I’m just going to get straight into
the whole process from applying online right through to the actual audition. It
was my day off and as I hate my current job, I thought I would spend it
applying for jobs, mainly jobs I actually want. As a lover of all things beauty
I am dying to work on a beauty counter. I trawled through the massive list of
jobs on the Benefit Careers page to find the ones closest to me. There was two,
so obviously I applied for both.
The application was easy enough,
just your usual online application with questions such as ‘Why do you want to
work for Benefit?’ and ‘3 words your friends would use to describe you’. You
also need to upload your CV and a photo is optional, which I chose to include.
Once you’ve sent your application off, you get one of those automated emails
thanking you for applying and saying, if you haven’t heard anything within 3
weeks they wont be taking your application further.
After a couple of weeks I had
forgotten about the application all together. About a month and a half had now
passed and I noticed I had a voicemail on my phone. As I was currently at work,
I sneakily went to the toilet to listen. To my surprise, it was from Benefit,
letting me know they’ve received my application and would like to discuss it
further (or something along those lines). I was extremely surprised considering
how long it had been and especially because they say, if you haven’t heard
within 3 weeks, then you haven’t got it. I rang the number straight back
expecting the lady on the other end of the phone to just give me a date and time
for an interview/audition. Nope, this was a telephone interview! When she first
told me, I panicked, considering I’m hiding in the toilet at work expecting
this call to take no more than 3 minutes.
The good news is, the phone
interview lasted no more than 5 minutes and it was basically the same questions
as the online application. I had thought I screwed it up due to being under
pressure and not preparing for this in any way but nope, she had congratulated
me of successfully passing the telephone interview stage and that she would
like to invite me to an interview with the area manager. She gave me all the
details of where and when and what to wear. The last thing she told me was that
it would take no longer than half an hour.
I skipped through the rest of my
shift with a massive smile on my face and as soon as I finished I came home and
done my research on a - Benefit Cosmetics Interview. Everything was coming up
pretty similar to what I had already been through, but every blog I read
mentions the Audition after the phone interview and that this lasts all day. I
was confused because I was told it would last a maximum, 30 minutes.
The day came; I had managed to swap
my shift at work and was on my way to the Metro Centre. My interview was a
10.10am in Starbucks next to Debenhams. I spent around 30 minutes wandering
around the Metro Centre and every girl I passed that was dressed all in black,
I assumed they were there for the same reason. A quick toilet stop before
heading off to Starbucks, I noticed one of my eyebrows wasn’t playing game.
This stressed me out, but there was nothing I could do, as I didn’t have the
right products with me. A quick hair change from down to up and I was on my
way.
Thankfully Starbucks was pretty
dead and to the left I spotted a lady sat with a laptop. I introduced myself
and took a seat. Amy, the area manager was lovely and put me to ease
(especially after what I had read online about other peoples horror stories)
Again, it was pretty much the same questions as the application, but then it
went more into; when have you worked as part of a team, have you had to work
towards targets, how do you deal with an angry customer? To be honest it felt
more like a chat than an actual interview. She complimented my eyebrows, which
made me laugh, and I had to tell her my toilet disaster and how I thought the
right one was horrific. She also asked if I had done my own makeup, and was
really complementary about it. After about ten minutes she had congratulated me
and told me I am through to the Audition process. She checked I was wearing the
right footwear and told me to be at the Benefit counter in Debenhams for 1
o’clock. Of course I was over the moon,
but a part of me was slightly annoyed I had to find time to kill nearly 3
hours.
Eventually 1 o’clock came and I
headed straight to the counter, I was expecting there to be around 6 of us
there for the audition but there was just myself and two other girls. We sat at
the counter for around 10 minutes before the Area Manager came. (This is where
my experience is different to what I had read online, also) Amy explained what
we were going to do, she done a quick run through of quite a lot of their
products and explained about the hygiene part. She then pretty much just told
us to get on with it. I was confused, as I had read on every other blog that
the candidates done demonstrations on each other first as well as role plays
along with being told EXACTLY what you HAD to say to the customers. We weren’t
told what to say, which I found to be a bit better as you don’t feel so
restricted. Basically what we had to do was get as many people sat down and
give them the Benefit experience, but not to spend too much time with one
person.
The three of us were walking around
a pretty dead Debenhams trying to get as many people sat down as possible and
yes, it is a little embarrassing at first and especially when someone says
they’ve already been asked twice, but, there are people out there who are happy
to listen to you and come over to the counter. I managed to get 5 people sat
down within an hour and a half and one person bought something. It was around
the same for the other 2 girls too. The last half hour we were just told to
stay at the counter, so we decided to try the products on each other and just have
a play around. It was here where the three of us got talking and got to find
out a little more about each other.
Throughout our time of trying to
get people to the counter, Amy, the Area Manager was watching us and scoring us
on whatever the criteria was. Eventually she arrived back at the counter, asked
us how we felt about it and congratulated us on getting this far. She then said
we would hear back by the end of next week. We collected our bags and off we
went. I had swapped numbers with one of the girls so that we could let the
other know when we hear something.
I had my interview/audition on the
Thursday and I had received an email the following Tuesday telling me I had not
been successful. The other girl just heard nothing back at all which I thought
was strange. Not gonna lie, I was gutted I didn’t get the job. I would like to
know why but I have a feeling it could be to do with, I wasn't that confident in
applying makeup onto other people, but I assumed this would come with practice,
once you have the job.
Has anyone else been through the
audition process? How was it for you?
