At the interview:

They took the bunch of us to a big room and everyone sat down.
Most everyone was wearing black and hot makeup.
They asked all of our names, what our retail background was, and how old we were. Anyone under the age of 18 was not allowed to be interviewed.

Then they asked us questions like:
How many years of retail did we have and if we ever worked for an estee lauder line of makeup.
What can we contribute to MAC.
How will we meet our sales goals.
How our previous co-workers describe ourselves.
What we know about MAC [history wise, what programs they have]
If anyone had every had problems with attendence [because they DONT accept late anything. If you are early you are on time, if you are on time you are late.]
If everyone is comfortable wearing black.
If we knew any other languages.
If we wanted to work as a full-time, or freelancer/on-call.

If i remember correctly... those are all the questions that they asked.

This was for a MAC counter position at Macy's. I duno if it any different at the MAC freestanding store or a Nordstrom's MAC. But They said that they would call us if they wanted us.

It seemed as if they were looking for someone who was very flexible with their schedules and someone with TONS of retail experience.

They also only interview for their area... not ALL MACs. So i would have only been able to work for a few places in that area... which was not going according to my schedule. Oh well... maybe next time or next summer!

So i guess that im not getting it but its cool... i finally came to davis and i might work at the one here.

Hope this helps any one wanting to interview at MAC.

<3 Peonie

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a FATAL aTTraCtioN to Cuteness...

Thank you so much for taking the time to post this!! I really appreciate it and wish you luck.

thanks

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You're very welcome!

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a FATAL aTTraCtioN to Cuteness...

That was definitely helpful/informative ~ thanks!!

After youve gone through your initial oral interview the next step will be to to perform a makeup application in front of a MAC manager and Trainer. For this step you will need to bring a model and most managers require you to bring your own set of brushes. I do recommend you dress as you perceive a MAC artist would dress because that is something we look for.

The interview process is the same whether it is for a MAC store or a partnered location due to the fact you are interviewing to work for MAC and not for the department store it may be in.

i didnt have to do my demo in front of a manager or trainer. just one of the full-time artsts. and i didnt have to bring my own brushes either. i think it does vary from one place to the next.

I really need to build my retail experience and knowledge of MAC.

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I'm shocked that an established company like that actually asked your age. That has been SO illegal for years! They can ask if you are over 18 but they can't ask how old your age until you are hired and they need it for insurance and benefits. Good luck though! That would be a fun job!

Why is it illegal to ask for someone's age? They take your criminal history, SSN, addresses and previous addresses and any aliases you might use, but they can't ask your age? lol

Good luck with the job. I'm going to start trying to apply at MAC in the next couple of months. I need to hone my skills some more.

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Just because when it comes to hiring someone for a job, it can be very prejudiced to hire someone depending on their age. For example, an employer may have a preconceived notion that a 16 year old may automatically be more immature than a 19 year old and therefore won't hire them or even interview them.

Speaking as a former retail manager I can say that alot of empoyers do have age restrictions. No we can't ask your age up front, but we will find out anyway.
It's actually more of a legal issue than prejudicial one, not to say that the latter never happens though since it certainly does. It's just that by law you are considered an adult at the age of 18. Etc etc.

my 2 cents on that.

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Yup, it's a BIG HR legal issue, and yes we have other ways of finding out. They actually teach you the "sneaky" questions to ask so you can't get sued but you can get the information you want. But if you ask flat out and the person doesn't get the job, they can and have sued based on age descrimination and won or settled for big bucks. Companies have had to pay out huge amounts of money based upon this factor alone, so I was shocked they actually asked that in an interview in this day and age..go figure! oh well.

since someone mentioned discrimination i wanted to ask if MAC hires women who cover. i was interested in applying before when i wasn't covering but i have decided to since then and im afraid they won't hire me because of this. but then again isn't that religious discrimination?

anyways if anyone knows, please let me know.

I'm going to add on some questions to this list.

We were asked:

What our cosmetics exeprience was
What we feel customer service is (but it wasn't asked like this, it was asked in a confusing way lol)
Where we get our inspiration from
What our friends would describe us as