The interview was simple and friendly, with a bunch of fairly generic scenario and experience based questions focused on how I align with IKEA’s core values, teamwork, and providing great customer service.
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at IKEA (Glasgow, Scotland) in Mar 2019
Interview
Initially I applied online with uploading my CV to Ikea's career website. Later that same day I received an invitation to a 'Video Interview' to complete via HireVue.
For the video interview you are asked to record your responses to 4 questions which take around 5 minutes to complete. Mine were:
Why do you want to work for Ikea?
Describe a time where you went above and beyond for a customer?
What is your favourite room in your home?
What is your favourite Ikea product?
Several weeks go by and I get invited to a group assessment. There were around 9 people in mine with the HR manager and 4 section managers (warehouse, customer service, customer relations, online orders etc).
First we start off by getting to know the person sitting next to us and then giving several facts about them to the rest of the group. Then we are divided into 2 groups and given an Ikea product to come up with features, benefits, uses, and a price to give as a presentation. Then we were shuffled about into a different group and asked what could Ikea do to improve. We came up with idea of an Ikea Family app which could be used throughout the store to improve customer experience and efficiency.
We are then told if successful at this point we would have a 1 to 1 interview with a section manager who thought we would be appropriate for their department.
A week later I get a call asking me to come in for a 1 to 1 interview for customer service. This was a competency based interview with 2 managers. Questions included some from the video interview plus:
Ikea is an environmentally conscious company. What can you do help?
What can you do to save Ikea money?
Describe a time where you had to deal with a difficult customer?
What is something Ikea can improve on?
During this I had one manager's mobile phone going off several times and the other one interjecting questions to ask about an online qualification I was doing. They assured me it had nothing to do with the interview... so why ask? I would also recommend as an applicant to bring a copy of your CV with you as they had not and nor did it seem like they had bothered to look at mine prior to the interview.
10 days later I received an email saying 'Hej, it was nice to meet you but we've decided not to continue your application.' from a no reply address. No feedback whatsoever despite 2 months of interviews and waiting. Very disappointing but if this is any indication for their company perhaps I've dodged a bullet.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Ikea is an environmentally conscious company. What can you do help?