southerndownhill.com - Forum

I've got an interview with Halfords bike dept. and was wondering if anyone knew the sorts of things they might ask? I'm quite confident with bikes, but any help would be greatly appreciated...

cheers guys

Harrison Yeo

considering most of the people who work in the bike dept. in halfords around my area are complete dimwits id wouldnt even worry mate.

to be honest all i can see them asking is, do you have any history of working with people?
                                                        do you see yourself as being people friendly
                                                       do you have a "rough" idea of cycle maintenance

those sort of questions.

They asked me what bike i rode, found out it was a DH race rig, and asked me to start the following day....

Most testing interview ever.

Rootes

Ive just left, worked in a bloody good store for the past 3years. It'll be the same as any other interveiw.

-General scope about yourself
-Interest in the job?
-Interest in that sector?
-Why you want to work their?
-People skills...Good with the public? Able to work with different tyoes of people.
-Experience
-Past history

Im assuming you have a c.v ready. Read over it and imagine certin questions that might be asked about it. e.g.  you mention that you own 10 bikes, how did that come about? etc

Just be honnest, cool/calm/ collected.
Oh yeah, employers like to hear people asking questions..don't just sit there like  robot.

Dan

well, i can put a bike together without too much hassle :D but a friend of mine said i'd need to know things like: the three different tyre valves and the like (schrader, presta and woods. if im not mistaken) anyone know of any other bike related questions they may ask?

cheers for the responses so far guys, been really helpful.

Harrison Yeo

It's not an exam. There looking to see how easy you pick skills and information up along side with how much you allready know.

In the way of putting a bike together, thats a start. Right tool for the right job? Do you follow the latest products or are you an old school know-it-all?

Visit the store a few imes before the interveiw if poss. Look at the types of people that shop there (just about everybody!). Are you familiar with the things they stock?

i didnt even have an interview for my job, just brought me in for a chat and offered me the job there and then

well good luck to you mate.

personaly i wouldnt worry about it mate.

you obviously know about your bike pretty well as your a mountainbiker and i dont know many that dont :D

in otherwords mate id say youl have the job with no worries as seriously not many of the guys in halfords know anything about bikes. as you can tell from alot of complaints.

all the managers look for is: a person that is people friendly
                                      a person that has the rough idea on bike maintenace

to be honest mate i reckon itl be a breeze.

just go there feel comfordent make yourself look smart and presentable. first impressions count remember. thats all.

good luck.

hope ive helped
Thanks
Sam

right...

im feeling much better about it now, cheers for all your help guys, I really do appreciate it.

thanks again

Harrison Yeo

Just remember, you could have all the bike knowledge in the world but if you cant convey it to the customer, and sell them products then your pretty muc worthless to halfords. Just make yourself easily approachable and genuine. Product information is alot more easily taught that inter-personal skills.

Almost as good as my Leisure Lakes interview:

Sheepishly approach owner of shop and ask, "Do you have any jobs?"
Owner answers, "maybe. Tell you what, if you can write me 4 good reasons why you want to work here on this piece of paper you can start this weekend."

Easiest job interview ever!!!!!

just dont do what a chap did to me last week ....

came in holding his "bru slip" shouted ....
him
"im hear aboot the job" (in broad glasweegian accent"
me
"sorry we are not hiring"
him
"it says here cycle mechanic"
me
"where did you see this job advertised"
him
"dole office"
me
"aye and wheres the job"
him
"reads out the name of the other shop in town from his slip"
me
"what does the sign outside say ?"
him
"oh f**k!!"

haha,

I applied for a job in halfords quite a few years ago

Remember being asked what hg stands for in shimano chains, i didnt know at the time and never did get an actual interviews, shame because i felt i knew quite a lot.
(it stands for hyperglide btw, incase anyone is as thick as me - i was informed by a friend later)

But like which i previously stated, they wont refuse the possition to you becuase your unsure of what abreviated tech terms are. And it won't be as easy as people have claimed. Without bringing up an old disussion/arguement, you get your good stores and your very bad stores.

You could always offer the one piece of advice that always gets put forward in our local Halfords.
" Better off getting it off Chain Reaction mate"

Course, you may not get the job  ;)

lol - the above was the best used quote with us too! - however the athertons were in our one quite often!

in my interview i was asked about my bike - they sometimes ask about link sales - i.e sell a bike with - helmet, pump, lights etc etc - and then on other hand we had some guys who had no idea - ( i mean they got confused with which way round forks went!) its all a mixed bag!

They'll just ask you to write your name - if you can only say it, they'll place you in the Car Audio department ;)

I just had my interview at halfords for a bike mechanic job today. Im only fifteen, and 4 hours after the interview he rang me back and offered me the job. All he asked was how much i know about bikes, if i can index gears/bleed brakes and about customer service and bike recommendation.

pretty damn simple

and i start friday :)

I applied at halfords and they didn't get back to me so i work in Buckingham Bikes now :)

yeah went alright today...

had to fill in another application form which was a bit annoying as i'd already answered everything in my CV, they asked me to tell them what "rebound, Compression and dampening was" which i knew so all good. Then they asked me to build a bike from the box, which i did... front gears were a bit of a mess but then I've never adjusted them in my life...

so they said they'd call me tommorrow... fingers crossed.

Any numpty can type your C.V for you, you have to fill out the form.

Well thats all good news. But if you don't get the job, look back and learn.

Dan

mine didn;t even ask me that  :D
i ended up in a convo with the head of bikes, after telling him what bike i had, about marzocchi i think it was. i built 2 bikes, and they asked me to start the next week

To be totally fair only 3 of us in our bikehut ride bikes and our store bikes dont come with rebound and compression damping (well not the ones you'll sell day to day) and as i found even if ur a guru on downhill rigs it counts for jack sh*t as these taiwaneese badboys are kitted with the most crap mechs and shifters you could possibly imagine... u might want a crashcourse in how to tell the customer.. his chainrings are bent cos its part of the design, the cable disks rub cos the pads are new and ur getting a cracking value for money bike (selling sand to arabs ring a bell? :)

ha ha Ive just filled in a job application for halfords :P

My mate got a job at halfords, he has never riden a bike and when asked is this wheel 'true'? He said well it isn't wrong I checked  :P

You don't need to know ANYTHING to work at halfords, oh except writing your name on the application form.

have you read ANY of this thread? its already been stated that every place varies, some places hire total nonses, some require people to know what they're doing, sometimes has alot to do with being short staffed, sometimes its because the manager's sh*te.

I worked for halfords bike dept once, got sacked after 4 weeks coz i kept turning up late and hungover, i only worked sundays - what did they expect.

top shop mate, annoying your workshop aint joint onto it though... haha

i did my work experience last year in the halfords bike hut section ( cause my local bike shop wernt offering placements at the time) and all they asked was why you want to work there, whats my hobbies ( mountain biking obviously lol) then when i completed it they said i could have a job there, went back 3 days later to find 2 older clueless bastards working there, and in my opinion it was because they were older, however i know for a fact i was better at working with bikes than they were.

harry

i did my experience with bikehut in brighton .




the whole chain is a joke. organised by a mug, MASSIVE lack of staff knowledge etc...

i had an interview with halfords once but because i wasnt interested in the car section on halfords and only wanted to work in the cycle section they didnt give me the job.

so much for huge interest in bikes and having had a previous job in a bike shop.

Did you go to the right interview?  ;)

maybe they werent hiring someone for the bikehut?  :-\

if the chain is organised by a mug, how can they be making so much money? so much infact, that they are one of the only chains that has made a significant profit this year!  ::)

Exactly which aspect of my cycling knowledge are you calling into question here boy? How much Cytech training have you got? How many different types of bike have YOU owned? How long have YOU been riding?

The answer? Not nearly long enough you scruffy little doush!

Muttley being muttley ::) ;)

i worked at halfords part time for many years. When i started there as a 16yr old, i was recommended to the manager by a friend and he was informed that i had a great working knowledge of bikes. I was then posted into the audio/parts deparment (switching when needed) and worked in those departments for the rest of the time i was there. In a way i am kind of glad as the bikes they sold weren't great and PDI'ing a £50 bike where all the components suck is not my idea of fun. I learnt a hell of a lot about cars/audio installs etc and outside of work i still did the whole bike thing so kept my knowledge of that up. Halfords lasted me a good many years and they aren't a bad company to work for but i personally could not forsee a full time career there as that would have kinda wasted my uni education

Have you the interview yet, if so how did it go?

If not, good luck! - at the end of the day i would just be repeating what other people have said. Just look the interviewer in the eye when speaking and just be sincere really. Also try and say nothing negative, i.e if they say 'what is one of your bad points', word it like 'somthing i could improve firther on is ...'.

WELL SAID!! high five!! they deleted my reply to him  ::) but yes he clearly didnt have a good time cos they thought him only good enough to rip cardboard!!

yeh and can i just point out to the retard boy that thinks there a joke, ive had a hell of a lot of training out of them, on child seats audio sat navs hard-wiring bikes touring everything!! its all good to know but your too stuck up to take any training because you think you know everything when infact you are a nieve idiot!

Yeah work experience kids are good for one thing (two actually) Cardboard and warehoust tidying, possibly the two most pain in the ass things to do  ;D and as for the lack of training..well maybe in some branches ,but i tell you i had a mate who knew the insides out of a DH bike and was a pretty good mechaninc,but could he put the stabilizers on a daisychain??? could he f**k...and like terrance said ive actually learnt quite alot while working there including fitting childseats which is pretty satisfying.

and do you know the name of this mug then?

I have been working in halfords for quite a while now, and i have learnt a lot, wokring in the public sector and learning how to deal with customers, and a lot about cars, even how to mix paint. They also do a specialist team, http://www.halfordscompany.co.uk/hal/pr/sandp/sponsorships/ which I think is a pretty cool idea

dont attack me! i was defending them! (i would in halfords ;) )

lets be honest, work expereience is abused by companies as an excuse toget crappy jobs done, which is unnaccepptable. due to health and safety, work expereience means that students can do nothing and therefore waste a week of their education, i wish id done my work experience at a shop that was remotely interesting as bikehut is just a shop full of crappass little kids bikes, the only thing that kept me from just leaving was sitting in the workshop ewatching the mechanics actually working, but again, due to the companies "work experieence" activities that included putting tags on shelves, this was a rarity. if you arent going to bloody well give students some actual experience, just say no, we dont do it, and stop wasting their time which could be well spent.