Getting Started
A popular chain of pizza shops, Donatos gives customers a fun and exciting pizza restaurant experience and needs talented workers to fill store roles. Committed to friendly and honest service, the pizza chain uses standard interview processes to find workers with helpfulness and customer care as their main focus. The company routinely looks for team members that share company philosophies of life, love, laugh, and learn.
Answering Interview Queries
Donatos offers a casual interview process that features standard inquiries. A brief question-and-answer session, the interview typically lasts between 15 and 20 minutes. Job hunters should expect to answer questions regarding work experience, career aspirations, and availability. Many interview questions are behavior based. Some common questions applicants face include: "What is customer care?" and "How do you turn a customer's negative experience into a positive one?" For food preparation roles, applicants may be asked about kitchen skills and abilities to use certain tools and equipment. Managerial job interviews often feature situational questions relating to team leadership and resolving customer issues. After the job interview, the pizza chain may require applicants to submit to drug screening and background checks.
Preparation Helps
Applicants should wear business-casual attire for a Donatos Pizza interview. All questions should be answered truthfully but with a positive spin. Guest satisfaction is the chain's main goal, and applicants should show desire to provide excellent customer care with each answer. To demonstrate abilities in guest service, job hopefuls should provide specific examples of times they provided excellent customer service. Managers look for responses to be clear, concise, and well-thought-out, so applicants should avoid overlong answers. At the conclusion of the job interview, employment seekers need to thank hiring managers for their time. Candidates want to show interest in securing a job by following up with interviewers several days later.
Donatos Cook Interview Video
Video Transcript
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Donatos Cook: I was a cook. So my prior duties were getting the tickets, getting all the food ready and getting it out.
Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Donatos Cook: The work environment? It wasn’t the cleanest, but it was mostly… It was set up as the whole tray. So we had the pizza maker and then we had the whole line set up. So we put all the toppings on, throw it through the oven. Then we have a box station, get it in a box, get it out. Or if they’re dining in, of course, we’d have dishes and such.
Interviewer: What was your favorite part about working there?
Donatos Cook: Honestly, the people. The people were really nice. It made my day go by a lot faster, made the work a lot easier.
Interviewer: Please describe the application and interview process.
Donatos Cook: You fill out the application. I filled out mine online and then I went in for the interview. They were what previous work experience did I have, what leadership experience did I have, am I well at working with others and questions like that.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Donatos Cook: For one example was, what’s a past time where you had to step up and be a leader? Another one is… It was like two years ago. I think another one was what previous experience had I had and, of course, I had experience, but if you don’t have experience it’s also good for a first time job. My friend came there, in there with me, and I got him a job there.
Interviewer: How were you notified that you received the job?
Donatos Cook: It took them about a week and they just gave me a call.
Interviewer: What set you apart from other candidates?
Donatos Cook: My previous experience for the job. I worked in… Before that, I was making pizzas in two local bar places. So then I went there, but the hours were not the best.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Donatos Cook: Be confident and be able to learn and follow orders.
Donatos Cook Interview Video
Video Transcript
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Donatos Cook: My job title was… I answered the phones basically, and then I ended up going to cook basically and prepare – cleaning, cooking, everything from cleaning the bathrooms to… everybody had the same thing in a way, but primarily I was cooking and preparing.
Interviewer: Please describe a typical day as an employee.
Donatos Cook: A typical day at Donatos if I work in the mornings, you go in, which was basically my shift. Go in, you prepare the pizzas, the dough, and everything like that. You open, and then customers start to come in. The customers, believe it or not, come in really early for a pizza, so that’s the morning. Throughout the middle of the day, you clean. You’re basically there all day just preparing, making sure everything runs smoothly. If the customers have any problems, you solve it, and then that’s pretty much the whole day. There’s really not much to it.
Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Donatos Cook: The interview process. First, initially, they had only like on the sign going past, “We’re hiring,” so that was a key for me. Me being a teenager at the time, it was like, “Oh cool, working at Donatos Pizza.” Go in, and you fill the application out. They call you within two to three days, and then you go in for the interview. If they want you, you come back for orientation, and then they do a three to four hour orientation piece, and they’re going to take you through the restaurant and things like that. That’s pretty much it, and then you’ve just got to catch on to what to do.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Donatos Cook: They were pretty much all typical. I do remember one. It was like, “Do you know how to handle knives?” – which was kind of in a way odd to me. Just preparing pizza, you know, you really don’t need a knife. Throughout the time I was there, you do need the knives to actually cut the pizza. I thought it was like a certain thing you just stamp… like a pie cutter in a way. You’ve got these big blades. You actually are cutting pizza, so that was kind of outlandish to really think about it, but you really did need that certain training to really cut the pizzas, the right way anyway.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Donatos Cook: About the best advice is to be accurate on everything, to be patient with customers, and to just treat people with respect. That’s pretty much it. And you’re in a customer service environment, so they expect customer service. That’s pretty much it.
Donatos Shift Manager Interview Video
Video Transcript
Interviewer: Please describe your job title and primary duties.
Donatos Shift Manager: I am a shift manager at Donatos, so my primary duties include task control, shift production, customer satisfaction, and making sure that my associates are following standard.
Interviewer: What was the work environment like?
Donatos Shift Manager: Donatos is very laidback. It’s really self-explanatory. Everything has a specific protocol, and it’s laid out everywhere in the store. I think it’s laidback and easy to understand. It’s not very complicated.
Interviewer: What was your favorite part about working there?
Donatos Shift Manager: The training aspect is a lot easier to train people there. It’s really associate-friendly, so it’s easier for people to understand what’s going on and to be able to help the customer because they know what’s going on.
Interviewer: How would you describe the application and interview process?
Donatos Shift Manager: When I first started it was a paper. I came in… I think we still do paper applications. If you apply online, it’s basically you just finish your information and then you come in and we make it to a paper application. This paper application, I went into the store, dropped the application off. I called to see if I could speak with the manager, and he set me up with an interview. I went in for the interview, and they gave me a job during my interview, so I started working there about a week later. Now, Donatos is a little bit different. Everybody who was interviewed has to do a zero risk, which is a personality assessment.
Interviewer: What questions did the interviewer ask during the job interview?
Donatos Shift Manager: They want to make sure that you’re adaptable, that you can pick up when business picks up, that you’re going to stay busy, that you’re able to stand on your feet, because you do stand the entire shift so that you’re able to do things like that. It’s not a sit-down job. That you’re willing to interact with customers. Ninety-percent of our business comes from face-to-face interaction or on-the-phone interaction. You have to be able to talk to people, so that’s what we look for. On the managers, being able to manage people and interact with people efficiently so that you don’t put them off and that they’re willing to do what you ask them to do.
Interviewer: What other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
Donatos Shift Manager: Someone looking for a job with Donatos… I would tell them that just be willing to work hard, be willing to keep yourself busy. It’s one of those jobs where you get out to what you put into it. If you go in with a positive mind and you’re trying to work, you’ll get way more out of it than if you just go in like, “This is just a job that I have.” Be willing to put in what you want out of it, and it’ll give you what you give.
