I originally applied for a holiday position in the at home department in October 2009. I was contacted to set up a phone interview about 3 weeks later. My phone interview was the next day and since I had a background in sales, I was called in for my first interview. We discussed a lot of the same information as we did on the phone interview until she asked me what department I would be most interested in working in. I told her cosmetics. She went to check and came back and told me that there was still some part time availability at the MAC counter. I was told that I would need to meet with the cosmetics manager as well as the counter manager who were not in at the time and I would be contacted in a few days to set up another interview. This is something that I had dreamed about doing since I can remember, the only career aspiration that had stuck with me through all the years. I waited a few days and started calling to try and get in touch with the manager. I was told that I'd be meeting with the regional manager on Thursday and then I'd have my makeup application interview on Friday night. The morning of the interview came and my boyfriend went down to pay rent. He came back upstairs holding an eviction notice. I pulled myself together and arrived at Nordstrom 20 minutes early, walked in and asked for the person I was supposed to be meeting with only to be told that there was no one there by that name. They paged the cosmetics manager to try and straighten this out. After about 45 minutes someone from MAC called and told me to go downstairs to the MAC counter. It was the counter manager who told me that I was interviewing in the MAC store upstairs in the mall. I rush over there and introduce myself and explain that I thought I was meeting with someone at Nordstrom. We settle down into the back office and he starts asking me questions about my current job and how I would overcome certain obstacles, if I was familiar with bonuses and commission, any awards I have won, etc...On paper, I am an excellent candidate for any job. Unfortunately, this was the worst day of my life and I was freaking out about it. I tried to pass it off as excitement for the best job ever but in reality, my mind was going in 40 different directions. Two things stick out in my mind that left me kicking myself for weeks. 1.When he asked if I knew about the dress code at MAC and I said yes, He asked why I was wearing anything other than black. (I thought I was meeting with a manager from Nordstrom but I told him that I had to meet with a client from my other job in the afternoon...lies). 2. He asked how often I get stressed out at my other job. My answer was "more often now than usual" It was true. I was more stressed out and I explained that it was because our biggest customer was going out to bid and that it was making everyone go a little crazy. The regional trainer said that it was good to have some stress like that because it makes you more competitive. (Thanks! I appreciate the life line) I left the interview feeling less like a rock star than I had hoped.The next day was the makeup application interview. I asked my friend to be my model because she already wears MAC makeup. I got to the store on time and met with the manager. She brought us to the back room and sat my model down. She gave me a scenario that my customer was a 30 year old soccer mom who doesn't wear a lot of makeup but wanted something easy to do that she could wear every day. I was to give her an every day look and then do something quick that she could transfer to night time. I had 5 minutes to pull products and then 25 minutes to do the actual makeup application. I grabbed a bunch of the stuff that my friend already had and started on her. I knew that they would want me to explain what I was doing while I was doing it and why so that it would be like I was actually trying to sell this makeup to her. About halfway through, I started to put on this eyeliner that I thought would make her eyes really stand out. It looked awful and almost completely ruined the whole look I had given her. I looked to the manager and she said "go ahead, get something else". I came back with a brown eyeliner and fixed the mistake. The rest of the application went very well and she actually complimented me saying that changing to the brown was a really good idea and she was happy that I had done that and kept my head in the process. I finished in less time than I was allotted and she said that I did a great job and that I clearly had the MAC look. She was going to talk to the people at Nordstrom and her boss at MAC and someone would be in touch with me soon.

First set of questions about work experience and schedule. Very straight forward questions. Had filled out a form prior to being called in to list my availability. Had applied online and received an email about a career day.