I applied online for the Area Manager position in mid-November. In early January, I heard from a recruiter at Chipotle HQ who who left me a message in the evening, wanting to have a phone interview the very next day. I was unable to talk the next day, so she was willing to wait until first thing the following business day. We spoke on the phone and she was very kind and consistent with the Chipotle culture I had researched online (through their career videos, etc). The questions were straight forward and about my experience and leadership style. She asked me if I was willing to commute to a city about 45 miles away (although I had originally applied for a position in my city); I said that I was willing to do that. She let me know that the max for this position is $80K. That was considerably less than I had been making, but I said I was open to it due to my attraction to the company overall and its growth opportunities. She let me know at the end of the interview that I would hear from a local recruiter to meet in person 1:1.
Within a couple of days, I heard from the local recruiter, who invited me to interview in person with her and one other recruiter about 15 - 20 miles from my home and about 40 miles away from the area I was applying for. We met at a coffee shop and I was told to dress very casual, so I did. The two recruiters I met with were very kind and had been with Chipotle for about 5 years each. They both seemed very inexperienced and a little unsure of what questions they were going to ask next. The questions they did ask seemed very basic once again. It was very easy to "wow" them and I felt confident I would go on to the next round of interviews.
I followed up with a thank you e-mail and shortly thereafter, I received an e-mail inviting me to meet with my would-be boss and possibly some other field leaders a few days later about 15 miles from my home and about 30 miles from my intended area. I dressed business casual for this interview. The tone of the process completely changed on this day as I met with my would-be boss, 6 would-be peers as well as one General Manager (a would-be peer's direct report). We sat at a picnic table outside except that everyone couldn't fit at the table to some sat at the nearby tables. The team overall seemed competent, but they were very aggressive, all firing questions and all with a slightly skeptical attitude about my previous experience. The questions this time were more specific: what is your definition of X? how would you work with employee Y? etc. The deal breaker was the Team Director (would-be boss) who was completely unprofessional, cursing in the interview and responding to my answers in a way that conveyed he thought my answer was stupid. He spent much of the time putting down my previous company and scoffing at my ability to transfer skills and experiences from that company to Chipotle.
By the end of this interview, I was anxious to go and certain I could not work for this individual. That evening, I received an e-mail from one of the recruiters telling me that they were not able to offer me the position. I replied with a lack of surprise, shared that the disinterest was mutual and provided her with feedback about the Team Director's approach in the interview. She apologized for my experience and said she would share the feedback with the Team Director.
Overall, a very disappointing experience. I had been a big fan of the Chipotle culture right up until then, but I guess it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch.