In the assessment centre, we were tasked with a presentation, a case study and an interview. The whole process lasted 2.5 hours max and flew by. The interview was very straight forward and consisted of your usual situational and competency questions as well as some focused on customer centricity. For someone who was terrified to interview, the process was super laid back and positive. The presentation was based around a SWOT analysis of your nearest store and lasted 15 mins with 10 mins of questions. Again, super laid back - from what I gathered they want to get the best out of you and not try and trip you up. All in all, I got the job and couldn’t have been happier with the experience. Considering it was a panel interview of the senior management, I did not at any point feel uncomfortable. Would highly recommend!

Assesment day resulting in a boardroom style interview with directors. It was very informative and resulted in being invited back for another interview. Unfortunately, it ended up being a complete waste of time as rather than put me on the area management program, they recognised my potential and only offered me an assistant manager position in one of their stores saying that I would progress quickly. Even though I was already working as a store manager and had been awarded store manager of the year, they stated that I did not have enough experience for the graduate program. Rather ridiculous considering it is a graduate job where experience should not even matter. Which graduate is realistically already going to be working as an area manager applying for a graduate position!! I did end up finding out that the job went to an internal employee that was not even a graduate. My understanding of the graduate program is that it is a way of getting top graduates through their doors and getting them managing their stores in lesser roles under the false promises of quick promotion. Very unethical.