I applied online via a retail recruitment website, in response to an advertisement from a recruitment specialist within the Mango company. I simply sent the site my CV and a covering letter, detailing my experience within similar retail and sales-based roles, and I assume that the website forwarded these onto the recruiter herself who then got in touch with me directly. After over a week I recieved an e-mail directly from the recruitment specialist who asked if I was free for a telephone interview. This telephone interview lasted just over 5 minutes and she asked me very basic retail questions about my previous experience, why I wanted to work for the company and what I thought I could bring to the company. After passing this initial screening, I was invited for an assessment centre very shortly afterwards and asked to confirm attendance via e-mail. I did so promptly and was told that the assessment day should last no longer than 2 hours. Upon arriving at the given address, I found myself seated amongst other potential candidates for the job. After waiting for a bit we were all taken into an interview room and the assessment process began with a recruitment specialist and two sales managers asking every potential candidate to use one minute (which was timed) to tell them your name and anything that you think they might want to know about you. Many people fell into the trap of talking about their hobbies and interests. I took the opportunity to sell my relevant experience and told them my previous employment background and why I would be suitable to work within the company, including how I could identify to the brand, e.g. I would like to work for Mango because I feel that as a young, urban woman I can identiy with the brand and am passionate about the products, therefore would be able to sell them easily, etc. After this short exercise, we were then split into groups of approximately 3 or 4 people and given a brief about a potential customer. It was quite specific and upon reading the brief we were asked to choose an outfit that would suit the customer in the brief and then asked to justify why we had chosen this outfit, for example: "Susan wants an outfit for work, she is willing to spend 200.00. She needs to be comfortable but look professional". You would then be expected to work within your team to choose an outfit that fulfills this brief and give reasons why in a presentation afterwards. I would urge you to take charge but be persuasive towards your team-mates and also when presenting. There are no 'right' or 'wrong' answers, it's just about selling the garments and being confident. Finally the last stage of the process involved being given a sheet with potential situations on it, including examples such as "The telephone is ringing" "Customers are waiting at the fitting room" "Somebody needs help with a size". Then we were asked to rate this in terms of importance and choose how we would go about solving these problems, using as few members of staff as possible. Just before letting us go, the management team asked us to fill in an availability form. Here I would advise you to be as honest as possible in terms of how many hours you would like to work, your flexibility and how many hours you can work. Obviously, the more flexible you are, the better your chance is of getting work. After I left the assessment centre, I was told that I would hear back within the week and was very surprised to receive a phonecall from a manager the very same day asking if I would be able to come in for the Induction process that weekend. All-in-all, a very efficient and fair interview process.