The hiring process at City Holdings takes an average of 21 days when considering 1 user submitted interviews across all job titles. Candidates applying for Maintenance Manager had the quickest hiring process (on average 21 days), whereas Maintenance Manager roles had the slowest hiring process (on average 21 days).
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at City Holdings (Southampton, England) in Jan 2025
Interview
I was called by a recruiter who had seen my CV on a jobsite and asked if I was interested in this role, explained it was 90% wfh and was slightly more money than what I was on.
organised a teams call with the hiring manager who then told me its 99% travel to stores and not really WFH. Ok fine, no worries.
Went to oragnise a 2nd interview and told the recruitment team I could do any day apart from Friday, she then emails me offering me friday, ok, moved a few bits about and then replies that we cant do this friday anymore lets do next. Ok no worries, these things happen!
Got to the interview at the M&S store and spent half hour or so walking around spotting any issues in the store.
We then sat down and was asked my top 5 issues in the store and a few other questions.
I then had an oppertunity to ask any questions, so i asked more about the role and how M&S work in comparison to my current role.
He explained the role needed to be flexible as plenty of out of hour calls which I knew about so no problem. I then asked about hours (advertised at 40 hours) and he said that I would probably be working much more than 40 hours, with no overtime pay or time in leiu at all.
I thought for a family company a good work life balance would have been a priority but seems that I would have been working 50-60 maybe more hours for free.
2 days later had an email suggesting the role was not for me (guessing due to my questions about hours) However I would have declined the role anyway
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
top 5 issues in this store
How to deal with staff causing issues
It was quite a smooth process until they asked a red flag question. They seemed quite surprised when I told them I work 8 hours.It seems like they work more than 8 hours every day. It definitely a red flag for me.