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Having hired food service staff for over 30 years now, all I can tell you is what many of you may already know yourselves: things have taken a turn for the worst.
Chowhound is a weekly column about what’s trending in Detroit food culture. Tips: [email protected].
Screening applicants: For hiring managers these days, good people are harder to find than ever. The process is grueling. Sifting through resume responses to Indeed postings is generally job one. Over time, you learn to read between the lines. For example:
- When you see “willing to commute,” double check the listed address. This indicates someone identified as living way across town (or further), who may be clicking on whatever they must to demonstrate job-searching due diligence to someone (parents, parole officers, unemployment agencies). I’m sorry, but when someone living in Lansing insists they’re willing to commute to South Lyon for a server position, I become skeptical.
- Consider email addresses. Beware of taking on new hires with e-handles like “humpdaddy69@hotmail” or showmethemoneysheila@gmail. In such cases, maturity and/or professionalism issues might arise.
- Be wary of those who assert qualities like “people person” or “works independently” in their self-revelations. The former can often be flighty, social butterflies who flit their way through shifts showing little in the way of professional savvy, while the latter don’t last in workplaces where managers, co-workers, and customers have the audacity to order them around. As if.
- Ditto where first-name-only references are offered. Applicants who refer us to supervisors they know only as “Krissy” of “Kip” are either too attention-deficited to seriously consider or think we’re too stupid to figure out they’re listing casual friends and/or co-workers as authority figures and former bosses.
- Give serious pause to convoluted “reasons for leaving” explanations in applicant work histories. I once hired a good cook who walked in off the street looking for work, explaining that he’d just gotten out of prison after a years-long armed robbery conviction. At least he leveled with me. On the other hand, I run in the opposite direction when I hear stories like this: My boss was hitting on me, creating a hostile work environment… I had some car trouble/babysitter/baby momma/baby daddy/ex-wife/ex-husband/etc. issues that I tried to explain to my manager constantly… I was in a work relationship that turned into a stalker situation… there were personality conflicts… I loved my bosses, co-workers, and the customers, but things just didn’t work out. Sure, I understand all that.
- If I’m intrigued enough by your resume to reach out and try to contact you for an interview, be responsive. I’ll make two attempts; one call and one text to your cell number. Don’t expect me to do more, and reply that same day if you expect to be taken seriously. We’re all tethered to our cell phones. Don’t call me back whenever it’s convenient for you with that line that you didn’t have yours with you when I had time to talk.
- Culinary applicants: Don’t try to sell me on your “creativity and passion.” Tell me about how you work clean, stay organized, and spend your time (which I’d be paying for) efficiently. Chances are, I’m not looking for you to reinvent my menu. I need people who can either prep it, cook it, and present it with competent professionalism, or make me believe they’re likely candidates to be willing to learn how to do all that. The last “chef” I hired (about a month ago), badgered me about brining chicken wings to make them better. He spent hours on the extra prep once I gave him the go ahead (at $18 per), and added considerably more cost to the menu item by soaking pans of them in sugar and salt water. Granted, the wings were good, but days later, after showing up to work wasted on more than one occasion, I had to can him. Pity. He looked good on paper. And there’s the rub with resumes.
- Dining room candidates (server, bar, host, management) — good service starts with the social graces: manners, smiles, eye-contact, good communication skills (includes attentive listening), etc. If you can’t show me yours when we sit down together for a conversation, I’ll assume you won’t with my customers. Having said that, I won’t fault youth or inexperience. If you just don’t know yet but do want to learn, I can help with that. Bring some “want to” to the table when it’s time to talk. My leadership team and I can teach the “how to” half of the equation.
- General Rule 1-A: Don’t be late for your interview. If you can’t make it on time to make that first impression, I’m sorry, but you’ve made it. See ya. (Possible exception: you call and let someone know you’re running late and why.)
- General Rule 1-B: Don’t contact me by phone hours after hitting send on your application asking if I’ve looked over your resume. That makes you appear impatient, self-important, and unrealistically expectant, none of which are traits I’m hoping for a prospective hire to demonstrate. Instead, follow-up a day or two after applying. That shows some sticktoitiveness and professional courtesy that strikes employers as promising qualities in potential new employees.
- Avoid packing “Styrofoam peanut” words and statements into your application package. In addition to the aforementioned, nebulous buzzwords like “dynamic” and “meaningful” should also be banned from resume-writing vocabulary. They add no weight to the case a candidate tries to make for their hiring. Again, give specifics. What have you done? What are you looking to do now? And what can you contribute if afforded this opportunity?
- Don’t let me catch you fixating on your cell phone, in front of you at the table. Same story. If you can’t resist that urge while we’re first talking, I’d be telling you till I’m blue in the face to put it away while you’re working. Listen, I’m addicted as anyone to my feed, but I don’t indulge it at work.
If I sound a little cynical, sorry. Having hired food service staff for over 30 years now, all I can tell you is what many of you may already know yourselves: things have taken a turn for the worst. Again, I’ll quote Mark Twain: “A pragmatist is an optimist with experience.” He interviewed during his day, too.
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