by Laurie Childree

Created on: July 21, 2008   Last Updated: June 30, 2009

Years of experience with restuarant interviews for potential jobs brings to mind the numerous questions that came in the process. The interviewer will attempt to get a look at your personality when they perform the interview and a look at how long you have held previous jobs will be taken even when you apply at a restaurant. The type of job you are interested in and if you are willing to cross train are among the first questions.

Being willing to learn more than one job in a restaurant is a plus as the employee turn over rate is rather high. The amount of reliability that you have shown in the past is going to be taken into consideration as they are attempting to have a fully staffed restaurant. When you have a history of not showing up for work, it looks badly. It also looks badly when you have bounced from job to job in the past. They are going to ask you about your stability.

Whether or not you currently employed and whether you are seeking full time or part time work. Both of these are simple to answer and most restaurants can accommodate the need to work around a job rather easily if you are seeking a second job; you simply have to be willing to work some odd shifts.

Flexibility in scheduling is going to come up when applying as will the ability to work weekends. If you are seeking full time employment at a restaurant the ability to work weekends is a must. When they ask if you can work weekends and you say no consider the interview over. Don't expect a follow up call either since the weekend is the busiest time of the week for most, not to mention holidays.

How you would handle specific situations often comes up as well. Some restaurants will give servers a test in basic math skills since they will serve as cashiers as well. The company in question wants to ensure that the money is going to be handled properly and that the basic ability to count back change is present in case the cash register stops functioning during the shift.

Some restaurants have begun to give tests that have specific scenarios set up to see how you respond. Things such as what you would do if you saw another employee stealing. Answer is to report this immediately. Another question often asked is whether or not you have ever or would ever still. The correct answer is no. You answer no and it should be true. There are an increasing number of restuarants that include math tests in the application to cover basic math skills since there are times when running the cahs register will be part of the application.

If you are not employed the reason you left your last job will come up during the interview. When you are currently employed the reason that you are currently looking for other employment will come up. You want this answer to be as simple as possible. You don't want to trash the last job you had, this looks bad to potential employers. The answer given should be well thought out and professional.

There are times that potential restaurant employers will ask you to describe yourself. You want to be confident, competent and have the ability to think on your feet. They will also ask what others would say about you. You want this to be positive as well.

There are also interviewers that will ask what you can bring to a job or why they should hire you. Often you have a long list of pluses for hiring you; a simple answer is that your work will speak for itself.

With an interview you should be relaxed and especially for this one if you are going to work directly with the customers. Friendly and outgoing are two very important factors in this business, customer satisfaction really is what keeps you in a job here.

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