John Lewis & Partners interview questions

Feedback for John Lewis: From my perspective I found this whole process extremely stressful and not designed for someone who is conscientious and self aware and I firmly believe that John Lewis recruitment process is designed to attract a millennial type of candidate who is very confident and self assured. Having someone watch your every move and writing notes in my opinion is going to exclude a lot of what may have been relevant candidates as personally I found this daunting and I believe this did not show my best self and in my experience the more aware you become the more out of character you can behave. I struggle to believe in the year 2019 this is considered an effective recruiting tool, surely there is a better method of getting to know your candidates? Having worked in a customer service role for a number of years and having 26 customer service recommendations during my career, I was disappointed to have received a basic email that simply said you have not been successful after all the time and energy given, I felt that feedback should have been offered and not had to chase for it. Process of applying and interviewing: Series of assessments and interviews as below 1st step was online application followed by online assessment test which involved a series of questions giving the candidate a particular issue followed by a series of solutions for your to select what you the candidate felt was the best course of action and how you would handle the particular situation. This process took around 20 minutes to complete. Once your application was submitted if you were successful you would be invited to visit the site for an 1/2 day of assessments. As advised on invitation I arrived 15 minutes before the start time, checked in and waited along with other candidates, there was around 12 on that particular day. All candidates entered into a large open plan room set up with a projector screen and gentleman talking you through the position and the benefits of working for John Lewis. He explained there would be 4 assessors joining us to watch our interaction and thought processing and how each individual would work through the issues given for each assessment. First assessment involved the whole table (approx 6 people) discussing the stats that was given and negotiating with other candidates on what you thought was the appropriate answer, this accounted for approx 10-15 minutes. Second assessment involved working in teams of 4 candidates to work through particular client issue that had been given, this took approx 20 minutes in total. Third stage involved technical test which would involve a role play call and you the candidate working through the customer query with them giving them the best advice available, This lasted around 10 minutes. Final stage involved one to one interview asking direct questions again about you the candidate and how you would handle a particular situation.

This review is about the application process itself. The application form (I can't remember the last time I filled out a cgi form) and questions are very dated and full of faff. Some of the 'Role Specific Questions' aren't role-specific at all! Maybe I don't want to work with the people who came up with these questions and screen people based on their answers to these questions. They also ask for personal details that shouldn't be asked at this stage.