Author: Ellie Taylor

FMCG’s 10 ‘Most Asked’ Interview Questions
- Ellie Taylor
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- March 4, 2020
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FMCG's 10 'Most Asked' Interview Questions

Whilst as much as we would love to, we can’t predict exactly what you will be asked in interview. We can, however, use our years of recruitment experience and our specialist expertise to let you know what we think are the most asked interview questions, and point you in the right direction with how to answer them. So if you’ve got an interview coming up, read on to give yourself an idea of how you would answer these popular interview questions.

1. Tell me about yourself...

This is a tough one to answer and it’s one that many people quite often forget to prepare for. This isn’t an opportunity to list your hobbies, interest and what you had for breakfast. See it as more of an overview of your current role and how you got to where you are. There’s no need to go into too much detail, after all… your interviewer will have read your CV. It’s a good way for your interviewer to get a feel for your character as you introduce yourself and your career history to them.

2. Why do you want to work at this company?

Firstly, employers can use these interview questions to work out what motivates you and what you want out of a job. It’s a good opportunity to show that you’ve done your research on the company, so make sure you come up with something that is unique to the business. Show some enthusiasm too! Employers want to see that you’re genuinely passionate about working for them.

3. Why do you want this job?

Don’t say salary or holiday allowance! Instead, work out why the role is great for you, and why your skill set is a perfect match for the role. Be enthusiastic. It’s also useful to explain how the role fits in with your career goals. Reassure your interviewer that you’re not just using this role as a stepping-stone or a gap filler and that you’ll be around for a while.

4. Why should we hire you?

‘Why not’ is not the correct answer here. Think about why you’re a good fit for the role, what you can bring that others can’t, why you’re the best candidate for the job and why your skills and experience are good for the role. Explain that you will work hard to deliver results or that you’ll be a good fit culturally with the business.

5. What are your strengths?

It’s important to be prepared to talk about your strengths and being able to talk about them confidently and compellingly will help you stand out from the crowd. It’s a useful way for your interviewer to work out what you can bring to the business and how your strengths can enable you to be successful in the role. Learn how to ask quetions in online dating site for hookup. They’ll be looking for strengths that none of the competition has, so that they truly believe that you’re the best person for the role. Don’t be too modest, sell yourself!

6. What are your weaknesses?

We wouldn’t recommend saying ‘I work too hard’. Interviewers use this question to gauge your levels of self-awareness, and if you answer with that… they’ll know you’re lacking in this department. They want to see that you can be honest and admit any areas of improvement you perhaps need to work on. Don’t mention any weaknesses that could suggest that you won’t do well in the role. Instead think about whether you’ve got good organisational skills, analytical skills, or ability to speak in public and state what you’re doing to improve on these. Your interviewer wants to see that you’re working hard to overcome your weaknesses rather than letting them hold you back.

7. What is your greatest professional achievement?

This is your chance to blow your interviewer away! It’s the perfect time to tell your interviewer about one of your proudest professional moments. Choose a story that reveals lots about you and why you’d be great for the company. Whether this be good leadership skills or ability to deal with conflict, make sure it speaks volumes about your character.

8. Tell me about a time when...

The good old tell me about a time when! This could be, tell me about a challenge or conflict you have dealt with, or a time when you have demonstrated leadership. Or tell me about a time when you disagreed with a decision that was made at work or a time when you failed. Either way, these behavioural questions will uncover your behavioural strengths and will give your interviewer an insight into how you’re likely to deal with certain situations. These questions show the interviewer that you have the relevant skills to carry out the role successfully. Make sure you go into detail and clearly outline the situation, task, actions and the results. This STAR method of structuring your answer will make sure that you cover all relevant aspects of the situation and shows that you’re able to look back and reflect on specific situations.

9. Why are you leaving your current role?

It’s safe to say, this isn’t the easiest of questions to answer. Employers want to know that you left for genuine reasons to make sure that you’re not going to leave the role you’re interviewing for after a short space of time. Be open and honest about your reasons, it will give them an insight into what you’re looking for in your next role and will enable them to understand if you’re likely to enjoy the role with them. Just bear in mind that it doesn’t look good if you badmouth your previous employer, so make sure that you stay positive about your previous role, even if you didn’t enjoy it.

10. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

This is a BIG question. Luckily, it doesn’t mean where you will be exactly in 5 years, however it gives you the opportunity to explain your career goals in a bit more detail. They want to know that the position you’re interviewing for will fit into your 5-year plan, even if you fit into theirs.

Whilst these are a selection of possible interview questions, there is no guarantee that these will come up, or be limited to these in interview. Therefore, if you’re due to attend an interview in the coming weeks, we would recommend discussing the interview with your consultant, alongside consulting this blog. These are generic questions that can be asked for a whole host of roles, whereas your consultant will know more about the specifics to focus on. As always, we wish you every success in your interview!
For more info on our current vacancies give us a call on 0845 2000 741 for a confidential chat with one of our expert recruiters.

Ellie Taylor
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The Vegan List – Our Favourite Vegan...
- Ellie Taylor
- Blogs
- March 4, 2020
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The Vegan List - Our Favourite Vegan Foods🌿

According to the Vegan Society, if the world changed to eating vegan foods, it could save 8 million human lives by 2050. Also, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a huge two thirds, lead to healthcare related savings and avoid climate damages of $1.5 trillion. What a HUGE impact.
So with this in mind, we thought we’d put together some of our favourite vegan products and brands to help you get some vegan inspiration. If you’re deciding to take the plunge into vegan-hood this January, we’ve included our top supermarket ranges, alternatives and some BIG vegan brands. Here they are…

UK Supermarkets

UK supermarkets are keeping up with consumer trends with a whole host of ranges that are deliciously and conveniently vegan. These own-brand ranges include pizzas, ready meals, and all the usual kitchen essentials. We’re loving Waitrose’s vegan mac and greens, a delicious alternative to mac and cheese. Also their ready-to-eat sandwich range is a perfect alternative for lunches!
Sainbury’s are nailing it with their ‘Love Your Veg’ range. This range includes their ‘Cumberland Shroomogs’ and a sweet potato katsu curry. If you’re looking for a chicken nugget alternative, Marks and Spencers’ ‘Plant Kitchen’ no chick’n nuggets taste just like the real thing. We’ve also heard that Tesco, Asda and Iceland are offering some tasty alternatives in their own-brand ranges. We’d recommend checking them out.

Alternative Vegan Options

Whilst the vegan diet cuts out all meat, fish and dairy, all is not lost… our favourite brands are creating alternatives to all our usual go-to products. Nando’s have introduced their vegan perinaise to make sure that vegan Nando’s fans can still be in on all the fun. Hellman’s vegan mayo is making sure that our fave condiment is still being served up to vegans up and down the country. If you’re a pasty fan, check out Ginster’s Quorn vegan pasty, and Greggs’ vegan sausage roll and steak bake. We can guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Our fave sausage brand Heck are serving up some delicious vegan sausages. Whilst pizza brands like Chicago town and Goodfellas have created some tasty vegan alternatives. Brands are making sure that vegans don’t miss out on a single thing.

Veggie and Vegan Brands

Luckily for us, over the years several brands have emerged that focus entirely on vegan and vegetarian foods. Quorn made some serious waves in the vegetarian market and have continued to blow our minds with some brilliant vegan alternatives. Our time old favourite Linda McCartney have also stirred up some great vegan alternatives. Brands like Bol, Vivera, Tofurkey and Beyond Meat are leading the plant-based revolution. The Coconut Collaborative, Alpro and Violife are making sure that vegans are still satisfying their dairy needs.

If you’ve got a sweet tooth, Oreos, bourbons and dark chocolate are all examples of vegan foods that you probably don’t realise are vegan. Alongside this are smoky bacon hula hoops and interestingly, Warburton’s crumpets.

Vegan options have increased hugely, and there are more alternatives available than ever before, making vegan life easier than ever. As expert recruiters in the FMCG market, we like to make sure that we’re up to date with all things food. So, if you’re looking for your next food role… give us a call on 0845 2000 741 for a confidential chat with one of the team. Or visit our website to view all of our live roles.

Ellie Taylor
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Achieve the Perfect Work-Life Balance…
- Ellie Taylor
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- March 4, 2020
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Achieve the Perfect Work-Life Balance...

Achieving that perfect work-life balance can be tough. Having a successful career is an important goal for many people… but this shouldn’t be at the cost of your health and well-being. Finding the time to separate your personal life from work is super important. It can prevent unhappiness, high stress levels and burn-out, leading to an all-round happier you.

The following tips will help you focus on YOU, alongside your careers goals, to help you strike that perfect work-life balance…

1.      Plan and Prioritise

When planning your time, schedule in time for you. Whether with family, friends or alone, make sure that you put time aside to relax and recharge. There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of self-indulgence every now and then! It’s useful to prioritise tasks at work so that you can complete your workload when at work, so you can spend your time out of work without the added stress of worrying about deadlines.

2.      Set Boundaries

Set boundaries around your ‘you’ time. Decide on a set of rules that will make this time as work-free as possible. Perhaps you could turn your work phone off or take your work email account off your personal phone. Whatever you choose to do, think of the very best way to keep this time all about you. No stress, no deadlines, no worries. Leave work at work for some time by setting boundaries around what you are, and are not, willing to do in this time.

3.      Learn to Say ‘No’

As much as we’d all love to be able to help our colleagues as much as possible, sometimes this is an unrealistic prospect. Focus on your essential tasks, and once these are done, if there’s time to help others then go ahead. But if helping others will be detrimental your workload (and your stress levels!), learn to politely say ‘no’.

4.      Do What You Love

Make time to do what you love. Once you have set aside time for you, spend it doing something you love, or with the people you love. Use your protected ‘you’ time to remind yourself of why you love what you love and re-charge your batteries and boost your mood with some stress free, fun-filled time. It may even boost your productivity when in work!

5.      Self-care

In order to be successful at work, it’s important to look after yourself. For perfect life balance you need to have a woman, learn about this more in follow link – https://lookingforbride.ru/what-is-casual-hookups.You can’t be successful in your career if you can’t make sure you’re well looked after yourself. Perhaps use your annual leave to take a holiday, cook some good food filled with vitamins, and spend your time out of work chilling out.

6.      Find a Job that You Love

If you find a job that you love, a work-life balance will come naturally. If you love your job, workdays feel slightly less like work, believe us! Here at New Chapter, we introduced flexitime to enable our team to establish their own work-life balance and with a 3pm Friday finish, they have plenty of time over the weekend to focus on them.

If you like the sound of this, give us a call on 0845 2000 741 to discuss our internal vacancies. Alternatively, if you’re finding it hard to find a work-life balance in your current role, we’re here to help you find a new role. Give us a call for a confidential chat with one of our expert recruiters.

Ellie Taylor
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Avoid the Cost of a Bad Hire…
- Ellie Taylor
- Blogs
- March 4, 2020
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Avoid The Cost of a Bad Hire...

We get it, there is a cost to using an agency to recruit for your business, and these fees can be a costly and unappealing prospect. However, a bad hire can turn out to be even more expensive. In fact, studies have revealed that bad hires are one of the most expensive mistakes you can make in your business. If you’re seeking new talent for your business in the new year, we’re here to help you get it right first time. Contact us to discuss your recruitment needs to see how we can help you avoid the following…

1. A Repetitive Recruitment Process

To recruit for your business, you need a budget to market roles and the HR manpower to select and interview candidates. If you fail to get the hire right first time you risk the expense of having to do it all over again.
We’re here to help you make sure that you’re never left with the cost and burden of having to re-fill a vacancy. We have an abundance of experience, a huge network and a strong candidate database so we have access to the very best talent. We also have a track record of getting it right first time, and if we don’t…. we offer a six months guarantee period with our standard terms.

2. The Prospect of Low Morale

It’s true what they say, one bad apple spoils the barrel! Having one member in the team that doesn’t fit in with your culture or doesn’t produce the same results as the rest of the team will ruin the morale of the whole team.
This is likely to reduce the productivity of the whole team. Other team members will be forced into picking up the slack for their sub-par colleague, and these ones will burnout. If your reliable employees aren’t working at their maximum potential, then you risk a lower business output. If you’re a small business, this can be especially damaging.

3. Reputation Damage

If your employees have low morale, it’s likely to lead to them looking for employment elsewhere. A fast turnover of staff could leave your business with a poor reputation, making it more difficult for you to recruit in the future.
If your new hire is providing a poor service, you could face a damaged reputation commercially. The downward spiral starts here… bad reputation… less profits. We can help prevent this by understanding your business’ needs and using our expertise to help you find a candidate that we know will deliver in the role.

4. Financial Cost

The ultimate price you will pay for a bad hire is a financial cost as you have to re-hire and re-train employees. It’s difficult to predict how a candidate will perform once in the role as it’s easy to exaggerate achievements on CVs and in interview. However, our 14 years of experience in the industry means that we can tell a truthful candidate from a fake! We take the time to pre-screen candidates to gain an in-depth understanding of their work history and achievements so we can make an accurate decision on their suitability for a role.
We have also received tonnes of feedback from clients on our candidates on how they perform once in the role, so we have gained a thorough understanding of what candidate backgrounds will enable a candidate to be successful in each role.

Hiring the wrong candidate can be avoided by using one of our consultants to help you get it right first time. For just a small fee you can avoid the above and employ a candidate that is going to be beneficial for your business right from the get-go!
If you’re searching for your dream candidate, give us a call or contact us to see how we can assist you in your recruitment process.

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Ellie Taylor
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