I was initially contacted by a lovely lady using Microsoft Teams for an HR based interview. The questions were fair and she was listening intently throughout. A day later I received an email asking if I could attend an interview in person in Central London at the Boots UK HQ.
I was away seeing my girlfriend who lives across the country at the time but still made the effort to get to the interview - I cut my time away short so I could travel 200 miles home, buy some new smart clothing for this interview (£50) and then pay £30 for London train tickets and £15 for parking. This normally wouldn't faze me because I understand that for these jobs it will be important to be presentable and meet in person, but you'll see why I feel the need to mention it. It's also worth noting that I do not have a job at this time because I have been made redundant to the effects of COVID for the second time in 3 months, and therefore spending this money would not have been a decision to take lightly.
I spent almost 2 hours working my way into a busy London, risking catching COVID on the busy tube, and then have difficulty following the poor instructions provided to buzz into the actual offices at the back of the flagship building.
I wait way past the expected interview start time, but was finally interviewed by two people who are the head of the departments that I am applying for.
When the interview starts, it becomes immediately apparent that they're not looking for what I am - questions start popping up about character animation which wasn't in the job spec. I show my curated previous experience in my website and my showreel during the application but I'm still asked to show and explain what each of the projects I've worked on included.
There is visibly less interest throughout the interview as I demonstrate and explain more of my skills, almost like I am no longer worth their time, so it then becomes a game of whether I can coax them into more interest by asking when I will hear back from them and if I can create example content to show my worth - which has got me my previous 2 full time jobs in video marketing.
They explained that they'll be in touch next week with the next steps and will let me know whether or not I have been successful.
3 weeks later and not a single word of contact from them, which is disgraceful given my own situation. I travelled across the country and spent over £100 on the interview, and WBA don't even have the good grace to tell me I didn't get the job.