Donald Burns shares the interview questions he uses to hire restaurant staff. He asks about favorite cereal and candy to find gift ideas, and about monthly rent to gauge how desperately someone needs the job and whether they'll show up reliably.
I ask a lot of interesting interview questions, and I'm going to give you some of them because when I say that culture starts before the interview does, that means I'm prepared for the interview. Right? Our interview process is definitely not normal. I like to ask a couple of interesting questions. I love asking everybody what their favorite cereal is. I love asking everybody what their favorite candy is. I also. It just kind of lightens the mood, but it's also something I write down, and it's a nice little gift. It's a nice, inexpensive little gift to just give somebody once in a while, you know, as their favorite candy or a box of their favorite favorite cereal. It seems silly, but it's. It's thoughtful and you can demonstrate it later down the road. My other favorite question is, how much do you pay a month in rent? And it's. I think we've talked about this. It's a tricky question, though. That's a good question, though. Yeah, I asked that question because I'm trying to identify that they pay rent because when I find out that they're living at home with mom and dad, well, a. Maybe they don't care about the 40 hours guaranteed. So if I got to give that to everybody else, I'll ask them, like, do you need 40 hours a week? Like, no, I can work between 25 and 30. But it also tells me how vested they're going to be and how much I can rely on them.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
