I've decided to write up yet another job interview experience/process post as my last one, which was for Topshop was very successful and too this day one of my most popular posts. I also really love these because if you're anything like me then one day before your interview (or on the day itself) you'd be frantically searching blog posts and youtube videos on what to expect when going to an interview. And of course in tradition that was exactly what I was doing the night before my group interview at Lush. I applied for the Christmas temp as a sales advisor, so I wanted to be interview ready and take in as much information and advice my brain would allow.
I want to start of by saying there's a 90% chance of what I experienced in my group interview will be completely, slightly or maybe a little bit different to what you would. After all the videos and posts I watched, about 60% of my experiences was different to the ones I looked up on however there is one big thing too stick to and that would be BE YOURSELF. Honesty this is the one bit of advice I can give and stick by, brownies honor; that I know will work and is true. I'm sure if you're reading this you're either A) a lush fanatic, who literally smells like the shop and working their is one step closer to your dreams coming true or b) you've at least been in there once or twice in your lifetime. So in saying that you'll know exactly how the staff are. All very eager, bubbly and absolutely LOVE to help you in anyway possible, it's like they all get injected with some form of ...something to make them so ...alive?! I have no idea where I'm going with this, but I'm sure you get what I'm saying. Like my last interview post, I'm going to split this into sections as at the interview there's different parts and also like last time, this is going to be super long. Sit back and enjoy, hopefully you get something out of this and I can help someone out there.
- Introduction - Once you're all in and settled with your name tag and number (depending on how many of you are there. There was a lot of us so we got split in four groups of 6) the manager and supervisors give a brief introduction talking about the job role and what they expect. So just hours and general things like that.
- Play doh and perfume - This part was mainly about communication and the manager wanting to see how well you do with listening and getting on with other team members.
- Selling - Again another test to see how you are this time with communication and being able to sell a product.
- Customer service/demonstration - This was all about interacting with customers, being able to feel confident in giving the best customer service (within a Lush level) and willing to help and demonstrate the products.
Play doh and perfume
Once we were allowed in, got our name tags and had a bit of a chit chat with the other competitors we were all giving numbers as there was so many of us and were split into four different groups. I was in group four and our first task was the play doh. So we basically had one minute to create an animal that we thought represented us the most then show and tell it to the rest of our group. I seriously failed at this and not at the part you think. My animal was a lion and it looked mighty fine I must say, but my description was horrifying. This was what I said word for word, no lie "Ummm so this is a lion believe it or not .. ummm .. umm I'm this animal because errrrr I'm quite loud and umm" I was so nervous it literally felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest from beating so fast. It was horrific. One of the other girls had to help me. Regardless of my terrible answer this part I believe was just a little get to know you test and honestly I think I ended up being like that because I made myself panic. Try your best to be as calm as possible, it'll help in the long run. Luckily for me there was more than one task otherwise I know I would have failed. The second part was the perfume, again just a getting to know you activity. You basically had to team up (I was in a three) and we had to spray a bit of perfume on ourselves and tell our partners or in my case two partners what it reminded us off. Again I failed. But I was definitely set up to fail, but hey we don't need to talk about that. This was definitely a listening task, seeing how well you concentrate and listen to customers (if it was a customer) it's all about engaging well with your team and customers at Lush I think.
Selling
This was probably my favorite activity of the whole group interview, by the time the groups had rotated and the group I was in got to this section I definitely became a bit more confident. I got a chance to chat to the other girls (which saved my butt for sure) while we filled in paper work, so I got to show myself a lot more which I would say is a DO. Try and talk to the other people at your group interview, you'll come off a lot more friendly and being friendly and chatty is what Lush look for in their colleagues as we all know and see. So this part was all about selling and how to sell a product, it was all a bit of fun really. We had to close our eyes and take something out of this covered bowel and whatever it was we had to present it to the rest of the group and basically try and sell it, whatever the item was. I got name labels which I think I sold pretty well. This is the perfect opportunity to show of your personality and make people laugh. I say, be as crazy as possible. Imagine some of the most unrealistic things and make them sound as realistic as possible. It always just boils down to customer service. If you have the most boring item in the world just the way you describe it by the sound of your voice, your looks, enthusiasm, it could seem like the best item in the world. Use this part to show everyone your creative side.
Customer service/demonstration
This was the last bit of the interview, this is where again we had to team up in pairs and basically demonstrate how we would give a customer a massage using one of the massage bars. Can I just say I have never experienced going into Lush and this happening to me but I can't lie, I would feel very uncomfortable. I'm super glad we only had to demonstrate with our partners and not have the whole group watch otherwise I would of collapsed with awkwardness, but overall it wasn't to bad. I'm not 100% sure on the purpose of this but I guess it's all about the customer service and how you interact with people around you. On the plus I left with gorgeous smelling hands and arms.
All in all it lasted about an hour and a half although it didn't seem like it, the time really flew by. It was a great experience and definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone a little. So lets go over a few things. It's important to be confident and try to bring out your personality as much as you can, that's what I believe they're looking for the most. You don't have to be like a drugged up duplicate of Willy Wonka but some form of chattiness and being as friendly as possible I think would work in your favor. Communicate with the people around you, standing alone and not talking will reflect badly on you. Even if people aren't coming up to you, they could be shy so try and make a bit of conversation here and there. I think that's all I can say really.
To be fair I don't even feel qualified to be giving this advice as I thought I did horrendous but it turns out I wasn't that bad as they've called me back for a trial shift hence the part one of this post, so expect a part two giving you some experience and advice from the trial shift. If you're reading this and about to go to your own interview GOOD LUCK, I believe in you, believe in yourself and be the amazing human I'm sure you are.
Part two: Trial shift
p.s I'd also like to say a massive thank you to the beautiful Chelsey (go have a look at her blog here) She gave me some advice as a fellow Lush worker and made me feel not as nervous as I was!
UPDATE: So I did end up getting the this job as a Christmas temp at Lush so hopefully some of what I tell you can also get you the job also.
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