This woman thought her interview to work at Sephora was going well—until she got to this one question.
For skincare and makeup lovers, working at a place like Sephora or Ulta can be exciting since you get to be around products you love, flex your related knowledge, and get a nice discount on products.
In a Reddit forum, you could see that even high schoolers are hankering at the chance to apply to work there, disappointed that the retailers may not hire people under 18 years of age.
This one young woman did get a coveted Sephora interview but was deeply disappointed by how it went down.
Now, she’s calling on the brand to “do better.”
Woman calls out Sephora after bad interview experience
“I’m never shopping at Sephora again after this,” content creator Audrey Howard (@audhoward) said.
In a trending video with more than 150,000 views, Howard shared what went down in her recent Sephora interview.
“The interview lasted 12 minutes. I was in, and I was out,” Howard said, upset.
Howard explained that she was interviewing for a part-time position, and it was going well. She told the person that she just graduated high school and was enrolled in a local college and shared her availability (which the interviewer expressed perfectly aligned with their needs).
She starts to get excited, thinking she’s got a good shot at the role, ’til this question comes up.
Interviewer does a 180
The woman asked Howard if she had experience in the makeup industry. Howard answered truthfully, saying she didn’t.
That’s when the woman slammed her notebook shut and said she wasn’t hiring anyone who didn’t have experience.
That would be all fine and dandy if it had been listed on the application, but Howard said it wasn’t.
Trying to salvage things, Howard said she’d be more than happy to do any training they offer on how to properly apply makeup. Instead of answering, the woman stands up and leaves the room.
When she walked back in, she asked Howard if she’d like to interview for a position at Kohl’s, which Howard did not want to do.
“That is not professional. That is not a way to end an interview at all. Secondly, I don’t think Sephora would be okay with this,” Howard said.
On top of that, Howard said that the woman didn’t have any makeup on and said if she were a customer, she wouldn’t want the woman helping her with her makeup.
Meanwhile, Howard referred to her own makeup as “flawless.”
Howard said that she’s now switching to shopping with Ulta.
What are the requirements to work at Sephora?
While there are several roles you can have in the retail store, it seems the most entry-level position is the part-time Beauty Advisor.
There is a clear distinction on the site regarding the level of experience required to get hired for this role since there is both a “Beauty Advisor” and “Licensed Beauty Advisor” listed.
You can already deduce from the name that the role that has “licensed” in front of it would require more years of experience.
For this role, you need one to three years of retail or beauty service experience, general beauty product knowledge, and being up on trends, plus a beauty license that allows you to perform makeup application, skincare treatments, and waxing services in your state.
Meanwhile, the standard Beauty Advisor doesn’t have a specific number of years of experience required (it just says “prior equivalent work experience, preferably in retail”) or any license requirement, but the person should still have makeup and skincare knowledge to be able to handle customer questions.
Also, in NYC, the Licensed Beauty Advisor makes $21.00-$25.73/hr, while a Beauty Advisor makes $19.75-$24.21/hr.
@audhoward @sephora do better…. #sephora #foryoupage #ultabeauty #dobetterbebetter #interview #makeuptips #makeupstorytime #makeuptok #ultagirl #makethisviral @Ulta Beauty ♬ original sound – audrey
Commenters react
“Every time I go in there them girls don’t know nothing,” a top comment read.
“Companies need to realize there’s a point where in order to have experience sometimes they need to take a chance on someone,” a person wrote.
“You dodged a bullet. They don’t deserve you. Sorry they wasted your time,” another said.
“If it’s that much of a dealbreaker they should pre-screen for it,” a commenter pointed out.
The Daily Dot reached out to Howard for comment via TikTok direct message and comment and to Sephora via email.
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The post ‘Ulta workers are way more rude’: Woman walks into interview for Sephora. Then the interviewer rejects her and asks if she wants to work at Kohl’s instead appeared first on The Daily Dot.