A restaurant job application form people finish at the bus stop

It's Friday at 4pm and a server has just handed in their notice. By Saturday lunch you have a sign in the window, three CVs on the bar, two people who emailed a photo of a handwritten form, and one candidate who rang during service and left a number you can't read.

None of that is a hiring problem. It's a paperwork problem, and it lands on the busiest person in the building at the worst time of the week.

What a restaurant job application form actually needs to ask

Most restaurant job application form templates are copied from office jobs. They run to four pages, ask for a full employment history and leave half a page for references. A line cook or a weekend runner looks at that and walks to the place across the road.

What you need on day one is much shorter. Who they are, how to reach them, which role, when they can work, and a sense of whether they have done it before. Everything else can wait for the trial shift.

A short form gets more applicants, and you only need enough to decide who to call back.

A copy-paste form you can use today

Here is a starting point. Each line becomes a question, and you can trim it until it fits your place:

• Full name (text)
• Mobile number (text) and email (email)
• Which role are you applying for? (dropdown: server, bartender, line cook, kitchen porter, host)
• Which shifts can you work? (multi choice: weekday lunch, weekday evening, Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
• Earliest start date (date)
• Years working in restaurants (number)
• Tell us about your last hospitality job in two or three sentences (long answer)

That is seven questions, and most people finish it standing at the bus stop. Leave out anything you would not use to make a shortlist. You do not need a home address or a date of birth to decide who comes in for a trial.

Putting the form where candidates already are

With TinyX you write the questions in markdown, the plain text format where each line turns into a field, and share the form as a short link. Download the link's QR code and print it on the "we're hiring" sign in the window, on the back of the menu, or post the link on your Instagram story.

Applicants answer in their phone's browser. They don't have to sign up for anything, and when they finish they see a short confirmation page with your own message, such as "Thanks, we'll call you by Wednesday."

The form supports text, email, long answers, single and multiple choice, dropdowns, numbers and dates. It does not have a file upload field, and links typed into a question are not clickable, so keep the instructions in plain words.

Getting CVs back without a pile of emails

Some candidates will want to send a CV, and for kitchen roles you may want photos of a food hygiene certificate. Rather than asking for attachments by email, send a TinyX upload link. The candidate drops the files straight to you, any file type, several at once, with a password if you want one.

Upload links are on Pro and Max, as listed on the pricing page. If you are on the Free plan, ask in the form for a phone number and a good time to call instead. For a server role, a five minute call tells you more than a CV does.

Reading applications at the end of a shift

Responses collect in your dashboard and export to CSV, so after close you can open them in a spreadsheet and sort by role and availability. Ten minutes is enough to pick the three people who can do Saturdays and ring them on Monday morning.

TinyX doesn't email you when someone applies or uploads, so make checking the dashboard part of closing up. If you use upload links, a webhook can post each new batch of files to Slack or Discord, and the features page shows what else the forms can do.

Closing the form when the role is filled

Set a response cap or an expiry date when you create the form. Once you have twenty applicants, or once the date passes, anyone who scans the old QR code sees a "Link Unavailable" page instead of applying for a job that no longer exists.

That matters more than it sounds. Hiring signs stay in windows for months, and nobody enjoys telling a keen applicant the post went in August.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use one form for front of house and kitchen roles?

Yes. Add a dropdown for the role and sort by it in the CSV. If the questions really differ, make two forms with two QR codes.

Do applicants need a TinyX account?

No. They scan or tap the link and fill in the form in their browser.

How many forms can I run on the Free plan?

The Free plan includes five questionnaires. Pro and Max raise that number, and the limits are on the pricing page.

Do applicants get a copy of their answers?

No. They see your confirmation message on screen. If you promise a reply by a certain day, put that in the message.

What should I not ask on an application form?

Keep to what you need to shortlist. Employment law differs between countries, so check your local government guidance before asking about age, health or right to work at this stage.

Your next step

Copy the seven questions above into a new questionnaire, print the QR code on your hiring sign, and set the form to close after twenty responses. You can start on the Free plan and see the limits on the pricing page.