Noodles & Company Manager Interview Questions
& Process

You'll get a call first. Then they'll set up your first interview and a store tour. A second interview might happen, but it depends on the store. It's a pretty easy and clear process.

I applied online and HR got in touch for a phone screen in about a week. Then, two video interviews were set up on Teams, one after the other, with a total of three people who seemed like peers. HR sometimes took a bit to set up the interviews, probably struggling to coordinate schedules and get feedback from interviewers, but they were FANTASTIC at emailing me right after each employee interview (like, within hours!) and keeping me in the loop about what they were doing next. They never let more than a week go by between steps, just a few days here and there. They also called me personally to say I didn't get the job and explained why: they preferred someone with more operational experience. I figured that meant they wanted someone from a similar industry (like restaurants or multi-site operations with a formal guest experience program) rather than my background. That was okay. HR was nice and thorough and told me to apply for other roles later. I usually don't consider applying to companies after they pass on me, but I would for this one because HR was so communicative, gave real feedback, and the interviewers were friendly, nice, respectful, and seemed into their work. I also got an automated email saying the job was filled about 3 days after HR called me. Those usually only come after someone accepts an offer, so I think I was pretty close. (I'm guessing it was between me and maybe 2-4 others). A weird thing was I never actually spoke with a 'supervisor.' I thought it was cool that they focused on peer interviews for a mid-level role. Maybe collaboration and getting into the work is more important than the supervisor-report dynamic. Maybe it was just a coincidence though, because one interviewer mentioned the supervisor would be in touch again but they never were. Maybe the supervisor was just on vacation, lol.

This was a pretty standard interview process. They asked me some general questions and about my previous experience. The main issue was that I applied for an online posting for an Assistant Manager, but they said they don't hire externally for that role and you have to be promoted from within. They did offer me a second interview for an hourly manager position, but the pay ($11/hour) is very different from the $36k salary I was expecting.