Question:
What are some key questions to ask candidates for a cafeteria position?
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Answer:
When interviewing someone for a cook or other foodservice position, there is no set list of questions. As long as you ask questions that gauge their work ethic, reliability, skill level and attitude, you’ll be able to get a good overview of how they’d do in the job.
For example, it’s important to assess the candidate’s basic reading, writing and mathematical skills. Many people can read, but it may not be to the level they need to do the job effectively. Ask a question related to the focus of the work. If the job is working in the production area, I’d have the candidate read aloud the methods of the recipe to assess their level of reading and comprehension. For math, pull from a real-world example of a recipe: You have 24 eggs. You put six eggs in the recipe; you break three additional eggs, how many eggs are left? (The answer: 15, of course.)
At right are some additional questions you can use. None of these have yes or no answers. Most importantly, every one of these is job-related, and every one allows the candidate to talk, so that you can pick up on and probe deeper into something they say.
-Jim Korner
Assistant VP, Professional and Community Education
Penn State University Outreach and Online Education