In the middle of her job interview, a woman found out that beauty store Ulta wouldn’t let her freelance on the side—so she left.
Many people work two jobs or have additional freelance work to make ends meet, have breathing room in their budget, or have enough money to save up for goals like getting out of debt, building an emergency fund, or buying a car.
While it’s common, especially among people who work customer service jobs and remote jobs, some employers discourage it or outright ban workers from having two jobs. This can be out of fear that the other job will get in the way of the work they do at their company or there will be a conflict of interest.
For some people, taking a job that prohibits you from making any other income just doesn’t work. And that was the case for makeup artist Farrah Hassoun (@farrahhassoun).
In a viral TikTok video, Hassoun explains that she was interviewing for a guest coordinator position at Ulta’s beauty salon. She wasn’t too interested in the job since she initially applied to be a beauty advisor, but she decided 30 minutes before the scheduled interview that she’d go.
Hassoun figured a side job making a bit of extra money couldn’t hurt.
When she arrived, however, she noticed that it was a group interview. First red flag.
Once all the candidates arrived, the interviewer hit them with the first question, “Tell me about yourself.” This is where things took a turn.
Hassoun naturally told them that she’s a makeup artist who does freelance work like weddings and at-home sessions.
That’s when the interviewer told her that if she wants to work at Ulta, she’s not allowed to do anything else on the side.
Hassoun didn’t even let the interviewer get to the next question. She walked out, knowing that a job that restricts what you do outside of work hours isn’t the job for her.
“That is my career, and that is not stopping. So I walked out,” the makeup artist says, adding that she wasn’t there more than five minutes.
Hassoun didn’t blame the interviewer who she described as being very nice. Ultimately, it was just store policy.
“I just wanna know, why the f*ck Ulta thinks that once you work there, they can own you. Yeah no, not happening,” Hassoun says.
She also points out that the job was completely unrelated to makeup, so it’s not like there was a conflict of interest.
@farrahhassoun yeah not happening over here #foryou #ultainterview #ulta #fyp ♬ original sound – Farrah | Beauty
The video has garnered more than a million views and over 1,400 comments as of Wednesday morning.
“Never discuss what you do after work hours. I’d just say okay and keep doing my thing,” a top comment read.
“You lost me at group interview,” a person said.
“They don’t even pay enough for that like?! Hello,” another pointed out.
The Daily Dot reached out to Hassoun and Ulta via email.
