John Lewis & Partners interview questions

Initial application was made online when was quickly followed by numerous online tests (maths, english grammar, reasoning, etc), telephone interview, 1 day group assessment centre and 1 day individual assessment centre.

I applied for a job at the John Lewis in Tamworth (West Midlands). You apply for John Lewis jobs through their website and are invited to complete psychometric testing questions, these are to be completed within a specific time scale. Within this, John Lewis look for similarities between your personality and their overall business outlook e.g. the customer comes first. So I would advise to read up about how John Lewis view their customers and what they expect from their staff. I was then offered an interview at the Tamworth store. The interview was split into two sections. The first section was the individual interview where they asked me questions about my personality and qualifications, previous work experience (questions are specified in the 'interview question' section). This was to see what type of person you are. The second section was a group interview, we were given three scenarios and descriptions, where customers were looking for a specific products to suit their needs. A booklet was provided with various different products, that John Lewis stock, and as a group we had to decide what was the best product for each customer. Within this part of the interview its important to be enthusiastic but not overbearing - I presume they are looking for someone with energy and passion. When feeding back to the panel they acted as the customer and any questions they were asking as the customer we had to answer as if they were a real customer. The issue of cost was raised and a gentleman actually brought up their partnership card scheme (which shows he did his research) and they seemed impressed with his knowledge of that. The staff who interviewed me were not overbearing but very friendly which, personally, helps add a positive atmosphere to an interview.