the Interview process went quite fast. from point of application to being contacted for an interview was a week or less. The interview itself was roughly the same amount of time after. The area manager got in contact with me via phone and email, leaving a message or two. i went to the shop in Exeter for the pre-arranged time, we went to a local Coffee shop, sat down and she was kind enough to buy me a coffee. then we got into what appeared to be a jovial and on the level conversation about what i had been doing the past roughly 10 years, academically, vocationally etc, we spoke about my life and their life, where i wanted to go, where i had been, what my plan was etc generally it felt positive although something did feel a bit forced. i could see nervousness coming through from the interviewers side, confirmed when they poured a third of a cup of tea over themselves because of not checking the lid, while keeping eye contact with me. after about 1 hour of a 1 to 1 interview in a fairly relaxed setting, where the standard questions of 'WHAT KPI'S do you use/know [interviewer listed 4-5 acronyms that they use in Rohan like she'd never heard of them before]', 'how do you see yourself in this position e.g. what can you bring' and 'what is an MBA......' we then got into the section where i asked questions of what can be provided by the company and i have to say...hands down this is the worst offer i have been presented since i was 16 years old starting in retail. so inquisitive reader let me list them off starting with the good: - £800 a year uniform allowance £500 usable in summer £300 in spring. - casual work uniform. Entirely discouraged to anything formal that isn’t walking gear. - 66% discount on clothes if ordered through their head office. Lower discount when used in store. You also get discount on accessories pretty sure it’s lower than 66% though by quite a bit. And now the not so good: -£23,000 a year salary (for everything that being a store manage entails while managing at least two staff (nothing said about whether events etc will be run off the back of management numerous other reviews on here will talk about support or lack thereof from head office) claiming the store does not make enough money despite at least 2 or 3 times saying 'i know it looks small but it's quite a busy store'........ -13 weeks paid sick leave...then nothing after that. given that the local authority offers jobs as a basic retail customer assistant where you can get 6 months full pay, 3-6 months half pay and 3-6 months unpaid...this amount of sick leave is quite frankly ridiculous. -yearly holiday of 21 days a year plus 8 public holidays.....this seems better as a very entry level manager until you realise you might actually be working those public holidays and again 21 days is below average for a lot of jobs. - no allowance to take holiday from beginning of December until mid to late January. you get Christmas day and boxing day that's it. it was alluded to sometimes boxing day not being allowed either. It was put to me that i would need to have a good reason to take any time off during December and January and it would have to be area manager approved. The day after boxing day a manager must always be present to lead the team. New years eve or day ( i forget) isn’t a problem to take time off because the area manager...what was it...'really likes to go out for a drink' then or something like that. - deliveries are every single day. all items are pressed and refreshed before being given to the customer to try on. they are then treated the same way before being returned to storage if unwanted. As I’m sure you can imagine this is a lot of work covering this for every customer. Items are then put into a stock room that is 1/3 to 1/4 the size of the shop, where product is literally hung on railings that go up to the ceiling. That pressing and refreshing I wrote about goes on inside the stock room, so as you can imagine...not A LOT of room… to put it lightly. - when asked what the salary, was as the advert listed ‘competitive’ (we all know what that means), the mood turned sour instantly with the interviewer picking up her pen and flipping over her documents to write something down, almost like a tactic of disdain, as to why I’m asking about the financial compensation that they didn’t clearly list. It was then said to me “well much would you want”….my response “well I think a manager of a upper echelon outdoor clothing store should reasonably be compensated at 29-31k”…the response was a laugh, a head shake and “well it’s definitely not that….how much do you make at the moment”…I disclosed the amount I earned…my received response was “well it's £23,000, I might beable to negotiate a little but (insert pouting and head shaking) not much”. After i asked about negotiating it was emphasised to me that the return would be about me gaining titled management experience not financial compensation.