The question that is guaranteed in every interview, yet one that can perennially ruin them.
See it as an opportunity rather than a question!
It can be the most challenging question throughout an interview. While you can recite roles, responsibilities and past duties, this question isn’t so easy and needs to be adjusted per interview. This is yet another point where the Hiring Manager is looking to ascertain whether or not you are a good fit for the job in question. While it may be seen to be a conversational question and often asked quite informally, it is most definitely another instance to see whether you are a fit for the job in question.
Think about what you want the interviewer to know about you. Don’t go in and try wing it. Prepare and have a natural flow to the question. This isn’t a filler for the actual interview. There is a purpose behind the question. Reveal the information which highlights you as a suitable candidate.
As Ireland’s Retail Recruitment specialists, our consultants prepare candidates for interview every day. Here is one such example we think would suit the jobs we recruit for:
Good Example
‘‘I’ve worked in Retail all my life and have ascended into management in the last five years. I first started as a Sales Assistant in _________ where I worked to supplement my income as I studied _________ throughout College, graduating in _______. I grew to love the retail environment and the industry and have held ____________, ____________, and ___________ titles across the years. While at times very challenging it has been incredible rewarding. My highlight was opening the first Flag Ship/ A New Store Opening/ Being promoted etc. as it proved that the company valued and trusted me and the contribution I’d made to date’’.
This is a fool proof answer, which highlights your expertise, beginnings and career trajectory, showing you as a dependable and experienced professional. This is far more beneficial to you as a prospective candidate rather than the answer below:
Bad Example
‘I’m originally from Limerick but live in Dublin. I love animals, good food, fashion and friends. My favourite book is ________________ and I’d love to travel to ___________ someday. In the past I’ve lived in ______________, _______________ and _______________.
Personalise this towards the job in question, preparing a short script in advance. Think about what you want to convey and how best you can construe this. Career experience is always pertinent to this question and you should build the answer around this. Physically write out your answer, as this will also help you visual and remember it.
A job is a job, whether it’s temporary or permanent. Employers who hire seasonal workers look for the same qualities they seek when hiring long-term employees. Attitude, professionalism, and a good work ethic are all crucial in landing a job. Hiring seasonal employees is fairly similar to hiring anyone else, and you can normally expect the usual set of interview questions. However, at the same time, there are a few key differences that separate seasonal and permanent positions and the same inevitable questions for temporary jobs will always creep up.
Why are you in the market for temporary employment?
This question will almost definitely come up in every interview you undertake for temporary work and you shouldn’t be put off by the employer’s frankness at asking it. Make sure you develop a convincing answer avoiding any responses that may tend to make you sound less than reliable.
Are there any gaps in your résumé?
Gaps are a standard thing in even the most experienced CV’s and they arise for numerous reasons which employers understand. However, a lot of seasonal workers look for jobs cyclically with the idea to try and make extra money around the holidays and if they are previously familiar with temporary employment. The point to stress is that seasonal employees need to be reliable. No-one wants to be stuck with inadequate staffing. You will be asked to explain any CV gaps. Be honest, as a recruiter or employer will immediately see through you if you aren’t. They will notice the gaps and chase you on the dates from the offset so be honest from the beginning, highlighting why and how the gaps arose and emphasising your ability and reliability towards the job.
Choose responses that pinpoint your professionalism.
Employers are looking for the candidates most likely to get up to speed quickly with little or no difficulty. Act as professionally as you would if applying for a permanent, career-enhancing position, and don’t be shy about highlighting your experience. Some people have a tendency to overlook and under prepare for temporary or seasonal jobs.
Clearly outline your level of schedule flexibility.
Hospitality and Retail are the main sources of seasonal employment and are often the most demanding, customer focused and fast paced jobs possible. They require constant customer communication, thus flexibility is imperative considering the influx of customers throughout the extended busy period and how all types of consumers need to be catered too. Often when hiring, the employer will give a guideline of the rough hours of work, most commonly being evening and weekends. If you cannot adhere to these, or have very little flexibility it is not worth your time. What employers want is someone who is either fully flexible or able to abide by the agreed hours. Not being honest will only lead to contention down the line and a bad rapport between you and employer.
Use examples that demonstrate your ability to learn quickly.
Job seekers who can easily adjust to new work environments and swiftly get up to speed in an unfamiliar setting are exactly what employers are looking for. In your interview answers, choose past experiences and scenarios that illustrate this and your instant adaptability and ability to the job.
Long term availability
Temporary work, for the most part is for a fixed term and like name suggests, is just temporary. However, there is often a possibility that particularly promising temp staff may be offered permanent positions after the busier period cools down. Most temps would be enthused at the possibility of a long term and permanent job. Subtly skew your answers to this in the interview if you feel that the interviewer would be receptive towards these. However, remember that for the majority of the time, temporary work will only be for the agreed period.
Going for a job interview is always an anxiety provoking event. The best way to control your job interview nerves is to thoroughly prepare in advance. It is important to get advice and tools on how to ease the tension and make the job hunting process easier and the interview more enjoyable. Here are some tips and advice on how to calm those nerves and be composed and confident on the day.
The 5 minute surf
Understanding the organization’s business and the issues it faces will instantly impress the interviewer. A quick 5 minutes web search can throw up a wealth of insight and knowledge. Do the same across their social media channels, most companies at the very minimum are on Facebook and Twitter and allows you to quickly learn about the company and culture. Knowing about the latest company news, award nomination etc. that is readily available through Social Media will impress from the outset.
Put yourself on the spot
Focus on those elements of the interview which are in your control – i.e. you and what you already know. Spend 5 minutes writing down the most challenging questions you could be asked, then focus on answering one each day in the countdown to interview.
Adapting your language
Most organizations have a definite corporate language used to depict the company’s structure and processes. Spend 5 minutes studying the job spec to get a feel for how they describe your role and what you will be doing. If you can adapt your own language to that of the company and include some key phrases in your interview you are instantly going to make the interviewer feel comfortable and illustrate that you clearly understand what it is they are looking for.
Why should I work for you?
An interview is not a one-way affair; it is also your way of finding out more about the company and your employer so it’s important you ask questions too. Spend some time thinking about what drives you ethically, motivationally and idealistically. Developing questions which allow you to test your motivations will very quickly help you work out what sort of organization or department they are and whether they will suit you.
Between February 29th and March 2nd2016, Excel Recruitment welcomed 15 young unemployed jobseekers into our offices in Dublin City Centre. Now in its third year, Feeding Ireland’s Future is an initiative by the Department of Social Protection and the Grocery Retail Industry in Ireland. Participants are aged between 18-24 years of age and facilitated by ECR Ireland. Excel Recruitment serve the Grocery Retail Industry recruiting Sales Assistants to CEO. We command a team of expert consultants and dedicated time to each participant working through CV’s, Interviews, Assessment Centres, and Social Media Profiling. We also outlined to participants the daily routine we do as Recruiters, Trainers and Digital Marketers.
Two Examples
Building from last years success, participants have grown in number. Our consultants sat individually with participants and were paired through interests. Those interested in working in Fashion and Retail learned the tips from Aislinn Lea, talking in detail about previous experience, how the industry works and what employers demand. Sometimes it’s the case of rephrasing certain aspects of a CV. Participants were prompted to expand on their skill sets, skills that they already had, as well as experience, but had omitted or was not highlighted in their CV’s.
Our Digital Marketing Manager Clare chatting about the importance of Social Media and finding a job online. While most peruse Social Media for fun, participants were thought how to exploit Twitter, LinkedIn and even Instagram in a matter of seconds to find jobs. She also elaborated on the importance of privacy settings, how you can adjust these and how to present (and restrict) your Social Media profiles. With a plethora of Job Boards, we also emphasised the importance of Keywords to participants and used some fun examples to put these into action. Generic searching doesn’t benefit anyone and using tighter search terms to pinpoint exact jobs and have tighter search limits saves everyone time.
Every member of the Excel Team took part, giving workshops and CV advice, guidance and leads to all participants, committing time to the group and also individually. Excel Recruitment were delighted to assist in Feeding Ireland’s Future 2016. We are a proponent of Irish Retail and it was refreshing to have new faces, who are encouraged by the industry in our offices for the few days. We wish all participants the very best in their applications and encourage them to keep in contact with each other and Excel Recruitment.
I went through the importance of CV’s and Cover Letters and how they should be presented. Regarding Cover Letters, like your CV this should be specialised to the role in which you are applying for. A cover letter should not be a description of what they will already see in the CV. Try your best to bring in further points about yourself and why you would like to be a part of the company.
Bank of Ireland Business Banking released their 15/16 review and outlook for Irish Hotels, combining data from the CSO, Fáilte Ireland and Savills. Undoubtedly Irish Hospitality remains incredibly positive and proposed figures suggest it is likely to further grow in 2016. The report was led by Gerardo Larios Rizo, Head of Hospitality for Bank of Ireland. You can view the full report from Bank of Ireland, here.
Our consultants see CV’s every single day. Every hour actually. We had a chat around both our offices, both Retail and Hospitality and decided candidates would benefit from a sample CV. CV templates can and will differ on industries, but this standardised CV is applicable across the board when applying for Retail, Hospitality, Healthcare and most jobs.
Some general CV tips.
Word is generally a preferred format by recruitment agencies and employers in the above industries.
Attaching a PDF of your CV also is advised. (File > Export > Create PDF/ XPF )
Avoid over complicated templates, boxes and Excel sheets.
Personalise your CV/cover letter. While the majority of the content will stay the same, there is nothing more unprofessional when the same Cover Letter is send to multiple employers/agencies listing a different job than the one you actually applied for.
We see CV’s every single day. Every hour actually. We had a chat around the office and decided candidates would benefit from a sample CV with advice from all our consultants, their frustrations and what gets a CV noticed. CV templates differ on industries, this is a standardised CV that is suitable across the board when applying for Retail, Grocery, Fashion and Non-Food jobs.
Some general CV tips.
Word is generally a preferred format by recruitment agencies and employers in the above industries.
Attaching a PDF of your CV also is advised. (File > Export > Create PDF/ XPF )
Avoid over complicated templates, boxes and Excel sheets.
Personalise your CV/cover letter. While the majority of the content will stay the same, there is nothing more unprofessional when the same Cover Letter is send to multiple employers/agencies listing a different job than the one you actually applied for.
The 2016 Checkout Conference took place on Feb. 2nd in The Round Room of The Mansion House. The 2016 theme was ‘Think. Learn. Evolve’ with some notable industry professional speaking on the challenges and changes facing Irish Grocery Retail, with our MD Barry Whelan in attendance. There was some interesting observations from the top retail professionals, their plans for 2016 and how they envisage retail changing. Here is our take away points.
Julian Baldwin
Sales Effectiveness Director, Nielsen UK & Ireland.
The consumer wants personalisation. Targeting the consumer with personalised offers is a powerful way to drive sales. Since the recession the Irish consumer has traded down well beyond the European and global average. 51% in Ireland versus 31% in Europe.
Recommendations
Be shopper centric.
Prioritise personalisation.
Consider your online shopping experience.
Be nimble and build prototypes.
Maggie Timoney
Managing Director, Heineken Ireland.
Maggie has been Managing Director for Heineken Ireland since 2013, having worked for the brand for 17 years. Maggie addressed the importance of acting quickly and the crux of her speech correlated closely with the Checkout Conference theme of Think, Learn, and Evolve. Timoney highlighted Orchard Thieves as an example, the highly successful Cider that went from idea to product launch in just six months.
Her summary:
Get your organisation ready.
Be responsible together.
Collaborate between supplier and retailer.
Know your consumer.
Maggie also showcased Heineken Ireland’s new ad aimed at curtailing heavy drinking and titled ‘Heineken | Moderate Drinkers Wanted’.
Andrew Yaxley
CEO, Tesco Ireland.
This was one of our favourites. Appointed Chief Executive of Tesco Ireland in 2015, Yaxley was previously Managing Director of Tesco’s London business. Yaxley gave a highly informative talk, addressing Tesco’s priorities, the key levers that influence these and how Tesco will change their customer offering to better reflect business.
Regaining competitiveness by serving customers better.
Protecting and strengthening the balance sheet by creating a more simple operating model
Build trust and transparency by working better together.
They will concentrate on achieving these through concentrating on Customer, Product and Channel.
Customer
To the customer, Tesco need to show that they will deliver value for money and care about food. Another concern was the local community that each Tesco operates in. The introduction of the Tesco Community Fund has resulted in €1 million being donated directly to 3,500 local charities. The Tesco club card may be changed to a ‘thank you’ as opposed to a promotional tool. Some very interesting insights coming directly directly from the CEO himself.
Product
The Tesco range is too big and will be reduced by 15%. Fewer, more simple promotions, less multi buys, more half price are rounded euro offers are favoured by consumers. Tesco can have up to 5000 promotions every week. Too many. An emphasis will be placed on pushing the Tesco Brand, particularly the ‘Finest Range’
Channel
Yaxley commented on the need to invest in Service, continual investment in stores and driving the convenience store channel.
John Callan
Country Manager, dunnhumby.
Callan, the Country Manager for customer trends and insights agency dunnhumby spoke about the concept of altered value and frictionless interaction.
New Value: There have been shifts in attitude regarding the concept of what ‘value’ means following the recession. Discounters have affected the market and contributed vastly to this point.
Frictionless: Customers want a frictionless engagement with the retailer and the brand. They want things quick, easy and simple. Customers need and want connections to your business on a one to one.
Simon Twigger
Trading Director, Poundland.
Simon Twigger is Trading Director for Poundland, trading as Dealz in The Republic of Ireland. His most notable comment we found? ‘You don’t need to compromise on quality for the right price’. He talked about the brands trajectory from a single UK store, Dealz in Ireland and plans over the next 2 years.
Main Points:
Dealz launched in Ireland in 2011.
At least 10 new stores will open in 2016, a €6million investment.
They will seek more local suppliers.
Aim of 500,000 customer a week by 2018.
Tom Keogh
Managing Director, Keoghs.
The Story: Tom Keoghs story is pretty unique. From farmer to marketer, Keogh describes himself as a farmateer. Keogh faced a pretty surmountable challenge. Between 2002 and 2013 fresh potato consumption feel by 50%, and to succeed they would need to reinvent the potato. The family owned potato growing company expanding into a dedicating crisping business by:
Branding them.
Create new and innovative products.
Market the hell out of the brand.
The Success:
Keogh became the brand and is one of the most recognised nationwide.
Focused on in-store marketing explaining to consumer varieties the cooking process.
Launched national potatoes day
Launched a cook book.
Now there is a 2 year running increase in the sales of fresh potatoes
So what about crisps?
Tom found out the only way to export potatoes to the US was that they needed to be cooked. By launching a quality crisp, harvesting and crisping on the same day, they have made a unique and successful product with amazing quality.
Twitter is often the preferred methods of job searching particularly for the younger demographic. It can serve as an important tool for you regarding networking and presents you with an expansive base of people and information. It is also somewhere you can fall down on if expected etiquette is not adhered too. Every major company and prospective employer is on Twitter and it is an essential resource for understanding their company culture and how they interact with their customer base. It offers exponential information but you should waver an air of caution as a potential jobseeker when conducting yourself on the social network.
Twitter is a platform that affords everyone the ability to construe an opinion and also allows complete strangers to engage with each other. Hiring Managers and Recruiters rarely care about your personal or political ideologies, what they do care about is how you fit as a candidate. However they do care immensely bout how you engage with others, particularly when something contentious is being discussed and the levels of diplomacy you maintain through the discourse.
If you are regularly partaking in heated debates via twitter they will have no choice but to take them into account. It is impossible to know what someone might take offense too, so the best option is to keep quiet while on your job-hunt. The same applies to your current job. Avoid saying anything professing your love and adoration for your current job. It may be a deterrent for a Hiring Manager in considering your candidacy for a new job. Likewise avoid saying anything rude or slanderous about how much you detest it.
While pretty self-explanatory, your social life should be kept to a minimal. By all means engage and be an active user, Hiring Managers favour someone who is competent on Social Media. What they don’t favour is someone advocating their drink fuelled stupor that happened last weekend. We all like to have fun but just be careful in what you post and avoid glorifying what could be seen as any unprofessional behaviour.
Twitter is no different to any other Social network. It offers a plethora of information and results and you can optimise this by using some useful hashtags and following relevant accounts. All of the main recruitment agencies use Twitter to advertise jobs under the #Jobfairy hashtag. You’ll find us at here at @ExcelRecruit for our Retail division and here at @ExcelJobsIRL for Hospitality, Temps and Medical.
Useful hashtags include #Jobfairy, #Nowhiring, #DublinJobs and #YouJob. Happy Tweeting!
Your first day in a new job will amalgamate excitement, nerves, stress and could perhaps be one of the most memorable days in your career. The job search can be particularly taxing having spent hours constantly retouching your CV and making sure it gets to the right people. Employers have hired you for a reason and have expectations that they expect your talent and skills to adhere to. Most of us feel high levels of excitement but also trepidation when we begin a new job. There are ways to elevate some of this stress however by adapting the same meticulous approach in your first day as you did in your job search. The first day sets the tone for the rest of your career with those you’ll be interacting with. While first days are usually consumed in formalities with very little specific responsibilities it is vital to adapt a proactive response to your new role rather than a passive one.
Chances are you will be inundated with the same question by new employees. ‘What is your background?’, ‘What did you do before this?’ ‘What exactly will you be doing here’. Often it can be a little overwhelming when people ask outright very specific questions. Considering these will be the people you converse and deal with every day it may often be a genuine interest as they have only been fed a vague understanding and simply want to strike up a conversation. Having a prepared piece will make this process a little less daunting.
The recommended buffer time to show up early is about 15 minutes. If you have not done the route before familiarise yourself with it on different occasions to gauge how long it takes including peak times. Showing up early is almost a given that employers expect nowadays. While no doubt determined to make a great impression remember to relax in order to optimise your productivity. Make sure you are well rested the night before and can maintain concentration. If you are adapting from an entirely different routine make sure you have condition yourself in the days preceding your first day. Set your alarm to your wake up time to condition yourself and see how you adjust. Eat a breakfast and set your outfit the night before. While these may seem very minimal they will all ease the stress involved and will help you towards a smooth first day.
Be as professional as you were in the interview process and however in doubt you may be take the conservative approach. Your first day is not a time to establish yourself as the joker of the office or to describe your weekend social life. You will establish the culture of the company or office environment quite quickly and it’s important not to disrupt this. The urge to impress can veer you off track, but it’s important to remember that you’ve already been hired so you don’t have to wow your colleagues straight away. Your first day is not the time to have a strong and strident opinion, but more about listening, observing and learning. In time you will impress naturally, and more so when you understand the ropes.
