Fast food restaurants are in every village, town and city. Employers are always on the look out for a fast food manager that can manage the day-to-day operations of the restaurant while producing high-quality food and service.
This article will teach managers how to be successful in a fast food manager job interview.
The post will list the commonly asked fast food manager job interview questions, and give an explanation of how each manager can structure their interview answer.
Successful job applicants are able to predict the job criteria – the skills, qualities and experiences required for the advertised role (based on the job duties of the role), to better predict the forthcoming job interview questions.
The main duties of a fast food restaurant manager include:
- Hiring, training and managing full-time and part-time staff
- Completing finance returns and purchasing stock and equipment
- Planning budgets, forecasting spend and working to sale targets
- Managing the day-to-day operations of the restaurant
- Embedding H&S processes and other regulations into business-as-usual tasks
- Using promotions to increase sales
- Dealing with complainants, late suppliers and any other restaurant issues
- Working with stakeholders
- Writing a variety of managerial reports
What Does a Fast Food Restaurant Manger Job Interview Look Like?
There are dozens of fast food companies from McDonalds to Burger King, from KFC to Pizza Express, each has their own recruitment process. In the main, though, each organization follows a similar interview format.
A short telephone or online asking questions about your previous experiences and how that relates to the role. Often a 20-30 minute call with the employer asking 3-4 job interview questions.
I wont go into the detail of the screening interview process here, as the link in the title takes you to an article that will explain this in more detail.
2. Numeracy and Literacy Test
Many organisations are now asking applicants to complete a level 2 (GCSE grade C or grade 4) test as part of the recruitment process. This due to a large number of fast food restaurants funding a managerial qualification for a new (unqualified) managers. This is known as a higher apprenticeship.
3. Panel Job Interview
The main section of the fast food restaurant manger interview, is the panel interview. Generally speaking, applicants will be interviewed by three members of staff:
- HR Manager
- Fast Food Restaurant Area Manager
- Current Restaurant Manager
Each interviewee will be asked between 8-10 job interview questions within a 30-60 minute timeframe.
The interview format will be a structured job interview. In a structured job interview all applicants are asked the same job interview questions. The questions will be based on past experiences (behavioral job interview questions) and future scenarios (situational job interview questions)
To create high-scoring interview answers, interviewees must reference the job criteria by giving relevant examples and/or stating relevant management theories or models that they would use once employed.
Fast Food Restaurant Manager Job Interview Questions and Answers
To help increase interview confidence, and therefore create a strong job interview identity, candidates can use the below interview questions and advice to form high-scoring interview answers by embedding their own experience and skillset into their rehearsed reply.
Tell me about your employment history and how this relates to a fast food manager role?
To summaries the fast food manager job role it would sound like: A fast food restaurant manager is responsible for the financial success of the restaurant and the management staff, processes and procedures to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.
Using the summary as a benchmark, the opening interview question ‘tell me about…’ needs to highlight the candidates ability to meet the job role objective.
It is important to clearly state:
- Duration in management, supervisory or team leader roles
- Any relevant managerial and/or hospitality qualifications
- Knowledge of the industry and job role
- A unique selling point as this shows added value
Interview Answer Formula:
“I am passionate about (hospitality/food industry/leadership and management). I have over X number of years working in (managerial/supervisory/team leader/hospitality) During this time I have become skilled at (add duty) An example of this was when working at X organization. We had (add situation) To achieve the desired outcome I (add steps/actions taken) which resulted in (reduction in overheads/increased profit/staff retention/customer or stakeholder satisfaction/any other positive outcome).”
How would you priorities tasks while working in a busy and fast paced restaurant?
It is important to use management speak when applying for senior positions.
The natural usage of industry jargon, sector models and leadership theories creates a perception of competence helping the interviewee create a optimistic interview identity.
One management tool that can be quoted during the ‘priority’ or ‘time management’ job interview question is the ‘time management matrix’ tool. Essentially, this tool helps managers to prioritize task by reviewing the importance of the task vs the tasks urgency.
Is short this is a planning tool. For a full breakdown of the time management matrix tool click the link above.
The ‘priority’ question is designed to check that a future manager can oversee multiple tasks, deadlines and problems without becoming flustered or stressed. Research shows, how a pro-active and planned approach works best here. This means that an applicant will need to state the step-by-step process for time management and task priority.
Interview Answer Formula:
“This is something I have experienced with. In all my previous roles I have had to prioritize workload, manage multiple tasks and organize a large workload. The reason I am so successful are producing quality outcomes when working on multiple tasks is because I use (add management model: time management matrix, pareto principle, etc) What this means is I (give explanation of the chosen model) In addition I utilise my diary, have alerts and delegate duties to staff members.”
How would you manage the staff timetable when a large portion of your employees are students?
Like all restaurant manager job roles, one of the key duties is staff recruitment and staff retention. Due to a large portion of the staff being university students, who can sometimes only worked on allocated days or not at all during exam periods, staff planning is a key skill. Managers will also have to consider the risk of some students not turning up for shifts.
This interview question, then is asking about risk assessing as well as creating a staff rota.
When answering the interview question, previous managers or team leaders can start by explaining there previous experience in staff timetabling. Applicants applying for the first managerial role need to explain the requirement elements for staff rotas.
The answer needs to cover two perspectives, the employers and the employees.
Employees need a staff rota to:
- Show routine
- Cover their contracted hours
- Reduction in split shifts
- Details – allocated tasks IE serving tables or working the bar
Employers/managers need a rota to:
- Ensure a senior member of staff is working on each shift
- Needs to consider the reliability of the team members on each shift – in the job interview make a point of saying that you would never have a group of potentially unreliable workers on one shift
- back up staff to cover sickness
- Look at the skills and experiences of each employee and the requirements of the job roles IE each shift will require a trained first aider
- Have overlapping start/end times to ensure a cross over in staff members
Interview Formula:
“I have been creating staff rotas for X numbers of years. When putting together a staff rota I consider (add employer perspective points). From a motivational perspective and to help improve staff retention I also consider (add employee perspective points)”
“Why do want to work for our organisation?”
There is a high turnover of staff in the fast food restaurant industry.
With this in mind, recruiters will often ask questions to understand the reason for the applicant applying for the advertised role:
- Salary increase
- Promotional opportunity
- Need a job, any job!
- The values of the organisation
In truth, it is likely that there will be a number of reasons why an applicant is applying for a new position. what is important from the employers perspective is that the candidate wants to work for their company.
An interviewee who states they the admire the company, have similar values or share the same vision is more likely to be recruited as it reduces the risk of the new employee handing in their notice due to an improved job offer in a short period of time.
Interview Formula:
“I have always like the (brand) and often eat here myself. But, I applied for this role because I love the company mission (state mission). Also, after reading the company values I noticed that several of these values (name a few values) are similar to my personal values. I also had a friend who worked for the organisation who talked positively about the company culture, and I can see myself working well here.
Do you prefer using tested processes or trying new ways of managing the restaurant?
Choice questions can be tricky.
Often the employer will have a preferred way of working, as an example you can predict that McDonalds like routine and repetition as every BigMac is created in the same way in all restaurants. Whereas, other fast food restaurants have more variety.
Generally speaking, most well-known food chains have company processes that mangers must follow. So, research is required here prior to the job interview.
One way to answer this question, especially if the pre-interview research doesn’t result in a concrete answer, is to discuss the benefits and negatives of each option.
Interview Formula:
“Using well tested processes often gives you similar results, as an example (give example relevant to that particular restaurant) but the downside is there is no room for innovation at a time when customer demands change constantly. On the other hand, trying new ways to increase sales can work at a local level as each manager knows their customer base and the economics of the local level but this in itself can have a negative effect on sales as the individual stores loses its brand identity.”
Do you have any questions that you would like to ask us?
As the ‘questions for us’ question is asked in every job interview be sure to arm yourself with a number of questions that create the professional perception a manager requires.
- What is the staff turnover like in the restaurant?
- Who is the restaurants biggest competitor at the local level?
- What are the busy periods for the restaurant?
- What is the biggest barrier to meet sales targets?
- What would my first month look like?
