It's been a long time since I blogged but I only saw a few of these posts around about a lush group interview and almost all of those were written by a successful applicant! So I feel as if maybe writing from an unsuccessful applicants point of view could actually be of more help to you as I got lots of pointers and feedback in my 'rejection' email that could help you and will definitely help me for when I next apply at lush or any retail store really!
I arrived super early as I panicked about being on time so I waited on a bench about 40 metres away until I saw others arrive, once I saw other people I went over to join them and I instantly realised that the 10 or so other applicants were also very enthusiastic about lush and there products which was good! They were all squirting 'lust' perfume on eachother and I personally hate the smell of that particular perfume so being surrounded by 10 girls who were all wearing it wasn't great! I was actually expecting to be one of the oldest (at the grand old age of 20 - shock horror!) but the age range was mixed from 17-32 so I was definitely closer in age to the younger applicants.
We got in and got a big introduction about how lush was in a bit of a 'boom' at present, I almost felt like mention the bath bomb meme that floated around for like a month but didn't! At this point I'd say that half the applicants were the obviously more outgoing type and half were more reserved and I felt so in the middle, as on the inside I am more reserved but on the outside I was really going for trying to be super confident.
We then made animals out of fun, which I wasn't prepared for, I made an alpaca and I was going to say that people often assume alpacas are like smaller llamas but actually alpacas are much nicer, more intelligent and a lot more friendly but another girl before me made her animal a llama which completely messed up my plan as I didn't want to sound like I was trying to sabotage her valid point about llamas, so I just had to say that I liked alpacas and they are smart and friendly. I think this was the point where my confidence dipped dramatically as I had no idea what to say about my alpaca and so many people had clearly prepared this amazing speech about their animal of choice (and so had I to be fair!)
Anyway our next activity was to show our objects, except not actually show our objects, we had to show our partners! This was a lot of fun and proved to be quite difficult as obviously we'd all planned to talk about our own item with lots of energy and drive and trying to get other people to show off our items with that same passion proved really difficult! If you're reading this Ujj, I'm really sorry I didn't quite manage to show off your beautiful green jug in the same way you described it to me, I was so terrified about breaking it!
Next was massage bars, this was where I was really hoping to pull some brownie points as I know a lot about massage bars and the butters they use, the effects they have on the skin and many ways you can use them! I massaged my partners arm which was a little awkward at first because as they said at the interview 'we're in London, we don't touch people but that's not true here at lush!' but once I got into it, it was fine and even kind of relaxing! I spoke about what I knew about the massage bars but I think they were more actually paying more attention to whether we could take in the facts they gave us about the massage bars and how to massage people!
Finally, we had to sell a random object to the group, I'm still really embarrassed about this one because as much as I feel like what I said to sell the 'selotape' was pretty spot on (my dad sells dodgy used cars for a living, I've picked up some tips from the selling trade!) I realised I spent the whole time looking at the selotape trying to think of things I could do with it and not my audience! Which is so much important when selling, you need to seem super enthusiastic whilst talking to a customer!
Then we left and I felt pretty unsure of how I did, I felt proud of myself for going and giving it my best shot and there were definitely some positives of my interview, so I felt like it might have been enough but also I felt like some of the girls at the interview definitely were considerably better than me in all aspects of the interview, also some were ex-lush employees or had been to lush group interviews before so were perhaps more prepared, although I did look up online what to expect! So I kept relatively positive but wouldn't have been surprised if I hadn't got the job!
Anyway, the next day came and the confidence from the night before disintegrated into no confidence at all! I got my rejection email late afternoon and it was expected but as far as rejection emails go it was the most positive one I've ever had in my life, which was super helpful, as anyone in the job hunting world will know, a rejection email in itself is a glorious thing as most companies don't even bother, a rejection email WITH feedback is like a little nugget of gold!
The feedback was kind and focused on two main pointers:
1) My confidence and closed body language! I spent so long prepping myself to talk confidently I completely forgot that just because I sounded confident doesn't necessarily mean I look it! It seems so obvious now that even where I chose to stand in the room could have had a negative impact on how a potential customer could perceive me!
2) Not being myself enough which is something I didn't quite expect as a comment but the more I thought about it, the more I realised I did hold myself back quite a bit, mostly due to the confidence thing but also because I'm so used to interviews for companies that want to see 'how you'll fit into their company' not seeing 'whether lush will be a good fit with you'! Ahh Lush... you are so fantastic in all the ways - I could never hate you!
SO HERE ARE MY TOP TIPS FOR A LUSH GROUP INTERVIEW:
1) Wear clothes you feel comfortable in BUT be sure to look like you've made an effort. Lush employees are a glamorous bunch that take pride in their appearance, so you don't have to dress smartly, just look like you actually care about what you look like.
2) Be YOURSELF. This is so important! Lush want to know about you, they want to know if Lush would be a good place for you, not if you'd be a good person for Lush! (I mean being a good person for Lush is important too but more so is the idea that you'd be happy and fit in well in the Lush environment!) Let your personality shine through! They want to get to know you!
3) LISTEN to instructions. At the interview, they said 'active listening' is just as important as talking for selling, so be sure to listen to what they tell you about a product and repeat it whilst you are selling it, don't be afraid to add things to it but definitely get down the core information that they tell you! That's what they want you to tell customers!
4) Be AWARE OF HOW OTHER PEOPLE WILL SEE YOU. Don't slink off into a corner, don't hide yourself behind your arms, look at everyone, smile lots and don't be afraid to laugh and giggle at silly jokes and stuff!
5) Most importantly enjoy yourself and try not to worry! Even after my rejection email, I don't feel judged at all and I am totally not afraid to try and apply to Lush again! Also if you can't enjoy the fun, games and slight silliness of a lush group interview, you probably won't enjoy life on the shop floor!
I hope you get the job,
Lots of love,
Zono
xxx
