Job offer

So, I went to my interview yesterday.  It took about 2 hours, total.  Both of my models were present for a majority of the interview, which I thought was a tad odd, but, hey, what do I know??

Over all, it went really well.  Once I started talking to her, then started cutting hair, I totally relaxed and got into the groove.  She liked what I did, she liked how I did it, she read the novel that are my 3 resumes (hairdressing, school, and my entire job history), and watched everything I was doing.

Initially, as I had told her, I went in there just as an exploratory thing...wanted to know what Smart Styles is all about, the pay structure, etc., because I certainly don't want to jump ship without knowing what I'm getting into.

Couple of things I'm not fond of, currently: Starting rate of pay:  Minimum wage...Yuck.  However, the commission off services starts at 40%, which actually matches my pay right now.  So, okay.  Plus, the salon has guaranteed traffic being located in the front of the store.  Then, there's the schedule.  It fluctuates, so no one has a set schedule, except by how many hours they are working.  The days change.  And, there's no booking ahead, either, beyond 3 weeks.  On the upside, most of my clients call in, anyway.  The only one affected by that is my nice lady on Saturdays.  But, we'll work it out.

The commission on retail is pretty cut and dried:  8%  off each item you sell.  If you are on the desk, and a customer comes in to purchase retail only, you get the retail.  End of story.  There are no grey areas.  I LOVE IT!!  There's contests with prizes (which I don't really care about) based on your sales, product of the month, Style of the month, stuff like that.  Dress code, I'm fine with, except with not being allowed to wear my smock all the time.  I wear the smock for multiple reasons:  A) to keep the hair in my clothes down to a minimum, B) to prevent chemicals from getting all over my clothes, C) to discourage unwanted attention from clients.  So, that part stinks...no security blanket.

Becky asked me a bunch of questions, like what made you want to be a hairdresser?  I've wanted to be one since I was 5 years old, and that the opportunity never presented itself until 4 years ago.  What's your favorite service?  Color.  What would you do to pull clients into the salon on down time??  Hang out in the hair color aisle and start talking to people, luring them into the salon.  She perked right up when I said that!!  She also asked me how I felt about advancement in the company.  I let her know I wasn't opposed to it, as long as it didn't require me to travel.  I've done my share, I don't mind helping out once in a while, but not all the time, as I'm the only parent.

So, the end result was that I was offered a job, with the possibility of being salon manager before all is said and done.  So, now I get to go to work, talk to Ginger, make up a small white lie about the whole interview thing (I'll just tell her they had stuff out at the open house for walmart that interested me and I went in to talk about it, with two models I scrounged up, as requested), give my notice, and tell my clients.  I'm hoping she won't get upset about it and let me contact my clients from the salon.  I've got some clients already booking for next month that I'll need to take care of.  I've also got all my pedicure clients that I'll need to tell I won't be taking care of them any longer, which isn't going to be fun.  I know they'll all be understanding, but it won't be fun.  I'm hoping I can get Chrissy to take them all and get over her issues with their feet...at least it will help build her book.

Stay tuned!!