John Lewis & Partners interview questions

Group Interview with other candidates then a 1 on 1 interview afterwards. Not too long. Fairly normal and expected questions. Process as a whole from application to starting the job can be a bit long.

Overall poor candidate experience. The managers were friendly and professional throughout the process and made me feel at ease. First interview was fairly informal and lasted around 30 minutes (although I was given less than 24 hours notice to attend). Second interview was a presentation and competency questions which lasted around 2 hours. It took almost 3 weeks to hear back after I was told I’d be contacted within a week. I understand that a number of things can impact response times, however, I was not contacted at all during the 3 weeks and had to chase on two occasions before receiving an update. The slow response here was poor, especially having been given so little notice to attend the first interview. Most frustratingly I then received two emails to tell me I hadn’t been successful - one which was automated and a fairly generic email from the recruiter with some feedback. The feedback was absolutely fair, however, to have had this delivered via email, after the time I had taken to prepare for, and attend, a 2 hour interview is not acceptable. And there was no apology given for the time taken or the fact that the feedback had come via email. I had expected at least a phone call and this response showed a lack of respect or appreciation for my time and effort. This could have been a great experience but totally ruined by poor communication