Movieworld Group Interview

[alext14]

Hi all!

I have a Movieword group interview coming up for a retail position at both Movieworld and Wet n Wild, and I was wondering if anyone had advice on what to wear, what to expect and how to handle a group interview? I've never had an interview at a theme park before, or a group interview.

Thanks!

[MaxxTheMonster]

Wear something similar to what you would see people working in that department wearing.

[themagician]

I did a group interview a couple of years ago for both MW and DW. I'd recommend smart casual clothes. Basically for the group interview they have a couple of people at a table being interviewed at once. They ask each person the same questions, and ask the general questions, availability, experience, a little about you, how close you live to the park, and maybe be given a scenario and how you'd handle it (don't stress, it isn't difficult). Be positive, smile on your face, and show confidence and you should do alight. Good luck.

[Reanimated35]

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

[alext14]

23 minutes ago, themagician said:

I did a group interview a couple of years ago for both MW and DW. I'd recommend smart casual clothes. Basically for the group interview they have a couple of people at a table being interviewed at once. They ask each person the same questions, and ask the general questions, availability, experience, a little about you, how close you live to the park, and maybe be given a scenario and how you'd handle it (don't stress, it isn't difficult). Be positive, smile on your face, and show confidence and you should do alight. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice! What sort of outfit would meet the smart casual criteria? Also, I have a vacation booked for 5 days in about 5 months; will this majorly affect my chances?

[themagician]

I class causal smart as Either some jeans or pants, and a nice shirt, or collard t-shirt. Something you'd wear if you were going out for a nice meal. I doubt that would have a major effect on your chances. If they ask are you always availed, or have any holidays planned mention it. Otherwise I wouldn't bother about it.

[westical]

Don't wear jeans. 

[Brad2912]

Always dress up a position is my advice. 

I work in retail and wouldn't hire someone that showed up in jeans and t-shirt, no matter what they said in the interview or how good their resume looked. 

Pants and a collared shirt 

Group interviews are all about being heard and seen, but not looking like a brag. When you talk be concise, add value to group discussions but don't overpower or talk over your fellow interviewees.

34 minutes ago, alext14 said:

Thanks for the advice! What sort of outfit would meet the smart casual criteria? Also, I have a vacation booked for 5 days in about 5 months; will this majorly affect my chances?

I think you'll find that major theme parks have holiday/leave blackout periods in the summer school holidays. 5 months from now is slap bang middle of January. I'd be upfront about it, otherwise it may cause an issue down the track. How much you want the job vs how important/locked in the holidays is would be your personal choice. 

[alext14]

Thank you all! Would a long-sleeved black and white dress be considered smart casual?

[Brad2912]

As long as it's a decent length dress then yes

[Theme Park Girl]

I've had group interviews done two different ways for Village Roadshow. Two of them were being sat in a room at tables with about 15 other people, sitting through what is almost like a pre-interview orientation with a slideshow (where they tell you about job specifics) and then they set up chairs at one end of the room and pick people off one at a time to be interviewed. Sometimes there is more than one interviewer, sometimes it's one on one and other times it might be more - I've also had two on one. These group interview sessions were held in a recruitment room in the staff/admin area of the park. 

The other format was for Christmas casuals over all departments and parks, held a couple of years ago. There were around 50+ people at least, they split us all up into groups depending on the position/s we were applying for. I vaguely remember having to put on a wristband or a sticker or something to indicate these. We were led into the park and then all had to form a long line next to the STARS cafe entrance (opposite the department store) and each table up at the cafe had an interviewer sitting at it. There must have been about 10 of them. 

Candidates had to go up one at a time to be interviewed, as interviewers became free. When the interview was done, then you would be free to leave the park (they had security monitoring to ensure there were no runaways, but it was held at park close time anyway) and that was it. There wasn't a pre-interview orientation via this method. 

I guess it all depends on how many other candidates there are. But you'll find leading up to Christmas time, they are more likely to follow the second format due to the large number of vacancies available and people applying. 

My suggestion dress wise would be to dress to impress. I've seen many others dress smart casual to these interviews, but I have always gone the extra mile by wearing a formal button up short sleeved shirt and black pants/shoes, as per what they would expect me to wear on the job. 

Good luck! Hope that info helps.  Got my fingers and toes crossed for you ??

PS. Oh, and btw, be prepared with an adequate response for the old "tell us about a time you've had to deal with a difficult customer and how you overcame it" interview question. I've been asked it every single time without fail for customer service related positions, including with Village Roadshow ???

Edited August 22, 2016 by Theme Park Girl

[AllegroCrab]

3 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

I work in retail and wouldn't hire someone that showed up in jeans and t-shirt, no matter what they said in the interview or how good their resume looked. 

I'm not doubting that this is standard almost everywhere, but why? It really makes no sense to me.

If they are nice, non-ripped jeans and a standard T-shirt, I really don't understand why you'd be put off as an employer, especially if they were a good candidate through what they said and through their qualifications.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Having done countless interviews as a prospective employer in customer service and retail environments, I support Brad's position on Jeans. It just doesn't look professional enough. Take a look at the vast majority of retail and customer service workers, and they're typically wearing black dress pants. These aren't expensive - as a matter of fact you can get a paid of black dress pants cheaper at lowes than you can buy kirkland denim jeans at Costco ($12.99 vs. $29.97), but they look FAR MORE PROFESSIONAL. A nice plain coloured Polo would be ok in my eyes for a position such as this, but as you move up in the food chain (think guest services) you'd be looking for a full button down shirt or blouse.

And for goodness' sake - MAKE SURE THEY ARE IRONED!!!

Something I look at when I do interviews though, is shoes. First of all - let me be clear - LEATHER. DRESS. SHOES. (Usually black). If you're contemplating wearing joggers, street shoes, or anything else along those lines - leave now. I was going to suggest school shoes as an example but realised most people wore joggers to school in later years. and girls - NO BALLET FLATS.

It's easy enough to drop your pants (shut up @reanimated35!!!) or shirt at the dry cleaners and pay $15 to have them cleaned and pressed ready for your interview, but everyone always wears the same old black leather shoes they wore to school \ their fast food job etc. Filthy, scuffed, unpolished shoes will be a quicker 'no' from me than Jeans - regardless of the rest of the presentation.

And @AllegroCrab - (to answer the last part of your post) this is why - When it comes to retail, and customer service, the first impression is usually the ONLY opportunity to capture, or lose the customer. A person who shows up in dirty, scuffed or unpolished shoes shows that they didn't put any real effort into impressing me. Same with Jeans, or a t-shirt. And if that person doesn't think I'm worth putting in the extra effort to polish their shoes, and iron a pair of $13 dress pants - how much effort are they going to put into presenting well to my customers? to serving my customers? to representing my brand?

If there are 50 positions, and they're pressed for time, they may lower their standards to get people in the door because they need them, but if there are 10 positions, and they've got 100+ candidates, and they've got a few weeks to get you onboard - rest assured they will be looking for the quick wins on who to eliminate.

[downunder]

Good luck, hope you get the job.