I applied for a part-time cosmetics sales position on the Nordstrom website, and two days later, received an e-mail asking me to schedule a phone interview online. A week later, I had the phone interview, and they asked basic questions like, "Why do you want to work for Nordstrom?" and "Why cosmetics?" and "Describe how you deal with difficult customers?" It was about 10 mins long and pretty easy if you prepare, and I was offered an in-person interview on the spot. I was told that I would be meeting with a cosmetics counter manager and was told to come in a week later. When I arrived, I realized it was a group interview, which was slightly annoying only because I wish I had known.
They brought us all down to a conference area, and a few managers from Nordstrom Rack introduced themselves and talked about how they were looking for people to join the Rack team. I started to get nervous because I really had no interest in working for the Rack. The offered us bottles of water and magazines to read, and then they called us in one by one to another room, where we met one-on-one with a manager, but you were still in a room with other candidates while they were being interviewed. I met with a customer service manager for a Rack store, and she asked questions from a standard form. They asked me about my background, asked for an example of how I went above and beyond in a past job for a customer, what my availability was, etc. In the end, I told her that I was under the impression I was interviewing for a Cosmetics sales position, and she looked at me surprised, and said, "Oh, okay, I'll write that down." Then asked, "Would you be interested in working for customer service?" I kind of panicked and said that I would consider it, but that my priority was cosmetics sales. I left the interview thinking nothing would come of it, and was disappointed in the lack of organization and communication.
Two days later, I got an e-mail from Nordstrom asking me to move forward with the interview process for a customer service associate for the Rack, and asked me to apply online for this position. I was really confused and called the woman in HR who phone interviewed me and asked what was going on because I applied for a cosmetics position. She said, "Oh, you want to work in cosmetics?" Well, yeah! I mean, she was the one who asked me during the phone interview, "Why do you want to work in cosmetics?" She said she would forward my info onto the cosmetics department and they would call me.
A half hour after that, I got a call to schedule a one-on-one interview with the cosmetics counter manager. I came in three days later and met with her. She acted like she had never seen my resume before. I felt like I really did well in the interview. I know a LOT about cosmetics and all kinds of brands and I told her I was ready to move forward if she felt I was a good fit. She then told me to go home and think about if I really wanted the job. Umm, okay? So I called her the next day and told her I wanted to move forward. She basically told me she didn't think I was a good fit and wanted me to take this "ambassador" position selling these new candles. At this point, I was just upset I had come this far without an offer, and I decided to move forward with what she was offering. But wait! I had to go through ANOTHER interview with the NY sales rep on the phone first!
So then I interview with that guy, and I thought it went really well. It was probably 10 mins, and he asked me about my availability and gave me a speech on the products. I gave it a week, and then I called the cosmetics manager back to ask for an update. She never called me back. I'm not expecting an offer.
I'm REALLY disappointed at how this whole process was handled. I felt like they didn't respect my time and I also feel like they led me on. After the interview with the cosmetics manager, she made it sound like she liked me and thought I would be a great addition to the team. Then suddenly, I wasn't a good fit. And then, she ignored me.