Soo I had my interview with MAC today. I wasn't really as nervous as I thought I would be. Now, as far as my back round goes, I have been doing freelance make up for a while, but I have never worked professionally. Retail experience...lol...I worked at Old Navy back in 06' for a few months, but thats about as far as it goes. All of my other experience is with Bartending and Bar Management. I applied to my local MAC counter right before Christmas. I asked the Manager if he was hiring and he told me to come by and bring my resume, which I did the following day. Well after a few weeks, I was sure I didn't get the job, and I just continued studying the company and practicing while working my bar job. Well low and behold, the manager called me last week and asked me to come in for an interview. The only thing they told me was to make sure I wore "professional black", as you all know by now. I made sure that every product I wore on my face was MAC, and I went for a semi-dramatic look wearing dark soul pigment, brun in the crease, talent pool on the inner half of my eye, and woodwinked in the inner corners. I also wore black liquid liner, some zoomlash, posey creme blush, studio finish foundation, studio sculpt concealer, brun once again on my brows, and lollipop lovin lipstick with pink lemonade lip glass on top. I wore all black of course, with skinny black pants, and quater length black shirt with "artistic" slashes across the back, and some killer suede 4 inch heels (I was praying I ddin't bust my ass on the slippery department store floor!). As for my hair, just straight and polished. The only reason I am stressing my appearance is because the manager told me that he appreciated my understanding his dress code request, and that he thought I had the "MAC look". He also said that he hated when people dress "business casual", and that at MAC they love to be consistent with new fashions when going to work. I also pointed out that working at a place like MAC gave you extra confidence to try new looks you never would before, and to explore different fashion statements and he really seemed to warm up once we found this common ground.
Anywho, I went to my local counter a little bit early, and spoke to one of the employees for a little while I waited, and then I was taken to the office to wait for the manager. Another girl who was also being interviewed came up and waited with me, who was totally sweet--we exchanged numbers and gave each other a little pep talk, which ended up being pretty nice because we were called in together. The benefit with this was we had already established a friendly vibe so throughout the interview we gave each other time to answer the questions and tried to say different things so it wasn't repetitive, and of course, no bashing. I think it also looked good because they were really stressing team work, and we were obviously being very respectful of each other. I was a little surprised because after reading all of the posts on here, I really thought they would ask me more questions about the history of MAC and some of the programs the company has (B2M, Kids Helping Kids, Viva Glam) and they actually didn't ask either one of us one. They asked about what we would bring to the company, how we felt about punctuality and professionalism, how we felt about the dress code, and other questions along those lines. There were also some questions I thought were a lot of fun. One question was what is your favorite MAC product and why, and then sell it to me. I said Mineralize Skin Finish, and explained the benefits of using it alone as a blush, sweeping a little bit on your cheek bones, brow bones, or inner corners of your eyes for some killer highlighting and brightness, using it wet (it dries quickly as it is baked), or using it as a highlighter before foundation to add undeniable liveliness to your face. One of the oddball questions was what we would do if a customer asked if a particular product was gluten free. There was nobody else in the store, the managers aren't answering their phones, and you can't find the answer in the product guide. I ended up saying I would call another MAC store and I was right, but it still caught me off guard! I had honestly never thought of that before. Another question that was a little strange is in my history of doing make up, what would I rate myself on a scale of 1 to 10. I was thinking most people probably said 9 or 10, but I said 7, and explained that although my make up execution is very good, my clients are always happy, and I feel like I have a good technique, that there is always room to better myself and always new tips and tricks to learn to improve.
At the end of the interview, they of course asked if we had any other questions, and I asked what they expect from MAC employees and what they look for in an employee as well. I also took this time to point out that although I have not had much retail experience, I am expected to service customers in similar fashions, and that I am also expected to meet sales quotas every day, which the manager said he has always kind of wondered about and that he could definitely see and appreciate the similarities. So all in all, I think it went very well, I just hope that I have what they are looking for!
Oh, one more thing, the very most important thing when dealing with a customer is to LISTEN! Make sure you mention that somewhere if they dont ask (which they will)
I hope this helps!
