Coolblue Sales Associate Interview Questions
& Process

Education doesn't matter. Whether you're a post-master student or an mbo student, you're chosen based on experience. If you pass, you'll get a call. Otherwise, you get a standard rejection email. A friend got that. I got a call from a young guy. Turned out to be a recruiter, early in his career, assessing staff for the store. That was his whole day. He didn't know anything about tech. You only qualified if your CV mentioned something relevant to the job, like 3+ years in an electronics store or a YouTube channel for your singing. For the application, you also had to write a long assignment, which he hadn't even read. It took him a few days. He only looked at work experience, and I got to come in for a chat. Later, in the actual interview, I found out the pay was only 9.05 euro cents per hour! The current minimum wage is 8.87 euro for 23+. So your years of tech knowledge are worth only 18 cents more. I started laughing at the amount and said during the interview I wouldn't work for that. After the interview, I couldn't stop laughing. Back home, I checked the CAO Coolblue is part of and saw the 38-hour rule applies. It says: 'The amounts apply to employees who work an average of 38 hours per week, calculated over a period of maximum 1 year; for part-time workers, the salary is calculated proportionally.' You should be earning at least 9.34 euro for a gross minimum wage with 38 hours. Look it up. So Coolblue is paying 0.29 euro per hour less than the CAO prescribes! No wonder they make so much revenue if they give so little to their staff. Not only do they pay little, but they also work against the CAO terms. What crooks! Imagine if you were a post-master student: you'd be working there for 9.05 cents!

The interview process included 3 conversations. The first was a phone intro call with 1 person to gauge your overall impression and get a general feel for you. The second conversation was in one of the store offices with 2 store managers, where they asked a lot about yourself in person. The main goal of this conversation was for the managers to really get to know you so you felt comfortable and they knew who they were dealing with. They also talked a lot about themselves so you had an idea of who they were, which was reassuring. After this conversation, I got to shadow for an hour in the Rotterdam store to see exactly how things worked. The third conversation is the one where you are hired on the condition that you have a 30-day trial period starting on a specific date.

The application process was pleasant and relaxed. The colleague was friendly, helpful and created a nice atmosphere. I felt comfortable and received a clear explanation about the role and the company.