Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: What is up and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Britt Seva, and today I thought we would talk about salon interview questions and pro tips. This is another blind spot for me of in my brain. We’ve talked about this before and I think it’s because I’ve talked about a lot in Thrivers. I’ve definitely talked about in Thriving Leadership, and I don’t think I’ve ever brought it here to the podcast.
Let me tell you what my inspiration for this week’s episode is.
One, you’ve probably heard me talk about this before. My daughter at the time of this recording just recently passed her state board exams, which is very exciting, and is navigating her journey through the industry. This has been very eye-opening for me. I’ve not tracked a young beauty professional from their point of entry into the industry every step of the way in years. I mean, it’s been a really long time. It’s interesting to see a stylist post-Covid going through school in this time where beauty schools coast to coast are really deeply impacted. There’s a huge rush of beauty professionals going to get licensing right now. Trades are exploding, and so, in this new era of hair, it’s been really fascinating for me to watch somebody choose to go through the process from the start, learn about what annoys her, learn about what excites her. She’s been my greatest case study. She’s going to be mortified listening to this episode, but she’s been really helpful to me.
One of the things that’s come up along this journey, which I think is important to understand, is for her, she’s decided it’s really important for her to create an identity outside of me.
Full disclosure, not everybody she’s interviewed with even has any clue who I am, so the idea that she’s either got a leg up or a disadvantage being my daughter has not shown itself to be true. I think some people are well aware of what I do and some people have no clue at all. But what she’s decided is she really wants to make a name for herself as an individual, which I think is very respectful and very aligned with her personality and doesn’t surprise me at all.
Through that process, as we’re working to uncover what’s important to her, and as she’s gone through this series of meeting salons and going to salon interviews and talking to different professionals, we have learned so much collectively about what successful salons are doing today that is blowing their interview process, about what some successful salons that are doing today really well in their interview process, some salons who clearly have no process at all.
It’s made me realize, “Whoa, I really have to talk about this,” because I think a lot of salons don’t realize the impression that they’re setting when somebody comes in to meet with them, A, and I’ve also come to realize a lot of young beauty professionals don’t know how to interview.
This was a massive blindspot for me. My daughter’s a Gen Z, I’m a millennial. I think one of the things that was common—and I’m an old millennial, I’m like a grandma millennial. I’m like a Gen X millennial, A Gen-X-mal. Oh my gosh, I love that for me.
One of the things for us is we had to be so self-sufficient and self-reliant. I think I’ve been a decent interviewee since I was 15 years old. I realize now that a younger generation doesn’t have those same skills, so I wanted to share a podcast episode that was for stylists who are potentially going for interviews and also for salon owners who are hosting these interviews, just to give some insights as to how to position yourself as the very best either candidate if you’re the person who’s being interviewed or salon to work at, if you’re somebody who is interviewing these hungry new stylists.
I want to start by sharing the things that were turnoffs or turnons to my daughter as she was going to interviews. Full disclosure, I realized she doesn’t represent everybody. The things that irritated her, somebody else might not have noticed. The things she loves, I think the things she loved everybody would love, but this is only from her perspective. It’s very biased. I totally keep that in mind. She’s my only case study. No other new beauty professionals offering up their feedback to me.
So I’m going to share her feedback knowing that it’s probably biased. It’s definitely through her eyes. But I want to share with you some of the things that she said.
Couple of the salons that she’s chosen not to work for, some of them she really had her heart set on and when it didn’t work out, it was fairly emotional for her. Pretty devastating. A huge part of why—full disclosure, she was offered opportunities everywhere she interviewed. The reason why she walked away, or at least shut down the interview process anywhere she was, was always based on culture. There was nothing else for her other than culture.
It was never location. Sometimes it was education, but for the most part, it was culture. I think that’s important to understand because I think she represents the majority in that. I think most people are really looking for a place in space they feel confident and comfortable leading the way.
There’s some salons that she interviewed at that truly made her feel uncomfortable. I don’t know how to say that in a different way. She walked away feeling inadequate. And when she explained the comments to me that were shared, I think they were coming from a place of sarcasm and almost a place of, “We’re all friends here,” but to her as a candidate coming in, the joking came a little too soon. “But we’re not friends. I don’t know you yet. I’m here meeting you for the first time.”
And I think that sometimes in salon culture we do that. We’ll be interviewing a candidate and then have a quick conversation to the stylist over here or make a quick inside joke. We do it in a way of like, “Well, they better learn to love our culture or they’re out.” Yes, but sometimes it’s almost like pushing them a little too far too fast, and I think we need to be really careful and mindful of that too.
I think for her it was like she was being pushed to be inside the crew even though she was clearly an outsider, which leads me to my next point. Not all of the stylists were warm and fuzzy to her and gave her greetings. She was playing with this dichotomy of sometimes she walked into the salons and the stylists would simply stare at her. Sometimes they would smile, sometimes they wouldn’t smile.
I don’t know if that was to be a little bit intimidating or to be like, “Let’s see if you can cut it.” I don’t know, but it was a huge turnoff. So if you were trying to turn her off, congrats, you did it. If you weren’t, just something to keep in mind.
But I think that when we do the combination of those things, like the team doesn’t offer the warm welcome and then also there can be these inside jokes or sarcastic remarks, that’s just a little too much too fast. If you make the candidate feel isolated, there’s a really good chance they’re not going to choose to work for you because they don’t feel like they’re on the inside.
Here’s the rub is that sometimes we try and do things to make people feel like, “…but you’re welcome here.” That’s in the eye of the beholder. Some of the things that made her feel welcomed were—one of the salons she went into, she called me right after and she was like, “I’ve never felt like a team was more excited to work with me.” She said as she was walking in, all the stylists were like, “Oh my gosh, you’re Emily, right? Oh, we’re so excited that you’re here. So-and-so told us you were coming today. Can’t wait to meet you. Let me know if you have any questions.” Over the top were so kind to her.
She was like, “Man, I just felt like I’m meeting these people for the first time. They’re not coming from a place of judgment. They don’t think they’re too cool. For me, it was just straight up like kindness.” It sounds so simple, but when you have a candidate coming in, do you tell your whole team, “Hey, Erica’s coming in today. When you see her, make sure that you say hi. Shake her hand, give her a smile. Give her a nod, if you’re with a client, say, ‘Hey, my name’s Britt. Just excited that you’re here, Erica, welcome.’”
That little warm welcome, at least for my daughter, made a huge impact and it’s not a huge ask of your team. Just something to think about. It takes a little bit of extra work to get your team included like that, but it would’ve made a really huge impact.
Another thing that she said was when salons didn’t have enough of a growth path or it felt a little bit too self-study or it didn’t feel finalized enough. When it felt very like it’s whatever, go at your own pace, you’ll do this, and then I’ll check in. For her, she felt like if I was going to do it like that, I’ll just take independent education and piece it together myself. She was looking for a very defined growth path, which is what we talk about in Thriving Leadership.
That’s why I say you present the growth path at time of interview. “Six months in, you’ll be here. One year in, you’ll be here, five years in, you’ll be here, 10 years in, you’ll be here.”
If you don’t want to put benchmarks all the way out, say at least “This is your first 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, one year. From there, these are the benchmarks to achieve that will allow you to grow to the place of stylist you want to, and you can grow as fast or slow as you want.”
That’s for her at least what she was looking for. I do believe that’s becoming more and more common with these stylists is they don’t want to just come in, meet you, here’s some information about the education program, good luck. They want a more defined path. Gen Z just needs more information. They simply do.
Now, another salon she went into, she walked away feeling like they didn’t ask enough questions about her as a person. I thought that was so poignant. She was like, “They asked me how I liked school. They asked me where I went to school, when I was going to pass state board, why I chose their salon.” And she was like, “…but they don’t know anything about me. They don’t know what my values are. They don’t know what my family’s like. They don’t know what my hobbies are.” And she was like, “If I’m going to be spending 32 or 40 hours a week with this person, I want to know what they’re into. Certainly they should want to know what I’m into unless they don’t care.”
That was her big takeaway too, of “I want these people to care about me as a human. If you’re going to expect me to dedicate my life to working for your salon, I would like you to see me as a whole human, not a cog in your machine.”
I had never thought of it like that. She was like, “Some of these salons didn’t ask enough questions about me as a person and it was a turnoff because it made me feel like they didn’t care.” I thought that was so interesting.
Another salon she interviewed at, the salon owner who was interviewing her showed up late, which I guess could be okay, but it was weird. The salon owner showed up late and then told my daughter, “Sorry about that. My daughter’s going out to party tonight and I just needed to make sure that she had a ride coordinated.” It started off with this very unprofessional dialogue about this salon owner’s daughter who was going to go out and have a fun time in the city. While that’s all fine and well for that salon owner, it’s like what I said, it’s like too much too fast.
My daughter wanted the opportunity to share about her for certain and get to know the owner, but not full transparency, full exposure, or hear about your daughter’s night of partying in San Francisco. Again, too much, too fast.
Finding that boundary of you’re trying to set a professional stage, you’re trying to set this candidate at ease. They’re looking to have a growth path and plan laid out for them. They want you to care enough to get to know them without you making them feel like they’re the outsider in your inside jokes. They’re not welcome here. It is a fine dance and balance and I just encourage you to work to find that.
Let me share some interview questions and some tips that I think would’ve been helpful for those who interviewed her or other even salons. I’ve sat in on some salon interviews. I think these are just general things to think about.
If you’re a candidate going in for a salon interview, my first piece of advice is number one, be yourself. If you go into a salon interview and you’re playing a part or being a character and they hire you as that character, they’re going to want that character to show up to work every single day. Being a character is exhausting. Being inauthentic 365 days a year is not sustainable. It’s a huge cause of burnout.
When you show up to an interview, first and foremost, be yourself. The salon owner is interviewing you, but you’re also interviewing them. If it’s not going to be a fit from the start, don’t try and force it. If the puzzle piece doesn’t fit, find a new box, right?
Number two, be prepared. Assume the salon is going to ask you questions. My daughter, one of her recent interviews, she’s like, “Mom, I’m feeling nervous.”
I said, “Why are you nervous?”
She said, “I don’t know what they’re going to ask me.”
I said, “Well, how about I just ask you a bunch of questions and we’ll see how your answers are.”
She’s like, “Well, you don’t know that you’re going to ask what they’re asking.”
I said, “No, but even if I get 30% of the questions correct, it’ll get your mind in the right place and space to answer these questions.”
I asked her a series of questions and honestly, sometimes her answer wasn’t very good and I would stop her and say, “Ah, but see when they’re asking that, what they mean is this.” I’m going to go through some of those questions today.
If you’re like, “My mom wouldn’t do that for me,” I’ll be your mom and I’ll go through that for you in a second. But even as you’re driving to the interview in your car, role play some of your answers in your mind. It makes it so much easier when you actually get there.
Number three, prepare questions to ask in advance. Think about what you want to know from the salon before you leave the interview. Don’t ask basic questions. Ask questions that position you as somebody who is a desirable hire. That is a pro tip.
When you ask questions like, “What’s the schedule? How much money am I going to make? How many people work here?”, it’s not that those are bad questions, but most of those questions, the answers probably live on the website. The questions you want to ask are the questions that you would only get by speaking to the manager or the owner. We’ll go through some of those questions today, but prepare smart questions in advance.
This is one of my best pro tips. Make a dream salon wishlist before you go to the salon for the interview. It will help you to not have blinders on and to screen to make sure do I actually want to work at the salon or am I caught up in a fantasy?
When I graduated cosmetology school, there was only two salons I was considering working at. One that I considered my dream salon, and then the other one that I really enjoyed what I was seeing about the salon, but it wasn’t the dream salon. My first was at the dream salon and I went in there and it was like my dream turned into a nightmare. I hated everything I saw. The salon’s reputation was great, the location was stellar, the program was killer, and I just couldn’t stand the manager, and I just felt culturally it wasn’t a right fit for me.
Versus I went to the other salon that was not my dream salon, but there was something about it that I really loved. It ended up being the salon I worked at and then ended up managing for years and years and years. I fell in love with it. It was like I’d found my family.
The only reason I was able to make that distinction is before my interviews, I had made this list of what does Britt want from this job? And when the dream salon ultimately didn’t fit the bill, it was an easy no, I didn’t get caught up in the fantasy of “people will think I’m so cool if I work here,” which P.S., they would have. It would’ve been a much bigger flex for me to work at that first salon, but my soul would’ve been so miserable. Having that list of what is really required for me to be happy was what allowed me to make that choice.
Lastly, be an expert of the salon before you arrive. Again, going back to that, don’t ask silly questions. What days are the salon open? That should really be on the salon’s website and P.S., if you’re a salon owner and that’s not on your website, please add that today.
Don’t ask silly questions where it’s like, did you not even look us up before you started? You should be a pretty good expert of what services does this salon do? Who are the stylists who work here? How big is the team? What are the retail lines they carry? Go in looking like you didn’t just stumble in off the street, but you actually care about working here and do your due diligence. Be a real expert before you arrive.
Okay, now, if you’re a salon owner, what you are screening for is different. For me, I always say I can teach people talent. I can’t change their personality.
Whenever I was interviewing somebody to be an assistant, or on the rare occasion we were looking to hire a more senior stylist, I was always like, “Can I spend 32 to 40 hours a week with this person or are they going to drive me up the walls?” If I would not enjoy spending time with you and P.S., that doesn’t mean we have to be best friends. Full disclosure, I don’t think I’ve ever been close friends with anybody I work with. That is a very vulnerable admission. Any of the people I work with now or have worked with in the past would probably tell you the same thing. I don’t work with anybody to be their friend, but I do need to enjoy your company. If I would not enjoy your company, this will not work. When you’re interviewing somebody, you’re trying to determine is this a cultural fit? Does this person make sense for our existing team?
You can likely teach or train somebody who has soft skills if you’re really a true leader, but it’s the personality fit. Is that really a good mix when you’re asking interview questions.
As a salon owner or leader, you should use the phrase “Tell me more about that” at least 10 times in the interview. Whenever you’re interviewing somebody, the first answer they give you is always surface level. There’s generally two or three more levels to the answer.
If you say, “Hey, tell me a little bit about yourself,” and they say, “Well, great. I grew up in a small town and I have two dogs and a cat, and I always live with my mom and dad. I have one brother, and my favorite kind of ice cream is mint chocolate chip.”
“Awesome. Tell me more about your family dynamic. What does that look like? Are you a close family? Do you still spend a lot of time together?”
“Well, actually we’re not that close. Over the years, we’ve grown apart a little bit. I may still love and care about them, but no, I’m not really close to them.”
“Totally understandable. Okay, great. Is all your family still in the area? Do you travel to see them?”
“Actually, my dad now lives in Chicago and usually I fly back east to go see him,” or wherever Chicago is. Midwest. “I fly out there every Thanksgiving.” Push, push, push. Don’t just take the surface level.
If somebody says, “What’s your favorite services? I like to do extensions.”
“Awesome. Tell me a little bit more about that.”
“Well, I’ve always loved extensions. I like the transformation that it makes.”
“Amazing. Tell me more about that. What about the transformation really hits your heart? Tell me more about that.”
Push the candidate to tell you more. The truth lies in the details on that.
Lastly, like I said, make sure that your whole team knows the candidate is coming and get them excited. If your team is not excited about a new hire, you have a problem with your existing team.
Your team should be really stoked every time you expand. If not, you have a cultural issue and it’s something to look at at the door.
Okay, so I want to go through first the questions for the salon owner to ask, and then I’m going to get into the questions that I think a stylist should come prepared to ask.
For me, whenever I sit down with a candidate, even today, my interview always starts with, “Hey, I’m Britt. I’m so, so excited that you’re here. I am a non-traditional interviewer and I really just want to get to know you as a person.” I always start by saying that it’s a non-traditional interview. Why? Because I don’t want them to give me their canned answers. I really want to get to know them as a person and breaking down that wall allows ’em to go [exhales] immediately. You’ll watch the body language change.
Then almost always I’ll give a compliment and I’ll shift because no one’s expecting it. I’ll be like, “…and I just have to stop and say I’m obsessed with your earrings. Did you make those yourself?” Or “Where did you find those?” Or I’ll say something like “The top that you’re wearing right now, I actually have it and it’s one of my favorites.”
Even if I don’t have it, I’ll find some kind of comment to make that shifts the gears from “Hello I, am Britt and I am here from an interview.” I try and really change it from that robotic interview nervous point to we’re just friends and we’re here to chat. Do you know why? Because that’s where the truth lives. And if I can get somebody feeling very comfortable with me, they will spill their soul. It is amazing what people are willing to tell me in an interview, but I want to get to know people for who they are, not who they think they’re supposed to be. And in asking those kinds of things and setting up the interview that way, I’ve been able to break the barrier. That’s a little pro tip.
Here’s the questions I would ask:
What would being a stellar team member look like to you? Let the candidate qualify what they think success looks like.
What are you looking to achieve with this opportunity? What are your professional goals? That was interesting. I asked my daughter that question and she did not know how to answer it. If you’re a new stylist and you don’t yet know how to answer that question, I want you to really think about it.
Here’s the thing: there’s no right or wrong answer. The honest truth is the answer. So where do you see yourself professionally?
When somebody asks the question, what are your professional goals? Be honest. I want to be a part-time working dad who’s home with their kids three days a week. I want to be a platform artist, whatever. But I want you to think about what are your goals in this profession. Most salon owners will ask you that, so if you’re a stylist, really have an answer to that one.
If you’re a salon owner, what do you want their goals to be? Think about that. Do you care if they have goals? What do you want them to be? Really think it through.
What do you feel you learned a lot about in school? What do you have left to learn? How do you plan to market yourself if you work at this salon? What are you looking to learn from me as your leader? If someone does not want to learn from you as their leader, they are not for you. Even if it’s a booth renter, they should come into this place in space looking to collaborate and learn. That’s what a team player looks like.
What would success look like for you in the next five years? What is your dream income? What steps can you commit to taking in the next year to get closer to that income? Can I hold you accountable to that?
Allow somebody to explain how they look like they’re going to achieve their goals, and then the follow up of, can I hold you accountable to that? If they make a smirk or get weird or say, “Well, I don’t know,” then you might have somebody who’s not accountable on your hands. Think about that. If they say yes, say “Awesome. I’m going to make a note of that. If we choose to move forward, this is going to become one of your KPIs for the next year ahead.”
Do you see how from the jump you’re setting the standard of this is a salon where achievement happens and they can opt in or opt out?
Next, what do you want this team to say about you?
Those are some of the more innovative questions I want you to consider adding to your interview repertoire.
Now, if you are a stylist looking to interview at a salon, here are some of the questions I would come prepared to ask. Salon owners, listen up because this is what the candidates will be asking you and you should have answers to them:
Tell me about the growth path at this salon. When did your most recent stylist start working here?
How long has your longest term stylist work here?
What makes the most senior stylists the most senior?
Is seniority based on how long somebody has worked here, their achievements, the size of their clientele, their social media following. Tell me more.
What does education look like here, or their education expectations here?
What would being a stellar team member look like to you? Basically flipping that question back on the salon owner.
Who would I be assisting for? Now this is a question for a new stylist. Now, some of you are hiring seasoned stylists. You only pick and choose the questions here that make sense for your team. Who would I be assisting for and how long is the assisting program?
How is my compensation determined? It’s okay to talk about money in the interview. It should not be the only thing you ask about because then it says, “I don’t care about this team as long as I make money.” That’s the subliminal message that happens if you don’t come with other intelligent questions to ask.
Asking about compensation is okay. Sometimes it’s necessary, but don’t let that be the only question. It sends the wrong message.
This is one of my favorites. What are the fastest ways to grow my income being a part of your salon company? It shows that you’re driven and it puts the salon owner in a position to have an intelligent answer. If they say, “Work hard, ask for referrals,” that would concern me.
You want a salon owner who has viable options like, “Well, based on our salon growth path and plan, if you do blah, blah, blah, it will work. Take our stylist, Sadie, for example. Something that she’s done over the last six months is X, Y, Z.” You want to have specific answers and examples for that.
I will tell you one of the things that my daughter really enjoyed in salons and ultimately led her to make her ultimate decision of where to work was the owner that she had an interview with where she decided “This is the place for me,” is she was like, “It felt like every time I had an answer, she echoed back something we had in common.”
For example, the salon owner said, “When would you be available to start?” My daughter said, “Well, I have this trip coming up.” It’s a business trip. She’s actually coming with me. “I have this trip coming up, but once I’m finished with that, I’m fully available. I just need to get that out of the way.”
The salon owner said, “Tell me more.” The salon owner totally followed this format and “Where are you going?”
My daughter said, “Well, I’m going to Austin, Texas.”
The owner said, “Oh my gosh, funny,” and then she wanted to tell a story about, I think it’s her current fiance or her husband or something is from Austin, and she’d been there before. She turned it into this story, this connection point. She didn’t have to do that. My daughter could have just said, “I’m going to Austin, Texas,” and the owner could have said, “Great, when are you going to be back?” She could have said the date and that would’ve been the end.
But because the owner took a beat and said, “Oh my gosh, here’s my funny story about Austin,” and then turned it back to my daughter and said, “Have you ever been there before?” My daughter had a chance to say, “No, it’s my first time,” and then the owner responded by saying, “Oh my gosh, you’re going to love it. Have fun. When you get back, we should talk about it.” She was building a relationship forward from the start, but she was doing it in a way that felt natural, not contrived.
A good interview feels effortless when you’re at a salon where the culture is simply aligned. You don’t have to work that hard. I think that the reason why the salon she’s ultimately going to work at really knocked it out of the park is because they had a very clearly defined growth path and plan, which P.S., isn’t easy. It’s definitely not the easiest salon my daughter could have worked at. She’s going to have to work really hard to make this happen, but she’s here for it. She’d rather work harder and have all of her boxes checked than not.
She’s found this salon space in place, whereas there’s a defined growth path. Everybody was super kind to her. She felt like a really natural rapport and dynamic with the leader from the start. It’s a salon where she’s going to be able to build her identity completely separate from me, which is a unique challenge. I’m not saying that most people have that, but something that she certainly has. She felt like the owner asked about her as a person. None of the comments made her feel like inadequate or an outsider, and she really felt like this was a place they wanted her to be.
I hope this has been helpful whether you are a stylist looking to go into an interview, you’re a salon owner looking to interview others.
Again, this was like a real stream of thought one, so I hope it was helpful.
Any questions, leave me a rating or review with more. Shoot me a DM, let me know what you thought.
And as I always say, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
