Certain things have not changed in the last one thousand years. When a woman looks good, many doors are open to her. Companies proclaim equal opportunity, and men say inner beauty matters more than good looks. Yet when you lead or participate in the interviews for any typically female job (as I’ve done more than a few times during my career in recruitment), or when you check out the women successful men date and live with, you can immediately see that those are just empty words. Good looks still matters. It always has, and it always will. Working as a beauty advisor, you help women of all ages and body types to pick the right cosmetics and skin care products, generating a nice revenue along the way. What will happen in an interview for this job?
First of all, your knowledge of cosmetics does not play a prime here. Because each brand and company specializing in sales of beauty products has excellent training program in place for new hires. You will learn everything you need to know about their products once you get the job. What matters in an interview, however, are your communication and sales skills, positive attitude to cosmetics and beauty products in general, and also good understanding of the job and what they actually expect from you.
Let’s have a look at 10 most common questions. I will outline what you should focus on in your answer to each question, what the hiring managers want to hear from you. But you will have to formulate the eventual answer on your own, since it should reflect your personality, preferences, and goals. Let’s start!
Table of Contents
Why do you want to work as a beauty advisor?
You should focus on two things in your answer. First one is your passion for cosmetics and skin care. You can emphasize the importance good looks play in life of every woman, and how high-quality products can help us prolong our youth. You can also briefly narrate your personal experience with this or that product line, and say that you see a meaningful purpose in spreading the news and helping other women achieve the same results you have achieved.
Second thing to focus on is a fitting personality for the job. Say that you enjoy chit-chatting about nothing with other women, that you have a saleswoman in you, that this job is a perfect match for your great communication skills, that other women feel good in your company, and all in all you have what it takes to become a great beauty advisor. Considering everything, you cannot imagine a better job than this one.
What is your availability? What other occupation do you have?
Many beauty advisor jobs are part time. University students, women on maternity leave, freelancers–they often take the job to make some extra money and bring some variety into their daily routine. If it is also your case, the key is to ensure the hiring manager that you take this career seriously, and definitely have at least 15-20 hours each week to devote to your clients and to building your brand. The key is to convince them that a job of a beauty advisor is high on your list of priorities, and your other roles in life won’t restrain you from taking care of your duties.
Another scenario–you want to do this full time. In such a case, you should say so, ensuring the hiring managers that you are all-in for this career, ready for many meetings and phone calls each day, ready to try your best and build a big portfolio of returning customers. Remember that both full time and part time is fine with the employer, as long as you convince them that you aren’t in this half-heartedly, and won’t leave the job after few months.
How do you imagine your typical day working as a beauty advisor?
Now this really depends on the type of job. Some beauty advisors work in beauty salons and studios and parlors. They do not have to find any clients, or even call to anyone. Clients simply come, often combining the visit of a beauty advisor with a visit of a salon stylist, hairdresser, or even massage therapist. In such a case, you should say that you imagine meeting one client after another, providing them with in-detail personalized advice on skin care and beauty products, making sure they open their wallet at the end and buy something…
Situation changes completely if you work on you own, and have to find your clients. In such a case, you should talk about meetings in different places–your home, houses of clients, a fitting cafeteria, etc. But the big part of your job is also lead generation, that means working with your address book, calling people, asking for referrals, and so on, and so forth. Social media play a big role in 21st century as well, so working on your brand there and trying to build loyal base of followers should belong to your daily routine.
It is important to speak with enthusiasm when narrating your idea of a daily routine. They should get an impression that you are looking forward to doing the job, and do not apply for it only because you cannot get anything better in your present situation.
Try to sell me this cream (other product).
Role play is pretty common in this type of interviews. At the end of the day, there’s no better way of testing your sales skills than actually asking you to try and sell them something. They may ask you to sell them a particular cosmetics product, but also a simple pen, or a mobile phone. As you can imagine, for many people this is the toughest part of the interviews.
Anyway, remember that they do not expect you to come up with a perfect sales pitch right from the bat. But they expect you to show some courage (accepting the role play) and basic understanding of the principles of selling. Ask them questions, show interest in their needs and expectations, and then try to match them with the features of the product. If you succeed to do so, they will make a purchase, or at least they will be satisfied with the way you handled the role play…
If you aren’t sure how to do that I suggest you to check an article we have online for the most common role play – Sell me this pen interview question. There I explain in more detail how to handle this challenge with flying colors.
Can you tell us more about your experience with cosmetics and beauty products?
Each woman has some experience, and you do not need to talk (only) about professional selling or working with cosmetics. It is even better narrating your personal experience with various products and brands. Try to show attention to detail, pointing out subtle differences of this or that product line, and how it helped you achieved your beauty goals.
In an ideal case, you should show some passion for their products and brand. Maybe you haven’t used their products before but you understand how they differ from the competition, and what they can bring to your customers, how they can help them achieve their beauty goals. The main point here is to demonstrate that you know something about the stuff you will sell, and have some passion for cosmetics and beauty products.
Five other questions you may face in your beauty advisor interview
- A client calls you two weeks after your last meeting. They complain that the beauty product hasn’t delivered the results they expected. How will you react?
- What process do you use to determine which products would best fit the needs of a customer?
- You will be responsible for building your own client base. How do you want to do that? What lead generation strategies do you plan to use?
- A client has a severe allergic reaction on a skincare product you applied to their skin during the meeting. What will you do?
- How do you plan to build your personal brand of a beauty advisor?
Final thoughts
Interview for a job of a beauty advisor belongs to easier interviews. Employee turnover is quite high in the field, and unless you remain silent when facing their questions, or say something outright stupid, they will typically give you the chance to prove your skills in the job. Go through the questions once again and think about your answer to each one. And do not forget to learn as much as you can about their brand and the cosmetics you will sell. It will help you to come up with good answers to some of their questions. Anyway, I hope you will succeed and wish you good luck!
Matthew
May also interest you:
- Professional model interview questions.
- Salon stylist interview questions.
- Dietitian interview questions.
