How to succeed during a job Interview
“Congratulations, your application has been successful.” As a job seeker, that’s always great news to hear – now you just need to ace the interview!
There is plenty of advice on the internet about how to succeed at a job interview. But this blog is all about how to succeed at a Kingdom Mercury interview – and we have five of our own tips to help.
The very first thing to say is that as a recruiter we are very much your friend and ally. We are trying to find candidates for our customers – who specialise in the fresh produce, horticulture and distribution sectors – so trust us when we say we really want you to succeed because your success is also our success.
So please relax – we are not trying to catch you out or make you feel uncomfortable, quite the opposite – if we think you have the potential to fulfil a role, we will snap you up. The interview process just lets us find out more about you, not just to see if you’re a good fit for the role, but also whether the role is a good fit for you! Think of it more as a chat and try not to be nervous – there’s really nothing to worry about!
Here are just five examples of how Kingdom Mercury thinks rather differently when it comes to finding great people
“I don’t have a suit to wear for my interview”
So what? We’ll take a big smile over a smart suit any day of the week. That’s not to say first impressions don’t count, of course they do. But try smart casual instead, remember we’re hiring for operational roles in warehouses, not office-based work. As long as you’re neat and presentable, that’s fine by us.
To be honest, we’ll take old-fashioned values over modern fashion every day – punctuality, politeness, a friendly and engaging manner, these are some of the core characteristics that our customer wants to see in their workforce.
“I don’t have much of a CV or lots of qualifications”
Everyone has to start somewhere. Warehousing operational roles are very often someone’s first job and a great way to start building up that CV and experience. As for qualifications, yes, GCSEs in English and Maths are a plus and any technical qualifications like a Fork Lift Truck (FLT) certificate are a real bonus. But not having them isn’t a barrier to employment. All our recruits get on the job training so at interview we will be gauging whether you are keen to learn, can take instruction and will work carefully and reliably, both on your own and as part of a team. We know what we are looking for and it’s not necessarily pieces of paper.
“You probably won’t want me as I only have four weeks before I go to university”
Because we specialise in this sector, we really, really know how it works – so trust us, short-term placements and temporary contracts are very common. If you are eager to work and are made of the right stuff, we will be able to place you for a time period that works for you and for our customer. Succeed in that short-term placement and you’ll be superbly placed for all your future holidays too, as we pride ourselves on welcoming our candidates back and finding them work for as long as they need it.
“I don’t know too much about what is involved and whether this will be a good job for me?”
Everyone’s time is precious – yours and ours – so we do recommend you doing just a little bit of research about warehousing jobs on the internet before you even start your job search. Kingdom Mercury finds seasonal, temporary, part and full-time workers for companies that pack and distribute fresh produce, flowers and processed food items, so the environments are going to be a bit different to, say, an Amazon warehouse. If you are committed at the interview stage, then this is a good time to ask any questions you may have to make sure it is the right job for you. Make a note of them beforehand so you don’t forget!
In return, we’ll give you more information on the job, on your training and terms of employment; the aim by the end is really for us to be sure about you and you to be sure about the job. We are known for our high fulfilment rates and staff retention rates so while we keep things friendly and informal, it is also a serious business process.
“I’m not sure I’m your usual type of candidate”
Trust us, there is no typical candidate! People worry unnecessarily about being under-qualified, over-qualified, having been out of the workplace for a long time, being too young, being too old, only being able to work in term-time, and lots of other perceived barriers. At the end of the day, what matters most is that we have people in front of us who want to do a job, who have the basic ability to do that job and demonstrate a sound attitude. Because of the tight labour market, we tend to fish in more pools anyway these days, whether that’s returning mums or school leavers or the over 50s who have retired or become economically inactive but who now favour a return to work. At interview, worry less about who you are and focus more on showing us why you’re a good choice for Kingdom Mercury.
“I don’t drive – is that going to count against me?”
Absolutely not. Again, because we are very experienced in this line of work, we know how to get round most of the problems! The fact is, many sites we send candidates to are not on public transport routes as they are in the depths of the Lincolnshire or Cambridgeshire countryside. But not everyone drives or has a car so to ensure we can always deliver the right people to the right site at the right time, we have our very own modern transport fleet. Don’t drive? No problem, just be at a handy designated pickup point and one of our smart minibuses will take you to work and drop you back at the end of your shift.
Nothing stopping you getting that application in now! Check out our latest vacancies here.