1. What are you passionate about Female Beautician?

Just keep it about salon life and on a professional level. Stay away from answers like, "I can't get enough of Kim Kardashian," or "Oh I love Facebook."

Instead go with, "I love everything about color! I'm always on YouTube looking for fresh new looks and trying them on my friends."

She is thinking, "That's great. I need a new stylist that wants to become a master colorist. Money, money, money."

2. Do you have any problems working weekends?

No I don't have.

You are now a professional stylist and starting your beauty career. You know good and well you now work on weekends. Don't even try it.

3. What experience do you have in this beauty salon field?

Hopefully if you're applying for this position you have bags of related experience, and if that's the case you should mention it all. But if you're switching careers or trying something a little different, your experience may initially not look like it's matching up. That's when you need a little honest creativity to match the experiences required with the ones you have. People skills are people skills after all, you just need to show how customer service skills can apply to internal management positions, and so on.

4. What was the worst job you ever had? Why?

This is similar to the other question about what you liked least. To use the example from the last question, go in the opposite direction of salon activities. Since you will be up and active all day you could choose a job you had where you had to sit all day. Or you could choose one that was boring and didn't engage your interest.

E.G. I once worked as a receptionist in a dental office. It was difficult for me to stay put all day because I am much happier in a fast paced environment.

Notice that I don't use strong, negative, emotional words like HATE. No matter what, keep things on a positive note.

5. What challenges are you looking for in Female Beautician?

A typical interview question to determine what you are looking for your in next job, and whether you would be a good fit for the position being hired for, is "What challenges are you looking for in a position?"
The best way to answer questions about the challenges you are seeking is to discuss how you would like to be able to effectively utilize your skills and experience if you were hired for the job.
You can also mention that you are motivated by challenges, have the ability to effectively meet challenges, and have the flexibility and skills necessary to handle a challenging job.
You can continue by describing specific examples of challenges you have met and goals you have achieved in the past.

6. Who was the best boss you ever had? Why?

The answer you give will reflect the lens in which you see your management. She is wondering what you consider a good boss and if your views on management are something that will make her job easier or harder.

Think carefully. Don't choose the one that let the employees get away with anything!

Choose a boss that had positive qualities and provided strong leadership.

A good answer would sound something like this: "My boss at PetSmart was the best boss I ever had. He gave us ways to develop our product knowledge and encouraged us to take on more responsibility. He was very fair and gave recognition to employees who did something outstanding. He respected the employees and we trusted him to help us if we needed it."

7. Tell me what did you like least about your last job?

Oh, this is a tricky one. It's a setup. It is very easy to fall into this snare. People just wait for an opening to vent. But you now know ahead of time NOT TO DO THIS.

Instead of coming back with, "OH, I really hated my boss. He was such a pig!" you want to go to a task that is harmless to what you are trying to achieve. If you worked at Starbucks you had to clean, you had very busy times, it could be stressful, people complained, you may have had a bad co-worker, etc. But if you point any of this out in your interview it will look like a negative for YOU.

So how can you overcome this? First state the positive you took away from the job followed by something like lack of opportunity, nowhere to advance my career, my heart wasn't it because I couldn't wait to start my beauty career, or I saw myself as a stylist rather than a barista.

8. What hours are you comfortably available?

Know the hours of the salon before you go for the interview. The best answer is always...ANYTIME.

However, life sometimes gets in the way. My advice is to work out your issues to the best of your ability before interviewing. This can be a deal breaker.

You should know by now that you will most likely be working some nights and weekends. This is a beauty career, not a bank job.

If you have a lot of restraints on your availability it will hurt your chances of getting the job a great deal. Be as flexible as possible.

9. What do you know about our salon?

Follow these three easy research tips before your next job interview:
1) Visit the company website; look in the "about us" section and "careers" sections
2) Visit the company's LinkedIn page (note, you must have a LinkedIn account - its free to sign up) to view information about the company
3) Google a keyword search phrase like "press releases" followed by the company name; you'll find the most recent news stories shared by the company
Remember, just because you have done your "homework", it does not mean you need to share ALL of it during the interview! Reciting every fact you've learned is almost as much of a turn off as not knowing anything at all! At a minimum, you should include the following in your answer:
1. What type of product or service the company sells
2. How long the company has been in business
3. What the company culture is like OR what the company mission statement is, and how the culture and/or mission relate to your values or personality

10. What did you like best about your last job?

She wants to know where your attention goes on the job. If you blurt out, "I loved the people I worked with," it would lead her to the idea that you are easy to get along with and a team player.

There is not necessarily a wrong answer here, but there could be a more helpful answer to lead the interviewer in the direction you want them to go. Zero in on the quality you would like to support. In the sample above, being a team player was reinforced. And that's a good one for a salon. If you want to show customer service is important to you maybe say something like, "I enjoyed making people smile when I gave them their morning coffee drink. I feel like I made their day!"

Choose something that translates into a beauty career. Making people smile by providing good customer service is great.

Download Interview PDF