Where can I get a weekend job?

There are probably all sorts of shifting and packing jobs going.

A lot of shop work is not "customer-facing", so shyness wouldn't have to disqualify you. Have you considered cutting your hair?

It needs doing, but I'm not sure when (or where) it's going to happen. I'm keeping it long though.

How about looking for a shop whose customers look a lot like you?

find out where there's a santa claus who's going to sit around and have little kids pay to sit on his lap, tell him what they want, and get polaroids taken. ask if they need another elf to help (i think sometimes it pays better, or twice than, minimum wage).

Shyness def not a problem in a shop, so long as you are polite.

working in a shop might be good for you, confidence wise. HMV?

i can see working in HMV being more sort of... soul destroying than confidence building. imagine having to sell hundreds of Avril Lavigne albums and shit on a daily basis... could you live with yourself after doing that?

i know a few people who work at london hmvs and i think it could do good for you social wise as well (presuming manchester is similar)

If we sell hundreds of Avril Lavigne album's thern GLEE! GLEE! GLEE! my faith in humanity will be restored. Where do I sign up?

Seriously, where do I sign up?

HMV i guess

(i think something like this is a pretty good idea, graham)

Graham, one thing of working at such a store as HMV they typically want temps to do at least 2 of these days: Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day.

[Not much fun/ totally inconvenient if you want to spend the Christmas/ New Year with your family.]

your job will probably be to affix the health warning stickers to said album.

No I don't (only reason for going home = closer to London Lez-ups)

I GOT IT! I GOT IT! I GOT IT!!!

An aplication form that is (see what I did there?). They said they wanted it back as soon as possible, and they asked my age and said that was OK, so so far they haven't rejected me.

Alas, typical questions:
Commercial Awareness: Explain who you see as HMV's key competitors, stating briefly who (sic) you believe HMV's strengths and weaknesses against each:

Organisational Skills: Give an example of when you have worked under pressure on several tasks and yet maintained or exceeded standards and deadlines:

And worst:
Drive: Briefly explain why you are applying to HMV. How does this fit with your career aspirations.

Help.

Seriously HELP!!!!

HMV's competition : big specialist music/games stores like Virgin, Tower, MVC, Borders etc. and also (for chart stuff) Woolies, WH Smith etc Also in London/big cities - smaller specialist shops.

Also BE SURE to mention AMAZON.COM and other on-line 'stores' - this shows you're looking at the whole picture of how people buy, and not just thinking of 'shops'. Advantages - obv. you can order from home. Disadv. - you don't get it right away and little visual stimulus to buy.

HMV appear to have won the market share in the highstreet big store category, through a combination of good coverage and bargain pricing.

HMV : strengths - good coverage/more stores than other specialist stores. Better range than all competition except specialist small shops- good depth in dance, reggae, metal etc. Always have a good sale running which gets people thru the door.

Weaknesses - jazz/classical is thin. Also can't offer all obscurities that Rough Trade/Selectadisc/ etc can. FEW listening posts.

Threat - shops like FOPP if they spread (which is unlikely). Big discount range at £5.

Your achievements - take some real examples from college and big them up - tight deadlines, teamwork (important), etc. Lie if necc.

Career asp. - you want to understand how music retail works and gain experience in a busy store. (need more suggestions here)

Graham - sorry if this is garbled and sketchy - I'm in a rush tonight. Best of luck

Excellent stuff from Dr C - you can do a really good written app, Graham. I'd suggest practising speaking more loudly and confidently in preparation for an interview, though.

(achievements includes ilxor obv)

good luck graham.

Thanks Dr C. I don't really have any relevant college projects to talk about though.

Having no actual job experience doesn't help me at all. The spaces to answer these questions (there are 7 altogether) are only about an inch high, so some of them I can fill the space without that coming up. I can think of ilXor examples for everything nearly - is this a good idea? I'm not sure there's enough space to explain what it is though.

The thing about ilxor to emphasise is not the techy / code-y bit (great though that is), it's the fact that you effectively ran a consultation process, listening to and (where possible) incorporating others' ideas / wants. It's the listening and responding positively which are they key points (I think).

Not a bad idea to talk about the actual local competition: presumably Piccadilly and then the more specialist shops: Fat City Eastern Bloc ect ect, lots of people know more about manc record shops than me(and the fact that Vinyl Exchange seems to get a lot of promos of new albums maybe?)

The indie-ish record shops are faraway, so I'm not sure I'd emphasise them much. And how do I stop looking like an antisocial twunt - do I just not go into great detailabout what the project was?

How do I answer:
Initiative. Give an example of when you have promoted a new idea or changed a way of doing things in your current/previous job.

God that's easy. Ilx improvements made things easier to use here; you got a wide variety of people all over the world, of various skills and strengths, to accede authority to you, the shy student person, without making anyone cross or fucking up.

HMV is a good first job; they'd be lucky to get you.

Awww. Thanks Suzy. I can't answers ilxor for everything, can I?

Also be honest (where it helps). You want experience in a retail situation and since you are a student you obv. need the money. Also well worth tying in the NUS 10% discount students get at HMV as a big reason for their success in that field.

And the cute lil' doggie.

I'd only mention ILX twice at the most and in different contexts. Make up a job working for a relative or find somebody willing to give you a "yeah Graham he worked for me, good bloke" type reference. If you must be totally honest give examples of times in college when you've used your initiative/made a suggestion etc. Everyone makes stuff up on these things, trick is to keep a copy in case you forget your own bullshit!

I wouldn't get too stressed about the application form, it'll be the standard form they give everyone, from temp christmas staff to department managers and even beyond.

if anything, don't over sell yourself, otherwise they might feel you'd be completely over qualified and get bored, or start telling them how they should be doing things differently.

On the other hand, they might want people who may well fit into the company when they're available for full time work.

You're more than capable of doing the job, and that's all you have to get over in the application form.

I don't have to give references until they offer the job.

Don't worry about the application form. I wrote total rubbish and still got the job. Basically just show lots of enthusiasm for music/film/games etc, and a bit of knowlege about it, and that's about it...
oh and HMV strengths.. customer service.. they like that

"I don't have to give references until they offer the job"

Yeah I know that, just meant if you are gonna make up jobs make sure you have somebody to back it up, that's all.

Anyway, I take back my advice as I am officially in a huff over my lack of wedding invitation!

I''m filling this in right now and giving it in today (eep) - any final suggestions?

Blimeyk, I've actually filled it now (trying to shoehorn teamwork into the intitiative question = not a good idea at all)

Now I've just got to hand it over.

They've taken the signs down, and I can't face trying to hand in a form in the knowlegde that [probably] the jobs have gone. Am I wrong?

(I notice they have signs up in Virgin accross the way though)

how do i answer

HMV product knowledge. what do you consider are your strengths in knowledge of the product HMV sells? how do you gain/build upon your knowledge?

is "I watch Popworld" a good answer to this?

Just go in saying, "I have no fucking clue about music" and you'll be fine.

Tell them you could copy-edit their job applications, so they didn't contain phrases like "strengths in knowledge of the product."

Just say, hey, I'm (insert age here), I listen to a lot of music!
I wouldn't think they'd have a hard time finding music geeks to fill these jobs. I'd think they'd be more concerned with reliability and friendliness. You could tell them that! Tell them their application is STUPID.