Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Cosmetic Industry Career Remember your first job interview?

  • Remember your first job interview?

    Posted by cherri on January 24, 2015 at 2:26 pm

    I just feel like it would be great if we have a post about our first job interviews in cosmetic industry….any tips or funny episodes?
    Hope this helps for current/ future job seekers!

    bobzchemist replied 9 years, 2 months ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • oldperry

    Member
    January 25, 2015 at 5:29 pm

    My first job interview in the cosmetic industry was with Alberto Culver.  The interview went fine and I got the job.  The hardest question was from one guy who asked me to name an organic compound.  That was amusing in retrospect because you pretty much don’t use chemical structures for much of anything in formulating.

    I also remember as I left the job I was a bit disappointed because I had gone through 4 plus years of college only to end up working as a shampoo chemist.  At that time in my life I thought I should be doing something more important.  Of course, I enjoyed the job and over time realized that no one is really doing anything important.
    The cosmetic industry is a fun place to work with limited stress or exposure to dangerous chemicals.  I’m glad I got that first interview and took that first job.
  • ozgirl

    Member
    January 26, 2015 at 11:52 pm

    Not my first job interview but at an interview I got asked this question.

    You are driving along an isolated road and get a flat tire. When you get out to change the tire you drop the wheel nuts down a drain and can’t retrieve them. (There are no cell phones) What do you do?

    I answered something about considering my options of whether it was better to try and walk to the closest town to get help or wait for someone to drive by. I asked my sister the same question and she answered that she would just take a wheel nut off each of the other wheels and use them to put the tire back on and continue on her way.

    This type of question is supposed to show the interviewer how you think. So be prepared for unusual questions.

  • cherri

    Member
    January 29, 2015 at 4:38 pm

    @Perry @ozgirl thanks all for sharing! I hope more people could post on this thread..

  • oldperry

    Member
    January 29, 2015 at 4:44 pm

    Every so often it helps to bump a discussion back to the top.

  • bobzchemist

    Member
    January 29, 2015 at 6:21 pm

    I remember being asked on one of my first, if not my very first interview, how I would try to manufacture M&M’s. Being the son of a chemical engineer (who liked to talk about his job whenever he could), I think I went into way too much detail. I don’t think the interviewer was all that impressed, and I didn’t get the job. 

    Funny thing, though - several years later, I looked up how M&M’s were actually made, and I came remarkably close to the actual manufacturing process - although going on for five minutes about the differences between fluid-bed dryers, spray dryers, and rotating-pan dryers probably wasn’t the best move to make in that interview… 

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