Female Beauticians

Sounds easy, right? This is going to blow you away. They could care less about anything personal. They are NOT asking you about where you live or if you are married or your GPA. They want to know how you can benefit their salon.

They want to know what you bring to the party. So here is what you are going to do. In your notebook write out each of these questions on a separate sheet for each. For this one you need to tell them in the shortest way possible what your USP is (your Unique Selling Point).

Paige could say something like:

"I am a very quick study and use my free time to further my skills and research hair techniques. I am great with time management, have a lot of customer service experience and a strong work ethic. I am passionate about all things "hair" but my true love is in hairstyling and updo's."

You will always be faced with challenges in the work place, especially in your beauty career. A manager wants to feel comfortable that you can handle a delicate situation in a professional, tactful and logical manner.

You should show off here. Think of something that happened in a previous job where you made lemonade out of lemons. Make yourself look like the hero!

E.G. A toddler got sick in the aisle of PetSmart. The child was throwing up and crying and the mother was flustered. The mother was concerned for her child but embarrassed by the situation. I ran and got a lot of paper towels to immediately cover up the mess. I also brought a clean, damp towel for the mom to clean the baby. I stayed with them and helped mom get her child and her bag to the car easily. I then cleaned up the mess as quickly as possible. She later called the store and told my manager that she appreciated how I had helped her to her car with her sick baby and that she posted it on Facebook so others would know we had great customer service at our store.

She is wanting to know if what you really enjoy doing is something you will enjoy doing in the salon. If you loved being a number cruncher and sitting at a desk all day you probably won't like being a creative, stand on your feet all day hairdresser. In her eyes, maybe you are not the best suited person for her open chair.

However, if you worked at PetSmart and enjoyed running around the store and helping customers with their beloved pets the interviewer could see how those activities could easily translate into beauty career activities.

Choose a job you've had where the activities are similar to those in a salon, like, customer service, sales, being active rather than sitting, and multi-tasking.

More likely than not, the interviewer wishes to see how much you know about the company culture, and whether you can identify with the organization's values and vision. Every organization has its strong points, and these are the ones that you should highlight in your answer. For example, if the company emphasizes on integrity with customers, then you mention that you would like to be in such a team because you yourself believe in integrity.

It doesn't have to be a lie. In the case that your values are not in line with the ones by the company, ask yourself if you would be happy working there. If you have no issue with that, go ahead. But if you are aware of the company culture and realize that there is some dilemma you might be facing, you ought to think twice. The best policy is to be honest with yourself, and be honest with the interviewer with what is it in the company culture that motivates you.

A manager would like to see that you have thought about your future and what direction your beauty career is headed.

The only wrong answer here would be "I don't know." However, she is looking for your professional goals rather than your personal goals.

If you want to someday own a salon talk about the path you intend to take. Let her know that you desire to be in management to gain the experience.

No one expects you to have your life plan laid out already. But she would like a general idea of your direction. If you really just don't know pick the hair activity you like the most and make a tentative goal of it. For example you may like doing color. You could say, "I love doing highlights and learning coloring techniques. I plan on becoming a master colorist within the next 2 years and then see where that takes me."

► Do you think you are overqualified for this position?

► What type of work environment do you prefer?

► Who has impacted you most in your career and how?

► Have you ever had difficulty working with a manager?

► How do you handle conflict amongst coworkers?

► What would your salon colleagues say about you?

► How do you handle an unhappy customer?

► How do you react to instruction from the customer?

► When given an important assignment, how do you approach it?

► How do you deal with compromise?

► What was the most important task you've ever had?

► How do you react under pressure?

► If you were hired, how long would you plan to stay at our salon?

Oh, trick question again. Remember we don't want to bash former employers. The interviewer knows if you talk bad about someone to her, then you may talk bad about her one day.

So how do we handle this one?

You could say, "I've never had a really bad boss, but I have learned some things NOT to do." This way you are not directly pointing the finger while still acknowledging you are aware not everyone is a good manager.

Or you could say, "I once had someone that was thrown into management with no experience. He wasn't ready and needed more people skills." Still not pointing a finger!

It would be ok to say criminal, unethical, anger issues, etc. Just don't name names and keep it very short without going into a story. "I once had a manager that was stealing from the company." End of story. Short, to the point and answers the question truthfully.

Think about what you are comfortable with and pick the approach you feel fits you best. I want you to be at ease in the interview.