Stage 1 I was put forward by an agent to attend an initial open day, local to me, where there were 10 other candidates. This was a relatively laid back affair and mainly consisted of a presentation and 2 tests (maths and word association). We were presented to by the local Area Sales Manager, one of the Regional Directors, the sales development manger and one of the current trainees. They informed us that they were looking for 2 new trainees. We were split into 3 groups and while one group did the word association another did the maths and the other group had an informal chat with the regional director and area sales manager. You can't really prepare for the word association as it's mainly a test of vocabulary and logic but for the maths you may need to brush up on your percentages - if you are used to working out profit margins you should be ok. Stage 2 I was selected to be put forward for the second round which was a formal interview and tour at the head office in Ashton. There was 3 people left from the initial 1. The first step was the Thomas International General Intelligence Assessment (GIA) and Personality test (PPA). The test is on the computer and I was given a laptop with a trackpad and no mouse. Unfortunately as the GIA test measures speed and accuracy I feel this possibly may have led to me getting a worse score than I could have. I should have opened my mouth at the time to ask for a mouse, although it's a difficult situation as you don't want to appear awkward. Upon completion of the tests (45mins or so) I met the regional director who did part of the presentation in stage one and we went a tour of the manufacturing facility. The tour was interesting and I asked a few questions here and there. I had a satchel with me, with my notes and pens in and was told to leave this in the office before the tour. Immediately after the end of the tour I was led into the sales directors office for the interview which unfortunately meant I either had to be asked to be excused to grab my satchel (which in hindsight I should have!) or carry on without my notes and written out questions. I opted to carry on without notes and I was sat in front of the sales director, who did the bulk of the questioning, with the regional director and sales development director to the side chipping in periodically. Please see below for the questions I remember being asked. Towards the end of the interview I could tell by the body language that things probably hadn't gone my way, although I felt I performed fairly well but perhaps not to my best. As the interview was winding up I was not asked if I had any questions, so I asked if they had any hesitations about me or my experience? to which I was told by the sales director "I have lots of hesitations about your experience" but he did not pinpoint anything I could attempt to counter. He then went on to say "but this is a trainee role so it's not really about that" and then he mentioned that the sales team is a "broad church but we all have one thing in common, we're all winners". From this, I would advise trying to get across somewhere in the interview the fact that you are a "winner" maybe through sporting achievement or through your previous experience. Upon him saying this I realised immediately that I probably hadn't given them what they wanted. Unfortunately, as anticipated, I was unsuccessful on the day and was not given satisfactory feedback, especially considering Ashton is approximately 4 hours away from where I live and as my interview was in the morning, I paid for a night in a hotel just to be sure I could be there promptly. I was only told by my agent that they had a better candidate that had "blown them away" but that apparently I was liked. Along with a bit of feedback about one question below. My agent also told me that they had decided to only take one person on board this year despite us being told previously that they would take on two. I requested further feedback from the sales development manager about my testing and my interview but I never heard back. Whilst I am sure that they are a great company to work for and I certainly would have taken the role, I feel they could handle the recruitment phases better. Perhaps be more stringent at stage one (a 5 min one to one interview might help weed people out better or perhaps help discover hidden gems). This will avoid time wasting all round and if someone does take the time and expense to go to Ashton for interview I feel it is only fair to provide decent feedback when requested. For any prospective sales candidates I hope this has been helpful to you and good luck with your application! - do not take all the advice as gospel as, clearly, I did not get the role.This is simply what I would do if I had another shot.