Group Assessment with Specsavers [Optical Assistant]

I've been using TSR for a while, for a few tips on interviews I've had coming up, but Specsavers has to be one of the most complex (and far less detailed online) I've come across. I attended a Group Assessment Interview on 12.02.14 and I thought I may as well lay it out to help any others.

I applied for the role of Optical Assistant (no previous experience necessary) on the site. It is worth mentioning that I had applied to Specsavers about 3 weeks prior for their Coventry store, and they emailed me to take one of those personality assessments. I was unsuccessful. (So I'm pretty certain, different stores have different recruitment processes).

The other candidates consisted of 3 school leavers, two postgraduates (one of which had studied Optometry, the other music journalism), a very well educated Polish girl who was just a sweetheart, a Romanian woman who had just moved over here and had last worked in a bank for 12 years and a couple others. Myself, I have a retail background only, working for GAP for a couple years and Primark for a couple months.

There were nine of us there and we split into groups. We chose a glasses frame for our partner and we had to introduce ourselves (name, age, what kind of work experience we've had before) and then explain why we chose the frames we did. Some people did it based on face shapes, complimenting eyes etc, but from what I understand, they're looking for customer communication, so I said something about asking my partner what colour they liked, what frames they were after, etc.

Then we did a team building exercise - using spaghetti, straws, marshmallows tape and string, build a tower, it has to move, w/e. I don't think you need to be successful for this - as long as you had good communication with your team, encouraged the withdrawn ones to speak and at least collaborated without dominating the conversation. We had a laugh and all got a say, so yeah.

Next we had what they called 'speed-dating' - four of their managers had to sit at tables and we went and visited them and they asked us a question, we answered it, moved on.

Questions are as follows:

When were you last WOW'ed? (I spoke about performing at a festival last summer. I felt it tied in with communication and public speaking.)

Name something you felt a lot of pride in (He was wearing a sweatband with jujitsu kanji on it, so I spoke about my achievements in Jujitsu. I got lucky!)

What does customer service mean to you? (Talked about extensive experience in retail, optimistic demeanor, establishing rapport, etc)

Can't remember the last one, but it was fairly standard. One of the other managers took us on a tour of the building and briefly explained each section to us, and to finish off the evening, we had to fill in a two page questionnaire with fairly standard questions, you've probably seen them on application forms.

Some I can remember were:

How do you feel you have performed today?
In 50 words or less, why should we hire you?
Is there any way we could have improved our assessment evening?
Why do you want to work for Specsavers?/Why do you want to apply for this role?

Pretty standard and took about 15 mins to complete. Afterwards, we were told we could leave, so we thanked them and left.

In total there were about 7(ish) managers there. It was intimidating at first but nothing to be nervous about. In a way, I felt better knowing what I was up against.

You DO need to have an idea of what to say so you are prepared. I would research a little on Specsavers, but mostly on how to make yourself unique. There were a few candidates who got a little too nervous - one spoke for about 20 mins for the 'brief' introduction at the beginning. One didn't know what to say and just said "I'm <insert name>" A little spiel will go a long way.

All in all, in a group interview you have to be careful not to overtalk people or dominate the conversation; also try to encourage others to speak - for the interviews purposes, these guys are your team. Motivate them. But have a few things you can pull out that'll have them interested.

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I must have done something right, as they called me back not 15 mins ago for a second interview on Monday. Hoping not too many have been called back - I feel pretty confident in individual interviews usually, but I don't wanna run the risk of repeating myself. While the assessment evening was held after the store had closed, this is while the store is open, so I'm allowing the possibility of some sales in action, or whatever.

Just wondering, has anyone attended a group assessment or group interview before for Specsavers AND been called back for a 2nd interview? If so, I could really use anything you think might be helpful. Letting nerves get the better of me at the moment.

Thank you all and hope this info will help future applicants!

SJ



Ahh! I forgot - some people came to the evening DRESSED IN CASUAL CLOTHES. I don't even mean smart casual, one guy came in a pair of trackies. Two women, who I thought would have had better sense came in fairly casual clothes too. It is so worth saying this - it doesn't matter how informal or casual you think your interview or 'chat' might be. Please dress smart. From my time at GAP, even though we were a fashion retailer, we were more predisposed to hire people who dressed in office wear or something akin. I know from the supervisor training they gave me what they're looking for and it is always better to overdress than to underdress. Thanks!