Lush Waterloo The store had not yet been finished so the interview was held in another Lush store or some of their offices. At first, it all seemed to be going well, a lot of smiling faces, but as it progressed it felt more and more like the first day of school when they give you tasks that help you get to know your classmates. Which is fine, I understand that Lush is all about the team work and aiming for each store's staff to be like a 'family', but none of the tasks gave anyone a chance to really show any knowledge about lush and the things that are actually important. All it did was alienate the people that aren't as strong as the rest in the group. Working at lush shouldn't just be about how happy clappy someone can be, it should be about their knowledge of the products, their genuine kindness and ability to sell an item with the addition of a few lush facts for people to take home with them. There were no questions or tasks about lush and the products in the interview, just about, for example, what super power would we like to have? What our favourite train station was!? etc. Ok, great questions for a school friend building activity, but not a job interview!!! The only time any lush products were brought out, was for another silly task: smell the product and say what holiday you'd like to go on from the smell. Nothing about the product itself. Customers don't care where you see yourself in the world from the smell, they just want to know what's in it, is it the best choice for them, any facts about it etc...The last task, we were told to make a song or a poem or play about two products. Again, there was no time to talk about the product itself and test our knowledge or teach us something about it. How does making a play about a product help at all with our ability to work at lush?! Again this singled people out who just weren't like that.. which I found very unfair...because a few weren't able to join in with this ridiculous task, these people were seen as not good enough. Just because you choose not to dance around or whatever, doesn't mean you're not a happy and approachable person. I know they want out-going people but there are so many other skills you need to work there. More useful skills... The people I noticed that didn't participate much in this task, were the people that were far better at one on one conversations (which there was hardly a chance at any one on one activity. Unfair again.) and were still lovely people with in fact more knowledge about lush and the products than the others. But because of these one-sided selected tasks, their abilities were simply shadowed by the people that could talk about themselves better or felt more comfortable in a group. I actually worked at a lush before as a Christmas temp. The interview was all about our actual skills and knowledge, the way we handled ourselves and of course, the way we were. But in that interview, the tasks were actually thought out and they would be tasks that any type of character could shine with and give an impression. I guess all I can say is, it depends which lush you work at, just be prepared for anything. And be prepared to have to be a little fake just to compete with everyone else there. (which is my number one hate, fake people, which some lush stores seem to only go for) I feel I have been cheated out of a job I was perfectly suited for and able to do, just because the interview was awfully thought out and singled out the people they should really be going for. It wasn't a hard interview at all to be honest, it just seemed that the only way to get a job from this particular interview, you had to swallow your pride and act fake just to get heard. If you don't want to lower yourself to that, then you lose out on a job.

It was a group interview, very unconventional, hands-on, and activity-based, teamwork. They expect you to know their company values and ethics, which will carry over to your role. It was very relaxed and they made me feel very comfortable and heard.