Filled out online application which pretty much only asked: name, email and what experience you have had with travel agent computer systems. I thought it was strange that it didnt ask you to upload a CV or any other info. I got an email back the next day asking me to send my CV. I very soon got an asking to set up a short phone interview.
The interviewer sounded very rushed, set questions and I felt like she wasn't listening at all as she kept cutting me off before I would finish my thoughts. She asked about my experience in the travel business, my time availability and then said i had made it through this round and she needed me to take an online assessment that would take an hour and half. Then I would do another longer (45 min) in depth phone interview.
The online assessment was a major pain in the butt but not difficult or anything. Mostly just situational questions with some very simple math that I didn't need a pen and paper for (you could use a calculator).
The same interviewer called me back later that same night. She was again in a rush, wasn't listening and cut me off. I got the impression that it didn't really matter what I said. She asked if I had ever worked on commission or with sales targets and I said that although I have 15 yrs experience in the business I never had. The companies I have worked for have all been more concerned with customer service. She didn't seem to have a problem with this. She asked a few situational questions about when I had to multiitask, a project I started and continued through to the end. When I had worked in a team situation. Nothing too stressful. She didn't keep me on the phone for more than 10 minutes probably although she had originally said it would take 45. At the end she said I had made through to next round which was a 10 minute meet and greet with the team..which is in Edinburgh and I live in Inverness. I agreed to go but nothing was said about paying travel costs (didnt know this was common practice here).
I went to Edinburgh and found the office although the name of the company was not on the directory for the building. I was buzzed in and met upstairs by a nice man who took me to the lunch room. The office was loud and crowded and no one really had proper desks. Seemed like one of those scam places that could pack up and disappear in 5 minutes lol. I was finally called into a conference room by "the boss" and the team leader for the team with the open space. It started off ok with the normal questions, past experiences, time availability, description of job, etc. Then "the boss" asked about my experience working with commission and sales targets, etc... this subject had already been asked in the online interview and that lady didnt have a problem...BUT, I had read other interviews here for Flight Centre and knew they were big on this and pushy about meeting targets, etc. I was honest with her and told her the same as I had told the lady on the phone. She seemed it was unbelievable that I had not worked on commission before and looked at me perplexed and asked....well, if you don't work for commission what motivated you to go to work everyday? Like......... there was no reason to even bother working unless you had the opportunity to make commission. I looked at her back with much the same surprised face because I was so confused and saddened that she would think that money and making more and more of it would be the sole motivator for everyone. I knew at that exact moment that in no way did I ever, ever want to work for her or this company, not even if I had one penny to my name and no where to live. Its too bad because the other people seemed nice enough. I answered her with simply: I liked the people I worked with, I liked the work, I liked the benefits and it paid the bills.
*The phone interviewer should have obviously taken me out of the pool with her question about commission and phone targets-but she did not. I thus wasted two days and a bunch of money going to Edinburgh and back for the interview.....
If you have an interview with this company be sure to do your research first and some soul searching. Do you really want to have the carrot dangling over your head just out of reach all the time? Do you really want to manipulate your customers just so you can make your sales targets? Also read up about the after work activities that are pretty much required.
Needlesstosay I was not offered the job but would have enthusiastically turned it down if I had been.
