Report on Merchandising Assistant Application for Arcadia Group

This report analyzes a merchandising administrative assistant application for the Arcadia Group. The assignment includes a cover letter, a CV, and answers to interview questions, providing a comprehensive overview of the candidate's qualifications and experience. The cover letter highlights the ca...Read More

Managing People and
Careers

Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................2
Cover letter..........................................................................................................................................2
Application form..................................................................................................................................5
CV for Merchandising Administrative Assistant..............................................................................8
Reflection notes from interview practice...........................................................................................9
Reflection notes of assessment centre practice................................................................................10
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................11
References..........................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
Career is the process of developing skills and knowledge in a particular field
throughout the lifetime. Managing people within an organisation is necessary for utilising
their skills for the betterment of the firm. Selecting suitable candidates for any job vacancy is
the toughest task for any organisation. The selection process is based on the qualifications of
candidates which are necessary for performing the job effectively and efficiently for
achieving the organisational goals. In this report assignment, a cover letter, CV and answer
questions for the position of merchandising administrative assistant at Arcadia group will be
provided for analysing the potential of candidate for the given position. Through this report
management can determine whether the position is suitable for the candidate, if yes then they
will analyse whether the candidate can provide suitable policies and support for enhancing
the profit and sales of the firm.
Cover letter
Jonathan Samuels
CA3 8LU, United Kingdom
[phone]
[e-mail]
Date: 11 December, 2018
Subject: Applying for Merchandise Administration Assistant
Respected Sir,
I am applying for the position of Merchandise Administration Assistant which you had
advertised in Herald Sun on the 28th November 2018. A quick introduction of mine is as
follows for this position; I am a skilled and encouraged professional in the merchandising
field with an experience of 2 years in the retail. I had very good knowledge regarding this
position which will help me in achieving the company’s objectives.
My background qualifications include planning and implementing strategies for plans
and policies for merchandising, managing various functions of stores, inventory management
for enhancing the profitability and revenue of the organisation. Throughout my experience, I
acquired success in my duties and decisions for increasing the sales and margin of the
company and products. Due to my experience and abilities of providing comprehensive

administrative support to company it will impact me positively for contributing much to the
firm.
Mt achievements and experiences for demonstrating my skills and qualities are given below:
 Experience of inventory management, purchasing/order placement, sales reports, and
sellers/purchasers relationship management.
 Providing ecommerce advices for improving the website of stores and to enhance the
sales, Also played a key role in enhancing the online sales by 49% in 2015, 67% in
2016, and 77% in 2017.
 Supporting all aspects and maintenance of retail merchandise systems, including
seller set-up, sold order management, and error debugging in system.
 Providing administrative support for work like maintaining records, processing of
invoice, staff training, etc.
 Coordinating effectively with cross-functional departments such as logistics, supply,
finance, and marketing.
 Working within deadlines in tough environment with full efficiency of performing
my roles.
Educational qualifications:
I had completed my high school from St. Wilfred high school, Edinburgh in 2004. Then I
pursued my BBM from Manchester University of Management with an aggregate of 7.9
CGPA from 2005-2009. I had completed by MBA from London school of Business with an
Aggregate of 8.1 CGPA from 2009-2014.
Professional Experience:
I had 2 Years of experience as a merchandising manager assistant for handling the
various Aldi stores of Petersburg from 2014- 2016. After two years I switched to Tesco and
recently left the position. There I had 2 years of experience as an assistant manager at the
headquarters of Tesco Corporation.
My educational I had proved my dedication towards working with full efficiency for
increasing the productivity of the organization. I had experience of optimizing merchandising
Processes and enhancing revenue growth with the help of my strong analytical and

interpersonal skills. These will contribute hugely to the success of this company in future
time, if given a chance for working with your company.
Thank you for considering me for this position. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Johnson Samuels

Application form
Several questions which are asked by the interviewers of the Arcadia Group are given below
with answers:
1. Why do you want to work for us?
I want to work for your company in order to enhance my skills and knowledge regarding
the various process and functions of merchandising manager. My main goal is to get
promotion to the merchandising manager for increasing the sales and revenue of the firm by
implementing suitable policies and strategies so that the motivation and working efficiency of
the employees can be enhanced for getting good results from them. I understand about the
position very much due to 4 years of experience in retail industry and I want to implement
that knowledge in this company so that the financial strength of the company can improve in
the market. Arcadia is a big name in retail industry of United Kingdom and also the company
is providing good quality products to their consumers. Some of my friends are working in
Arcadia and their feedback regarding the company is also a major factor with which I am
impressed by the company. The working environment is very good along with supportive
staff. The managers of this company are also making every effort for improving the economic
condition of their employees through rewards and other monetary benefits.
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 BBA, I was provided with a team for a group assignment in Business project
Management. The objective of this assignment was to develop team spirits and leadership
qualities among the various members for enhancing their skills and knowledge for their
future career. I was elected as the project leader and also the project was regarding the
development of leaders, so it was an excellent opportunity for me to lead the team for
showing them the way of leader’s working. First thing which I did was assigning the different
tasks to different members of the team. By this the mentally pressure of the members
becomes less. Throughout my project, I provided the necessary support and motivation to the
team members for improving their skills. I had also provided the necessary resources such as
funds, Information and data etc. Some members are facing problems sometimes in doing their
assigned task, and then I need to come forward with innovative ideas for providing support
and solution to the member for performing the task well and efficiently. By providing

solutions, members are now working correctly and only then the task was achieved in
predetermined time.
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?)
During the project which I discussed above, a problem was aroused in front of a member.
There are many qualities which can be considered as best quality but my classmate wants to
know about the best quality which he can convey to the management of the college for
selecting best leaders in the classes and of the college. This problem was arisen due to bad
image of the Student union representative. It was a tough decision to select best quality for
the leaders and managers without which their leadership is nothing but a position to the
members or followers. That fellow was from other city and told me that some persons of
local city are bullying him regarding his colour and country. He went to the representative
and told everything regarding the issue. Two weeks later, we find out that representative was
ignoring the boy and his issue. After that me and my friend went to those people and told
them to stay away from him otherwise suitable action will be taken against them from the
college. Then we get to know that the best leadership quality was courage and confidence to
do the right things which the representative lacks. We told about this situation to the
management and he appointed me the representative of student union.
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?)
It was the time of my MBA, I was absent from the college from 1 month due to an
accident. When I resumed the college, I get to know that 5 of my college projects re pending
and has to be submitted in 2 weeks. I started working on the projects for finishing them in
that given time. I had to manage the various functions, tasks, resources etc. I had the
experience of handling teams during my BBA, so I first build the plan for finishing these
projects in their assigned time. 3 projects were finished in 10 days when I was working with
full efficiency and without any problem. But when I was performing the 4th project, I get to
know that the project was not theory based but practical. In that a situation was given for the
leaders and they need to provide solution of the problem to the team members. The situation
was similar to my situation as that situation was also regarding the time management skills of
leaders and how they provide solutions of the given task so that the work can get finished on

the right time. In that assignment I had to make a video for the situation. So I took the camera
and recorded everything I had done for 4th project. After that I tried very hard without
thinking of food and sleep. After 2.5 days remaining two projects were also completed. I was
very happy that the work was finished before the time. That video was completed with my
last assignment and also the video says that leaders just not only need to do the hard work but
also smart work for executing the work on time.
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?)
My first project of BBM was allotted to me in first month which was a survey on how the
perfect leaders can be built for improving the performance of the company very rapidly. So, I
need to gather data from various primary sources which are face to face interviews,
questionnaire, suggestions etc. and secondary sources which are online sources, books and
articles. So I started with secondary data first and gathered all the necessary data from online
sources and prepared a questionnaire for the taking opinions of the respondents. After the
questionnaire was collected I analysed the data from both primary and secondary resources.
There was a variation in some information between primary and secondary sources. For
eliminating this variation, I was thinking to take feedbacks and suggestions from other people
who are successful leaders. So I went to some politicians and high level government officials
and took their valuable opinion for the same. Through their opinion I eliminated the variation
and concluded in the report that perfect leaders are made by facing difficult situations and
failures in taking their decision. These decisions when lead to decreased productivity, then
leaders try gain hard to overcome these results and provide better suggestions.

CV for Merchandising Administrative Assistant
Johnson Samuels
CA3 8LU, United Kingdom
[phone]
[e-mail]
Professional Summary
I am a skilled and encouraged professional in the merchandising field with an
experience of 2 years in the retail industry. I had very good knowledge regarding the position
of merchandising administrative assistant which will help me in achieving the company’s
objectives. I want to improve these existing qualities and knowledge by working with a well-
established corporation like Arcadia group.
Professional Experiences
2014-2016: merchandising assistant manager at Aldi.
Responsibilities include:
 Inventory and stocks management.
 Managing retail outlets operations and functions.
 Building strong client relations.
2016-2018: assistant manager at the Tesco Corporation
Responsibilities include:
 Meeting quarterly determined targets.
 Sales and budget management.
 Maintaining stocks and sales data of products sold.
2018- present: Acting manager at Tesco Corporation
Responsibilities include:
 Implementing online and offline marketing strategies.
 Managing end-user sales and budgets.
 Implementing merchandising strategies for company framework.

Education High school from St. Wilfred high school, Edinburgh in 2004. BBM from Manchester University of Management with an aggregate of 7.9 CGPA
from 2005-2009. MBA from London school of Business with an Aggregate of 8.1 CGPA.
Achievements
 Team leader in Team management project during my BBM.
 Volunteered for blood donation camp
 Maintained activities of group members during technical fest of my college.
The above mentioned information is true to my beliefs and I had adequate proof for the
same. I want to opt for management field because of my particular interest in the same.
Through my experience and qualifications, I want to build a better world for the workers of
my corporation in order to improve their as well as my skills and knowledge which can be
used for the betterment of the firm. With my skills and knowledge, I can take proper
judgements and implement suitable strategies for the future development of the firm in the
market.
Reflection notes from interview practice
I observed various positive and negative points in the interview practice which was provided
to me during the week 8 which I am going to discuss below:
 Know the favourable aspects: I made sure to note the positive aspects for a good
interview which can affect my efficiency of giving interview. I noted down every
little details regarding the interview for getting the selection for the vacancy.
 Record the shortcomings and improvement: I noted down the various shortcomings
and areas in which the improvement is needed. I noted these down so that the future
problems and issues can be reduced and to ensure the interview is going well. Also I
noted down the different questions which I need to ask to the interviewer.
 Response to difficult questions: I noted down every question which was asked in the
interview practice and will try to provide good answers to such questions in future
interviews. Also to be prepared for telling the extracurricular activities, volunteering
and internships etc.

 Eye contact and gestures: This is also a major thing for giving good interview. The
eye contact and gesture is the thing which can impress the interviewer and chances of
selection becomes more. Every aspect related to gestures such as posture, position to
sit, dressing sense etc. were noted down by me.
 Benefits from interview practice: I made sure to note the benefits of this interview
practice and the various points which are needed for successful interview. These
points are very necessary for ensuring the selection in interview.
Reflection notes of assessment centre practice
The reflection notes of my assessment centre practice for testing my ability to demonstrate
the skills required for most graduate and management vacancies are discussed below which
were identified by me:
 Commercial awareness: I find out that knowledge of business working is an essential
component for selection. This knowledge will tell the interviewer that candidate
knows the work of industry and it can be enhanced through training and other
development programs.
 Communication: Excellent verbal and written skills are very also crucial for selection
as through this the interview can determine the ability to coordinate among various
workers.
 Team work: According to me, Team players are necessary for supporting and
managing the various tasks of the teams. Good team player can motivate and
encourage the members for accomplishing the task in given time.
 Problem solving: I also noted that problem solving skills are very important for
providing quick solutions to the various issues of workers for ensuring that they are
working without any hindrances. Good problem solving skills can be helpful for
getting the job.
 Leadership: According to my views, graduates must needs to know the importance of
leadership. With suitable leadership qualities, Leaders can encourage the workers for
achieving the team as well as organisational goals.
 Ability to work under pressure: I noted this skill as this is necessary for any graduate
to have the skills for working efficiently under the pressure without any effects of it.

Conclusion
It has been concluded from the above report that selecting best candidate is the major
problem for the firms. These candidates must be selected upon their qualifications and skills
which are necessary for performing the roles efficiently. Arcadia is a big company so; it
needs workers with best and suitable skills for improving their growth rate and productivity.
The CV, questions which are asked by arcadia interviewers and cover letter are given in the
report for the position of merchandising administrative assistant. In the end, reflection note of
me are also given for determining the skills and qualities required for the vacancies based on
graduation.

References
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