After an initial response from my very high level application I was invited in for an interview.
After spending a week, deep diving into their company from a technology perspective, looking into the financials, learning about the company and basically building myself up for some tough questions. I was greeted with a man who wasn't expecting me, who whatsapped the owner, who then asked what job id applied for, who then left me waiting for a while before showing up and telling me that he would have to leave the interview to his dad but would have five minutes with me.
We spoke broadly about restaurants and the industry and never really got out of 1st gear, for me I could already see where they needed to make changes from a superficial level. I was then passed over to his Dad who spoke in Italian about me on the way up the stairs (I understood it all, I speak much better Italian than I think they thought) and although the father was a lovely gentleman - it wasn't the forward thinking hospitality company I thought I was applying for.
In these high level roles you expect to be grilled about real time reporting, GP%, supply chain management, team succession planning, future ventures, current goals - unfortunately the build up to the interview and thought of the company was far greater than the reality.
After following up the interview with a courtesy email (where I was going to politely give this feedback) I was ignored.
Anyone going for a role here, if you're old school and want to take a salary while running around like a fool - you'll go far. If you're an industry professional who believes in building good operational systems and workable options, opening opportunities for a new generation of hospitality workers, this probably isnt the place for you.
I urge the La Mia Mamma group to think about their practices especially with high level roles.