Unfortunately, my experience interviewing with Primark was disappointing from start to finish.
The recruitment process appears to have recently been outsourced to Mumbai, India, and my initial interaction with the recruiter felt underprepared and unprofessional. The first phone screening consisted largely of generic questions that had already been clearly answered within my CV, including basic queries around years of experience in Internal Communications.
I progressed to the next stage with a UK based recruiter and the Global Head of Internal Communications (UK&I). This is where concerns really started to surface.
Despite the role being positioned as relatively senior, there seemed to be very little clarity around what they actually wanted from the successful candidate. The interview lacked structure and consistency throughout. One moment the discussion focused on strategic crisis communications, while the next centred around basic creative tools such as Canva. For a senior-level position, many of the competency questions felt surprisingly junior and poorly aligned to the scope of the role they had initially described.
What stood out most was the lack of clarity around reporting lines, onboarding, and long-term expectations. The interviewer made it clear they would not actually be my line manager, yet there was little detail provided around who would be leading the function or how success in the role would be measured.
When I asked what support or onboarding structure would be in place to help someone succeed, the only real response was that the successful candidate would need to “hit the ground running.” There was no meaningful discussion around the first 3–6 months, priorities, or how the business intended to support someone stepping into the role.
I later learned the previous person in the position had left after only six months, which unfortunately aligned with the impression I had formed during the process.
Ultimately, I withdrew before the final stage as the experience left me with little confidence in the business.