Bath & Body Works Seasonal Sales Associate Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Sep 2011 (took 1 week)

I filled out an application in store. I was called the next day and asked to come to an interview the following week. I was not informed that it would be a group interview. I arrived a few minutes early and was told to "choose my favorite product" to bring into the interview. Three other women were there and told to do the same. I wondered what was going on, with these three other people here. I do not regularly shop at BBW, just around holidays, and just grabbed a tube of hand cream because that is something I would use. We were ushered into the back, through a maze of towering boxes stacked way too high; they looked ready to fall at any moment. Our interview was conducted with the four of us on folding chairs crammed into a tiny space behind the manager's desk, surrounded by 20-foot high shelves full of product. It was claustrophobic and extremely uncomfortable.

I will be brutally honest - they have not called me back with an offer yet, but if they did, I would decline for numerous reasons, the most glaring being I could never work for this manager. His/her personality was grating, loud, over-the-top, obnoxious, pushy...I could go on. Every other sentence out of their mouth was some silly joke or sarcastic veiled insult towards us, the staff there or customers. They are trying to be a comedian and failing miserably...the kind of manager/employee where if I were approached by them as a customer, I would avoid that store like the plague in the future, or check to see if they were working before I went in. I felt it was extremely unprofessional behavior for a manager, let alone an interview situation.

We were asked basic retail questions...why do you want to work here, describe a time when you were able to help a customer well, describe a time when you couldn't make a customer happy no matter what, what would you do if a customer returned a half-used candle, etc. I thought I did pretty well, but if you weren't the first one to answer you basically just re-worded what the previous person said. There was no time and obviously no interest on the part of the manager to really get to know any of us or learn more about what we could bring to the table. The other three applicants were way more "into" BBW products than I am; they were naming off this scent and that scent left and right, which I suppose will put them way above me. We had to demo the product we chose on another applicant. I have since learned that walking up to customers in the store, grabbing their hands and putting product on them without even asking first is a requirement in this job - yet another reason I will not be working there.

I dressed business casual (blouse, dress slacks, loafers). One other applicant was dressed similar to myself; the others were much more casual, one being in a tee, jeans and flip flops. That really surprised me. She went on and on about the products the most though, so I wouldn't be surprised if she got the job.

I felt it was a very negative experience overall. We were not informed it would be a group interview, we weren't even given proper space to sit (not to mention the whole back area looked terribly unsafe). I was expecting something much more professional from such a large company. I have retail experience, and I was good at it, making three $1,000+ sales in a six-month period, and I had the 2nd highest sales in the store in December. But after reading many reviews here on glassdoor from people who work there, I am not interested in working for a company that expects such pushy sales tactics and hard work from employees who are hired at a dime over minimum wage and then only given 4-6 hours a week! Not to mention the fact that I would never in a million years walk up to a total stranger and smear lotion all over their hands without asking them first! Seriously? The manager's phrase was "pamper them a little." I wouldn't consider it pampering, I'd consider it extremely intrusive, rude, and actually, if I buy any BBW products in the future it will be online only, as I don't care to have some scent I don't even like forced on me.

A word to BBW that was said in dozens and dozens of your employee reviews....if you want good, loyal associates, you can't hire them for 4 hours a week, expect them to meet ridiculous quotas with no commissions, chew them up during Christmas and spit them out. Pay above minimum wage might be a good idea, too. Also, I absolutely guarantee you that you are driving a lot of customers out of the store with your sales tactics. There are quiet, reserved shoppers who have money to spend but want to be left alone to shop in peace, not smeared with product against their will.