When one thinks about the spirit of Britain, especially London, Links of London is hoping that their charm, elegance, and world-renowned reputation make them the firm that immediately comes to the discerning consumer’s mind.

Driven by quality and designing fine jewelry and watches with a British motif, the firm prides itself on creating unique experiences for their global customers.(1) Links of London is a subsidiary of the publicly traded Folli Follie Holdings S.A., selling 18-karat gold and 925 sterling silver jewelry in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and the Caribbean. With its 650 employees worldwide, it is considered to be the English equivalent of New York’s Tiffany’s & Co.(2)

It was the summer, and Krissy was perusing LinkedIn when she noticed an advertisement for the assistant store manager position at Links of London for their Madison Avenue, New York, flagship location. She was very excited about the position and working for Links of London for several reasons:

She had a “passion for fashion” and wanted to work in the

“luxury fashion center” of Manhattan—near Saint Laurent, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton.

She had recently been accepted to an MBA program in fashion merchandising and felt that with this additional education she could work her way up into corporate headquarters and apply her acquired knowledge to the firm’s best advantage.

She went to their website, read about their culture and values, and wanted to work for a firm that wanted employees who were accountable and proactive, passionate and innovative, ambitious and driven, knowledgeable and engaging, and respectful and honest.(3)

Krissy continued to surf Links’s website and read about their benefits and career development. She was most impressed with the following statement:

Our objective is to match the needs of the Company with those who work for us. We believe in training and developing our people and teams to deliver high performance to achieve the Company objectives and demonstrate our People Values, which maximizes job satisfaction for our teams. We are often looking for bright and enthusiastic new people to join our team, whether it is assisting our customers in one of our stores or behind the scenes at one of our offices.

Links of London is a great place to work and we are immensely proud of our brand and our people, so if you are interested in joining a Company that rewards talent and invests in people, then we would love to hear from you.(4)

Krissy immediately hit the “check out our vacancies” tab, but hit a small roadblock—the link took her to a website on LinkedIn that said, “Oops, try again.” She tried several more times but to no avail. Undaunted, she contacted the Links of London Madison Avenue store directly and was told that there was an opening for an assistant store manager and that she could apply online.

Questions 1. What types of fit was Links of London looking for in their employees, according to their career services website?
2. W hat are the steps in the selection process, and where did this process seem to falter with Krissy?
3. W hat determines if a question is acceptable in a preemployment inquiry, and what questions might have been deemed unacceptable on Links’s job application?
4. Krissy took a personality test as well as a test of her integrity yet not a job-specific cognitive test. What might be the firm’s rationale for using the tests they did?
5. W hat type of interview did the store manager seem to conduct using what type of questions?
6. What steps should have been taken when conducting the interview? Did the store manager miss any of them?
7. If you were Krissy, would you accept the job offer?