What We Look For and the Application Process

We recruit up to 40 graduates every year through two intakes in April and September. In these graduates, we seek a genuine passion for food retail and an appreciation of fine food. After all, this is a first-rate graduate scheme designed to transform ambitious graduates into exceptional Waitrose Branch Managers.

As well as a strong academic record of ideally 280 UCAS points or equivalent and a minimum 2:2 degree in any discipline, we are keen to find well–rounded, resilient individuals. Strong analytical abilities, excellent communication skills and an astute commercial awareness are key attributes we look for.

Natural leaders will thrive on this scheme and being able to motivate your fellow Partners is vital. As a manager, you’ll be accountable to your team so the confidence to justify your decisions is crucial.

The capacity to cope with the pace and intensity of this scheme is hugely important. Food retail is a fast-moving business that throws up new challenges and unexpected occurrences everyday. Therefore the ability to think laterally and quickly to find the best solution is paramount.

Things to bear in mind

Retail is not a nine to five, Monday to Friday job. It involves some late nights and weekends, when you will be managing the competing demands of customers and fellow Partners in a fast-paced shop floor environment.
One of the minimum criteria to apply to our retail scheme, is that you agree to be located anywhere within your chosen region for at least the first 12 months. It is important that any applicant who desires a place on our scheme realises what this will mean for them.

The Application process

There are three stages to our application process and you are required to pass each stage before being invited to the next.

The first stage is an online questionnaire, which takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. At the second stage you are required to answer some questions about your previous experience. Once you have submitted them, your answers are then assessed and if successful you will be invited to complete a situational judgement test which takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Once you have completed the online application process your full application will be screened and if successful, you will be invited to attend a regional assessment centre. If successful at the assessment centre, the final stage will be attending an ‘in branch assessment'. Full details of these stages will be sent to you via email.

Please be aware that due to the volume of applications we receive there may be a delay in receiving your outcome for each stage but we will contact you as soon as we are able.

We want to ensure that each candidate receives the outcome of their application as soon as possible and therefore we offer places on our scheme once applicants are successful at the final stage. As a result, we would recommend getting your application to us early and regularly checking your emails to ensure you can complete each stage promptly to progress your application further.

Hints and Tips

The online questionnaires are automatically marked; the application questions however are read and assessed by us. 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, you can also spell check to make sure your answers are perfectly written
We run our assessment centres regionally to make it easy for applicants to attend and to minimise travel costs, please try and book onto your nearest assessment centre
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.