Professional Practise- Promotion Interview

Within my current job at CEX I had an interview for supervisor in the shop, this would essentially be a step up from basic tasks of sales and buys to more important tasks like running a shift and dealing with the figures as well dealing with complaints and staff issues, it would be in essence like becoming a manager to some degree, particularly when I would be the senior figure on a shift. Anyway, the interview itself was an interesting experience for me as it was the first time I have had a serious interview and on top of this the ops manager (sort of like a regional manager for Cex) was sat behind me in the whole interview. I am not sure if she was there to observe my manager or to interview me and just chose an awkward place to sit but I definitely felt the pressure of her being there and felt as though I may have crumbled somewhat when she asked some harder questions. Having obviously at this point done the interview I have asked my boss for the notes on the questions asked and how I answered. Having now looked over these notes I realise they aren't of a huge help to me because the notes he took are extremely bare, nevertheless I feel it is worth showing them from an academic point of view to evaluate the types of things I was asked.

As I said, it would have been more useful from an academic point of view to know exactly what I said but it must be stated that these noted weren't for my studies, my boss has given me these just as a reference, they were a reference point for him I have no doubt to job his memory when deciding who to promote. Some key questions to highlight I feel are the interview classic "describe your toughest challenge..." in Sean's notes he has not done justice to what I actually said in the interview, in actual fact I talked about the production of Inheritance from last year and how though things looked like they wouldn't get done we as a team managed to create a film which not only got me and those involved a good grade it also ended up being the best film I have directed to date. Another key moment in the interview was when I was asked about targets, unfortunately I didn't do my homework well enough, I forgot a couple of my targets and as such feel this will have hindered me, in an effort to salvage this however, I did hold my hands up and say I had forgotten but did talk through how to find my targets on our system so here's hoping I wasn't affected too much. It wasn't in this list of questions but I was also asked how I would deal with a member of staff who refused to work, this is a question I feel that everyone was asked but I was comfortably the youngest applicant so I feel I was being asked especially, whereas the others I feel were probably asked for a more run of the mill style interview question. Anyway, I didn't do well on this question, I answered by saying that if they refused to work then I would potentially send them home, I realise after a discussion that this was way off, while it is an option there are many other things I should have done before then such as an IMR (a minuted discussion, like a disciplinary but not as serious. So while I wasn't wrong this certainly was deemed an overreaction on my part, though In my defence I have since been told and it is this kind of thing I would learn in the early days of the job should I get it. In summary, I feel the interview went well, for the most part I made a good showing of myself and would have done enough to get the job. However, I face stiff completion in my past supervisor who had stepped down due to health so it will most likely be him who gets the job based on experience.