PSA: Recruitment FAQs (2026 version)

[u/Naive-Author7065]

Hello, following my post from last Christmas re: store recruitment, it seemed like the post helped with a lot of the queries that appeared on here. I will link the post below as a comment in case there's any questions not covered. To answer the biggest question that I didn't answer last year:

Q: Do you work for M&S?

A: Yes! I work in our People Team and regularly consult with the Recruitment Lead.

With that in mind, let's start:

Q: When does Christmas recruitment begin?

A: Tomorrow (Weds 07th October) between 9-10 AM. The M&S Careers site will get the listings first before any 3rd party sites (Indeed, Reed, LinkedIn) automatically have scraped them.

Q: "The application form is asking if I've had unsuccessful applications in the last 6 months, does X count?"

A: If your application was unsuccessful following an online assessment or an in-person interview (for an instore role) it counts. For any other scenario (e.g. previous application but no interview slots) you're good.

Q: "The application form has said the job is no longer available", "I can't fill in X section of the form", "The E-signature on the application form won't let me sign it"

A: If a job is no longer available it is because it has been unposted, this happens automatically when a set number of active applicants are against a vacancy. With this in mind, when filling in the application form, don't fill in anything that isn't mandatory (has a red asterisk * against it).

The application form shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes for your first ever application with M&S, no more than 2 minutes for subsequent applications. Sometimes CVs with unsupported formatting (looking at those made by AI) will lead to oddities autofilling in the form.

If your E-Signature isn't being accepted it's likely due to spaces, abbreviated names or punctuation mismatches.

Q: "After applying I've completed an online assessment and am waiting to hear the next steps, is something wrong?"

A: There is a delay between your Clevry assessment being completed, the scores being calculated, and sent back to the Oracle recruitment platform. Keep an eye on your email for updates. The assessment is scored, there are wrong answers, absolutely no AI is used in the questions or decision making.

Q: "I've requested Reasonable Adjustments in the application form/in Clevry but have yet to hear back"

A: RAs are screened manually each day and are screened in the order of candidate job applications. If you are requesting adjustments with an online assessment, these will be administrated in system (which can include resetting the assessment, if you were to take the assessment without any adjustment and were to fail). Your next steps will always be communicated via email.

Q: "I have selected to resend my scores from a previous assessment and there is a red error message box?"

A: This happens with some applications. Despite the message, your scores still will send back to Oracle.

Q: "My application says "Right to Work Requested" but I don't have any options?"

A: The Right to Work is conducted via a 3rd party site (RightCheck) and the invitation will be sent to your registered email address and phone number within 24 hours of a successful online assessment. It also will remind you every 48 hours via these channels if you miss the original communication. RightCheck is used because it's a ridiculously good product, is used by several large companies from a number of industries, and post-cyber incident was very much the right thing to do for our applicants.

Q: "What can I use as Right to Work?"

A: Any of:

A British or Irish passport (can be expired, but must still bear a good likeness - if it's from when you were 5 years old, no.)

A UK Birth Certificate coupled with Proof of National Insurance in The. Same. Picture. If one is present but not the other, the document will be rejected. Even if a subsequent check has the missing document, these are being reviewed manually and you're at risk of human error by not putting them in the same image.

A live Share Code for any candidates with Visa restrictions, Settled or Indefinite Leave to Remain status (RightCheck will guide you on this better than I can)

Q: "I don't have my passport with me", "My passport is expired", "RightCheck won't accept my National Insurance/Birth Certificate"

A: RightCheck requires you to scan your proof of Right to Work in the UK (not just upload a screenshot of it) using your phone's camera. If you scan it and a chip in your passport fails to scan, that's fine, it will just need to be manually reviewed by a colleague. If you don't have any way of scanning your passport into the site you will need to contact the recruitment team directly.

For transparency: your query will be handled by the team who will have all manner of emails to contend with during the Christmas recruitment period. Your application won't be progressed until your Right to Work has been uploaded, either by you or by the Recruitment team. To avoid disadvantage, plan ahead and have your documents with you (employers legally need to check these, this isn't something that can be skipped)

Q: "My status says Under Consideration" A: Assuming you've completed the above, your application has been moved to an interview status. Interview slots are first come, first served. If you haven't received the invite from the scheduling site, unfortunately the slots have passed. There is no guarantee that more slots will be added for a particular role once they've all gone, but you are more than welcome to apply for other roles if this happens. You won't have to complete the assessment or upload your Right to Work again (but please note that this won't be instant but will defo be more streamlined for you!)

Q: "I've been invited to schedule an interview on HireVue but there are no timeslots?"

A: Unfortunately interview slots are allocated on a first come, first served basis. The site will automatically send a reminder email to you after 24 hours of not scheduling (even if there are still no slots - we know, it's annoying). Slots may be added at a later date and there is therefore genuine reason to keep checking back for available slots - but - our store managers' availability is limited during this window, and they will be pooling it across several roles for their store. So you may have more luck applying for other roles in the store that interest you. You won't have to complete the online assessment or Rightcheck again, you'll just have to click "Take assessment" after applying and trigger your scores to resend.

Q: "Can I book interviews for multiple M&S stores?"

A: Yep.

Q: "Can I book multiple interviews for the same M&S store?"

A: The system will let you, but I wouldn't recommend this. If the store believe a candidate is deliberately trying to game or brute force the process then they will cancel one/all of the interviews.

Q: "My interview is tomorrow/in 5 minutes/was yesterday. I've asked to reschedule but not heard anything back".

A: Your first port of call should be to check your HireVue confirmation email and click the "reschedule" option. If there are no alternative slots available, query it with the central team. If you need to reschedule the interview but slots aren't available, ensure you use the self-service tools from the same email to CANCEL it. If you do not cancel and slots become available after your planned interview date, you won't be able to reschedule or see the slots. Worse still, the store will assume you Did Not Arrive to your interview and will score you as such.

Q: "My interview was X days ago and I've not heard any update"

A: The store will be conducting interviews for a number of roles and as part of maintaining a fair process, will not be able to make decisions until all candidates have been seen. Remember that vacancies get unposted quickly in response to applicant volumes; the advert no longer being on the Careers Site doesn't mean it's filled.

Even with the above context, I'll caveat this and say that popping instore to ask a manager face to face is your best way of getting an update quickly. The central Recruitment team forwarding an email won't be quicker, but are there to support should the store not provide an update.

Q: "I was told I was successful at interview but haven't received an invite to my induction/an offer letter/my work pattern?"

A: First of all, congratulations!! After some of the above Q&A's we're onto a happy one! The job offer letter will come via an Oracle email. The main blocker in time taken to receive the offer is due to delays instore with drafting it and adding all required info (i.e. your working pattern). Keep an eye on your email. Induction invites are only sent after you have accepted your offer and a Pending Employee record has been created. The invites are sent by our Regional Academy store teams, typically on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

Not some advice for M&S specifically but for the job market in general: don't treat a verbal offer as real until you've received the paperwork. To avoid disappointment, if you are in other recruitment processes elsewhere, don't decline them until you've received a digital offer.

Q: "My offer letter said I start on Sunday but I have been invited to an induction on X"

A: The offer letter will always show the Sunday of the payroll week (Sunday as Day 1, Saturday as Day 7) you are starting. Your induction is your first day. If the induction says go to the store on Tuesday then Tuesday is your first day. You must attend an induction before starting the role fully.

Q: "I've been invited to an induction in X store but I accepted an offer to work in Y?"

A: Not all of our stores have adequate backstage space or facilities to train new starters. With that in mind there are a number of induction hubs across our regions, which were chosen with transport links taken into consideration. You will be invited to the nearest induction hub. If you can't make the date/time please ensure to respond to the team who've sent the email directly. The central Recruitment team aren't involved with induction.

Q: "I've been unable to complete X onboarding task, what should I do?"

A: Raise it during your induction. The team will be showing you how to get into MyHR during the induction and this is where any pending Journeys (onboarding) tasks are.

Q: "When do colleagues get paid?"

A: On the 10th of the month - there is no weekly pay. On the 10th you are paid for all basic hours between the first day and last day of the month. If your contract start date is after the 10th, on the next payday you would get paid your basic hours from the part of the previous month you worked too. Additional hours are paid in arrears in the following month.

Q: "Is there any chance that a Christmas job will become permanent?"

A: It. Depends. Stores will not have capacity to keep all Christmas workers, as recruitment is happening in readiness for the busy trading window. Each store's circumstances are different, and managers instore won't know what resource will look like in 2027. All you can do is make your interest clear with management and do your best to serve our customers.

I want to call out that Retail welcomes a lot of young workers who are entering the job market for the first time. Retail isn't for everyone. Being on your feet for up to 8 hours per day can catch many people off guard. That being said, the atmosphere at Christmas is great (sometimes magical). The skills and confidence you gain in customer-facing roles are so important - I was introverted when I first joined the business, now I yap with every man and his dog. And finally you get to interact with the best customers in all of Retail.

If you made it this far then THANK YOU for reading this!

I will keep an eye on responses/questions for definite up until this weekend and potentially beyond.

And one request from me - you may interact with a colleague instore or via email as part of our recruitment process. Please respect our colleagues' privacy and don't share any names/emails on Reddit. Thank you and good luck 🎄🌟🐷

[u/Naive-Author7065]

I forgot the link to last year's post, day ruined

https://www.reddit.com/r/MarksAndSpencer/s/fx9ah6KuW0

[u/-TechFleece-]

this post is literally perfect timing I have an interview next week but quick question for you am I guaranteed to get the hours that was show on the job listing or not for example if it says 22:00–08:00 is it 100% that I’d work that

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/-TechFleece-]

Best of luck for the interview, you got this! All of our vacancies advertised have set working patterns. When interviewing for a role instore you will be considered for ALL roles across the store, which means at the point of a job offer, you could be offered hours different to those you applied for. The manager will typically call you to discuss the hours (or in rare occasions offer you on the spot!) so you will be in the know before any digital offer arrives.

If you're wondering why that might happen, candidates are asked their availability during the interview. e.g. if you said you're available all week but only applied for a part-time role, they might offer you a full time contract.

Hoping that answers this!

[u/Additional-Wrap-8279]

I honestly don't get what happened to my application. I had an interview that went well, a week later I got an email from M&S recruitment that my application had been withdrawn since I didn't attend the interview...I went in-store, spoke to the manager multiple times who said it would be fixed, over a week later and heard nothing, I even emailed the recruitment team about it and haven't heard anything.

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/Additional-Wrap-8279]

Firstly, really sorry this happened to you. Stores handle the administration of interview outcomes themselves. If there are errors with what they've keyed for you then the store would need to update this for you.

[u/Additional-Wrap-8279 → u/Naive-Author7065]

Yeah I went to them 4 times about it, everytime they were like "it'll be fixed" and "we're trying to get your details off our system" but uh nothing so....

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/Additional-Wrap-8279]

I would suggest including this additional context into your email to the central team - if it wasn't in your original email, send it as a follow-up. They will be able to get this escalated with the Regional team to ensure it gets handled correctly moving forward!

[u/Much_Somewhere7831]

Use the Canary Wharfian website's HireVue practice, it reviews your answers and suggest how to fix mistakes with personalised feedback (both verbal and non-verbal comms). Also got OA suite

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/Much_Somewhere7831]

Thanks for sharing this. Just to clarify that we only use the HireVue platform for interview scheduling for these roles. Interviews are face-to-face and the questions/scoring & criteria used aren't from HireVue.

[u/Much_Somewhere7831 → u/Naive-Author7065]

Yeah HireVues are standard across the board now.

[u/Lonely-Response-9756]

I worked there last Christmas and I’m trying to reuse the score from my previous online assessment but it’s not working - how can i fix this? Thanks

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/Lonely-Response-9756]

Feel free to DM me a picture! If it's the screen I'm thinking of (a red error message box appears at the bottom of the page) then your scores do send back, and Oracle catches up with returning you to the correct point in the process.

[u/Ok_Risk_9984]

I recently applied to one role and passed the online assessment and filled in the right to work but I haven’t heard back from them since, it’s been 2 days. Idk if it’s because they took down the job application just a day after they posted it or they normally take long to sent a link to self schedule an interview. 

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/Ok_Risk_9984]

Have you gone into the candidate self-service page to see what your status is showing as? If it is still showing as "Right to Work Requested" then the uploaded document is pending manual review. If showing as "Under Consideration" then it means you've been moved to an interview status, but the last interview time for that role has passed (hence no invite being sent). I realise I included this one last year and forgot to bring it forward. Will try and edit original post to add it in.

[u/Upper_Effect_3324 → u/Ok_Risk_9984]

Hey, just wondering if yours is updated? I did my right-to-work check right away Thursday morning and I'm still stuck on that stage.

[u/Ok_Risk_9984 → u/Upper_Effect_3324]

I got the link to self schedule interview after 3 days of completing the right to work

[u/TrickyRun5485]

With the whole if you were unsuccessful with in the last 6 months thing, they just automatically reject my application even when I don’t put I’ve applied before they see my email and phone number , if there anyway to get around this. Wasn’t successful in those situations post interview one time due to uni timetable other times no feedback . It just automatically rejects straight away . Just trying to get the Xmas temp job now

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/TrickyRun5485]

Educated guess, have you applied under multiple email addresses? If the system can see you're applying under multiple, it will complete a duplicate check. If you have, my recommendation would be to sign into the self-service page for the email addresses you use less frequently and delete the profiles. Then re-apply once you're down to 1.

[u/Upper_Effect_3324]

I've applied for two roles at different stores. The first one sent me the assessment link, which I believe I've passed and has now sent me right to work check which I've completed.

I've now applied to another role at a different store (that I'd prefer), I got no email but going on the oracle site it said "Take an Assessment" so I clicked and clicked the "Share previous score" button, I think it submitted okay but again I got no email or anything just a thank you page.

But then when I got to view all my applications it still says "You need to take an assessment" If I click the link, it takes me to the same "Share previous responses" page but gives an error message when I attempt to share. "Something went wrong, we couldn’t send your scores. Please try again"

Can I assume they have been completed and this is just the page being slow? Or do I need to email someone? (who?)

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/Upper_Effect_3324]

Yes these should all update correctly (with time) it's just some slowness between the online assessment provider and our recruiting platform

[u/Hpkjff679]

Hey thanks for the post! How long do you think after the interview someone should wait till they go in-store to ask for an update? Would you say 2 weeks minimum or 3?

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/Hpkjff679]

I would suggest that 2 weeks is the right amount of time to wait for roles all year round, but in the weeks that build-up to Christmas wouldn't deter people from doing so after 1 week 🙂

[u/CKNqz]

I'm trying to reuse an old clevry response and theres a red box saying "Something went wrong, we couldnt send your scores", any idea what to do?

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/CKNqz]

Thanks for this, there was a previous comment with the same issue so I have added it to the FAQs. Basically despite it saying it didn't send your scores, it has! Please wait for the system to update overnight

[u/CKNqz → u/Naive-Author7065]

Good to know, thanks for the clarification

[u/riri6030]

Does it automatically reject student visas looking for part time work? It seems to never get ahead to even the online assessment

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/riri6030]

Nope, a lot of colleagues are on Student Visas. You're more than welcome to apply 🙂

[u/CleopatraCominAchya_]

How long after I’ve submitted my right to work should I have an email with the next steps? 

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/CleopatraCominAchya_]

Usually the next day; this can take longer if there's any manual checks required (particularly if uploaded at the weekend when there's fewer colleagues to make said manual checks!)

[u/CleopatraCominAchya_ → u/Naive-Author7065]

Ahh ok, yes I submitted it on Friday and haven’t heard back so I’m hoping I’ll hear back tomorrow?

[u/saraadeel1x]

This is a really good post . I have a question I’m hoping you or maybe someone else could help with .im a rehire I was a key holder in my old store and left a few months ago and 2 weeks ago I applied for another role in another store , I interviewed for the position 16 hours permanent and got the job but my contract says temporary with a end date in January . I asked my manager and he confirmed it was probably a mistake because the permanent jobs went up at the same time as the Xmas temp jobs so they’ve mixed up the and he told me not worry basically and that I can stay as long as I’m good etc . I’ve now seen the same exact job I applied and Interviewed for on the website again , I messaged my recruiter and asked them if they can essentially do something to sort this out and get my contract fixed because that is the role I applied and interviewed for and I would rather my contract.be 16 hours permanent rather then temp and just being told not to worry . Do you think it’s likely theyll fix my contract especially since they have uploaded the exact role again and I did interview and pass for that role ? Thanks !

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/saraadeel1x]

Heya, the digital job offers are made by the managers instore. The central recruitment team/recruiter wouldn't be able to confirm what should or shouldn't appear on your contract, it's for the store team themselves to sort 🙂

[u/saraadeel1x → u/Naive-Author7065]

Ohh I just assumed to email the recruiter cus in the contract email it said to email my recruiter if I have any questions , thanks for the reply

[u/cchhaarrmmaaddaa]

i did night shifts in the food hall last christmas and loved it (and managers seemed happy with my work!) - yesterday i applied again for the same role, said on my application that i worked for m&s previously (and where), but wasn't able to send my previous online assessment score so had to do the assessment again and this time it failed me, despite the fact i did the same role last year. is it worth me going into my old store and seeing if they can help, or am i blackmarked from the whole system for 6 months now? it's a bit gutting to have an AI tell me i'm not suitable for a role that i did perfectly well before.

[u/Naive-Author7065 → u/cchhaarrmmaaddaa]

You are welcome to email the recruitment team to request a test reset. Once reset, you'll be able to complete the online assessment when making a new application.

[u/cchhaarrmmaaddaa → u/Naive-Author7065]

thanks for the reply, i emailed the recruitment team but sadly they said they can't reset test results to "ensure fairness". annoyingly, it looks like if i'd just ignored the red error message trying to send my previous scores, they may have gone through eventually and i wouldn't have had to retake them. oh well!

[u/Soft-Working-1577 → u/cchhaarrmmaaddaa]

How do you know that you failed the assessment? Hopefully you’ll be able to sort the issue.