Restaurant Hiring Nightmares & Funny Hiring Stories That Really Happened!
As you know RestaurantZone works with a variety of clients in the restaurant and hospitality space. And when a new client comes to us, many times we get to hear about their hiring struggles and funny stories that come along with it. We really listen and try to identify ways we can help solve the problem at hand. Our recruiters and staff below have highlighted some of these restaurant hiring nightmares & different funny stories from hiring in this industry!
1) “Be mindful of where you are having a phone interview – in the bathroom with toilet’s flushing or while taking a bath, are not good places to go!” says, Shelley McMurray, an RZ recruiter who once interviewed an AGM who was interviewing from a bathroom. Needless to say, she had the candidate call back at a more appropriate time!
2) Our recruiter & account manager, Jack Albrecht was involved in a confidential search for a fine dining general manager in Austin, Texas a couple of years ago. He did a passive search and also advertised the opportunity. He got a couple of strange responses, including someone that sent me a copy of their auto insurance policy instead of a resume! Out of the blue, his office line rings about a week in from an interesting candidate. Well qualified, level 2 sommelier certification, good tenure, and career progression. Her name sounded familiar so I went into my email to check. Sure enough, let’s call her, “Pamela”, accidentally sent the policy thinking it was her resume! The PDF was labeled with her name as the document title. She had been applying for jobs, using the wrong document!
Anyways, we got the (correct) resume from her and it was magnificent. Almost exactly what the client was looking for. She got the job and last time I checked, she was doing a great job running their restaurant. I don’t know if she’s still driving a blue 2014 Toyota Prius, though.
3) We received a text message from a client once, stating that one of their managers supposedly “pooped” his pants and couldn’t continue working that day. Yikes! Never heard that excuse before!
4) The client was late getting payment out for a candidate they hired from our recruiter Sherry Brown. The client said she would take a picture of the check to let Sherry know it was written before mailing it. Sherry asked the client to send her a picture of a $1 million dollar check to give to her to incentivize her to fill more of her roles. In which the client replied said, “Send me a picture of a CFO!” “I laughed so hard I was in tears! Touche!”, stated Sherry.
5) From our recruiter Chanele Chang, “Recently I have been working on a Corporate Chef position for a Tech Company who we worked with in the past. The client is great to work with and focuses on interviewing different candidates for the role. The very first time I worked on the position, I sent him an amazing candidate who I thought would be a great fit. I also submitted two additional candidates after, so he had options. Out of the three candidates I sent, he really liked the first candidate he interviewed, however, he wanted one more option to be sure. So of course, I found another great candidate that was interested in the position and sent him in for an interview. When it came down to the decision, the client chose the very first candidate that interviewed.”
“Over 6 months have passed, and the client comes back looking for a Corporate Chef. It was the same easy process as last time. Again, I sent an amazing candidate followed by two additional candidates. He interviewed the three and again liked the first chef he had interviewed. But he asked me to send him another candidate so he can be sure of his decision. After the last interview, the client asked me to call him. He mentioned he was going for the first candidate he interviewed. I started laughing on the phone, which made him laugh and he asks me “why you are laughing?” I pointed out to him that he always ends up hiring the first candidate he interviews, but always asks for an additional candidate after the three candidates have interviewed. He started laughing even harder on the phone and he says, you’re right! I responded with, “hey, it’s my job to find you an amazing chef that you and your team are happy with and if that includes me sending an additional three candidates after the three I already sent for you to make your decision easier then I’ll do it.” He thanked me and asked the chef to start the following Tuesday.”
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