How to Succeed in a Salon Interview Ep 6

welcome everybody i am so excited to be here today because we have really got an incredible show um it is going to be something super super special um if you are interviewing for a salon job and you're feeling a little scared and maybe a little bit nervous you've got the stresses going then um this podcast is for you or video if you're watching um youtube or facebook because today we're going to be talking all about how to succeed in a salon interview so that you can be prepared and nail the gig so let's first start

by talking about what most hair stylists do when they're facing a job interview and that is that they sort of um do nothing they just pray and hope and show up and um hope that everything goes well but for most of them that does not work out and i can tell you that from personal experience um you just end up unprepared and it shows to the person that you're interviewing and um it's just so important that you come prepared for your interviews so that you can set yourself up for success and i can tell you

i have had my fair share of um interviews and um i you know i struggled too to get through some of them um and after some of those struggles i learned how to set myself up so that i could succeed at a salon interview and i was able to nail my dream job and thank goodness i had these flubs before i went for the job that i really wanted um so i'm going to um go ahead and share with you what i've developed i've developed some do's and don'ts that worked for me and they've worked

for countless other people that i've taught them to and um even some of my students have used them not to just get a job in the salon world but they've used um to interview with product line companies and become educators with the company because of it so it worked for me it worked for them and it will work for you too so let's go ahead and jump right on in to some of these do's and don'ts and tips for interviewing all right so number one and this is probably the most important one and it surprises

me every single time um when this one doesn't get um addressed on the get-go and that is your attire what you're wearing um you have to look the part so you've really got to know what your salon dress code is and oftentimes we have um people that will show up and and i had just met with uh the salon manager um of the salon that i work at now because i just needed to kind of refresh my memory because you know i've sold the salon so it's been some time since i've actually participated in an

interview and i just kind of wanted to collect my my brain around it and i was like angela you know what are your thoughts around her name's angel i say angela what are your thoughts around salon interviewing do's and don'ts and you know can you share some of your stories and she told me the first thing she said was attire which i thought was hilarious because that was the first thing that i thought of too but you've got to look the part so you have to do a little investigation go on to their instagram page

go on to the stylists page that work at that instagram and just take a look at what they're wearing during their salon gigs oftentimes you'll see behind the scenes um and you can just get a general vibe of what the salon is about and what you should be wearing um so i'm gonna go ahead and share an image here this is the first time i've actually um done something like this on the software i'm super excited that i figured it out so i'm just gonna go ahead and pull up an example here all right so

for those of you who are watching me on youtube and instagram you can see this example here and um the first one is a girl that is absolutely not hired and she is um wearing something awfully special so for those of you who are joining me on instagram i'll describe it to you she has her hair sort of in a beachy natural state um she's done a little something with her bangs and her makeup is kind of like she threw it together in the car she's wearing a tank top and she is also wearing some

jean shorts that are ripped and faded and torn and she's wearing some nike kicks on as well this is somebody who is not giving a first impression she's she's not looking good she does not look like she's ready to start work today and um the second example is a girl who is totally ready she has her hair balayaged she has her makeup on point the hair is completely styled with the curls for days she's got a blazer on a cute little blouse she has a um a fun little necklace on she's got some really cute

tweed pants on if jeans are appropriate for the salon environment you could pair it with some really cute non-ripped or torn jeans and then of course she's got some super cute boots on she is a wonderful example of a great first impression and so this is going to be huge um uh for those of you on instagram i'm just going to turn this around real quick there you go take a look at that right there not hired and hired yes girl all right i'm flipping it back around okay here we are hello and um so

that's an example for you i'm to go ahead and bring myself back on hello hello i'm back attire so make sure that you're looking the part um you know that girl who shows up in her nike kicks and some ripped up jeans um is probably not going to leave the best first impression um and generally i find that those people who show up also um create the cardinal sin number two which is being on time a lot of times people who don't dress the part aren't actually on time for their interview as well and um

if you're late for an interview with um a high-end salon you can pretty much go home because um it is without a doubt and if you're late and you aren't dressed the part you can can pretty much consider that interview over um oftentimes i would have somebody show up and they would be late and they wouldn't be dressed for the part and i would say you're not quite what we're looking for i'm so sorry but thank you so much for showing up today um and i would let them know you know next time it would

be appropriate to dress the part and to show up on time um you know feel free to apply again when you're ready and we can try this interview one more time i'm not going to not give them a second chance but i'm definitely going to let them know that that is a huge no-no um when it comes to interviewing so um the third thing like we talked about a little bit is going to be makeup you want to make sure that your makeup and then the third thing and this is a huge one and in

fact um you know i have had this happen many times i have heard other people tell me that they have happened had this happen many times during an interview and that is um cigarettes the smell of cigarettes huge no no and um i know that interviewing for a salon can be stressful and i know that for a lot of people that stress reliever is going to be to smoke however maybe you can if it you know if that's your your thing um you can go to a vape instead of actually smoking a cigarette before you

get to your interview because they smell horrible and while you might not be able to smell them the person interviewing you can smell them and you can pretty much consider it a turn off because when you're working with customers customers don't want you smelling like cigarettes either so no cigarettes before your interview and in fact my suggestion is you quit that okay but anyhow i was a smoker once i get it so i'm not just being one of those people who are like you should quit it's nasty i smoked for seven years and i have

now been clean for a decade so i did it you can do it quit them they're nasty they're gross they have no benefit in your life um chew gum so anyway the fifth thing is to have passion this is huge you want to be excited about working for whatever company it is that you're interviewing you want people to feed off of the fact that you're excited about your industry you're excited about what you do and you want that passion to come through and show so part of that is asking questions like what is your intern

program like what is your onboarding program like what opportunities are there for me to learn and grow because that shows that you're passionate about what you do and that you want to grow and succeed in your gig a lot of times you know i would interview people and i would say do you have any questions for me and they would say no but i think you've covered it all and that really just shows me a lack of passion it shows me that there's no fire there's no drive because oftentimes people who have drive and fire

behind them are going to ask appropriate questions like what am i going to get out of this what am i going to learn um what is your pay scale um so that i know how i can grow up through the ranks as far as pay goes um i you know people also ask questions like what are your prime times in the salon i want to work those shifts as a new hire how can i help the salon grow what are your needs right now these things show that that person is super super passionate about what

they do so make sure that you ask questions along the way when you're interviewing now the other thing is you may also get a shadow day this happens very frequently in high-end salons because they want to make sure that that you can not only interview and you can be personable and you have the personality that it takes to be a successful hairdresser but that you can also um morph and adapt yourself to interning and being a part of a team environment so oftentimes there's shadow days and i want to tell you a little story here

so i had had a gal who interviewed and we immediately put her into a shadowing and she got behind the chair with me and i had one of my guests and i told them i'm having a shadow day today we're gonna see if she's a good fit for the get for the gig so this will be a lot of fun for you and i and so you know of course it gets the customers involved and they're like oh how fun and um so the girl came up to me and i introduced her to my customer

and i said she's shadowing me today i'm super excited to have her here and i began doing what i do on my guest and um there she was she just stood there stiff as a board didn't say a single word and just asked no questions so i thought you know what i'm gonna break the ice maybe she's nervous so i tried to bring her in i said so um what i'm doing here today on her is this this and this and i explained what i was doing and she's still no engagement no interaction she just

nodded and and agreed and um i was i was completing the process and it was just seeming kind of awkward because there was there was really no um help or engagement she didn't jump in to do anything to help me and i remember dropping my clip and i looked down at the clip my customer looked down at the clip the person shadowing looked down at the clip and then she looked right back up she didn't bother to pick it up didn't bother to do anything and so i waited about 30 seconds to see if she

was gonna go down and grab that clip and pick it up and she left it on the floor so at that point i turned around and i said i want to thank you so much for shadowing with me today um you can go ahead and leave we'll call you um and and let you know and we never called her and the reason is because you really have to be involved if you're shadowing somebody especially one of the top people in the organization you're going to want to make sure that you are doing everything you can

to assist that person because that means that you're passionate like i said and that you're you have that fire and drive and you want to absorb as much knowledge as you possibly can and um so i was doing highlights and all sorts she could have handed me foils she could have asked is there anything i can do for you or even um so i see that you're doing this why are you doing that that would have showed me that she had fire and drive and determination and again she could have picked that clip up when

i dropped it so these are all things that i share with you because i feel like it's important for you to know them so that when you get into these situations you can be prepared and ready to roll now let me give you a flip side of this okay i had a gal show up one time and her attire was on point hair was done makeup was done she was wearing all black because our uh she felt like that was what salons have now in our salon i have to wear all black in the salon

that i'm in currently um i can do like a little pop of color in my shoes and thank goodness for that because i need a little pop of color in my life but in my slime when i owned it we could wear jeans they just had to be appropriate and you had to wear something fashionable and stylish and so um she had these cute solid colored tweed pants on a blazer she was looking fierce and we put her right into a shadowing which a lot of times throws people off but for her it did not

she jumped right on in she said hello to my customers she asked if they needed anything which i thought was a way above and beyond um she asked if i needed anything and how she could help me and um she would handed me my foils when i was foiling she asked if she could mix me some more color when in the back and mix me some more color and came back and actually mixed the right things and so um she was hired immediately right there on the spot got the job she did not smoke cigarettes

even though she was a cigarette smoker she did not smell like it so i don't know whether she did or she didn't but she cleaned herself up and she was legit and like i said she had passion she asked questions and she did the things needed to show that she was eager and ready for this job so those are some of my interview tips for you guys and um so it's your turn now it's your turn to sort of master these interviewing skills and i hope that these tips have helped you when you're going for

your first interview um you know i want you to succeed when you're interviewing and get that job that you're dreaming of and whether it's your first job as a cosmetologist or your next one knowing how to succeed in an interview is the most important thing that you can do um so that you can succeed so now what i want you to do is i want you to take this a step further um i'm offering a free training and it's coming up here soon and i want you to know that once you get that job your

job isn't over yes you're going to be learning but you're also going to want to learn how to fill your books it is both your job and the salon's job to get yourself booked up and to start making that cash and um i want to show you some methods for that absolutely free i've helped countless stylists with growing their books and i'm doing that myself during this pandemic and um it is working so i want you to sign up for this free training it is at gartnerjames.com fill my books and that will take you to

the next step after you get your interview so that you can learn how to grow your books and start making that cash i appreciate you guys so much for joining me today and i cannot wait to see you on the next one bye