If I had to pick one food that is generally beloved in each corner of the world, I would choose pizza. There’s something highly appealing to our senses about this flat round base of dough baked with a topping of tomatoes and cheese, something we find hard to resist. People made millions running pizza restaurants and pizza chains on six continents, and Little Caesars is one of the success stories. Currently the third largest chain of pizzerias in the US in terms of sales, trailing only Domino’s and Pizza Hut, customers can enjoy their favorite pizza in more than 5,000 Little Caesars locations around the globe. The company employs over 15,000 people, and with the infamous job hopping in the entire hospitality industry, they are almost always hiring. Do you also want to try working for them? Let’s have a look at the challenges you will face in your interview.
As a rule of a thumb, you can expect an easy interview, especially if you apply for one of the basic jobs with the company, such as a team member, cashier, cook, pizza genius, and so on. Questions about your motivation, availability, and personality. They may throw in one or two situational questions (what would you do if a customer did this or that), but they will do this only if they have a luxury of choice, if more people compete for the same vacancy. If you are their only option on a day and they really need you, they won’t ask any situational questions. Let’s have a look at some of the questions, one by one.
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Why do you want to work for Little Caesars? Why not one of our competitors, for example Dominoes?
In nine out of ten cases, you probably do not care. You saw a job opening in a fitting location, no experience required, and you decided to give it a go. Speaking honestly, when one helps in a kitchen or stands behind a cash drawer, it doesn’t make much difference whether they do so in a place called Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, or for example Olive Garden. The job is pretty much the same everywhere, you’ll just wear a different uniform…
But you should try to find something positive about Little Caesars, if only for the sake of your interview. For example, you can say that you have a friend working in one of their establishments. They said nice things about the working culture and management of the company, and it motivated you to apply. Or you can refer to a perspective of the customer. You’ve eaten pizza in numerous places, but when it comes to pizza chains (which are, of course, no match to real Italian places), you enjoyed your dining experience and taste of pizza at Little Caesars more than you enjoyed it at other big pizza chains.
One way or another, you should show some positive associations with their brand. They shouldn’t get an impression that you interviewing with them by a mere chance, and do not care a dime about the name of your future employer–as long as they pay you your meager salary.
What is your availability?
Due to the wages people earn at Little Caesars (and at other similar places), the majority of employees are still students. An adult with bills to pay and kids to feed would hardly survive with the money earned here. For students, however, working at places like Little Caesars is a great way of earning some “pocket money“, and perhaps help financing their studies, or at least enjoy a nice night out once or twice a week. Logically they will ask about your availability.
Good news is that they are quite flexible, and they definitely do not want you to skip school just to make pizza for their customers, earning minimum wage along the way. So try to prepare a clear schedule for the week, one that will help you easily illustrate when exactly during the week you can work. Needless to say, your new job should not have the last place on your list of priorities. They still want to see you at work at least 15-20 hours a week. And that wouldn’t be possible if you prioritized everything else to this, including going to see movies or sleeping in the afternoons, simply because you enjoy taking a two hour nap… Ensure them that you want to work as often as your school (or another job if you have one) allows you to.
This job is quite repetitive. What will motivate you to try your best every day?
99% of jobs for which no education or experience is required are repetitive and mundane jobs. If it was otherwise, people would not spend long years studying, often ending up with a big debt, just to secure better and more enjoyable careers.
However, though you can have some fun in the job (and without a doubt you will have, if your colleagues are up to it), the work itself will be pretty mundane and repetitive. I do not want to sound offensive, but you really do not need to be the smartest kid in the block to handle the job. And that’s perfectly all right, as long as you know why you are working. You should refer to your goals while answering this one.
Sure enough, the job will be repetitive and perhaps even boring. But you know what gets you up in the morning, and why you want to work at Little Caesars. Perhaps you need to earn money to support your studies, or even your family. Or you are just starting out on the employment market, and this is realistically as good a job as you can get at the moment. Your basic needs and goals will motivate you to try hard. Because without a job there’s no dough and with no dough live is pretty tough out there…
Do you consider yourself a team player?
Anytime they ask about teamwork, you should show positive emotions. If nothing else, they try to create a team culture at Little Caesars, so employees feel a sense of responsibility for one another, and will work hard just to not let their colleagues down. It definitely helps with motivation.
If you want so surprise the hiring manager with an excellent answer, you can narrate a situation that demonstrate your sense for teamwork. It can be anything from school or from your former jobs, simply a situation which illustrates that you enjoy working on a team, and that your colleagues can rely on your support. And if you cannot come up with anything better, you can at least say that you definitely prefer teamwork to being on your own.
How would your former colleagues (or your teachers) describe you?
In nine out of ten cases they won’t contact either your former colleagues or your teachers, which means that you can say anything you want. However, try to keep things realistic. It is always better to mention at least one negative characteristic–something that can be considered a weakness, instead of just naming one strength after another.
As an example, you can say that your former colleagues (or teachers) would describe you as responsible, friendly, and hard-working, though at times impatient. Or that they would describe you as the “best colleague ever”, unless you had one of those low days when people may find it hard to talk to you. Of course these are just example, but I hope you got my point. Combining a few strengths with one weakness is probably the best possible answer, especially if the strengths are relevant for the job.
Do you know anything who works here, or for Little Caesars in general?
You do not have to admit knowing someone from other pizzeria, especially if you do not have the best connection with the person, or if they have a bad reputation overall. No need to give the hiring managers at Little Caesars any reason to associate you with such a person.
On the other hand, if you know one of the good employees, or basically someone you have great connection with, and who recommended you the place, you should definitely say so. You can even claim it to be one of the reasons why you picked Little Caesars, and not one of the dozens other similar restaurants or fast food chains you could apply with…
Other questions you may face in your interview with Little Caesars
- What do you expect from this job?
- Where do you see yourself in five years from now?
- How would you deal with a customer who complains about the taste of their pizza?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- A customer orders a pizza but refuses to pay. How will you react?
- After everything we’ve talked about, do you have any questions?
Conclusion, next steps
Interviews for common jobs with Little Caesars belong to easy interviews. The company struggles to hire new people, considering the competition of more popular brands. Hence as long as you do not remain silent while hearing their questions, show up decently dressed and show at least some enthusiasm for the job, they will give you a chance. I hope you will succeed, and wish you best of luck!
Matthew
May also interest you:
- 15 most common interview questions & answers – Learn how to answer the most common questions about your strengths and weaknesses, career goals, and so on. You can face them in every interview, including the one with Little Caesars.
- How to overcome interview nerves – Feeling anxious before the start of your interview? Learn how to overcome your nerves, and show them your very best on the big day.
- Domino’s Pizza interview questions.
