Toast Inc Customer Support Representative Interview Questions
& Process

So I applied with two of my friends, and we all used to work together. One friend is currently a Customer Care Manager, has a degree, and a lot of hospitality experience. I have previous customer care manager experience, program ops, and a degree. The last friend doesn't have manager experience or a degree. Our friend with no degree or experience was hired. It's completely bizarre. We all worked together, have similar perspectives, and we even helped prep for interviews. One person was declined immediately when they first applied with a PDF, but accepted the second time with a Word document. The most experienced person out of all of us only got one interview. We all interviewed with different people. It all feels so subjective. We are all completely confused about how hiring decisions were made. You get positive feedback after each question, which is misleading.

I had a quick phone screening with a really friendly interviewer who assured me that I would be a good fit for the role despite not having work experience in tech or the restaurant world. After speaking with him for about 8 minutes, he sent me an email to set up a time for my next interview. I went in to meet with/interview with my potential manager a few days later. The employees at the front desk and the HR rep who gave me a quick tour were nice and welcoming, and I really liked the office space and location. I was sat in a room and told that my interviewer would be in shortly (which he was not... I waited for him for about 20 minutes). When he arrived, he was friendly enough and started with some basic questions about how I had heard of the company and how I had ended up in Boston. Then, after chatting for a few minutes, he asked me the same questions that I'd been asked during the phone screening (if I had any background in tech or restaurants). When I answered the same way I had during the first round, this interviewer did not assure me that I could still be a good candidate. He told me that they were really looking for tech-savvy people for the role, which was a surprise to me as I had been told the exact opposite during the phone screening. The potential manager interviewing me visibly lost interest in anything I was saying, and looked at his computer screen for the remainder of the interview. He went through the motions, but I felt pretty unimportant sitting there and answering his questions when I could already tell I'd get a rejection email the next day. It was embarrassing for me because I'd thought I had a chance and was excited about that. So, the moral of the story here is that while the HR rep who did my phone screening was lovely to talk with and seemed like a very positive person, I think he misled me a little bit and probably shouldn't have let me go on to the next round because I was actually missing the background the company was looking for.

Toast's interview process involved multiple interview rounds, starting with recruiting, then the hiring manager, team members, and finally Senior Leadership. While this made it a long process, talking with various people in the organization gave me a better understanding of the company and the role from different points of view. It was also great that everyone was so friendly and welcoming, which made the process feel more relaxed and conversational rather than stressful or transactional.