Bluemercury Manager Interview Questions
& Process

I found out about this job on craigslist and sent my resume to bluemercury corporate. About two weeks later, they contacted me for an interview. I met with the regional manager, who was actually really nice. She mainly went through my resume with me and asked about my experience in the industry. It was a good experience, and they invited me back for something they called a "floor test." This means you work on the sales floor for four hours, and they assess your selling skills and how you interact with customers and employees. During my floor test, I learned a lot about bluemercury from other employees and confirmed it with someone I knew who used to work there. I found out bluemercury doesn't pay competitive wages. Employees get a flat hourly rate (under $16) to sell brands like Revive, which would pay over $20 an hour at Neimans. I didn't get an exact figure for manager pay, but Glassdoor reviews suggest managers make less than $25 an hour, meaning you'd earn more as a sales associate at a cosmetic counter in Tysons Galleria than as a manager at bluemercury. Also, bluemercury has trouble finding and keeping estheticians because they don't offer competitive commission splits. You'll never get a Saturday off, and the health benefits aren't great. Even if you consistently increase sales, management will keep pushing you for more. At first, I thought the employees were just trying to discourage me with all the negativity, but after checking, it all turned out to be true. I had read the Glassdoor reviews before interviewing, but I didn't think bluemercury could be as bad as former employees described, but I guess I was wrong. They never got back to me, which is unprofessional, but I'm not upset at all. I just feel bad for the employees who have to work there and hate their jobs every day.

Had a phone call first, they said they were interested. Then had three more phone interviews with the same person. They asked a lot about what I know and for ideas, seemed interested in me but were really just looking for info. After getting what they wanted, no calls back, no replies to my messages. They used the interviews to get info for themselves. Very unprofessional and shady. Avoid.

The interview process was quite disorganized and unprofessional, somewhat like another reviewer's experience from 2010. The interviewer asked for competitive information, which I refused to share.