TL;DR
- A crew interview is short, often the candidate's first ever, and is deciding two things: can this person stay calm and pleasant at a counter when it is busy, and will they actually be there on the shifts you need. O*NET describes the occupation, Fast Food and Counter Workers, as performing “duties such as taking orders and serving food and beverages”, serving “customers at counter or from a steam table”, taking payment and preparing food.
- Ask every candidate the same questions and keep them related to the work. Acas advises preparing a set of questions that “must not discriminate”, holding each interview with more than one person where possible, asking each applicant the same questions where you can, and deciding on the basis of “how each applicant met each point in the job description and person specification”. By law you must ask anyone coming to an interview to tell you if they need reasonable adjustments.
- Two rules decide whether the hire works at all. Availability, which needs to be asked about precisely rather than in general. And age: GOV.UK states that children can work part-time from 14, and from 13 in some local council areas, that full-time work can only start at the minimum school leaving age, and that adult employment rights and rules apply from 18.
A crew interview is twenty minutes long, often the first interview the person has ever had, and is really deciding two things. Can they stay pleasant and accurate at a counter when there is a queue to the door, and will they be there on the shifts you need them?
This article gives twenty fast food interview questions in five groups, what a good answer sounds like, how to run the interview fairly and quickly, and the UK rules on availability, age and work trials that decide whether the hire works at all. It is general information about hiring, not legal advice.
The interview is the easy part; the first three shifts decide whether the person stays. See how New Dynamics onboarding gives every new starter the same first weeks.
What you are actually assessing
O*NET's occupation, Fast Food and Counter Workers, describes the work as performing "duties such as taking orders and serving food and beverages", serving "customers at counter or from a steam table", taking payment and preparing food and beverages. Its tasks include accepting payment and making change, requesting and recording orders and computing bills using a till, communicating with customers "regarding orders, comments, and complaints", restocking to maintain inventory, performing cleaning duties "to keep equipment and facilities sanitary", preparing simple food "using proper safety precautions and sanitary measures", and notifying kitchen staff "of shortages or special orders".
Almost none of that requires experience. It requires reliability, basic numeracy, a civil manner under pressure, and the willingness to clean. Interview for those.
Twenty questions in five groups
Availability and practicalities (ask these first)
Asking these at the start saves both of you twenty minutes when the answer rules the job out.
- Which days and times can you work in a normal week? Listen for specifics, not "anything".
- How would you get here for a shift starting at seven in the morning, and home from one finishing at eleven at night? Buses stop. This is the single most common reason a keen new starter lasts three weeks.
- Are there commitments we should know about, school, college, another job, caring responsibilities? Ask it neutrally, to plan the rota, not to judge.
- How much notice do you need to swap or pick up a shift?
- How long do you see yourself doing this? An honest "until I go to university" is useful information, not a bad answer.
Customers
- A customer says their order is wrong, and they are annoyed. What do you do? Listen for: apologise, fix it, do not argue, get a manager if needed.
- How would you describe good service in one sentence?
- Tell me about a time you helped someone who was being difficult. School, sport, a club or family all count for a first-time worker.
- What would you do if a customer asked for something we do not sell?
Pace and pressure
- There is a queue of ten people, one till, and someone has just spilled a drink on the floor. What order do you do things in? There is no single right answer; the reasoning is the answer.
- How do you keep track when three things need doing at once?
- Tell me about a time something went wrong and you had to think quickly.
- What would you do if you made a mistake and nobody had noticed? Listen for saying so anyway.
Teamwork and standards
- What makes someone good to work with on a busy shift?
- Give me an example of you being part of a team.
- How would you feel about cleaning: floors, tables, the fryer, the toilets? Say it plainly at interview and you halve the first-week dropouts.
- If a colleague was not pulling their weight, what would you do?
- Why does food hygiene matter here? No technical knowledge needed; you are listening for whether they take it seriously.
Their questions and the close
- What do you want to know about the job? A candidate with no questions at all is usually a candidate who has not thought about it.
- Is there anything that would stop you starting on the shifts we have discussed?
Questions not to ask
Acas's guidance on interviewing job applicants is clear that the questions "must not discriminate", and that it helps to check beforehand that interviewers are prepared and "understand the law on discrimination".
In practice, in this setting, avoid:
- Anything about children, childcare arrangements, pregnancy or plans to have a family. Ask about availability instead, of everyone, in the same words.
- Anything about health or disability as a way of assessing suitability. Acas notes that by law "you must ask anyone coming to an interview to tell you if they need reasonable adjustments so they can attend", that is a question about the interview, not a screening question.
- Anything about nationality or place of birth. Right-to-work checking happens at offer stage, for everyone, on documents.
- Anything about religion or belief, including as a route into asking about weekend or festival availability.
Two practical safeguards Acas recommends: hold the interview with more than one person where possible, "to reduce the risk of discriminating", and "ask each applicant the same questions where possible".
Availability, age and the rules
Quick service restaurants employ more young people than almost any other sector, so the age rules are part of the hiring process rather than a footnote.
GOV.UK's guidance on child employment states that children can work part-time from the age of 14, and that "in some local council areas, children can work part-time from the age of 13", advising employers to contact the local council's education department or education welfare service. It adds that children "can only start full-time work once they've reached the minimum school leaving age", and can then work up to a maximum of 40 hours a week; that PAYE may be needed once someone reaches 16; that from 18 "adult employment rights and rules then apply"; and that in England "a young person must be in part-time education or training until they're 18".
What that means for the interview:
- Ask for date of birth at offer stage, not as a filter, and check what your local council requires for under-16s, including any permit.
- Build the rota around school hours and term dates rather than discovering the constraint later.
- Remember that the minimum wage bands differ by age, so the scheduling and the payroll setup both need the right date.
This is general information; the local council sets the byelaws for child employment in its area, and they vary.
Work trials
A trial shift is common in hospitality and is often done wrongly.
Acas states that an employer might ask an applicant to carry out an unpaid work trial to decide whether they have the skills and qualities needed for the job, that "a work trial period should be for a reasonable amount of time. For example, 2 hours or a shift", and that "an unpaid work trial should not usually last longer than one day". It also says the National Minimum Wage must be paid where the trial "is not genuinely for recruitment purposes", for example where the trial lasts longer than the employer would legitimately need in order to test the applicant.
The safe version: short, observed, not used to cover a rota gap, the same length for everyone, and with a decision given afterwards.
Running the interview in twenty minutes
- Two minutes: who you are, what the job is, the hours, the pay basis, and what the shift is actually like. Be honest about the cleaning and the busy periods.
- Five minutes: availability and practicalities. Stop here if it does not work.
- Ten minutes: six or seven of the questions above, the same ones for everyone, with one follow-up each.
- Three minutes: their questions, and the close.
Acas's advice for the end of every interview: ask the applicant if they have any questions, "tell them when and how you will let them know whether they got the job or not", tell them how to ask follow-up questions, and tell them what sort of feedback to expect.
Scoring without a spreadsheet
Score immediately, before the next candidate, on four things, each out of three: availability fit, manner with people, thinking under pressure, and attitude to standards and cleaning. Write one sentence of evidence for each.
Acas's point about the decision is the important one: check that your decisions are "based on how each applicant met each point in the job description and person specification". Our recruitment and selection guide sets out how to build that scoring so that it is quick enough to use on a busy shift and still defensible.
Keep the notes securely and follow data protection rules, as Acas advises, and if you record anything, get permission first.
Frequently asked questions
What questions are asked in a fast food interview?
Mostly about availability, customer manner, coping when it is busy, teamwork, and willingness to clean. Typical questions include which days and times you can work, how you would get to an early or late shift, what you would do if a customer's order was wrong, how you would prioritise when several things need doing at once, and how you feel about cleaning duties.
What should I look for in a crew member's answers?
Specifics rather than slogans. A good availability answer names days and times; a good customer answer starts with apologising and fixing rather than explaining; a good pressure answer shows some order of priorities rather than panic. Experience matters much less than reliability and manner.
What questions should you not ask at a fast food interview?
Anything unrelated to the job that touches a protected characteristic: children and childcare, pregnancy, health or disability as a screening question, nationality or place of birth, religion or belief. Acas advises preparing questions that must not discriminate, interviewing with more than one person where possible, and asking each applicant the same questions where you can.
Can you hire a 15-year-old in a fast food restaurant?
GOV.UK states that children can work part-time from the age of 14, and from 13 in some local council areas, with local councils setting the rules, so you should contact the council's education department or education welfare service. Full-time work can only start once the person reaches the minimum school leaving age. Hours, times and permit requirements are governed by local byelaws, so check them before offering shifts. This is general information, not legal advice.
Are unpaid trial shifts allowed?
Acas says an employer might ask an applicant to do an unpaid work trial to assess their skills, that it should be for a reasonable amount of time such as two hours or a shift, and that it should not usually last longer than one day. The National Minimum Wage must be paid if the trial is not genuinely for recruitment purposes, for example if it runs longer than needed to test the applicant.
How long should a fast food interview take?
Around twenty minutes: a short description of the job and the hours, five minutes on availability, ten minutes of the same questions asked of every candidate, and a few minutes for their questions and the close. Tell the candidate at the end when and how they will hear.
Your next step: fix the questions before the next rush
- Write down the six questions you will ask every candidate, and use only those.
- Ask about availability in specifics (days, times, transport) before anything else.
- Check your local council's rules before offering shifts to anyone under 16.
- Score each candidate immediately against the person specification, in one sentence per point.
For building a short, defensible scoring sheet a busy manager will actually use, read and download our recruitment and selection guide. The guide is free to read, and the PDF uses our short download form.
Want inductions, early goals and check-ins in one place, so a new crew member's first three shifts are the same every time? Book a New Dynamics demo and bring your current induction checklist. You can also email contact@new-dynamics.com.
