emiliemary

My recruitment process experience for Benefit Cosmetics

I am doing this post as the recruitment process has changed in the last year/6 months so all of the posts you may have already read are not what you're going to be going through. At least, it wasn't for me.

If you know me, you’ll know I absolutely love makeup. I love wearing it, learning about it also applying it on people. I have had a passion for makeup and beauty from a young age so have always loved the idea of working on a counter. For some reason, I always looked up to girls that worked on them as I thought they were like goddess’.

As my confidence has improved massively over the past couple of years, I began looking for counter jobs at the beginning of the year when I moved house.

Okay, so onto what this post is purely about.

Applying for the job online

I applied for three different beauty consultant positions online, directly on their website. I spent ages on the application, making sure everything was grammatically correct, my passion for makeup, beauty and selling came across excellently and talked about my relevant experience. Relevant experience would be anything to do with makeup or customer service.

Remember, that before applying to any beauty counter jobs – really ask yourself if you are confident at applying makeup on others. If you don’t feel confident now then don’t worry, get your makeup and brushes out and start doing peoples makeup – friends, family, work colleagues etc! Obviously if it’s going to take a while to get confident then maybe look at applying at a later date when you feel ready.

So me being me, I wasn’t expecting to hear anything back from Benefit any time soon but to my surprise I was called the very next morning! Unfortunately, I missed the first call as I was working but my boss let me ring them back. I get a lot of scam calls so I searched up the number and it said ‘Benefit Cosmetics’. I was like ‘WHAAAAAAAAT?’ my heart just dropped so I instantly rang back because I had such a rush of excitement and any anxiousness just went straight out the window.  As I didn’t get through, I had to leave a voicemail with my name, position I’m applying for and location I wish to work at.

About 10 minutes later they rang me back. The lady asked if I would like to do the 5 minute phone interview now – at this point I was too excited so said yes straight away! It was really easy, she asked why I would like to work for Benefit Cosmetics, what do I like about the products, what product would best describe me and I think there were a couple more but I can’t remember for the life of me. As I was really excited you could hear it in my voice so made me seem really happy and well… excited!  Wooohooo I passed the phone interview!  She then invited me to a sit down interview with the area manager the following week which I was ecstatic about. I was told to bring my passport and wear all black.

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The sit down interview 

This was only my second ever interview so you can imagine the pre-interview nerves. But I felt really confident at the same time as I researched on the company and really knew my stuff. I’m the type of person that can talk to you like I’ve been friends with you for ages.  It’s really important that when going for a Benefit Cosmetics job, to always be yourself. So the questions were similar to the phone interview but it was more general talking about my experience in depth and my availability.

I couldn’t believe it! I passed the sit down interview *OMG*. The area manager invited me back in 2 hours’ time for the audition which I had already prepared myself for so it didn’t catch me off guard. I went home to change my shoes as my loafers had blistered, rubbed and cut my feet to bits and there was no way I could do my 2 hour audition being that uncomfortable.

This is where the disaster striked. I get home, have a drink, change my shoes (obviously), touch up  my makeup. Everything is fine until I walk out the door and realised I had left the car keys in the house along with the house keys with NO ONE ELSE HOME. Oh god, panic time! I frantically searched on Google for the Benefit Cosmetics number to contact the area manager. No luck, I then thought to search for the Boots beauty department which was rather good thinking of me as I got through to the area manager. Phew!  I explained the disaster and she calmed me down, told me not to panic and that she’d simply re-schedule my audition. I was thinking to myself like ‘WHAT, a second chance, are you serious omg!!’

Exactly, two weeks from then I had my audition. 

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The audition

 The whole process of this has actually changed now so don’t take word for word on some of the older blog posts.

 I turned up 15 minutes before my audition to get to know about the products, prices as well as any of the other girls auditioning with me. Finally, it was time. The other 5 girls and I were told to go and put our bags away along with any coats/jackets. After this, the audition had begun. Eeek! We got into a circle and introduced ourselves by saying our names then taken on to talk about the products. We were shown a lot of skincare products as this is something not a lot of people know that Benefit do. The area manager stated the benefits of each products as well as some of the natural ingredients.  This was then done with the makeup but as Benefit have award winning products we were told about that.

We were shown a wide range of products but could choose what we most felt comfortable with. We could also choose the way we approached the customers which is a lot better in comparison to how they used to ask people to do it. As here in the UK we hate all the false scripted stuff.

I generally found the whole audition process really enjoyable and I loved approaching the customers to come over the counter to demonstrate products on them. I was in my element to say the least. They no longer pull people to the side to tell you if you were unsuccessful which I think is SO much better as it seemed quite a harsh way of telling someone they hadn't got the job. 

 I was one of the last people to finish up on my customer. The area manager actually asked me to finish up with what I was doing as all of the other girls expect me and another had been told to get their bags etc to go home. The other girl and I were saying how we didn't want to go home.  The area manager let us know she would be in contact with us in three days.

I walked out of the audition feeling really good and with a grin on my face like a Cheshire cat as I would never had imagined myself to go through with something so confidence based. 

So it was three days after the audition, I had my phone on the highest volume possible and I was waiting for the phone call which I got at 12pm. As you can imagine my heart was racing, hands shaking. Firstly, the area manager asked me how I was then asked how I felt the audition went to which I replied, I absolutely loved it, I didn't want to go home! She just laughed and said that she could really see that. I had a really good approach to customers and engaged with them excellently when applying products on them. AND GUESS WHAT???

I GOT THE JOB!

I was close to crying because it's something I have wanted for so long and my time had finally come. She asked me to text her the dates I was available for my store approval which was for John Lewis. I was absolutely thrilled when I found out I'd be work for JL as they take care of their employees. 

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Store approval

The store approval was actually really nice, it was more like a general chat about my experience and found myself having an actual conversation. I have learned that John Lewis is MASSIVE out the back. I was thinking how the hell am I going to find my way around here - it was like a maze!  So the store approval went great. I officially got the job! 

It was back to the counter to discuss and confirm my shifts which I couldn't believe I was doing.

The lady who did my store approval got back to the area manager and was telling her how genuine and bubbly I am. It made me really happy to hear that as it's not often you get to hear about what people think of your personality - especially on a first impression basis.

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Overall review 

The process did take a month due to my disaster but it was all worth it in the end.  If you are thinking about applying, I would definitely recommend it as I personally found it a great experience. If you're at any stage of the process then congratulations and keep going! Believe in yourself and good luck! 

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to comment below or email me at cooper-e@hotmail.co.uk and I'll be more than happy to help you out.

Emilie x x x