The hiring process is purely online. I found a vacancy directly on their website and applied for it (requires registering). This role requires at least 6 months experience in the catering industry. Then you have to fill up your employment history, etc and do a 25 question quiz about general food and beverage knowledge. If you pass this then there's another assessment online in which you choose one out of three possible answers in a given in-store scenario, all related to customer service. If you are successful then you are invited to book an assessment in store. You'll receive an email confirming the interview date and time, and will be asked to bring with you an ID, proof of adress and NI number, original documents and copies. The assessment is usually a group one but in this case I was the only candidate that turned up so it was a one to one interview. The process started with another 25 question general food and beverage knowledge quiz, most of the question had already appeared on the online quiz, some others were new. Then I had the proper interview, in which the manager from M&S Kitchen (the in store restaurant) was called in. The questions were pretty standard regarding customer service, previous experience, current job, and "why do you think you are the best person for this job" kind of thing. A lady was also there taking note of my answers, and another guy was also there observing. It was pretty fast paced and I was asked about 10-12 questions in total. After that, there was a role play in which I was given a scenario (working in a deli counter sort of situation and having to advice a customer who needed to organise a lunch for 6 people). I was given a list of pictures with possible food options and prices as well as special deals. I was judged on how well I assessed the customers specific needs and how well I tried to upsell the products and push the available deals and offers. They went off to consider my written test, interview and role play outcome and came out to tell me I did really well and they'd like to offer me the job, not in the Cafe but in the restaurant where they had more hours. They took my documents and asked for a start date and how much notice I needed to give my current employer. Then they gave me a start date and a 2 week rota with regular hours, saying the contract is to follow.

I was told the first part would be a selling exercise where you were given one sheet detailing the food product you were trying to sell to the 'customer' (interviewee) and another sheet with additional information and then there would be a series of interview questions to follow. However, I was supposed to be effectively presenting to a group of other interviewees while being assessed but I was the only one at the interview slot so I just presented to one of the M&S workers while the manager assessed. The item I was given was the wood fired margarita pizza and the first sheet of paper gave a small description of it and other info such as its salt/carb content (which I thought wasn't relevant to upselling the product). The other sheet detailed sparks offers, info such as buy a side salad for an extra £1 or add extra mozzerella and I mentioned everything relevant to the product - there was some useless info - they were clearly trying to see what you would pick out as relevant to selling the food product to the customer. I was given just under 10 mins to read through the info and take notes (do take notes because they take this sheet with them when marking). To me it was less of a role play exercise and more like a small presentation (I spent about 1-2 mins presenting) because the person playing the customer basically didn't talk back or ask any questions. They were very friendly and the manager assessing wasn't staring at me while I was presenting which took the pressure off a bit but remember to keep smiling anyway. Once they came back in the room they asked me how I thought that went and what could have gone better and were very understanding that this wasn't a very natural thing to do (speaking to customers in real life is a lot easier). The manager asked me a few standard interview questions for a retail job such as "why M&S", "what do you expect from M&S customer service", "name a time you worked well as a team", also one which stumped me a bit - "what could be better about M&S customer service" so you were to basically criticise them but they said this was kind of a trick question - I answered that it was good from my experience so don't have any criticisms. They then asked the standard availability questions etc (irrelevant to passing the interview) and then left the room to assess both aspects of the assessment. Once she came back in, she told me I had passed both part of the assessment (role play and interview) and offered me the job on the spot.