Holy crap.
So my interview was this afternoon. I got to Pentagon City all dressed up and made up all cute (rocking the pinup look 100%). I got to the MAC store about 15 minutes early, and Homa came out almost immediately. She took me out to a bench in the mall, and we talked for a bit about the renovations to the store (they were stuck in a temporary place for the next few weeks) and she joked that the bench was her office.
She started the interview off by asking me to just tell her about myself, so I told her about how I discovered MAC and about my education relevant to the position. She asked me where I went to school and then what I wanted to do with my education. When I told her I was at the local community college and was still figuring out what I wanted to do with it and whatnot (probably not the best thing to say to a potential employer), she told me that going to school with no really goal was a waste of time and money (this very nearly cracked right then and there). I kind of saved myself by saying that I am really into learning new things and developing new skills. She then asked about the makeup artistry course I took at Yvonne de Vilar. Suffice to say she doesn't think much about the makeup schools in the DC/MD/VA area, wanted my opinion on the course I took, so I talked about how they helped with technique a little, and with selling a lot more.
She posed this senario the me that was something like: You've just done a full face makeover on someone and she really likes it, but can't buy at all right now, so what three items would I sell to her. I said that I would ask the client what she really loved, or what she just couldn't live with out and then gave an example like if she really loves her lip look then I was sell her the liner, lipstick and glass. She asked me if I had to sell three items off her whole face, what would I suggest, so I said something like the foundation, the mascara and the lipglass.
Then she started asking about what I thought my job responsibilities at MAC would be. I definitely floundered a bit on this one, but I managed to hit maintain cleanliness, working as a team, and maintaining the MAC image. The second the said something about the MAC image she started asking me what I thought that was, so I started talking about looking stylish and unique and how I thought it was very inclusive and not stuck on being staid and conservative. The MAC image and the teamwork bit seemed to be really important to her.
She said something about liking my look and that she thought I would be a good fit, but she didn't know that if I could actually really do makeup or not, ha. Somewhere in there she looked at my lips and asked me if I was wearing lipliner or not (I was, but Girl About Town likes to bleed on me).
She asked me a bit about my retail history, which is rather scant, and said that the only permanent position she had open was a 14 hour on in the MAC store in Tyson's Galleria, and that she's really didn't want to put someone with such limited experience there. So she told me that she was going to call me to schedule my demo and that if I passed that then she would hire me as a freelancer and I could work to a permanent position from there.
After reading thread upon thread about how terrifying and intimidating Homa is, I was really freaking out. But when she greeted me in the store, she immediately put me at ease. She's really very nice and sweet, just incredibly blunt, which I actually found pretty funny.
So the first hurdle is over, now I just have to come up with a new look for my demo, practice like hell, and find something else to wear. Hopefully I'll have more time to prep for the demo than I did for this interview.
