ALDI Area Manager interview questions

I applied to Aldi in October 2016, the process comprised of an online application form, some online verbal reasoning tests, a video interview and an assessment day. The application itself is not very hard, just requires you to demonstrate some understanding of the business model and their pursuit for efficiency in all that they do. These can easily be retrieved online or instore. I wouldn’t get so caught up on the application as I believe everyone gets moved onto the online test stage anyway. The tests themselves again are not too difficult. I am not the best at Maths or English yet I managed to pass them. Despite what the internet says, you do not get retested on these, so I guess you can get people to assist you however it does say to do it on your own. I am not sure how long it took to discover whether I passed but I remember it not being too long. I was thereafter invited to undertake a 5 min video interview. This comprises of 9 questions which you get 30 secs to prepare for. My advice for this is to be yourself completely, here they are looking for personality and confidence. Not one of the questions are there to trip you up, and I am sure you can find many of the questions online. I was thereafter invited to an assessment day, which lasts around 3 hours. The group consisted of me and 5 others. What is important to remember is that the assessor is in a position to put all you through, or none of you, depending on your individual performances. Thus, there is no need to be over-dominate or over-powering, you really need to work together and show you can work in a team after all a leader should know the importance of their team members. The day itself was not too bad, it was not overly formal and was not too stressful. At the start we were required to give a 2 min presentation introducing ourselves and what our fav aldi product was. This can be anything from a bottle of water to a special buy product, they are not testing your knowledge here but generally wanting to know more about you. Also make sure you are paying attention to other’s in your group as the assessor are also examining your abilities to concentrate on others also. Once this is done you move on to an individual/ group exercise which requires you to examine a job description and a collection of CV’s. This is actually really difficult as you have to present your findings to the director and then work as a team and negotiate who should be put forward. Again, you shouldn’t force yourself too much. They don’t want people being overly-bearing. After this you are required to fill out a form asking who worked well in the group and who didn’t ect… they take this into account to make sure you be truthful as they know if you are not being. After this you are given a 3 min presentation on a topic you are given 10 min before. I am not exactly sure what they were requiring in this, but I presume it is your ability to engage with an audience and the time to demonstrate your aldi knowledge. before the assessment concludes you have the chance to ask questions ect, this is very informal and comforting.

The whole process has been incredibly positive for me. It started with a lengthy online application followed by situational judgement tests. A few days after completing this I was asked to take some maths tests which were difficult but not impossible and I didn't do any preparation prior to doing these texts. Then I was invited to do a one-way video interview which took around 5-10 mins to complete. This included questions such as: 1) Which region have you applied to? 2) Why Aldi? 3) What have you found out about Aldi in your research? 4) Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 5) Describe a set-back you have faced and how you overcame it. Can't remember any more but you get the gist. I was then invited to attend an assessment day. When I say day it was around 2 hours. There were 7 candidates in total. We were first asked by a very friendly interviewer to briefly introduce ourselves and describe our favourite Aldi product. This was followed by a group exercise where we had a few mins to review some CVs alone, choose one and individually present it to the group. The aim is to agree together on one candidate so try and persuade them to choose yours, even if its the wrong one in the end. I found that I was a bit quiet during this exercise and there were a couple of people who took over the discussion but I just tried to make sure I was involved without shouting over anyone, was often hard to get a word in edgeways. After this we had to do a 3 min presentation on a random topic. I had found out 6 of the topics beforehand on Glassdoor and had prepared a presentation about each one, I also took in notes in a smart black folder which was allowed. All of these topics came up in the interview however I was given a new topic I hadn't read about before and so hadn't prepared but I improvised and it was fine. The topics are: Staff, Customer Behaviour, Special Buys, Product Range, Store Layout, Till Systems and PR Marketing & Instore Advertisements. You are then asked a couple of questions about what you've presented. We then got the chance to ask our own questions and then we left. All in all this was a good day, well structured, interviewers were lovely. Around 3 weeks later I was invited to a final interviewer with the Regional Managing Director. This consisted mainly of questions about myself, my personal life, my upbringing, my hobbies, my degree etc, with a couple of competency based questions. MD was very friendly and put me at ease. One week later I received an offer via phone :)