Use AI to Draft a Restaurant Job Ad and Interview Scorecard

Write the job facts yourself first: the duties, the schedule, what the job really requires, the pay range, the benefits and any bonus. Then have an AI assistant turn those facts into a job ad, and into an interview scorecard with the same job-related questions for every candidate and a description of a strong, acceptable and weak answer to each. Check both line by line before anyone sees them. The assistant writes drafts. It doesn't read résumés, rank candidates, post the ad or contact anyone, and the manager makes every hiring decision.

This is a workflow guide, not news. It uses a fictional café and prompts you can copy. We haven't tested the prompts against any particular AI product, so treat whatever the assistant writes as a draft. In Washington, employers with 15 or more employees must put a pay range, a general description of benefits and a general description of other compensation in every job posting.

Step 1: Write the job facts yourself

The assistant can only work from what you give it. If you don't tell it the range, it may write "competitive pay." If you don't tell it what the job requires, it may make up requirements. Settle these before you open a chat:

• The job and the duties. Station, prep, closing, and who the person reports to.
• The schedule. Days, shift times, weekly hours, and whether weekends and holidays are included.
• What's really required. Only what the job needs on day one. Everything else goes under "nice to have," or leave it out.
• The pay range. Decide it before you post, from the lowest to the highest you'd actually pay for this job, and what moves someone up it. How much to pay restaurant employees walks through setting it.
• Benefits and other compensation. Health insurance, paid time off, retirement, shift meals, bonuses.
• How to apply. Where applications go and who reviews them.

Here are the job facts for a fictional café inside Seattle city limits with 22 employees, hiring a cook to start in January 2027:

• Job: prep and line cook, breakfast and lunch. Reports to the kitchen manager.
• Schedule: four shifts a week, 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., including Saturday and Sunday, with an unpaid 30-minute meal break in each shift. 32 paid hours a week.
• Duties: prep from written recipes and the daily prep list, cook on the flat-top and grill during service, label and date everything that goes into the walk-in, follow the café's allergen procedures, break down and clean the station at close, carry cases of up to 40 pounds from the walk-in.
• Required: at least six months of line cooking in a restaurant, and a current food worker card.
• Nice to have: breakfast volume experience.
• Pay: $23.00 to $25.50 an hour, based on line experience. Reviewed after 90 days.
• Benefits: medical insurance after 60 days, paid sick leave, 40 hours of paid vacation a year, and a shift meal.
• Other compensation: a $300 bonus after 90 days.

Each shift is 8.5 hours on the clock, or 34 hours a week. The 32 paid hours come from the café's own choice of an unpaid half-hour meal break, not from a rule that applies everywhere. Break rules depend on where the job is, so write down your own schedule as it really runs.

The pay range is an illustration for this example, not a recommended wage. Whatever range you use, its bottom has to be legal on the start date, and for a Seattle job starting in January 2027 that number isn't settled. As of October 2, 2026, Seattle's Office of Labor Standards (OLS) announcement, minimum wage page and Q&A say $22.14 an hour from January 1, 2027, but the English 2027 workplace poster on its resources page shows $22.24. The café's range starts above both, but don't pick one yourself. Ask OLS which 2027 rate is final before you post a range for a January start. Seattle's 2027 minimum wage: the announced rate and the poster conflict covers what to confirm. The 2026 rate, $21.30, applies only through December 31, so a range that starts there doesn't work for a January start.

Before you paste anything

Look at your assistant's data settings, and find out whether conversations can be used for training or seen by others on your account. The job facts don't include anything private, and that's the point. Don't paste in applicants' names, résumés, contact details or interview answers, or any current employee's pay.

Step 2: Draft the job ad

Write a job ad for a restaurant job using only the facts below. Do not add requirements, duties, benefits or perks that are not in the facts. Do not describe the kind of person we want (age, energy, looks, background or personality); describe the work.

Include, in this order:
1. Job title and location
2. Pay: the exact range as written below, per hour
3. Benefits and other compensation, as written below
4. Schedule
5. What the job involves
6. What is required, and what is nice to have, as two separate lists
7. How to apply

Keep it under 250 words, in plain language. After the ad, list any fact below you did not use and anything you had to guess.

JOB FACTS:
[paste your job facts]

The last line matters. If the assistant says it guessed, find the guess and replace it with a fact or delete it.

Check the ad before it goes anywhere

Read it against your job facts, one line at a time:

• Pay matches exactly. Both ends of the range are there, per hour, and the numbers match your facts. "Up to $25.50" or "$23 and up" isn't a range. Washington's Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) says a range shouldn't use open-ended phrases like those.
• The bottom of the range is legal for the start date. Check it against the state and city minimum wage for the date the job starts. For a Seattle job starting in 2027, confirm the rate with OLS first, because the two official figures above don't match.
• Benefits and other compensation are there, and nothing extra. If the draft says "growth opportunities" or "flexible scheduling" and those aren't in your facts, take them out.
• No new requirements. Check for years of experience you didn't ask for, a degree, or a driver's license. In Washington, since July 27, 2025, a posting can't say an applicant must have a valid driver's license unless driving is an essential job function or related to a legitimate business purpose for the position. That rule is in a separate section of the law, RCW 49.58.120, and that section doesn't have the 15-employee limit.
• It describes the work, not the person. Words like "young," "recent graduates," "native English speaker" or "guys" describe who someone is, not what the job needs. Replace them with the task, for example "communicates allergen information clearly to the front of house."
• Tips are described accurately. If the job shares in tips, say how it works. Don't promise an hourly amount with tips that you can't guarantee.

Here are a few lines a draft might include, and how to fix them. They're illustrations, not output from a particular product.

What a Washington posting has to include

Under RCW 49.58.110, as L&I explains it, an employer with 15 or more employees has to include these in each posting:

• A wage scale or pay range, or the fixed wage if you're offering only one amount. L&I says the range should be the employer's most reasonable and genuinely expected pay for the job at the time of posting.
• A general description of all benefits. L&I includes health care, retirement, paid days off such as vacation or sick leave beyond what's required, and other fringe benefits reported for federal tax purposes.
• A general description of other compensation. That means bonuses, commissions, profit-sharing and similar pay on top of the wage.

"Posting" covers more than job boards. It includes printed and electronic postings, and recruiting done through a third party, whenever the post is for a specific open position and lists qualifications. It doesn't include a copy published without the employer's consent. L&I's December 2022 factsheet, written before the 2025 changes to the law, gives a restaurant example of a reader board that meets the requirement: "Help Wanted - Server. Food Handler's Certification Needed. Offering: $24.00-$26.00 per hour, medical benefits, 70 vacation hours per year, and $500 sign-on bonus." L&I also says a plain "Help Wanted" sign that doesn't name a position or qualifications isn't a posting.

For postings made from July 27, 2025 through July 27, 2027, an employer who gets written notice that a posting doesn't comply has five business days to correct it, and to ask any third-party site to correct it, before an applicant can seek damages. If it isn't corrected, L&I or a court can award statutory damages of $100 to $5,000 per violation. Washington employers also can't ask applicants about their pay history.

Other states and cities have their own rules. New York, for example, requires businesses with four or more employees to list pay ranges for advertised jobs. Check the rule where the job is before you post.

Step 3: Draft the interview scorecard

A scorecard lets you ask every candidate the same questions in the same order and rate their answers against the same standard. Give the assistant the same job facts:

Using only the job facts below, write six interview questions for this job. Each question must connect to a specific duty or requirement in the facts. Prefer questions that ask the candidate to describe something they have done.

For each question, give:
1. The question
2. The duty or requirement it checks
3. What a strong answer (3), an acceptable answer (2) and a weak answer (1) would include, described as things the candidate says or shows, not as personality traits

Do not include the schedule or required certifications in the six; I will ask about those separately as yes-or-no questions. Do not write questions about age, family, pregnancy or childcare, health or disability, religion, national origin, citizenship, or anything else not tied to the job.

JOB FACTS:
[paste your job facts]

Check the scorecard

Every question should point back to one of your job facts. If you can't say which one, cut it. Read the strong, acceptable and weak descriptions and make sure they describe what someone says or shows, like "walks through how they set up the station before service," not how they come across, like "seems confident." If the assistant asks about anything personal, delete it.

For the fictional cook, the finished scorecard might look like this. It's an example we wrote, not output from a particular product.

1. Walk me through how you set up your station before a breakfast rush. Checks prep and station setup. 3: works from a prep list, checks pars and sets up in the order the tickets will need it. 2: describes a setup but leaves out a step, such as checking pars. 1: can't describe a routine, or says they just start cooking.
2. Tell me about a time tickets backed up on your station. What did you do? Checks line cooking under volume. 3: a real example, what they did first, and how they told the expo or manager. 2: a real example, but vague about what they did or who they told. 1: no example, only a general answer like "I stay calm."
3. How do you handle a ticket marked with an allergy? Checks the allergen procedure. 3: clean tools and surface, checks the recipe, confirms with the expo or manager, and doesn't guess. 2: names some of those steps but skips checking the recipe or confirming. 1: would guess, or makes it the same way as any other ticket.
4. What do you label before it goes into the walk-in, and how? Checks labeling and dating. 3: item, date and use-by on everything, and first in, first out. 2: labels and dates, but doesn't mention a use-by date or rotation. 1: doesn't label everything, or can't say what goes on a label.
5. Tell me about a time you made something from a written recipe you hadn't made before. How did you make sure it came out right? Checks prep from written recipes. 3: read the whole recipe first, measured as written, and checked the result or asked before changing anything. 2: followed the recipe but doesn't say how they checked it. 1: no example, or changes recipes by feel without checking.
6. What does a clean close look like on a flat-top station? Checks station breakdown. 3: specific steps in order, and leaves it ready for the next shift. 2: some specific steps, but nothing about leaving it ready for the next shift. 1: a general answer like "I clean everything."

Ask two things separately as yes or no, because they're requirements, not something to score: whether the candidate can work the posted schedule of four shifts, 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., including Saturday and Sunday, and whether they have a current food worker card.

Use it the same way with every candidate

1. Ask all six questions, in order, to every candidate for this job.
2. Write down what the candidate said, not your impression of them.
3. Score each answer 1 to 3 right after the interview, using the descriptions. Totals run from 6 to 18.
4. Treat the total as a way to compare notes, not as the decision. The manager looks at the notes, any working interview and references, and makes the call.
5. Keep the scorecards with your other hiring records.

Don't paste candidates' answers into the assistant to score them or rank them. That puts the decision, and the applicants' information, in the wrong place.

If you're hiring a whole opening team, hiring and training your opening team covers roles, timing and training.

What goes wrong, and how to recover

• The ad goes out without a range. Take it down or edit it right away, including anywhere it was reposted, and make sure the range you add matches your job facts.
• The range drifts between versions. Keep one copy of the job facts and paste the pay line from there every time. Don't let the assistant retype it.
• The assistant adds a requirement you didn't ask for. Delete it, and add a line to your prompt listing what's required and saying nothing else is.
• A question drifts into personal territory. Delete it. Don't reword it to ask the same thing another way.
• The minimum wage changes after you post. Recheck the bottom of every open range when your city or state announces or corrects a rate.

Limits

The café, its job facts, schedule, pay range, benefits and scorecard are fictional, not a recommended wage or a template to copy without checking. The prompts are a proposed workflow that we haven't tested against any AI product, and an assistant can still add or change details you didn't give it. The Washington and Seattle rules here were checked against the official pages listed below on October 2, 2026. This isn't legal advice. Posting and hiring rules depend on where the job is and how many people you employ, and they change. If you're unsure, check with the state or city agency or an employment lawyer before you post.

Sources

• Revised Code of Washington 49.58.110, disclosure of wage or salary range by employer: RCW 49.58.110
• Revised Code of Washington 49.58.120, employer driving requirements: RCW 49.58.120
• Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, Equal Pay and Opportunities Act: L&I equal pay page
• Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, "Job posting requirements, RCW 49.58.110," publication F700-225-000, December 2022: L&I factsheet (PDF)
• New York State Department of Labor, Pay Transparency: NY DOL pay transparency
• City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards, "Office of Labor Standards Announces Seattle's 2027 Minimum Wage," September 28, 2026: OLS announcement
• City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards, Minimum Wage Ordinance page: OLS minimum wage page
• City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards, Minimum Wage Q&A, updated September 28, 2026: OLS minimum wage Q&A (PDF)
• City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards, 2027 workplace poster (English): OLS 2027 poster (PDF)