him for getting the job!

[The80sweregreat]

Can't something be done about how hard it is to get a job that's min wage these days?
All these tests and telephone interviews must take up oddles of time and money and probably filters out the right people for the job because the tests are so ridiculous!
The youngsters have life hard enough without all this to put up with as well.
No wonder mental health problems are on the increase. It is just depressing.

[stella47]

Even the example ones linked to didn't seem easy or obvious to me. I'd have thought they'd work better as a point for discussion than as a multiple choice. My first thought for most of them is "well, it depends..."!

[nancy75]

Some of these tests are just crazy, a few years ago my friend’s daughter was trying to get a Saturday job with a high Street chain (I think it was boots) she kept failing the test.
I took the test out of interest & failed. At the time I was the manager of a multi million £ turnover store on oxford street, with a staff of over 65 people & various in house awards for customer service - yet I wasn’t good enough for a Saturday job at boots

[Bargebill19]

@stella47 - I see the problem - you thought like a fully functioning adult common sense with the ability to see beyond the bare minimum. That comes later once you’ve got the job!
To get through the online quiz - you are not expected to do anymore than adhere to the basic company policy. No more or less. I guess these quiz’s go some way to weeding out time wasters? But I suspect that the companies lose out on people who in reality, would be an asset.
I still hate them though. I too morn the old days of just handing in a cv and letter. Now they want it in triplicate on several different forms.

[Goyle]

They have these in the public transport industry and they drive me mad. 20 years ago I got my job from doing a maths test, an English test, and having an interview. Now, it's these stupid tests and "role-play" which puts introverts like me immediately on the back foot, because they use actual actors and you have to suspend your belief that you are in that situation, by having to act whilst trying to say the "right" words or phrases. I am stuck in my current grade now because even though I know I have the skills to move up, I cannot because I am an introvert with a splash of social anxiety thrown in. So outgoing, confident, rote-phrasing, people with the gift of the gab always get through, then prove they have nothing to offer when they get there.

In my job, HR don't look at appraisals or references for internal candidates, in case they offer bias.

[ChrissyPlummer]

Meggie2018 But how would you know that unless you did/had work there? From what OP said, it wasn’t given as an option, so you’re expected to answer a question on a scenario when none of the answers relate to what would actually happen if/when that scenario occurred.

[user1471447863]

I must have been there before Tesco used the tests. My interview was 'can you get here for 6am?' 'can you come in tomorrow afternoon for training then start at 6am the following morning?'
Yes to both, 'good then you've got the job'
.

[SharonasCorona]

Seems ' ask the supervisor' was the main answer to a few
Maybe this was where I went wrong as I was trying to show I didn't need to rely on "asking my Mum" about everything.

Was your mum the supervisor?

Jokes aside, I sympathise. I'm looking for a new job and the competition is so fierce I'm not getting even called for interviews.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

Tesco have "clean as you go" drawers that contain spill kits etc in each aisle, and you're expected to clear up things there and then instead of closing off areas to fetch cleaners/supervisors etc

And you are supposed to know this how?

[JenniferJareau]

I smugly and speedily picked B obviously. Obviously not! Turned out the “correct” answer was C - do their work, because this was a job working in a team and you should always take one for the team

The filter worked though. Would you have wanted to work there with that type of culture? Me either.

One guy asked if he was in the right interview as he said he’d applied to stack shelves overnight (in the days before 24-hour opening)and had they put him in a management interview by mistake? He walked out when they said it was the right one for his job.

The recruitment process worked though. He was asked to do a simple task designed to judge teamwork, and he couldn't be arsed.

[Elsewyre]

@The80sweregreat

Those type of questions are hard to work out : I've been baffled in the past too. Seems ' ask the supervisor' was the main answer to a few for one online job I didn't get : why would I do this ? It didn't make any sense to me at all for a few of the questions : using common sense would have done it !
I hate all aspects of job hunting because of these silly tests and how they try and trip you up. I guess that's why my job hunting has been so rubbish in the past. They managed to filter me out very quickly.
Hang on in there though op!
Do a bit of research online first as well.

Because for big companies with broad employee bases "common sense" costs money.


I've seen £10s of thousands of carbon fibre prepreg have to be destroyed as a refrigerator broke down the employee noticed quickly before it warmed up and transferred the rolls to a different fridge. Good common sense right?


If hed have told his supervisor hed have been told to move the temperature logger too as he didnt cold chain cant be proved and no customer on the planet is gonna take a random warehouse workers word that the material is sound and not going to fail catastrophically at altitude

[VeganCow]

If you google search, the answers are out there, reddit or someplace

[Oblomov20]

These stupid recruitment initiatives drive me wild.
Poor Ds1, a teen is getting nowhere with them atm.

Even Dh had to provide all sorts of documents when actually hired:

pp: "and the council tax is only good for three months from April.." - agree totally.