Employers begin by asking questions about yourself mainly to put you at ease. After a brief introduction, employers progress towards more specific questions such as "what makes you suitable for the job" or "why have you chosen this particular field or work" or something more specific such as "why did you apply to this company". The answers you provide have to be assertive. For the first question, you can speak about the skills that you possess that suit the job. To make these answers effective, you need to do a thorough study about the company so that your answers are relevant to the functions and objectives of the company. You can speak about the latest products that the company is selling and make specific reference to the vision statement of the company and depict how you, with your skills and qualifications, fit into the company. Other common questions are "what are your future plans", "how long do you plan to work in this company" or "where do you see yourself five years from now". Confidence and assurance are the two most important features that you need to display while answering such questions.

Questions about sales and marketing

The next phase of the interview will usually be specific to the job you have applied for, which in this case is retail. Therefore, you can expect a lot of questions about sales and marketing. Some of the questions that you can expect are "how do you understand a product with a view to sell it", "what are the major qualities required for a sales job" and "how do you define good customer service". For these questions, your questions and the language have to be very professional. Use of words such as facilitate, qualitative and quantitative analysis will help in providing a very professional outlook. The answers have to be precise and crisp.

Questions about customer service

You may also be given a case study of a difficult situation and asked to sort it out.

Questions about practical customer service such as "how to you answer customers who ask for a refund when they have already used the product", "what you do when the credit card swap machine is broken" and "how do you respond when customers complain about bad customer service in the store". The best way to deal with this situation is to maintain you're cool and not lose it under any circumstance. These are the questions that usually decide your selection, so prepare well before answering.

Marks and Spencer jobs advice available on www.markandspencerjobs.co.uk.