You’ve landed an audition at a great spa. Terrific!
You’re prepared, poised and early for the interview.
Your paper work is in order with your state license and school diploma in hand.
Fast forward.
You’ve completed the audition.
The spa manager who has just experienced your work is exiting the treatment table.
But the treatment room looks like a tornado came through it.
This is where the interview and the audition go awry.
You might be surprised to know that a spa therapist who keeps a clean and orderly work-space from beginning to end, may in fact, be the deciding factor as to whom they should hire. The deal breaker is whether or not the spa therapist who has just auditioned even bothers to stay or offer to clean the treatment room after use.
A lot of candidates do not stay and clean the treatment room by stripping the table, wiping off products, and gathering tools to be washed and sterilized. If you leave the mess you’ve made for your potential employer to clean up, you can kiss that opportunity good-bye.
Interviews and auditions can make us nervous. We all perform better when we are in our own element. But this is no excuse for not maintaining a neat and tidy treatment room during your audition. The more disorderly the treatment room looks after the audition, the less seasoned you appear:
- Clumsily banging, tripping or bumping into things
- Roughly handling skin care machines, breaking equipment, i.e. a glass electrode
- Over filling the steamer causing it to drip or spray
- Using your cleanser-caked hand to position the steamer
- Rolling back and forth on the stool creating more disturbances
- A shoe print on the floor from stepping in product that was spilled
- Soiled dampened towels for product removal that are piled on the counter or on the floor
- Used cotton squares piled in the sink
- Mask brushes laying in the bottom of the sink.
You only have so much control during an audition. If the treatment room is small, without a sink, or has older equipment, you need to bring or prepare your own supplies. At least you can rely on the familiarity of your own tools to enable you to perform your best.
If I get the impression that you’ve slaved over me during this 60 minute audition and the condition of the treatment room looks completely ransacked, I may feel as though you are not the right candidate to perform a scheduled day of several facials. You may not appear to have the stamina, the organizational skills or the mental clarity.
In order to avoid these mishaps, scan the treatment room when you walk in:
- Ask if the table can be lowered or raised so it is proper height when you are ready to begin the audition.
- Let the spa manager know if you are someone who sits or stands to perform a service, then the stool can be moved out of the way.
- Plug in equipment. Looking for an outlet breaks the flow of your treatment if the steamer doesn’t appear to be working because it wasn’t plugged in.
- Bring your own supplies if you feel the spa may not provide the right size gloves for extractions, or cotton squares/rounds for removing product or analyzing skin.
- Use tissues to position the steamer in front of the guest instead of your product-caked hand.
- When exiting/returning to the room, handle door knobs using a tissue if your hands are filmy from oils or creams; it is also more hygienic.
- Grab all soiled towels used for product removal at the end of the service when exiting.
- Place used cotton in trash can before exiting.
Almost every candidate hands me a glass of water as I exit. We sit and I provide feedback on the treatment. The candidate thanks me for the opportunity. I sit and wait to see if she offers to tidy the treatment room. This alone speaks to her ability to be a team player.
If you are auditioning for a coveted role, think of your audition as a dress rehearsal. Show your talents as a team player while auditioning. You just may get the part.