To describe it in one word would be 'Odd'.
The beginning of the process was really good. I applied, got an email the following week regarding a telephone interview, which I was told would be on the Tuesday for 20 minutes, however it was actually 6 minutes and wasn't on the Tuesday, it was an unscheduled call on the Thursday (without any communication to explain that it would be 2 days later than planned). The interviewer asked me a few standard questions "why do you want to work for JLR?" etc, so overall it wasn't too formal and a standard phone interview, which was closed off with "When can you start?" & "What would you be looking for as a starting salary?".
It was another week before finding out (by email) that I had a face-to-face interview, which would be scheduled the following week.
It was when it came to the actual interview it all went downhill. I have a friend who's an existing JLR supplier and he advised me that I should get there at least 1 hour before my interview. I was scheduled for a 1pm interview and arrived at the car park at 11:45am, but I didn't get through security until 12:30pm. The security guards were very helpful, but the organization was appalling which was really off-putting as it gives a really poor impression as to how they work.
After a short ride on the shuttle, I arrived at the main reception 15 minutes early only to wait until 35 minutes before someone came to collect me. The interview started well with some general chat to break the ice and introduce myself to the department head I would be working with. After a brief chat we were joined by a HR member of staff. Both employees seemed pleasant enough, but when the questions started, it turned into the most formal interview/ interrogation I've ever had. The questions were fairly standard, but it was purely just a one-way conversation with my replies (I may as well written my answers in the boxes of the papers they were reading from), for example-
Q: Tell me an obstacle you overcame in the workplace and how it turned out?
A: 4 weeks into starting my current role, I approached my MD regarding the way stocks were managed on the internal system, as I felt the system limited the growth of the business due to the process being too manual to be able to allow us to find the time to take on any new suppliers or product groups. The MD appreciated me taking the time to work with the current system before approaching him to come up with a solution. I scheduled a time to sit down with him to discuss potential new systems and explain costs, time saved, pros & cons etc for across a number of different scenarios on both the current and new system (for example, how long would it take to raise weekly PO's on the new/ old system if we had 3x the suppliers we currently have) so we could make an informed decision on how to proceed. The outcome was that we moved forward with a new system and we're currently working through the process of implementing this, as the research I had carried out proved the new system would save us time and money.
Whether or not this is deemed as a 'right answer' or that it could've been answered better (more purchasing focused), the issue I found was there was no reply to this answer. Interviews I've had in the past at least consist of a conversation, but on this occasion, all of my answers were met with "Ok, next question". Given that I was told the interview would be 1 hour and this question/ answer took all of 2/3 minutes to go through my interview was inevitably shorter than planned. I've been a Buyer for the last 10 years, so I'm confident in saying my answers couldn't have been that bad, as after all standard purchasing questions require standard answers-
Q: How would you select the right supplier for a new part?
A: (In a nutshell) Look at supplier performance (if existing), look at their current client base, are they an OEM supplier, product quality, sample turnaround, price (put part out to tender), lead time, factory visit (if necessary), face-to-face meeting, current factory audits/ credentials, MOQ's, feedback from elsewhere in the industry, relationship with supplier/ account manager etc etc and a lot of the decision comes down to simply the gut feeling you get when dealing with the supplier, which is something you only develop with experience.
I haven’t heard back from JLR yet, however I discovered I didn’t get the job by logging onto the careers site to see I had been unsuccessful. The disconcerting thing was that the job listing was changed to ‘filled’ on the website 4 days before my interview, but whether this is related to the outcome or not I won’t know.
I think my advice to anyone interviewing is to be there in plenty of time as a 10 minute shuttle ride takes a good 40 minutes and to be prepared to talk in length about your experiences, as it's a one way conversation once the question has been answered.
