Getting through a part time job interview
It is usually short, often informal, and rarely about your career plan. It is about whether you can cover the shifts and whether you will turn up for them.
What is actually being tested
A part time interview is a smaller thing than people expect, and preparing for the wrong interview is what makes it go badly. You are not being assessed on ambition or long term fit. The manager is checking four things:
- Availability. Do your hours line up with the hole in the rota?
- Reliability. Will you be there on a wet Sunday in February?
- Temperament. How will you be with customers when it is busy?
- Trainability. How much of their time will the first month cost?
Everything worth preparing is aimed at one of those. Expect it to be brief, and expect it to happen on the floor of the place rather than across a desk.
Before you go
- Know your availability exactly. Days, times, the date you can start, and anything fixed that is not moving, like lectures or another job. Have it clear enough to say without hesitating, because hesitating here reads as vagueness.
- Spend ten minutes on the place. Walk in beforehand if you can. Knowing how busy it gets at four on a Saturday, or that there are two branches in the town, gives you something specific to say and is more convincing than anything on a website.
- Plan the journey and add fifteen minutes. Arriving late to the interview is the loudest possible answer to the reliability question.
- Bring what they asked for. Photo ID, a printed CV, and any certificate the role needs, such as a Safe Pass or a food hygiene cert. Bring it even if you already emailed it.
The questions you will get
There are about five, and they barely vary.
- "Tell me about yourself." Thirty seconds, not three minutes. What you are doing at the moment, why you are looking for part time work, what hours you want.
- "Why here?" Have one specific reason. It is fine for it to be practical: it is ten minutes from home, the hours suit your timetable, you have shopped there for years. Practical and true beats flattering and vague.
- "What is your availability?" The answer you prepared. Do not stretch it to sound keen.
- "What would you do with an angry customer?" Listen first, do not argue, fix it if you can, get the supervisor if you cannot. That is the whole answer. If you have ever dealt with someone furious about anything, use it as your example.
- "What would you do if you were going to be late?" Ring, as early as you know, and tell them when you will actually be there. They are asking because somebody recently did not.
Answer with an example, not an adjective
Saying you are reliable proves nothing, because the unreliable candidate says it too. Saying you opened up the shop alone on Saturday mornings for a year proves it, because it is a thing that either happened or did not.
You do not need a framework for this. Say what the situation was, what you did, and how it turned out. Three sentences. If you have no work example, a school, club or family one is perfectly acceptable, and any interviewer hiring for a first job is expecting exactly that.
Ask them something
Have two questions ready. They should be about the work, which incidentally makes you look like someone thinking about doing the job rather than just getting it.
- How far in advance is the rota published?
- What does the first couple of weeks of training look like?
- Who would I be reporting to on a shift?
- Is there a uniform, and is it provided?
- Are hours likely to change between term time and summer?
Pay, hours and trial shifts
Asking what the rate is and how many hours are on offer is normal and expected. Leaving both unasked until your first payslip is how people end up in a job they cannot afford to travel to.
If a trial shift is proposed, ask whether it is paid before you agree. Real work on a real shift is work. If you are unsure where you stand on pay, hours or your rights generally, Citizens Information covers the Republic and nidirect covers Northern Ireland. Both are free, plain English, and worth ten minutes before you sign anything.
Afterwards
If they say they will let you know by Friday, and Friday passes, one short follow up is reasonable. Keep it to two lines: still interested, still available on those days, thanks for the time.
If you do not get it, it is very often a rota problem rather than a you problem. The person who could do Sunday mornings got it. Keep applying, and keep the availability line on your CV up to date, because that is the line that decides most of these.
Common questions
What should I wear to a part time job interview?
One step smarter than the staff you can see working there. For a shop or a cafe that means clean, plain and tidy, not a suit. Turning up overdressed is a much smaller problem than turning up in what you slept in, so when in doubt go slightly smarter.
How long do part time interviews usually last?
Often ten to twenty minutes, and frequently standing in a quiet corner of the place itself rather than in an office. Do not read a short interview as a bad sign. It usually means they had a small number of things to check and you were not one of the problems.
What do I say when they ask about my weaknesses?
Name something real and small, then say what you do about it. "I used to be slow on the till under pressure, so I practised the shortcuts until I stopped having to think about them." The answer to avoid is the humblebrag, because every manager has heard that they are a perfectionist several hundred times.
Should I be paid for a trial shift?
If a trial shift means you doing real work on a real shift, alongside real staff, then that is work. Ask up front whether it is paid and at what rate, before you agree to it. A straight answer is a good sign about the employer generally, and hesitation is worth noticing.
Should I follow up if I hear nothing?
Once, after about a week, by whichever route you were in contact already. Short and polite, restating that you are still interested and still available. Once is persistence. Three times is a reason to say no.