I am going to point out that I recognise not all Boots interviews are going to be like this, clearly evident on this website most of them sound positive and promising and show Boots as having high standards for sifting through the applications, and using the in-store assessments and interviews to find the best people for them. But this is my experience, I was very disappointed with the in store part of my experience.
The position was for a customer assistant role at a local store in Surrey. I had a successful application followed by successful online assessment. I was given an interview date and time which I accepted. I got a call from the manager the next day asking to change the date and time which moved the interview forward by 3 days, that was fine, the sooner the better!!
When I arrived on the day I told the customer assistant I was here to be interviewed for a position at their small local store, I was taken to a very small room (I assumed the room's typical use was for consulting people on health and various things like that, basically a small check up room.) I was told to take a seat and wait for the manager to come through. I waited for a couple of minutes and the manager greets me, I got up but whether she took any notice is beyond me as she was clearly either in a rush or not taking it too seriously.
She didn't ask me any questions, there was no "tell me about yourself" or "why do you think you are right for Boots?" I wasn't asked anything. She told me information about the role, but that clearly differed from the position I applied for via the website, the position I applied for was over 35 hours on a 5 days a week basis at this particular store, being involved with the retail and helping customers "feel good" etc etc. But she took me through the position as being that of a health care basis which would require me to do a 3-4 month course in medication and progression onto dispensing medication. As for the retail aspect to my job I was to be working totally on my own in the store, and would only be at this store 2 days a week and I would be shuttled off to various other stores nearby for those stores that needed me.
Was disinterested when I told her I had a couple of questions about the role and the whole thing lasted no longer than 12 minutes, as she was finishing up the interview I questioned whether I was going to now take part in the in-store assessment (you pick a product and sell it to them, the tidying of the shelves, approaching customers etc) but I was met with a puzzled look. I explained I received an email that had told me I'd be taking part in an assessment, but apparently as long as I had taken the online assessment that's all that was needed of me. I left the room after she did, and she was already half way round the corner heading behind the counter before I could thank her for time. So that was it.
It's a fine line, if I wasn't right for the role I of course have no issue with that, managers can of course express that at the end of the interview that they don't feel you are right for the role. That's life, it would have been ok with me. But that didn't happen, so I can't put that down as the reason for a such a short interview. My issue lies with the all round lack of interest in the manager interviewing me, so much so that I was actually relieved to receive an email this morning saying I didn't get the job, why would I want to work for someone who clearly was not remotely interested in a potential employee, equally, how could they hire someone they didn't get to know, to see if they were right for the team/store, let alone the company itself?
Truthfully I do believe any other store would have offered a much better interview experience, I don't doubt that at all. I'm just very disappointed with this store's approach. The prospects for this store given the attitude of everyone involved, isn't looking great.
