Arcadia Group Application: Managing People and Careers Portfolio

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This portfolio showcases a student's application for a Merchandise Administration Assistant position.

Managing People and Careers Portfolio
ADD NAME AND STUDENT NUMBER HERE
ADD VACANCY REFERENCE CODE HERE

Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
COVER LETTER – COPY AND PASTE YOUR COVER LETTER HERE (MAX. 500 WORDS)
Respected Sir/Madam,
I would like to apply for the position of Merchandise Administration Assistant as advertised
in company’s recruitment website futuretalent.arcadia Group.co.uk.
Having worked within the organized fashion retail sector previously and as per my
educational qualifications, I believe that the challenges and opportunities that will be
presented by the job will be very relevant and pertinent to me both in professional as well as
personal contexts. Due to prior experience in the very same sector, I can assure you that I
possess the skill set and the technical requirements that the position of the job demands.
I was also the captain of my college rugby team, because of which the values of teamwork,
discipline, punctuality, maintaining a synergy between individuals and motivating and
guiding players have been deeply ingrained within my psyche. We had come out victorious in
the inter college rugby meet for two consecutive years, which makes me strongly believe that
I would be able to achieve a similar amount of success with Arcadia at large.
My previous experience with the retail sector will also be greatly beneficial, as a large degree
of emphasis was laid on cost-effective profit maximization policies and customer satisfaction.
Meeting targets constantly and addressing problems with a solution-based approach were a
daily requirement. A steady growth was observed in the sales and revenue during my time
there and I attribute this to my industrious nature and the efficiency of my team members
largely. Consumer behavior patterns, daily inventory and accounts management systems,
forming spreadsheets and concepts of corporate accountability were comprehensively studied
during the orientation phase. Due to these, I believe I have managed to obtain an extensive
understanding of the same.
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Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
My personal interests comprise of mainly travelling and everything related to fashion. I
actively run a blog and manage the social media handles of the same as well, whereby I
curate and upload daily content related to the trends in the fashion industries globally. A
steady growth in the follower count has been witnessed, mostly due to my passion for
everything related to fashion and engaging demeanor. My travel stories to remote and far-
flung areas have also massively helped to grow my perspective about the world in general,
because of which I have been able to acquire an unbiased, open mind in my opinion which I
believe would be largely beneficial in a company like Arcadia.
Arcadia and its policies have greatly appealed to me in a very personal manner. The idea of
being professional while having fun is what I firmly believe in and stand for and the need for
a keen eye for detail is something that I try to implement in my daily life. The brands under
the wing of Arcadia are extremely reputed and I wholly understand the sensitive nature of the
retail sector. I assure you that I will do everything under my control to further maximise the
potential of the group at large.
I hope my experience and educational qualifications satisfy your requirements, and I eagerly
look forward to receiving a favorable response in this context.
Thanks and regards.
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Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
CV – COPY AND PASTE YOUR CV HERE (Maximum 2 sides of A4)
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Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
APPLICATION FORM(maximum 200 words per answer)
1. Why do you want to work for us?
Arcadia is a massively reputed organisation and people from all over the UK and the world
love the brands under their wing. From an organisational perspective, I strongly believe that
consumer satisfaction and product quality are key factors, both of which are maintained by
Arcadia at large. This is evident from their extremely strong market positions and sales
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Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
figures, and with my skill and expertise, I believe that I can further progress the figures and
foster and overall sense of growth and development internally. The employee benefits like
staff discounts, pension schemes, and regular events only add to the appealing factor of the
company. As a prior customer of Arcadia personally, I strongly feel that the work culture and
environment are extremely healthy and competitive in nature, something that I strive to look
for in any organisation within the retail sector. The ambitious nature of the Arcadia group has
also been a factor, whereby they implemented the house of brands model and expanded
rapidly across the UK. I would strive to further fulfil the organisational objectives and enable
the company to expand with a global perspective, with their products spread all across UK,
the EU, and eventually other emerging markets as well.
2. Tell us about a time you worked in a group to achieve an objective (what did you do
and what was the outcome?)
During my second semester in my bachelor’s, I had to work in a team of four to evaluate and
present a tech-based business concept. The exercise involved a heavy amount of discussion
and researching various journals, publications along with online resources. The nature of the
exercise was such that strong presentation skills, communication processes and a team-
oriented approach was a crucial approach to achieve any form of success. The initial few
weeks saw a lack of clarity and comprehension of the specifics of the concept. Appointed as
the exercise in charge, I constantly motivated and encouraged my team members to achieve a
certain degree of stability. I divided the elements of the business concept among the members
to remove any sort of over burdening of a single individual. The ensuing weeks saw us
achieve a lot of our scheduled goals and targets and our concept was almost ready for
pitching and presentation. After adding final touches, we prepared ourselves for the final
presentation. The event was a massive success, and I was awarded the best speaker for the
exercise. The concept was essentially a location-based delivery system of personal trainers,
and the presentation was awarded a first class distinction.
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Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
3. Tell us about a time when you identified a new approach to solve a problem. (What
did you do and what was the outcome?
The rugby meet was an eagerly awaited event during our degree years, and a lot of
responsibility was placed on me as the university captain. During the final year meet, we
qualified for the semi finals rather easily and were hoping to win the meet and seal the deal in
a convincing manner. As the match started, I noticed that the opponent team were a physical
bunch and were making heavy use of their line backs. Throughout the tournament, we had
maintained an aggressive offensive line approach to all the games and seen a lot of success,
but evidently this was not working in this scenario and immediate changes were required. As
the captain, I decided to implement a full defence line approach to counter their quick and
speedy line backs. Post the interval, the strategy started working and their aggressive counter
plays began to be heavily marginalized. By the end of the game, we managed to outplay and
beat them convincingly and ended up winning the annual rugby meet that year. Quick
decision-making and an analytical approach is what I believe helped us win the meet and
firmly place our story of success within our university.
4. Tell us about a time when you had to manage a number of different priorities and
complete a number of tasks in a short amount of time (what did you do and what was
the outcome?
During my previous job in the retail industry, I was managing operations and merchandising.
Being a small-scale organisation, the employee count was minimal and work pressure was
relatively high. The Easter holidays saw a sudden surge in the number of orders placed at
both our store and our online digital access point. The gap between the orders and inventory
stock was massive, and required many priorities to be effectively managed simultaneously.
As the employee count was small, I had to facilitate both the shipment and procurement
operations at our stores. Urgent orders were placed with our suppliers, who I had to visit
personally along with assistant manager to provide a more comprehensive explanation. Once
the orders were ready, multiple courier services were chosen to enable a quicker shipment
process. The orders that were outstanding were matched and supplied within two days owing
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Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
to my hard work and the overall efficiency of the employees in general. Consumer
satisfaction is a key factor in any retail industry, and the added pressure in the context of
Easter holidays was present. We managed to overcome a sketchy situation with relative ease
and managed to avoid any harm to the public image of the company.
5. Tell us about a project you worked on that required you to persuade others to your
point of view (what did you do and what was the outcome?)
There was a collaboration shoot for a small magazine along with several other fashion
influencers around two years back. I thought this would allow my personal blog to gain some
traction and because of this, I agreed to partake in the same. However, on shoot day, several
disagreements were witnessed, especially regarding the style and nature of the content to be
produced. The direction team and budget were not very extensive, which led to further
confusion and scepticism. I suggested that individual influencers carry out the shoot as per
their personal tastes and audience preferences and the magazine could later on publish a
compiled accumulation of the same. This would include a range of styles as well as appeal to
a variety of consumers, as opposed to one singly style that would cater to audiences who
liked that particular style. The influencers and the direction team agreed and thought this was
a better idea. The event turned out to be a success, whereby both the magazine received
nationwide accolades while simultaneously our individual blogs gained healthy amounts of
traction. I had to persuade the various influencers and the direction team personally to reach a
unified decision, and eventually it worked out in our favour.
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Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
INTERVIEW PRACTICE – COPY AND PASTE YOUR REFLECTION NOTES FROM YOUR INTERVIEW
PRACTICE HERE (MAX 200 WORDS IN BULLET POINT FORMAT)
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Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
ASSESSMENT CENTRE PRACTICE – COPY AND PASTE YOUR REFLECTION NOTES HERE (MAX. 200
WORDS IN BULLET POINT FORMAT)
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Managing People and Careers Assignment Template
References
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