I've hired hundreds of people across the Lime Truck and Snibbs.

And I can tell you the resume almost never predicted who turned out great.

Some of my best hires had the thinnest experience in the stack. Some of the most impressive resumes turned into my biggest headaches.

Because in hospitality, the things that actually make someone great don't show up on paper.

Hustle. Awareness. Ownership. The instinct to make a guest feel seen. The read-the-room thing.

You can teach someone the steps of a job in a week. You can't teach them to care. You can't teach them to notice. You either walk in with that, or you don't.

Remember Jordan — the young server I wrote about at Coni’Seafood, the one who ran the napkins and the next table's dish on the same trip? A few weeks of experience. Already promoted. That's the hire. Not because of what he knew. Because of how his brain worked.

So over the years I stopped interviewing for experience. I started interviewing for the stuff you can't train. And I boiled it down to five questions.

▶️ I put all five on a one-page cheat-sheet you can bring right into your next interview — Get the 5 questions →

THE PLAYBOOK
What to actually listen for

The trick with these questions isn't the question — it's what you're really testing underneath it. A few examples from the sheet:

"Tell me about the worst shift you ever worked." You're not asking about the shift. You're testing whether they own it or blame everyone else. The great ones always own their part.

"When you walk into a restaurant as a guest, what's the first thing you notice?" You're testing whether they have the hospitality eye. The great ones can't turn it off — they notice the energy, the service, how the staff move. The wrong hire says "the food" and stops there.

"What was your last manager always getting on you about?" You're testing honesty. A real, specific answer is gold. "I just care too much" is a polished way of telling you nothing.

The other two — and the green-flag / red-flag answers for all five — are on the cheat-sheet.

This week, if you're hiring: pick just ONE of these questions and use it. Then shut up and actually listen to the whole answer.

You'll learn more in that one answer than in the entire rest of the interview.

▶️ Grab the free cheat-sheet — Get the 5 questions →