I applied in-person. I interviewed at Sephora (Holyoke, MA) in Aug 2015
Interview
It took about three weeks and multiple store visits to hear back from them. I first scheduled an interview and sat with the assistant manager and she interviewed me for about 30 minutes. Afterwards she asked me to come in for a second interview with the store manager which lasted about 20 minutes. After that interview, they asked for me to come in and do a full face of makeup on the store manager in order and that if I completed that efficiently and correctly I would finally get the job.
I completed the makeover and they offered me the job about a week later.
I applied online. I interviewed at Sephora in Jun 2017
Interview
My interview started at 4 and was over at 5:30. Me and 2 other girls had a group interview together. Similar to most other peoples interviews there were blocks on a table and one person got to look at the picture for 15 seconds and instruct the other girls, only using words, how to do the blocks and we did 2 different shapes. The next part of the interview was called "The Next Big Thing" where you had to pick from 4 different ideas/events that would help sales in a certain department of Jcpenny. Then you get 10 minutes to write a sales pitch on your paper and why you think it would drive the most sales. Then you will present to the group and after that you and your group will discuss together who you think had the best pitch and nominate them. Lastly, we just wrote our full names and availabilities on a piece of paper and it was over.
Some things I would recommend to do:
1. Get to the interview 15 minutes early and start conversation with the other girls and smile at them and seem interested in getting to know them
2. Show that you can work with a team and be a leader at the same time
3. Don't be overpowering and seem like you have to be right. It is ok if your pitch doesn't get chosen.
4. Going back to 3, if your pitch doesn't get chosen then vote for who you think did the best and really compliment everything good about their pitch.
5. Really stress in your pitch that jcpenny and Sephora is more that just a store that it is a family and that it is important to make sure everyone feels welcomed.
6. If you don't know that much about make up make sure that you make it clear that you want to learn and that you are good with customers.
7. At the end of the interview ask well thoughtout questions that show you are really interested.
8. Again, SMILE SMILE SMILE
"You can learn how to do eyeshadow perfectly and how to do eyebrows but you can't learn a passion and a love to work with others and make them feel uplifted"
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
No questions were asked. We just did the group activities.