Arts & Design Interview Questions & Answers

My interview involved two members of staff at MPA, the Chief Executive and Press and Public Affairs Manager. Both had a table with the questions they wished to ask me and took notes as it went on. It took place in a small closed-off office (most of the office is open-plan) round a circular table (nicer than being behind a big imposing desk) and it lasted about half an hour.

They asked me about my current situation, and why it was I applied for this internship. They asked me about times I have faced issues and had to deal with them quickly and efficiently. They asked me what I knew about the company, and what I thought were the up and down sides to working in a small team. There was very little to do specifically with my CV, though sometimes if I highlighted something from it they would go on to follow-up questions rather than just the next question on their list. They asked me what else I would bring to the company other than the typical things like organisation. They asked me what sort of people I would struggle to work with.

A time when I've been faced with an immediate issue that needed sorting immediately.

What I know about the company (despite me making sure I double-checked the night before, I always find this one puts on a lot more pressure, and I did not find their website wholly understandable which made this even trickier!)

What kind of people I would struggle to work with. It may just be a personally difficult question, because I get on very well with everyone, really. But it's hard to know what you can answer that might indirectly offend them because they or someone else in the office is like that...

Make sure you thoroughly understand what the company does, as the internship involves a taster of most of the areas of the business and it will help you to actually know what they are! Always smile. They did not mind if I needed a few seconds to think of an answer, as most companies won't mind, since they know you're a) nervous and b) thinking carefully about what to say.

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My first interview was with the commercial director and it started by him saying we would not be talking about design in this interview. We spoke about my career choice, education and work experience since leaving University. Lasted around 20 minutes.

Then went on to be interviewed by two designers which was mostly a chat about my portfolio.

I was asked at every stage if I had any questions about the company but after exhausting these with the first interviewer it became difficult to think of anything new without just saying it for the sake of it.

Make sure you have lots of questions for them, they seemed keen to know that you were being selective on the right role for you. Analyse the initial job description. During my interview process they changed their minds over the role they were recruiting for and ceased the search but this might be different next time round.

I had a design task to perform and then present my findings back to three people from the company. The task involved company research, trend forecasting and coming up with a range of design concepts for the company in question.

The initial video interview was a link which I had to record my own recorded response to a series of questions that the Arcadia Recruitment Team sent me beforehand. I had a week to record and perfect my answers to the questions and the video was to last no longer than five minutes. The first set of questions were about why I wanted the job, my art and design background and why I would make a good candidate for the role. Next I was asked about where I find my fashion inspiration from and how I would model to key looks/trends for the summer 2013. Finally I was asked about what I understood the role of a BAA to involve such as daily tasks, e.g meetings and who I would be liaising with.

The most difficult question I was asked was to provide an example of a difficult decision I have had to make and how I dealt with it.

I would advise to really research the companies current business plans such as expansions or expiring leases so that you can show you have current and up to date knowledge of what is going o with the company.

At the assessment center I was in a group of three and we started off by carrying out a group exercise. It was a scenario task where we had to imagine we had crashed on an island and as a team we were only allowed to choose five items from the wreckage of our aircraft to help us to survive. This task was all about listening, communicating and compromising and being able to put forward a good argument as to which items should be chosen. Next I was in a one on one interview and was asked scenario based questions as to how I would cope in different situations as a buyer, e.g time delays, difficult situations. I was also asked to give examples of times when I have displayed qualities such as leadership skills and communication skills. After this section of the interview I presented two trend boards to another assessor and explained how I though they were relevant to the Arcadia brand and described the different styles and elements of the trends. Finally I took a short maths test of seven questions.