Giving free massage during interview

[?????????????????????]

LOL Thanks Sage! LOL

While I admit that what I wrote is written in somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek response, there is a large part of me that believes this "owner" owes Shannon money for the session because she had no intention of hiring her from the onset -- just wanted a freebie.

Truly, I think if more of us stood up for ourselves in these situations -- on the whole -- we would be less likely to have to deal with people of this nature in our profession/industry.

How many healthcare professionals -- doctors, surgeons, phlebotomists, nurses, MRI techs, blah, blah, blah -- would be asked to do a demonstration of skills unless they were being seriously considered for the position.

For that matter, I'm curious how many hair stylists, cutters, colorists, and nail techs are expected to provide a demonstration of their skills unless they are being seriously considered for a position?

Wouldn't it be nice to have a bevy of lawyers at our ready to help with contracts, insurance billing woes, letters to request payment for services as in the above situation and representation of our field on many, many levels? *sigh*

 

[sunflower16]

I recently got a job at a spa (my first massage job) & did have to give a 1 hour swedish massage to a lead therapist after an interview with the spa director. I was okay with giving her a massage & on my first day there she gave me one in return.

In my case it was a really good thing, becuase the swedish massage that I gave her was something very different than what she gave me, and I learned a lot from the trade.

If she had only looked at my schooling I would've gotten the job, I have over 1300 hours & had a 4.0. BUT my school's swedish section was TERRIBLE.

I also think of it this way; some professions are able to produce a "portfolio" of sorts. You can actually SEE their results. But you can't with massage. I think it was as important to show her my draping skills, communication with my client, technique etc as how much training I've had.

It was a good experience for me.

 

[banzai]

My feelings are not mixed about doing a full hour.......I won't do them! I think a potential employer ought to know what they are looking for and get a good feel for it in 30 minutes. If something specific is important to them, then they should ask the potential employee to be sure to demonstrate deep tissue techniques, or work on the feet, or whatever it is. I've had people tell me they want to see how the therapist goes about turning the client over and whether privacy is maintained.....okay then, just ask for a few techniques supine and then the rest prone.

Massage is so different from one person to the next anyway. Of course, a potential employer has a level of standard they would like to maintain, but I don't think it takes a full hour to figure that out.

I agree with you. The first time I did a free massage was for the owner of the salon, which she asked me for a demo massage after a month of being hired! I didn't like that and felt taken advaneforum.xxxe of. I quit that job about a month later.
The 2nd time I went on two interviews for a spa, one a personal interview which went great and the secound a demo of my work. It was a full hour massage. I had no problem at the time doing it, but felt odd and nervous. I felt like the 2nd interview person was just using me to get a free hour massage. He didn't really talk or explain what they expected or how things were done in that partucular spa. I felt blinded going into this demo. This of course was my first interview for a large spa and my 2nd demo interview. I didn't get the job either. I was kind of glad anyway, I had heard later that they really work the massage therapists and don't pay very well.

 

[Wisen Smart]

when i first applied for my first massage job I had to give 4 hour long massages. which i thought was completly crazy but there were 2 gals out front and before i even got an interview they had to have an hour each. then once i got an interview i had to job shadow the guy i was taking the place of. then had to give him a hour massage then finally once I got the third "interview" i had to give the BOSS one. I will never understand that. I gave away 4 hours of massaging when me and one other person were the only ones who applied.

i would tell anyone who is applying for a job to only give ONE massage and make sure it is to the BOSS.

byebye

 

[Baby]

then once i got an interview i had to job shadow the guy i was taking the place of. then had to give him a hour massage then finally once I got the third "interview" i had to give the BOSS one. I will never understand that.

Not sure I completely understand what happened with "two girls out front", but I dont necessarily think it is a bad thing to do massage on more people than the boss. It may be a way of the whole place getting a feel for you.

However, as I stated before... I really like the idea of giving and getting.