I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Primark (Milton Keynes, England) in Mar 2019
Interview
I applied for a position at the new Milton Keynes store (opening April).
I applied on the Primark careers website and carried out the online assessments, which were really straightforward. I then received an email about two weeks later asking me to book in for a 30 minute slot on one of their recruitment days (which was in a week's time).
I found Glassdoor really helpful in preparing for my interview and I felt so confident going in there. I'm a student and have quite a bit of retail experience, but don't think it would matter too much if you didn't have much experience as the questions could be answered with school examples.
I was interviewed 1:1 by a supervisor of another store as the Milton Keynes one hasn't open yet. I was in a room with around 5 other people being interviewed at the same time as me by other Primark supervisors. The lady who interviewed me was so lovely. She asked for my CV (make sure you bring this with you - maybe bring a cover letter too) and my passport. I was told to bring proof of my National Insurance but was told she didn't need this.
After this, all the questions she asked were written on a piece of paper that all the other interviewers in the room were reading from and she wrote the answers I gave down on this sheet of paper. To start with, she asked for availability- as I applied for a full time (40 hours) position she said that these shifts are Monday-Friday and the hours are between 7am and 7pm. She asked if I had any pre-booked holidays and told me that the pay(£7.38 per hour if aged 24 and under and £7.83 if 25 or over), although national minimum wage is increasing so I imagine this will go up to £7.70 for 24 and under and £8.21 for 25 and over.
She then had a quick read through my CV and asked a few of the questions on the sheet - she pick and chose which ones she asked based on my experience and uni. She didn't ask any questions like "what would you do if a customer had seen a blue dress she likes..." etc - I'd seen a few of these on Glassdoor but she didn't ask these. There were quite a few "give me an example of a time where you..." questions so make sure you prepare for these- she asked some follow ups to my answers too (e.g. when asked about a time I worked well in a team, she asked what did I do to make sure we succeeded as a group).
The interview lasted around 15-20 mins and as long as you have answers prepared for all the questions people on Glassdoor have previously posted you'll be absolutely fine. Even if a question comes up that you haven't prepared for I don't think it would be held against you too much if you stumbled a bit. There were times where I gave quite full answers and she onlt wrote a few key words down. I think if you try and emphasise the fact that you want to work in a very fast-paced environment and you're really friendly and can work in a team you'll do great!
I haven't actually received an offer yet and have been told I'll find out via email within 10 days whether or not I was successful. She did say the next stage was a four hour induction in which I can give my references, get my uniform, sort out hours etc so I'm feeling really hopeful!
good experience, asked standard questions such as in STAR format eg teamwork, resilience, etc and was fairly short, around 25 minutes, did not get the offer unfortunately but may be due to my availability
The interview was straightforward, with a few basic questions about holiday availability, teamwork, previous experience, and examples of when I demonstrated key skills and qualities such as communication, reliability, and customer service.
simple, asked questions about day to day scenarios that could occur at the shop and what you would do in those situations then asked about availability, said they are always happy to give people their first job
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
what you'd say to someone who wanted to try something on but fitting room line was long
Retail Assistant applicants have rated the interview process at Primark with 2.2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 71% positive. To compare, the company-average is 73.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Retail Assistant roles take an average of 18 days to get hired, when considering 34 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Primark overall takes an average of 16 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Primark as a Retail Assistant according to 34 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 31%
Phone interview: 14%
Skills test: 13%
Background check: 11%
Personality test: 9%
Presentation: 7%
Group panel interview: 6%
Drug test: 4%
IQ intelligence test: 3%
Other: 1%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -