After making an application I was called by the Operations Manager (Area Manager). We spoke for 20mins on the phone. During this time, she asked me range of questions covering my experience in more detail and asking situation based questions and how I would deal with specific problems. I was then told that I would be invited to an Assessment Centre for a more in-depth interview. The Assessment Centre stage happened a couple of weeks later and consisted of a panel interview made up of two Operations Manager (the one that conducted the telephone interview and one from another area) as well as a General Manager. The panel interview lasted around 30mins, during which time I was asked similar questions to my telephone interview, only with input from the other two interviewers and I was asked to elaborate and expand on my answers. The questions covered areas such as sales building, performance management of employees, training and developing people and general financial management decision making. Once this was over, I was tasked with creating a business plan for a mock restaurant. I was given the scenario as well as supporting documents and asked to create a plan for this restaurant. The time allowance here is 40mins, after which time I was to present my plan to the panel. After the 40mjns had passed, the panel returned to the room and I proceeded to present my business plan. The time for this is 15mins, which is again followed by 15mins of more intense questioning over your plan and the decisions you made as well as the data you presented. This concludes the interview process. I was informed I would hear back within 24hrs, but I heard back within 48hrs that I had been offered the post. The next stage is then arranging for you to attend a 2-day induction in London, followed by 2-weeks of kitchen training and finally 4-weeks of paperwork / management training. At a later date, once settled in, you are then required to attend a week long residential training course 'Il Viaggo' in London, where you learn more about the systems and meet other managers.

Phone Interview Face to Face interview Assessment centre (Personality tests, SWOT analysis, team member style, situational questions)