California Pizza Kitchen Manager Interview Questions
& Process

I had a phone interview first with the recruiter, who talked to me for about 30 minutes about my strengths and experience. They then immediately scheduled my second interview at a local CPK before opening hours. There, I met with the General Manager who asked me lots of questions about my strengths, operations, and some situational scenarios for about 30-40 minutes. Before I left, the GM set up my final interview with the District Manager. The DM was really friendly and asked more casual questions, along with some business-related ones like asking about the toughest day I had as a manager.

I applied online and got an email saying they'd reply in 14 days if interested. 16 days later, I got an email to set up an interview time. I replied right away. Two days later, I called HR and left a message for the director because I hadn't heard back. A week later, she called asking if I could chat the next morning. I interviewed with her, and an hour later, she asked if I could meet a Sr. General Manager. Two days later, I met him at his location. I was ten minutes early, and he was ten minutes late. It was a Saturday morning, 20 minutes before they opened, so the interview was a bit rushed. He focused a lot on my kitchen experience at my last job. He mentioned that one of my five shifts a week would be as the 'acting' Kitchen Manager when he's off, which is why they train assistant managers in the kitchen for four weeks. The interview went well, and he said the HR Director would contact me in a few days with an answer. It's been over ten days now. One of their values is Respect, but they didn't seem to follow it, leaving me waiting and with no response at any step. After every interaction with HR, it took over a week to hear about the next step. The questions in the phone interview were standard resume questions. They also asked about the company, to see if I'd done research, and about my strengths/weaknesses, guest situations, and controllable costs. It was an unprofessional process.

The interview process was fairly simple, mostly over the phone. I spent over an hour on the phone for my interview. I spoke with a woman from HR, and we hit it off immediately. While it felt like an interview, it also felt like an open conversation. Once the initial jitters were out of the way, it went smoothly. If I remember correctly, it consisted of two interviews. The phone interview was the second one, after the first interview was with their regional manager. The process itself was fairly simple. It may have changed though, as the most recently hired manager (hired as a senior manager) was interviewed in person by the general manager.