AIBU to find supermarket job interviews oddly demanding and irrelevant?

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I am a so called professional who has just had enough of one restructuring after another. I have handed my notice in.

I want a part-time job in a supermarket not as a manger but as a shop floor/warehouse worker.

Last month I had to do a psychometric test I kid you not, and was emailed to say I was through to the interview stage and I had to book an interview. All of the interview slots however had been taken in spite of the email only having been sent fifteen minutes before!

Having complained I was offered an interview but for a store a little further than I wanted.

There were three of us, we were given a little tour, then a group exercise, a small Functional skills test, then individual interview.

The questions:
Hobbies etc
One thing others would be surprised about me.
What would I do if I won the lottery.

Seriously, what bearing would these answers have on how I could do this job?

What would you say to the question about something someone would be surprised by me. I had absolutely no idea.

What answers would you have given?

What are they looking for? What answers do they want?

I honestly think it's part power trip, part panic/insecurity ("we must be super serious and show what a super strong corporation we are"). It's ridiculous.

Realistically, it's not a job where there are a lot of skills to test/measure at interview.

They'll be wanting to find out whether you're personable, will be ok to work with and manage, and have evidence of taking responsibility for yourself and having a decent work ethic via eg hobbies.

Asda cleaner job 12 hrs a week
If you were an animal what would it be and why?
I took part in cleaning and maintenance of a multi million £ facility.
Got the rejection Email before I got home.

But how would you answer the questions?

I think I must be the dullest woman alive. I do yoga but it’s what I do twice a week after work but is that a hobby?

I think I am a bit of an open book. There is not one thing about me that I am concealing or anything my friends and family would be surprised by.

If I won the lottery, I would buy a bigger house, go away more and set the kids up. Isn’t this what every woman of my age would do? What would they want me to say?

Oh and DW told me of a Cleaner new start that didn't know how to use a mop and was sloshing water all over the place..Asda.

BobbySheenSomethingNewToDoNsoul

I sympathise! Honest to God.

Wow, I see what you mean

I would be right put off by that 'surprise' question!

If you are an interviewer what do you want the answers to be?

How would people answer the questions?

Yanbu....I went for a job interview once at a supermarket. It was ridiculous and I didn't get the job

In a supermarket job you won't have much autonomy, they don't want you to have your Manager head on, they want you to work hard and be nice to the customers. I'd be very tempted to tell them something like you were a furry but please don't, it won't help

I tried to keep it light hearted
A Squirrel cos they're cute and like nuts ..nope.

Yes, yes, a squirrel - tell them you can't work the nut section because you'll lose all control

Absurd. And what a waste of time. Whoever advised them of this process probably charged them thousands.

An example of the world gone mad.

Would they be surprised that you had in fact already won the lottery but still wanted to do this valuable job?

As a previous poster said it’s about how you communicate & talk about yourself more than any particular answers ,
I’ve sat in on a lot of assessments over the years for large retailers .
My friend works in personnel for a supermarket and their turnover of staff was so huge at 1 point so basically if you weren’t a complete moron and looked like you’d turn up when rota’d , you were in 🤣

YANBU, I had an interview for a supermarket about 15 years ago and it was the same nonsense then. I can’t remember exact questions I had to answer, but I remember having a tour round the shop (fair enough), then a ridiculous group task where we had to build some sort of structure out of blu-tak and paper straws, I guess I understand this a bit as it shows how well you work with others but still it felt unnecessary. Then a group interview followed by individual interviews with a HR person. It must have taken all afternoon. All for a minimum wage part time checkout assistant role. I got the job but the whole process was very over the top and patronising.

As for the questions, I’m not sure how I’d answer. Probably just be honest regarding hobbies, I’d struggle to say what thing about me would surprise others and end up saying something very boring like “I’m left handed”. The lottery question would just be your standard, buy house, go on a once in a lifetime holiday, put some away for kids. I wouldn’t expect these kind of questions at a job interview so wouldn’t have prepared answers for them.

Did you get the job?

Dd had this with M n S - seasonal job, got through to interview and tried for a week solid to get a slot. I even tried to help by logging on every half an hour for a day she was busy. Nothing and then she received an email after a solid week of trying to say they’d cancelled her application as she hadn’t secured the interview. She called M n S but got told that’s the process. So bloody frustrating and a complete waste of her time.

For the Surprise question, tell them you can shoot ping pong balls out of your fanny.

Why shouldn't supermarkets recruit the best staff they can? Should supermarkets be restricted to only recruiting 'low ability' staff.

Group interviews show how well candidates interact as part of a team. Whether they dominate a conversation or task, how they respond to other people in the discussion eg do they encourage others & involve others in a conversation. The actual topic discussed is irrelevant.

I would say someone making disparaging comments towards other candidates contributions or giving sarcastic answers to questions or viewing the role as beneath them would score quite low.

They are looking for honest, genuine, friendly, approachable team players that are willing to tackle a task, that will ask questions to understand what's expected. Sometimes you get group interviews where no candidates have these skills.

That would be a bit of a stretch for me so to speak..as I don't have one🤯

As per new start cleaner my DW told me about that couldn't use a mop
A checkout operator in M& S that didn't know the value of coins for correct change.

I would just make shit up to get the job

The answers are irrelevant. It's how you interact with other members of the team. s someone with naturally more confidence do you go first in answering the question & then encourage others to answer or do you sit there with your arms folded thinking this is beneath you & a bit stupid.

Are you giving genuine responses or trying to make yourself look clever? Do you look at the floor the whole time, mumble & avoid giving more than a one word answer?

If you don't understand, do you seek clarification?

Interviewer will be scoring on those things.

A modest job does not necessarily mean the people applying to do it are low ability.
This sort of mad recruitment exercise is just fodder for consultants who then charge the company thousands for suggesting it.
Years ago managers took responsibility for the people they recruited. And being able to sift and pick well is surely part of the job.
But, back to ‘low ability’. One my proudest moments was helping a young lad with learning difficulties with his job application to do trolley work at the supermarket. I spoke to the store and he got the job. One or two issues were sorted. He loved the job. It suited him down to the ground. And when asked he said he was ‘loving it’.
Because of his learning difficulties he would never have got the job by your or new methods. It gave him dignity and a place in the world.

Years ago when I was young I worked for Woolworths and it was much more skills based. You had to do an arithmetic style maths test and if you passed that you could be till trained and if not you did shelf stacking. Then you had to watch the training videos and then there was a test on each one that you had to pass. I don't recall an actual interview but some informal chats with the managers.