I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at IKEA (Sheffield, England) in Mar 2017
Interview
The interview process was set out in different stages. First you apply online and once successful you will be given an interview date and time. At the interview you are asked 1 on 1 questions such as “why ikea” “how are you fit for the role” and it is a fairly welcoming atmosphere and they make you feel relaxed. My interviewer was very friendly and made me feel at ease. If you’re successful they will take you to book the next stage which is a group interview. You are given a time, date and location for your group interview. At your next interview you have to have certain things prepared such as interesting facts about you but you are told about what you need before the date. You then sign in and get your photo taken, and then sit down with the group of other people that had applied. In total at my interview there were around 30 people which was quite overwhelming but try not to stress. The Ikea team then introduce themselves and discuss basic company values and goals. They then split you into teams which is determined by the colour of the badge that they give you when you first arrive, and the first activity is to discuss prior work experience within your small groups. I found this difficult as i didn’t have work experience which meant i couldn’t contribute to the discussion. Then we moved onto a roleplay exercise where some members of the group act out customers and the other members assist them in finding certain products. My group was really friendly and funny but they were all a lot older than me so they occasionally would tend to over look me and you can really sense the competition between the members as everyone was trying to compete and sell themselves. Whilst the group exercises take place, several employees watch and assess the performance which i found quite daunting. After this stage we moved onto a room design stage, where we analysed photos of Ikea rooms and tried to guess who lived there and the demographic that it applied to. This was fairly easy and fun and you work in your small groups and report this back to the employees that are assessing you. Then you move onto the interview stage, where two employees ask you questions about why you want to work there and the experience that you have. I found my interviewers to be quite condescending and not very empathetic with the fact that i hadn’t had any previous work experience and throughout the long interview i already got the feeling that i had failed due to their lack of interest and they kept gossiping amongst themselves about things that weren’t related to the interview. Also, my previous interviewer changed the hours i had put down, as i said i wanted to work 12 hours whereas he noted down 20 hours, so my interviewers weren’t willing to change my hours to what suited me. I then already knew i had failed because of their body language and they kept hinting that i was unsuccessful by saying things such as “we will keep your application for the future” and “if you’re not successful don’t be upset.” After this stage we moved onto a presentation stage where we had to present interesting facts about ourselves to some other interviewers and a different group of people. This was quite daunting but everyone gets nervous. I then got an email a day later saying i was unsuccessful which i already guessed. I believe this was due to a lack of previous work experience as i felt everything else went well. Overall the staff can be quite judgmental however some are very friendly and make you comfortable.
Phone screening, then In person interview, basic questions, then drug test and phone screening. Overall took two weeks from start to finish, but you have to get a drug test
Good the interview was smooth.The interview process typically involves an initial phone screening, followed by one or more in-person or virtual interviews. These may include meetings with the team, skills tests, and behavioral questions to assess your fit for the role and company.
Your typical behavioral questions and they ask about my experience with customers in my previous roles. Using the S.T.A.R method always helps me explaining my impact at companies. Look into the career page to get more insight of their core values and culture.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with an employee, what was the resolution?