Managers often think that they have reached a career level where they have been magically imbued with the gift of giving a good job interview. It doesn’t work that way.

By Stephenie Overman

FORTUNE — What songs best describe your work ethic? How many cows are in Canada? A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here?

Those queries come from the Top 25 Oddball Interview Questions for 2013, as compiled by the job hunters’ website Glassdoor. Allegedly, they’re all actual conversational gambits used by corporate interviewers.

You may think such questions could produce useful insights. Or you might see them as off the wall. But are your interview questions any better?

Managers tend to think of interviewing job candidates as “something that’s easy,” says Pamela Skillings, president and chief trainer at Skillful Communications in New York. Believing they’ve reached a career level where they have been magically imbued with the gift of giving a good job interview, such managers wing it and fail to prepare questions that will reveal the best potential employees. All too often, they get a penguin in a sombrero.

“They end up hiring someone who costs the company a lot” in wasted training time and salary expenses, Skillings says. “You try to fix the mistake you made in the interview process. Then you have to fire the person or move them into a different role, and you have to start over.”

A bad interview “hurts the manager first,” Skillings says. “A bad hire is going to come back to bite you.”

Some managers try to protect themselves with vague questions of the “tell-me-about-yourself” variety. But experts say such prosaic questions produce answers of little use.

Before you sit down with job candidates, “you need a great shopping list” that lays out what you need to know about each applicant for a particular position, says Mel Kleiman, author of Hire Tough, Manage Easy and president of HR consulting firm Humetrics, which is based in Sugar Land, Texas. It’s basic stuff, Kleiman says: “Can you do the job? Can you do the job at the degree of excellence needed? Will you do it? Can you and I live together? If you are hired, can you put up with our culture and [can] we put up with your personality?”

Those aren’t the interview questions, Kleiman says. They’re templates you can use to design questions whose answers will tell you, “Is this person right for the job and is this job right for the person?”

Rather than focusing on eliciting the answers they need, inexperienced interviewers often ask rote questions that “bounce along the surface without getting to know the real person behind the interview hype,” says Paul Falcone, author of 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire. “There’s not much rhyme or reason to their questioning techniques” and they ask the same basic types of questions to all candidates for all positions.

Falcone’s examples of rote questions:

• Who was your favorite boss, and what would he or she say about you?
• Which position was your favorite and why?
• Why do you think you’d want to work here?
• What questions can I answer for you?

Effective interviewers ask “behavioral” questions, according to Skillings. They use phrases such as, “tell me about a time, give me an example,” she says, because the way a person reacted to a past situation may be an indication of what he or she will do in the future.

So, “instead of asking ‘Are you a good negotiator?’ it’s better to say, ‘Tell me about a negotiation and how it went.’ Get a real example. Probe for details. Get to the heart of what you need to know,” Skillings says.

Falcone agrees. “We need objective diagnostic indicators of an individual’s probability of succeeding within our organization.” Otherwise, interviewers are “left picking from among people who may sell themselves better than others.”

Falcone’s examples of effective interview questions:

• Walk me through the progression in your career leading me up to what you do now on a day-to-day basis.
• What makes you stand out among your peers?
• What criteria are you using in selecting your next employer, including the industries you’re considering, company criteria, and the roles and titles that you’re pursuing?
• If you were to accept a position with us today, how would you describe that to a prospective employer five years from now in terms of your career development and longer-term goals?

Ask questions that “reveal a candidate’s level of career introspection,” Falcone says. “Do they know what they want? Can they articulate their career history in a clear and compelling manner?”

During the interview, really listen to the candidate, Kleiman says. “You’ll never learn anything while you’re talking.”

If hiring people isn’t your main job, don’t be afraid to ask for help, recommends Skillings, who teaches workshops and online courses on conducting interviews. “We see a little bit of attitude from managers” at the beginning of training, she says. “`I don’t need this, I know how the deal works.’ By the end, they realize they didn’t know things, or were rusty.”

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/03/08/why-so-many-job-interviewers-are-terrible/

I my 30+  years in the Hospitality Industry many things have changed, but one thing remains true move than ever. In this  day of social media, texts, e-mails, and voice mail, the face to face interview remains one of the most vital parts of the job search process. You cannot be too prepared for this part of the job search. Here are they keys to nailing that interview, and getting the offer extended.

Before the interview:

1. Double check the DATE, TIME, and PLACE of the interview. Prepare your route and arrive 15 minutes prior to the
interview time. Hiring managers expect this from excellent candidates.
2. Look up the company’s website and refer to what you’ve learned in the interview. Find out all you can about the
products & services, awards, reputation, size and location. Your interest and initiative will impress an interviewer.
3. It is highly recommended that you wear a business suit unless your recruiter tells you otherwise.
Dress conservatively and neatly. Polish shoes. Go easy on perfume,
makeup, and after-shave.
4. Turn off your cell phone before you walk into the building.
5. Prior to the interview, prepare one or two questions about
the organization to demonstrate your interest in this
opportunity. Bring extra copies of your resume and samples
of your best work like training manuals you may have
developed, etc.

During the interview:

1. Sell yourself effectively by communicating your
accomplishments, experience, and desire to advance.
2. Support your answers to the interviewer’s questions with
specific, recent examples.
3. Meet the interviewer’s eyes when you are talking and listening.
4. Remember the interviewer’s name and use it once or twice during the interview.
5. Present your credentials positively. Be honest about shortcomings, but focus on your strengths.

After the interview:

1. Be sensitive to cues that the interview is over. But do not leave before making a statement expressing your
interest and enthusiasm in the company and opportunity.
2. Thank the interviewer for his/her time and consideration before leaving. Find out what the next step of the
process is and follow through on your part promptly.
3. Write a Thank You letter promptly to all parties you spoke with. Express your interest; mention something you
spoke about in the interview; thank them for their time.

I hope you find these “tips” helpful, and you are able to use them in your next interview. It is still very much an “employer’s” market. Set yourself apart, and above the pack! Good luck!

My next post will focus on what NOT to do during your interview.

Make it a great day,

Kevin Kalstad — Gecko Hospitality

http://www.geckohospitality.com/profiles.php?location_id=72

As a restaurant manager for over 20 years, I hated snow days. I was told there had to be enough staff on to cover whatever business came in, but, make sure you meet payroll projections for the end of the week. In other words, you can’t use having little or no sales for one day as a reason to blow your budget.

It doesn’t take a math genius to realize you can’t do both… yes, you can have a skeleton crew on, but that would mean you cut the host or hostess, you call the dishwasher and tell him or her to stay home, you keep two cooks on, because you will be seating guests as they walk in and probably tending bar, because the bartender isn’t going to come in when there won’t be any tips.

So what do you do?

The staff at Twin Peaks in Omaha will go on Facebook and post a picture of the girls outside making a Twin Peaks snow girl or servers posing with winter hats. They get immediate results, hundreds of “likes” within an hour of posting. I’m guessing they did a little more business than the restaurant down the street who trimmed down to 1 or 2 servers. So, we all don’t have pretty girls with skimpy uniforms to photograph in the snow. What can you do to make your restaurant stand out and how can you bring in new guests ?

What to do after the interview

HR managers and headhunters see huntress of resumes each day from all levels of restaurant managers. They quickly stop looking for the right or perfect resume format. A properly laid out resume does not guarantee that the candidate will be a successful restaurant manager.  The most the resume format can identify is your personal choice.

10 second commercial

The resume should not be a job description. The HR manager knows the restaurant manager’s job description and assumes that if you’ve held the job, you’ve done the tasks. The recruiter wants to see where you’ve been, and your level of experience. They want to know whether your skills have developed a General manager, kitchen manager, etc… But if nothing catches their eye than they will move on.

At the most, you have 30 seconds to capture the recruiters attention. This is probably much shorter later in the day, and may be extremely short Friday afternoon.

Success and Accomplishments

Save the task details for the interview. Your successes will highlight your skill base, strengths, and weaknesses. They want to know the impact your decisions made on the bottom line.

Did you save the restaurant money?

Were you a problem solver?

Are you a team leader/trainer?

Will your skills save the company money/reduce outsourcing?

Did you increase revenue, reduce costs, reduce overturn?

Are you good at marketing and customer retention?

Are you a good organizer, planner?

Are you a good problem solver?

Do not try to be everything for every HR manager. Identify your greatest strength and focus on the skills and experience that show your ability to handle problems, and find solutions in this aspect of the job.

Tips and Advice

Instead of listing:

- tasks – focus on the outcomes

- education – highlight leadership skills

- achievements – recognize awards and acknowledgements

- experience – outline your personal development

It is important to realize that you won’t win every job in the job seeker campaign. It is dangerous to try to be ‘everything to everyone’ and hope to get ‘a bite’. Instead of trying to get ‘a’ job, work to win ‘the job’, your dream job.

Once you’ve developed the skills needed to manage a restaurant, successfully, and develop a strong team who are motivated and goal oriented, it is time to sell your skills.  The restaurant manager’s job requires good communication skills, and the ability to present projects and reports in a way that will sell ideas to the team, management, investors, and to the customers who walk through the doors each day.

The resume is the first place you have to highlight your skills.

Identify Yourself as a Serious Candidate

HR managers are less interested in what you have done for others, or what you have learned. They are interested in seeing what you can do for them. If you’ve followed this blog then you’ve seen multiple places that discuss your personal development. Invest some time in personal development. Listing coaching, courses, and career development steps you’ve successfully completed is a great way to alert HR managers to the fact that you are aggressively and seriously focused on becoming the solution to the restaurant’s problems, not another problem.

Identify Yourself as a Team Leader

The days when managers barked orders and punish poor performance are over. Today’s manager needs to develop their communication skills. They need to be able to motivate and encourage, not push. The stakes are high. The cost of replacing disgruntled employees is staggering. The cost of investing in training, and then having an employee leave because they do not feel empowered, fulfilled, or challenged is immeasurable.

A manager needs to be able to develop their team, encourage and motivate them, and create an environment that encourages longevity.  Even when this is done, the good manager understands that the team’s personalities, boundaries, and personal habits can undermine the team. They learn to identify problems and create solutions that will empower the team, and encourage them.

They understand that the reason to build a strong team is to reduce the loss caused by employee overturn, days off, conflict in the workplace, and resentment directed toward management.

Understanding these is only half the battle. It is important to learn how to condense that information into your resume. It is necessary to understand which skills will make your resume stand out above the crowd.

Give em’ the Pickle …

My very first restaurant job was washing dishes at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor in Portland, Oregon. At that time Marriott owned the brand, and I was a Marriott employee, but we all “worked for Farrell’s”. Being in Portland we had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Farrell and his wife Mona in for a quick bite. He was, and is an incredible man.

After that I had the pleasure of working for Mr. Farrell at Pacific Coast Restaurants in Portland. He was the CEO and the face of PCR. At every new unit opening [and we had many as the company was growing like gang busters], and two times a year, Mr. Farrell gave his “Pickle Speech”. I saw it countless times, and never grew tired of hearing it.

The basis for the “Pickle Speech” was a guest that was in a Farrell’s and was being charged for a side of pickles by the server. The guest told the server that they always get the pickles, but the server insisted on charging for the side. Well, the guest left, and wrote Mr. Farrell a letter to tell their story. Bottom line … Give em’ the Pickle!

Every business in the world has pickles to give away. Something little to make your customers know you care, and make them customers for life.

As I look back, his wisdom and teachings were so vital to not only me, but thousands of employees that heard the speech, and lived it out in his stores.

At a time when great service is often set aside for profits and cost controls, I reflect on these principles and realize they really cost very little to do. On the flip side, they are very expensive with lost business if you don’t.

What are these four simple principles for giving away Pickles?

1.       Connect with customers and guests. Ask yourself, how I would want to be treated, and then do it!

2.       Anticipate your customer’s needs. Stay one step ahead of them. What are they needing, and put it into place.

3.       Look for ways to delight your customers. Surprise them, and ask how we can exceed their expectations.

4.       Inspire yourself and others. Seeing with your heart. Ask yourself, am I willing to do whatever it takes to make a difference?

So what do giving away pickles have to do with Gecko Hospitality? Plenty! We strive day in and day out to give pickles away. Not only to our clients, but to our candidates as well. A thank you note, a small trinket of thanks, a text or e-mail of encouragement. We want to make a difference in all the folks we come in contact with. You [clients and candidates] are our lifeblood and we value and need you.

Thank you for choosing Gecko Hospitality! Ready for some pickles? 

Kevin Kalstad – Gecko Hospitality

The hospitality industry is a highly competitive one. Whether you are looking for a job as a Chef, restaurant or general manger, or are carving a niche for yourself in another area of the restaurant industry, job seekers need to learn how to sell their skills to the HR manager.

There are many execution strategies. Most are good but fall short of producing results. This is because they tell people what needs to be done. They don’t tell people how to do it.  The ability to understand and execute a plan is important to selling your skills. The HR manager will not assume that all restaurant managers are able to redesign a restaurant, solve problems within a team, or pull a restaurant out of the red. Candidates need to be able to identify their strengths in their current job, and sell their solutions to current management. Then they need to document their ideas, measure their success, and record the results. These case studies will become a sales tool they can use for landing their next job.

Here are some basic fundamentals necessary in any career development strategy, and plan of execution:

•           Know your resources.

This is an excellent idea. Once a manager can identify their resources they are able to manage them effectively. This is still a backward thinking management strategy. It is designed to identify the results of what has been done in the past, not what can be accomplished in the future.

•           Find how to use resources in ways that open new opportunities.

The hospitality industry is always looking for new opportunities. People who learn how to solve problems, and find opportunities are valuable resources in today’s job market.

•           Look for resources that have been missed by others

•           Do not look for obstacles, problems, and assets but look for opportunities.

•           Include People in your strategy

The narrower your network the easier it is to topple the mountain. Everyone has something to contribute. Some of the greatest breakthroughs have been found when management stops to ask the people on the front lines what they need to do a better job, what complaints do they hear, or what would make the customer happy.

Part of making sure the right people is in the right place hinges on a leader’s ability to listen. People let us know what is important to them, what they need and want, and how to become a better manager in the things they don’t say as much as what they do say.  Learn to listen and to delegate. This training can start long before you ever sit behind a manger’s desk.

•           Effectively expect.

Establish a way to measure the results of execution. Do  not focus entirely on what has happened but learn to measure what is happening. Do not focus on whether a task is being completed, and by whom. Instead, focus on if the task is being done right. What is right? How is that measured?

This involves Strategic Evaluation. This cannot be done without first doing your homework. Again, knowledge is power. Even ‘gut instinct’ and intuition can be a primal part of an execution strategy.

•           Stay in the Real World.

The problem with dreams, goals and expectations is that they are self evident reflections of who we are at the time they are created and executed. They are often based on our personal wants, needs, and perceptions of reality

Report: Restaurant job growth outpaces economy

New analysis by the National Restaurant Association shows that the restaurant industry continues to serve as a leading creator of jobs, outpacing overall U.S. employment growth. In the 12 months ending June 2012, eating and drinking place employment jumped 2.7 percent, more than double the 1.3 percent increase in total U.S. employment during the same period. Restaurants added a net 116,000 positions in the first half of 2012.

Overall, restaurants have added more than 575,000 jobs since the employment recovery began in March 2010, with current industry staffing levels standing 193,000 jobs above the pre-recession peak. Restaurant industry job growth slowed along with the rest of the economy during the second quarter of 2012, but remains a net contributor to the economic recovery. The restaurant industry is the nation’s second-largest private sector employer with a workforce of nearly 13 million – almost 10 percent of the U.S. workforce.

“While restaurant industry job growth is not immune to the ups and downs of the overall economy, our industry has continually been at the forefront of job creation for the last two years,” said Dawn Sweeney, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association. “Restaurant industry sales are gaining for the third consecutive year, spurring the nation’s nearly one million restaurants to staff up to meet the increasing demand for away-from-home meals. This illustrates the strength and resilience of our industry, as well as the wealth of opportunity it offers.”

The NRA projects that restaurant industry sales will exceed $632 billion this year, a 3.5 percent increase over 2011 sales. This is the third consecutive year that industry sales will post real gains, driven by moderate improvements in consumer’s disposable income and gradual release of pent-up demand for restaurant visits. One out of three (33 percent) Americans say they are not dining out as often as they would like, down from two out of five (40 percent) just one year ago.

According to the NRA’s latest monthly Restaurant Industry Tracking Survey (June 2012), restaurant operators continue to plan for staffing increases in the second half of 2012. Twenty percent of restaurant operators plan to increase staffing levels in six months (compared to the same period in the previous year), while only 8 percent said they expect to reduce staffing levels in six months. Seventy-two percent of operators said they expect their staffing levels to remain unchanged through the end of the year.

Eating and drinking places (restaurants and bars) are the primary component of the restaurant and foodservice industry, which the NRA defines as that which encompasses all meals and snacks prepared away from home.

July 6th, 2012 via www.fastcasual.com