Topshop Interview experience

 Topshop interview the stages and my advice (summed up)

Stage one - (Group interview)

• Introduction - You introduce yourself, so your name and a fact. Don't say what everyone else is saying. Say something interesting and something the interviewers will remember you by.
• Two truths, one lie game - Again say a lie that's funny possibly, just something people will remember you by. I said I met Justin Bieber four times and that got the staff talking.
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats - You're going onto the shop floor to find different things for each of these words. Don't just focus on the strengths, yes the interviews want to see your positive thoughts on the store but bring good ideas about ways to improve the store in a small way, will look so much better in my opinion.
• Customer selling - you are in a group to try and sell an outfit so everyone is going to want to seem like the best so make sure you get your ideas out there. That's from picking at least one item and then being able to describe it without getting overpowered by others. The interviewers want to see the way you will interact with customers so it's about persuading the customer to buy the outfit not forcing it upon them and also take the customers style into consideration, not just something you like.

Stage two - (One on one interview)

Now the group interview is done, all it is now is sitting down with one of the staff and they ask you some really basic and easy questions. Nothing too hard. So it will be things like:

• When will you be available to start?
• Give me a time you have given good customer service?
• How would you deal with a situation where your'e busy doing something and a customer is asking for your assistance?

It's really just things like that, I was expecting them to ask me when was Topshop created, who was the founder, questions like that. I even wrote some information down about it, but they didn't ask me anything like that in the end. So yes, that's basically the interview. Make sure to be yourself and show your personality through answering questions and in the group interviews because by the time you get to your one on one they've probably made a judgement by how you interacted with everyone else and within the group tasks. If you want to hear a more detailed version of the day, I have written that below but if not good luck and pray for me I get the job!

The longer detailed version


*be warned this will be relatively long*

I am going to try my very best to sum this up in the best way as possible for you, as I wouldn't want to bore you all. Now first of all the best advice I can give all you people applying to work in Topshop or Topman is be yourself. The guys and girls who will be interviewing you want to see your personality and what type of person they will be potentially be bringing into their store. The Oxford circus Topshop branch is one of the biggest, I mean it is the biggest store in London so they want the best staff they can get. I can sometimes get nervous and shy in front of people I have never met before, but I wanted this job very much so I just tried to be myself as much as possible. 

The interview is mainly in a group apart from the last 10/20 minuets when you have a one on one but I mean ten minuets out of two hours isn't that bad because the rest of the interview is completely chilled and relaxed. The staff who were with the group I was in were super friendly and nice so I for one felt even more comfortable having such friendly staff judge as, as scary as that sounds. So there was about seven of us in this group and we were brought up to the room that we would mostly be in. We all sat down, wrote our names on a sticky bit of paper while one of the managers, I think his name was John started talking us through what the few hours would consist of. 

It started of with us all introducing ourselves and saying one fact. Everyone went around and said their names, it really consisted of "hi my names____ and I am here for a Topshop interview". As I was one of the last ones to speak and I kind of caught up with everyone saying the same thing, I tried to say something different and it got a few laughs. I said something like "I am currently unemployed and broke and would really love to work here". I think it's important to stand out, you want the people interviewing you to remember you and not just blend into the background, saying the same thing as everyone else. 

After that was done, John then decided we would play another 'game' which was the two truths, one lie which can I say I HATE because I completely suck at lying but I didn't do too bad this time around. Although I found it very difficult to think of any truths let alone lies. It finally came to me and I believe my truths were that I used to do ballet from five years old to ten, I've met Justin Bieber four times and my lie was I have been a vegetarian for three years. SURPRISINGLY everyone thought the Justin Bieber one was a lie, I assured them it was extremely true and told them a good old story about my stalking days. One of the managers even asked if I was there when Justin Bieber got bottled, I sadly wasn't. 

Moving on, we then got given a piece of paper with the words strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats written on them. We were taken onto different levels of the shop floors of Topman and had to get into pairs and write down several different things for each word about the store/shop floor. I was with one of the nicest people in my group, he was really friendly and we worked well together. So for example for strengths one of the things we wrote down was, the mannequins had pre-dressed outfits on them so someone who was looking for a certain outfits but had no idea what they wanted could just have a look at the mannequins and get some ideas that way. Then another example for lets say threats, we said that other stores like H&M have a large basic range whereas Topshop/Topman don't have as much so maybe that's something they could change and actually we found out they have a whole new premium basic range coming to stores soon, so that should be good to know for some. After we had done, we went back up to the room went into groups of four, shared our different things we wrote down. Then as a group (my group was called HJJT, our initials you see) we presented our thoughts to the people in the other group and the staff.

Then the final group work we did, was the styling one. Now this was something I was super excited to do, however I didn't know how overpowering some people could be, let me explain. So in a group of four again (it got mixed up) we were giving a scenario about a person and how would we dress them. John was the person we was helping with an outfit and John is very quirky, some would say a Hipster and the aim was to make him fit more into the Peckham area. For me helping a customer with what to wear wouldn't be changing their style it would just be giving a bit of a different vibe. Well let's just say my ideas were shun to the back of the room by two of the other girls in my group. Strangely enough they were the most un-unique and un-stylish dressed out of everyone so I felt rather offended. However I kept my mouth closed as I didn't want any confrontation, but looking back I kind of let myself down in that aspect. So a bit of advice, make sure you get your idea out there, don't let any of the other people shut you out because it is a fight for the role at the end of the day.

And finally was the one to one, by this time I think it's fair to say the staff pretty much gathered what you're like from the group interview, this part was just asking some vital questions. Nothing too major. For example, when are you available to start, tell me a time you have succeed in giving good customer service...really just basic questions, nothing too hard. There's not much else to say other then be yourself, show your personality, don't be shy and try and answer questions with answers you'll be remembered by. Also dress wise I would go exactly how you want, if you love your bright colors and crazy hair, go for it. You always see such unique and different individuals working in Topshop/Topman, no plain janes.

Well good luck if you're reading this because you have an interview coming up. I hope this helped. Feel free to message me if you have any other questions :)