I applied online. I interviewed at Marks & Spencer (London, England) in Feb 2016
Interview
Was taken into a room where i was told to read through a booklet, after the booklet i had to take notice of the 6/7 pieces of paper in front of me. After 5 minutes i would have a manager, pretend to be a customer needing something from one of the pieces of paper. Felt under pressure, restricted and helpless in this role play part.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Didnt get to the question stage, the role play part was that hard.
I applied through a staffing agency. I interviewed at Marks & Spencer (London, England) in Mar 2016
Interview
Was put forward for a speculative interview by my recruitment agents. There was no specific role that they were interviewing for, I believe they were seeing what the market was like at that time. It took a while to get a time confirmed, but eventually I was able to go in. I met with an HR manager and one of the senior EA's. They were very pleasant and I enjoyed the interview.
Unfortunately that where the positives end. The interview was at beginning of March and here we are 7 weeks later and still no feedback. I have chased my agents many times who in turn have asked repeatedly for feedback from M&S and all they get is "We'll look into it".
For such a iconic and well known brand I'm shocked at such a useless process. It's fine if they didn't want to peruse my application but at least say that! I've seen better interview courtesy and feedback in pretty much every other interview I have attended. I was expecting much more from M&S.
If this is how they treat perspective employees that presumably they want to impress then I would hate to know how they treat actual employees.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Asked the usual questions: Tell me about your background, What do you know about M&S etc. Conversation was quite casual. Gave me a task to do in 15 mins involving key EA / PA tasks eg how to manage a schedule and a last minute meeting with senior level management.
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Marks & Spencer (Solihull, England) in Nov 2015
Interview
The interview was fairly quick and simple. I was taken into a room with two people and asked to take part in a role play where I was a customer assistant and one of the interviewers posed as a customer whilst the other observed.
The customer wanted to make a special meal with Parma ham but we didn't have the correct ingredients in stock so I had to offer alternatives to suit the customers needs whilst being polite and friendly. I was given a few sheets of paper with information on the different products and services on offer and a short amount of time to make notes before the role play began. After this I was asked to evaluate my own performance and offered a job.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There weren't really any unexpected questions. There was only the role play and questions about my own performance, e.g. "How do you think that went?". I was asked about myself and my experience but only once I had been offered the job.