What you get asked at a florist interview

A florist interview is rarely a formal thing. You will often be standing in the workroom, and it will often last twenty minutes, and somewhere in it the owner will decide whether they can picture you there on a Saturday in December.

That isn’t laziness on their part. Retention is the problem this trade actually has, and a lot of people leave in the first two weeks because nobody told them what the job was. The questions below are mostly aimed at that.

The questions you will get

“Have you worked a Valentine’s or a Mother’s Day?” This is the real one. It is shorthand for whether you understand what the week does to a shop. If you haven’t, say so plainly and say you know what it involves. Pretending is worse than not having done it.

“What are your hours like?” They are asking about early starts, weekends, and whether you can be there on the two weeks that matter most. A candidate who can’t work the second week of February isn’t disqualified, but the shop needs to know now.

“Can you drive?” Far more common than people expect. Deliveries are part of most small shop jobs, and a license sometimes decides it.

“What do you do when a customer wants something we haven’t got?” They want to hear you offer an alternative rather than an apology. Substitution is most of retail floristry.

“Tell me about a flower you like working with.” The trap here is answering as a customer. Say something about how it handles, how it drinks, how long it holds up in a warm room. That’s the answer of someone who has processed a box rather than bought a bunch.

What the trial shift is actually assessing

Not your design. Your speed, your tidiness, and whether you ask when you don’t know.

Expect to be given something unglamorous. Stripping stems, cleaning buckets, conditioning a delivery. This is the job, not a test you have to get through to reach the job, and treating it as beneath you is the fastest way to not get called back.

Watch how you leave the surface you worked on. A workroom runs on nobody having to tidy up after anyone, and owners notice this before they notice your bouquets.

What to ask them

You’re also deciding, and these three questions get you more than “what is the culture like”.

• “What does a normal week look like in November?” Every shop is busy in February. The quiet months tell you whether the hours you are being offered are real.
• “Who does the ordering, and will I ever?” This is the line between a job and a career here. Ordering is where the money and the responsibility sit.
• “What happened to the last person in this role?” Ask it directly. The answer, and the speed of the answer, will tell you plenty.

If the pay hasn’t been mentioned by the end, ask. You can check whether the number is reasonable against what florists actually earn, which takes apart why the salary sites disagree so wildly on this trade.