I applied online, and successfully managed to have a telephone interview a few days after applying for this position. I was rather nervous for the telephone interview, as I had never experienced one before but the woman on the phone was lovely and reassuring, she gave me a couple of moments to collect my thoughts and think of responses for questions asked whilst she noted my response down. Before she asked me questions regarding the position, I was asked similar questions to those on the online application form, i.e are you eligible to work in the uk, do you have any criminal convictions ect. The questions regarding the position were relatively okay, and centered around what I believed good customer service was, why I applied for this position, what do you think working in a team requires, what did I think the position entailed and what I would bring to debenhams ect. As she was running late at the time, the phone call lasted for around 20 minutes. After I had answered the questions I was put on hold for a few minutes until she came back and told me I was able to attend a 1:1 interview the following week, additionally I was given feedback from the interview along with some things I should mention in the face to face interview which I possibly missed out due to nerves. The face to face interview lasted around half an hour and was much more informal and relaxed than I thought it would be. I was interviewed by one of the managers at the restaurant, who was really friendly and chatty, which made the whole experience a lot more relaxing. She asked me a few of the questions from the telephone interview, and others which honestly were not too bad and quite simple to answer, as long as teamwork, excellent food hygiene and excellent customer service are mentioned everything seemed to run quite smoothly. After the interview finished, I received a phone call a few days later telling me I had successfully passed the interview and start next week! It honestly was not as bad as I expected, and I got so nervous and worried for nothing, as long as you're confident and prepare yourself it's fine, good luck!!

I applied for this role online at the end of September 2017 and the next day I was emailed stating I had been invited for a telephone interview. I phoned up there and then and the interview was really relaxed. The woman was really nice and laid back and even provided some prompts to help with the questions as well as advice for the face to face interview. She asked a few questions mainly revolving around good customer service such as 'what do you think good customer service is' and 'what do you think this position entails'. After this she then asked standard questions about my availability and eligibility to work in the UK ect. This took around 15 minutes total and at the end she congratulated me and invited me for an instore interview. Originally my instore interview was booked for 2 weeks after this phone interview, however the restaurant manager rang me up to reschedule the interview for a week earlier. This interview lasted around 30-40 minutes and was relatively relaxed, it seemed more that I was answering a questionnaire as the interviewer just read questions from a booklet and wrote my answers down throughout. The questions were mainly just generic retail interview questions with an emphasis on good customer service, team work and food hygiene. Overall the interview wasn't as bad as I had expected as I was originally quite worried that it would be a group interview similar to other peoples experiences. It took around two weeks after this interview to hear anything and they contacted me over email to state I was unsuccessful. This was a shame as I had figured I had answered the interview questions well.