Restaurants have a million moving parts – and so does software development. With that in mind we are particularly proud of our new application process. Our goal was to make applying for jobs quick and easy – which sounded simple enough when we first discussed it at the Poached office (and then in the bar downstairs.)
After months of discussion, design, testing, more discussion, more design, drinking, more drinking, retesting, arguing over the results of retesting and then questioning our career choices (I, for one, had a pretty good GM job at a fancy restaurant) we’ve finally completed our work.
The result is an intuitive application process that streamlines registration and makes applying for jobs as easy as clicking two buttons – especially on mobile phones.
Rather than write this article as a tutorial, I encourage you to find some jobs you’d like and then apply. What would be better is to spend a few moments writing about why we’re doing all this work in the first place. The answer is straightforward: we like restaurants.
We like restaurants not just from the perspective of people who go out to eat and take selfies with their dinners, but as members of the industry culture. Most of our staff came from restaurants (some may even return… look me up after a couple more software product cycles…) We have former cooks, servers, a couple former GMs, bartenders and a restaurant-owning founder. All of us have dealt with job hunting. We’ve all had to search online and off for that next gig while juggling the complexities of our lives. We’ve all agreed it could be a lot better.
Over the next few months you’ll be seeing more changes – each intended to make job hunting less and less of a “soul sucking proposition,” as co-founder and CEO Kirk Thornby has phrased it. The new application process is just the beginning. We’ll be improving the search interface, the job pages, updating the blog and refining all the things that make Poached a simple and effective tool for restaurant workers.
Just as a cook is never done improving their skills; just as a server is never done improving their approach to hospitality; just as a chef is never done improving their menu; just as an owner is never down improving their business – we’re never done improving Poached.
