John Lewis Merchandising Graduate Scheme

John Lewis’ enormous range of quality products doesn’t just need to be popular and appealing to all of our customers. Crucially, it needs to deliver profit for the business. That’s where our Merchandisers come in, as they secure and purchase stock whilst carefully managing financial targets.

Join our Graduate Merchandising Scheme and we’ll nurture you into one of the finest Merchandising professionals in the retail industry. You’ll benefit from a richly engaging development programme that offers long-term career potential via a structured yet flexible path:

During your first year with us you’ll be given an entry level position in Merchandising, supported by training and development coaching to help you learn the ropes
In your second year you should become an Assistant Merchandiser, involving line management duties and supporting the Merchandiser to deliver excellent stock management and meet the financial targets
Following this, you’ll move to a different office to gain the broadest experience possible and work towards becoming a Merchandiser
You should aim to become a fully–fledged Merchandiser within three to five years

What we’re looking for

Many people think Merchandising is about picking and choosing gorgeous products. On the contrary, it’s about ensuring the profit margins on our vast array of product lines – so an affinity with numbers is an absolutely vital quality. Likewise, analytical ability, strong planning skills and the capacity to work well to targets are key traits we’re looking for. You’ll also be an excellent communicator who thrives in a deadline driven, fast-paced environment and have the potential to successfully lead and deliver results through a team. You’ll have strong commercial awareness about John Lewis and the wider retail industry.

Things to bear in mind

This role includes a great deal of systems and computer–based work and the analysis of figures.
You’ll be based in our Head Office in Victoria, London.
This scheme should not be confused with Visual Merchandising which deals with display and product promotions.
The salary for the scheme is £25,000, and you will receive benefits such as The Partnership annual bonus (which is a proportion of your salary; in 2011 this equated to over nine weeks additional pay), non-contributory pension scheme, a discount card, ticket subsidies and many more.

Application Criteria

The minimum criteria is as follows:

Gained a degree equivalent to a BA, BSc or higher at a 2:1 or above by September 2012. This can be in any subject
GCSE Maths and English grade B or above or equivalent

We are sorry, if you do not meet the above minimum criteria, we will not be able to consider your application.

The Application process

There are four stages of our application process and you are required to pass each stage before being invited to the next. For all stages there are strict timelines on completion. See the invite email/s for details.

The first two stages are an online 'cultural fit' questionnaire and a talent screener test, which is a multiple choice exercise. This takes about 10 minutes to complete and is part of the application form itself. The talent screener test takes about 30 minutes to complete. We recommend that you find a quiet place where you can concentrate in order to complete this stage.

At the third stage you are required to answer some questions. Once you have submitted them, your answers are then marked and, if you reach or exceed the pass mark, you will be invited to a two stage assessment centre.

The assessment centres are the final part of the recruitment process. The assessment centres are in two stages - a group exercise day is the first stage with top scorers invited to come back to a second stage of individual scheme specific exercises. These will be held at the end of January, in February or early March 2011. If you reach this stage, more information will be sent to you on what to expect.

If you are successful at the assessment centre, you will be offered a place on the graduate scheme.

We are always looking at our recruitment process and the Graduate Recruitment Manager may choose at anytime to review the recruitment process.

Hints and tips

The first tests are automatically marked; the third stage questions however are read and marked by us. Therefore, if you get to this stage, we would recommend that you consider the questions carefully and really think about your answers, using the best examples to highlight your points. Every applicant who applies to us has experienced University, so applicants might think about finding examples outside their University or academic experience if possible to highlight the points they wish to make in their answers.
Check your application form for spelling and grammar mistakes. We deduct points from applications that are not well presented.
Compile all your basic details, qualifications and work experience on a Word document ready. Not only can you then copy and paste your details over to the application form, making the initial application process quicker, this will also be useful for any other schemes you choose to apply for.
We will always make reasonable adjustments for disabled candidates. So please let us know if you require extra support at any stage of the process.