Interview with Cristina Bunt: Job Insights & Career Advice

Interview with Cristina Bunt

Unit 2: I = Interviewer, C = Cristina Bunt

Job Satisfaction and Challenges

I: What do you most like about your job?

C: I suppose the most enjoyable for me is training because it’s what I started out doing, so it’s the bit that I enjoy most. There aren’t many things that I dislike, to be honest. I suppose the most challenging part of it is when you’re talking in the area of discipline or sometimes the firing part. One of our major considerations is getting the right people in the right job to start with. If you employ the right people, you don’t have a problem managing them once they’re in the workplace. Our cashiers, obviously customer service is our major selling point when it comes to our company. If you employ a cashier who is naturally friendly, naturally smiles, naturally polite, it’s not a problem. If you try and teach them to be polite and to smile, it doesn’t necessarily work.

Career Path

I: And how did you get into this line of work?

C: I originally trained as a nurse. When my daughter was born, I needed a part-time job and took a part-time job with Tesco. I used to work nine hours a week on the checkouts, covering lunch reliefs. Then they offered me an evening checkout supervisor’s job which I took, and then I took a full-time job. About 15 years ago, I went into a job as a training manager, which is a kind of natural progression into personnel. So I did the training job for about four or five years, and then took my first role about ten or 11 years ago.

Future Aspirations

I: And where do you think you might be workwise in ten years? Where would you like to be?

C: Where would I like to be? I actually would like to still be working in personnel. The career progression within my firm does tend to try and take senior team through to store management, but it’s actually something that I’m not particularly interested to do. I prefer the people side of the business and I would like to either be still in a personnel role in store or in a regional role as personnel.

Interview Tips

I: Now, if someone came to you and said, I’ve got a job interview, what should I try and make sure I do? Can you give three tips for good interview technique?

C:

• The first thing is to keep in mind that the first impression sticks. Be tidy but comfortable. That first step towards the person who’s going to interview makes a huge difference if you’re quite prepared to smile and be open and shake a hand. Sometimes for young people that can be really difficult because they’re not used to a formal greeting.
• Be totally natural and don’t try to put yourself forward as something that you’re not. It’s too obvious in an interview situation when you’re trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes.
• Talk about the things that you like and talk about the things that you’re good at, because you do that naturally. If there’s something that you’re really interested in, even if it’s got nothing to do with the job role that you’re actually going into, the enthusiasm will come across. I’ll always know that I’m talking to somebody that’s going to be enthusiastic about whatever I put in front of them, because they’re enthusiastic about things that they like in their normal life.