Restaurant Job Tests - Questions and Tips

Restaurant Job Tests - Questions and TipsRestaurant Job Tests - Questions and TipsWalking into a restaurant to apply for a job can be intimidating, and employers are increasingly asking applicants to take one or more tests that can make the process much more stressful. You cant really study for them, but your performance on these types of tests is a factor in determining whether you will get the job, or even be granted a first or second interview. Why Restaurants Test Applicants In order to reduce turnover rates, many restaurant employers useprescreening testsand quizzes to filter out less-qualified job seekers. These tests help to provide the employer with a better understanding of the job seeker, which can help him or her make a better decision about whether or not that candidate is a good fit for the position and is likely to remain employed with a restaurant once hired. Most of these tests, especially in service-oriented businesses like restaurants, are done in-person, which allows the employer to see how the applicant works under pressure. The potential employee also has the opportunity to ask the interviewer questions, which will further help them to stand out among the other applicants. With larger companies, these tests may be done online. Types of Restaurant Questions The questions on these tests and quizzes can be open-ended, or direct and straightforward. They may be designed to assess your job knowledge, your technical culinary skills, your customer service aptitude, youremotional intelligenceand resilience, your integrity, your personality, or your cognitive ability. Depending upon the state where you live, you may also be asked to submit to adrug and alcohol test. Certain types ofpersonality testsyou may encounter will evaluate your work ethic, your willingness to take direction, your frustration tolerance, and your acceptance of diversity. General mental ability tests will quantify your ability to do math, conduct abstract reasoning, and handle complexity. If you are in restaurant management, employers will want to know that you have what it takes to accurately prepare budgets, track costs and overhead, and gauge supply levels and needs. Questions at a restaurant, depending upon whether you are applying for a front-of-house, back-of-house, or managerial position, may include Drink ingredientsWhat ingredients do I need to make a Cosmopolitan? A Margarita? A White Russian?DefinitionsWhat is fois gras? What is steak tartare? What is the base of a Barnaise sauce?Food Safety and Kitchen Sanitation Where should different foods be stored in the refrigerator? What are the six conditions that favor the growth of bacteria? What is a pathogen? Note a good way to prepare for questions such as these is to review the information you learned to earn your SafeServ certification. ResponsibilityIf a patron tells you that he or she is displeased with a service, and you are not responsible for that table, what would you do?Why you shou ld work thereWhat skills and talents can you bring to the table? What do you have that the other applicants dont? For larger companies,these questions may get more or less specificbased on the position or nature of the role. Tips For Responding Do your best to appear confident and willing to take the exam. Body language is a large part of the application process, even if it seems unimportant. For example, standing or sitting up straight while taking the exam will demonstrate your focus and confidence. If the exam is verbal as opposed to written, maintain eye contact with the interviewer. Answer the questions to the best of your ability, even if you do not know the answer. For example, if you are asked the ingredients in a recipe and cannot remember them all, do not skip the question. Include as many ingredients as you can remember. A strong attempt at an answer is better than no answer at all. Try to implement your voicein your writing so that you will make the employer want to bring you in for further interviewing. This is particularly important if you are asked why you are a strong candidate, or why you should be hired. Dont be afraid to brag about yourself Overall, these tests and quizzes are a beneficial way to help employers slim down their applicant pool, and they also give job seekers a chance to differentiate themselves with another medium in addition to their resume.

8 Easy Tips for Networking to Get a Job

8 Easy Tips for Networking to Get a Job8 Easy Tips for Networking to Get a JobNetworking to get a job should never feel like stressful, hard work. Yes, you can spend all day on the top websites to find jobs and feel like you have accomplished something. But networking to get a job takes a lot mora than just applying online.We offer these easy job networking tips below to help you.1. Attend Meetups with people in your industryEven with all the tools to stay connected these days, one of the most powerful job networking tips is still meeting people in your industry face to face. The website Meetup.com has been around for more than 15 years because face to face networking simply works.All you have to do to start networking to get a job is go where your people go to talk business. For example, if you are an engineer, you would love to go to NYs Tech Meetup. Founded in 2004, it has had more than 56,000 attendees, from startups to VCs and more.2. departure sharing what you know bestWhat mak es the Internet so great is that the act of reaching out to share knowledge is a great way for people to discover what you know. If you are diligent about it, you may unwittingly become a thought leader in your industry. The act of helping others by sharing your knowledge is a great way to pay it forward. What makes this a powerful job networking tip is that companies and people are seeing your generous and intelligent side while also seeing your written communication skills.3. Reach out to complete strangers online in your industryInstead of hanging around on the top websites to find a job, why not reach out to people on LinkedIn who are discussing topics you care about. These days, we pretty much have accepted that people will contact us when they have something in common or need something (like a job). Networking to get a job requires not being shy about what you want or need. If you can reach out to complete strangers in your industry and help them, by all means, do it. A genera l job networking tip required here is, Dont be afraid to ask for help.4. Start connecting with more co-workersYou work with them every day, so take the time to begin networking. Find out what they know, what interests them, and who they know. You and your co-workers are in the saatkorn company for a reason. Find out more from your co-workers about their network and how they all think. Perhaps, you have things in common you can do after work.This is a job networking tip that has been around for decades. For example, inviting co-workers to play golf with you on a Saturday (circa 1980s and 1990s). In the 21st century, you can connect and network with more co-workers with technology that makes it much more affordable. Try working with them on projects or hobbies outside of work.5. Connect with former co-workersOne of the biggest reasons you should never burn bridges at a job is because your former co-workers will always be part of your network. In todays global workforce, the top websit es to find jobs offer positions to be applied for around the world. While networking to get a job see if you can come across a position your former co-workers know something about. Just recently, a former co-worker reached out to me from South America. He was interviewing for a job in the United States and wanted more info about living in Texas. I was able to help him both as a reference and for relocation advice.6. Take business courses and join groupsLast year, I was hanging out on the so-called top websites to find jobs. Then, I realized one day I was spending time in two facebook inc groups where people discussed two industries I wanted to be a part of. One was for community managers and the other was for a business course on gamification. In the processes of networking to get a job, I stayed in touch with these groups and the people in them. I was a regular contributor and took a business course offered in one group.Then, one day people started posting job notices in the facebo ok inc groups. I had success landing interviews and meeting possible future co-workers. They were more willing to consider me because I took an interest in what they were needing and doing. There is no reason you cannot do the same. The moral of this job networking tip is to remember Todays business world of networking to get a job, as it was in the past, is all give and give...and then take.7. Stay in touchPopping your head into an online group or Meetup is a start. But it takes more than making an appearance to truly consider it networking to find a job. Stay in touch with all of the people you are meeting. Networking to get a job is a hustle and you need to do it to gain traction.8. Reply to everyone who contacts youIf you feel you have no time to reply to everyone, expect them to show you the same courtesy. Sure, once you gain traction, this job networking tip becomes more difficult. Just remember this simple universal truth Busy at work is better than not busy at no work. Reply to your network simply because you want them to do that for you and opportunities will arise

Padded Cap May Protect Baseball Pitchers

Padded Cap May Protect Baseball Pitchers Padded Cap May Protect Baseball Pitchers Padded Cap May Protect Baseball PitchersSpring is near, professional baseball players are limbering up throughout Arizona and Florida, and around the country parents are signing their children up for spring recreational baseball and softball programs. Unlike football, where the debate over how to protect players from concussions is ratcheting up, baseball poses fewer risks. But line drives cracked directly back at the pitcher do occur, with potentially disastrous results.Players looking for protection now have an option, with Major League Baseball recently approving an injection-molded padding that can be fitted into a players cap. The product, called isoBLOX, provides frontal head protection from line drives reaching 90 mph and side protection along the temple of 85 mph, according to its manufacturer. MLB, which has been working with various vendors on the project, set a protection threshold of 83 mph, which it says is the average speed of a line drive reaching the pitching mound.The padding is made of hexagon-shaped injection-molded polymers connected by a hinge, and fitted with a foam substrate, says Bruce Foster, chief executive officer of 4Licensing Corp., parent company of isoBLOX. Upon impact, the padding flexes and diffuses the force, he says.The padding adds one-half inch thickness to the front of the cap, an inch on the side and it weighs seven ounces. Foster says his firm will be visiting all major league spring training camps to introduce the padding and educate players on risks. There is no mandate on using the protection and Foster acknowledges the difficulty in getting buy-in, at least at the professional level.Besides battling tradition, When youre 21 you think youre invincible, Foster says. And there is nobody no more superstitious than a pitcher. Pitching is an art form.Manufacturer claims, IsoBLOX combined with traditional memory foam results in superior impact resistance. leumund isoBLOXDifferencesBecause of the basic differences between the sports, head protection in baseball has never been the worry as it is in football. There, concerns over multiple concussions and associated brain damage have sparked research into how various brands of helmets and their interior padding and protection system perform against rotational acceleration forces that twist and batter the brain inside the skull. Earlier this year, the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Bioengineering and Sciences rated 18 brands of helmets for protection against linear acceleration and rotational acceleration. Linear acceleration are the front-to-back forces that can cause bruising and bleeding in the brain rotational acceleration are forces that twist the brain within the cranium, causing concussions.But baseball does not generally have to worry about concussions. For baseball, tests were performed by independent laboratories under MLB guidelines calling for prote ction at 83 mph. That is below the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment standard severity index of 1,200, considered the threshold for skull fractures and traumatic brain injuries. Foster says his firm approached MLB in March 2013 and completed testing late in the year.Five major league pitchers were struck in the head by line drives in a five-month stretch of 2012-13, and seven others within the past six seasons, according to published reports. While Foster acknowledges the difficulty in getting major leaguers to use the protection, he says his firm has been overwhelmed with queries from parents, and sees the youth market as fertile for growth.This is well beyond what we thought and shows how fixed parents are on the safety of their kids, he says. The firm plans to begin selling padded caps and a shirt fitted with the padding in retail outlets this spring.ProductionThe padding is produced in sheets that can be easily trimmed to the appropriate shape, say s Foster. Designing head protection was more complex than simply inserting the padding into chest protection or protection for legs and arms. There is air behind a chest protector, says Foster, pointing out that the airbag effect helps diffuse the impact.That effect is lost in head protection, so engineers combined two types of the padding to be fitted into a cap. isoBLOX can be made out of different polymers, he says. You can make it brittle or make it flexible. With the head, we had to combine two types of isoBLOX sheets. He says the double layer outperformed other versions of single-sheet protection.While the padded cap can offer some help, barring some sort of face protection, pitchers remain vulnerable to balls hit directly at the face. Because of the weight and protection level, however, this offers a degree of safety never seen in baseball, claims Foster.Still, change comes slowly in the sport and Foster knows the weight and different look of the cap is enough to chase away m ost players. The velocity of the ball is incredible, he says. We have to educate the player as to, what are the risks? The early adopters will probably be those who have been hit before. It is a lifestyle change. Eventually well get there. For Further DiscussionThis offers a degree of safety never seen in baseball.Bruce Foster, 4 Licensing Corp.