Pros
The manager in training program is very thourough and sets you up for success in the real world. The experiance and knowledge gained while going through the 13 weeks of training provided is the best in the industry in my opinion. It is very fast past and takes a quick mind to pick it all up. Right away you are giving the authority to make decisions when put in a position. There are high expectations in place so be ready to rise to the task if you have been offered this position. The salary is great from the beginning (but as a trainee you don't get bonusses) Darden has restaurants all over the country so if you have to move, there is usually an opportunity to transfer between stores, or even between brands (like if Olive Garden is not a good fit, you could move over to Red Lobster and most likely expect about the same salary and work expectations) Overall it was a great and invaluable experiance.
Cons
If you have any kind of family or social life, this is not the job for you unless you are looking to never see you children, your spouse or your friends. When I took the job I was told that I would be working approxamately 55 hours a week. This seems reasonable for the salary I was recieving. However, it seemed all the hours got dumped on me right away. And I still had to complete the insanely long book they gave me, most of the time on my days off, or I would have to come in early or stay late (off the clock) While at work more time was spent duing the duties of the postion they needed me to be in rather than studying the important tasks in the book when I a capable manager was around to direct me in the right direction (these included learning about P&L reports, managing invoices learning how to manage food costs) I was typically left to my own devices and I had to fight the other managers for office time. All managers are supposed to get two hours computer time a day, so of course thier computer needs came before mine as they were essential to the restaurant operations. My husband had recently been injured and there were several times I needed to be off to drive him to the hospital. While they never denied my requests, they were looked down upon and eventually I got a firm converstaion regarding them. There was also another manager who was let go while I was there because he had just had a brand new baby girl, and was late a couple of times due to lack of sleep. Any time there were days off scheduled, they were horribly planned. The days off would be together, but day #1 would follow a closing shift, so I would not get home till very late and obviously sleep in, and day two would be prior to an opening shift, (which is 4 or 5 am depending on if there is weekly inventory to do or not) so I would be going to bed early. So neither day seemed to be a full day, nor was there the possibility of going out of town because of the schedule constaints when leaving and returning and the time needed to work on the training assignments.
