Thanks for visiting our management recruitment pages. Pret’s approach to treasure hunting, (that’s what we call finding great managers), management retention and career development is pretty unusual. Some would say it’s downright odd.

Because Pret is growing, one shop at a time (no rush), we’re always looking for good managers. They’re the lifeblood of our company. They have made us successful. Pret managers are often the envy of the retail world.

A day in the life of

At Pret we believe that a manager’s role is to 'lead', not just manage the day-to-day stuff. That may appear obvious, but the truth is that to many 'managers' working in the hospitality/retail business are simply glorified jailors. They’re given a bunch of keys, a boring manual, a polyester tie and a bunch of tired inmates to watch over.

The experience, passion and sensitivity of a good manager is so easily wasted as they worry about conforming and playing company politics. A manager’s role is demanding! One minute they’re accountants, the next sergeant majors, then they’re psychiatrists, five minutes later they’re nannies, trainers, IT specialists, firemen, first aiders and entrepreneurs. At Pret we are respectful of this.

It's hardly surprising that managers have different skills. Some are brilliant at training and developing their staff. Some are truly great with customers, others are stunning business people. Our aim at Pret is to provide all our managers with roughly the same degree of basic skills and then put them into a role,which they will excel at and enjoy.

A leader needs to be listened to and trusted. They need some slack. They need freedom. They need to be nurtured and developed. We all do.

Our founder, Julian Metcalfe, still works at Pret. He started the first Pret in Victoria in 1986 and is the first to admit that he was a pretty poor manager then and is still learning new skills today. A manager never stops learning.

Show me the money!

Pret's won a few awards for its training and HR. (The Guardian voted us amongst the top employers in the UK in 2007 - pretty good for a sarnie shop).

We pay quite well. Most importantly, we pay as much as we can afford rather than as little as we can get away with. The average salary (including bonus) of a General Manager in 2007 was £35,000 and for an Assistant Manager £26,000. We reward our managers according to their ability to take charge, improve service, sales and customer loyalty.

One thing is for sure - we bonus well. Up to 30% for salary (even more when targets are exceeded). Each quarter, a group of managers triple their bonus. We encourage and reward our managers to be business leaders as well as being very knowledgeable in all Pret's standards and processes.

We have a 'Partners in Pret' share option scheme. Currently there are about 85 partners. Two out of every three partners must be voted in each year from shops, basically from the front line. This helps keep us focused on customers.

Lastly, because we have shops all over Great Britain, we can often align a manager's family and home life to their business life.

The Pret Academy

The Pret Academy is a structured learning pathway from Leader (this would probably be supervisory level in most businesses) through to shop General Manager. All the learning through the Pret Academy is done at your own pace, although we do give approximate timescales to keep you on track (and to give superstars the chance of promotion as soon as they are ready).

The Pret Academy also covers our external 'Manager in Training' programme, graduate training plans and Hudson's Place (we hate the term 'head office'!) learning needs.

Our training is clear, well structured and, most importantly, practical. Whatever your goal (from GM to astronaut), we have a pretty clear pathway mapped out for how to get you there.

Our 'Manager in Training' programme lasts 12 weeks, and it doesn't stop there. You'll continue learning well after the official programme ends.

You'll have regular catch-ups with your manager (face-to-face, the old fashion way) to chat about your development and performance.

No one gets bored at Pret (hopefully).

Quite a few managers leave shops to join Hudson's Place or go directly into training or Ops. We are a pretty open-minded company. We love action and loathe politics.

Pick me, pick me!

Our recruitment process can take up to 4 weeks. Not because we're lazy, we're just thorough (and fussy!). We can receive hundreds of applications every week. We read them all carefully and contact those who impress us. We will probably have loads of questions to ask (you may have a few yourself).

If we like what we see and think you are a good fit for Pret, we then send you to a Pret shop to meet one of our teams (and they tell us what they think of you, too!).

The final stage is an assessment day. Don't panic! We know most people find assessment days tough and people get nervous. This is natural. We take this into account. We want you to have fun, learn about Pret and, above all, we want you to succeed.

If we were to offer advice it would be: immerse yourself in the day, be yourself and make the most of the experience.

During the day, you'll be asked to tell us about certain situations that you've faced in your career to date (dealing with difficult customers, motivating a member of your team, influencing someone with a different point of view, for example). It may be useful to think about a few examples of these in advance.

How do I find our more?

Of course, a fairly good start is to be a customer of Pret. Try us out. Eat our food. Hassle our staff. Ask them lots of annoying questions. See if you get a good vibe.

Once you've done that (and want to dig deeper), go through our website. Read our in-house literature. Maybe contact us and ask for some more info. Chat to us. You can tell a lot about a company just by talking to the employees. Do contact us. You can contact Jason (our in-house treasure hunter) at jason.howling@pret.com

Ready, steady, go!

Still interested? You may see some vacancies you're interested in on the list on the left-hand side but if not, don't worry. We are always looking for wonderful people to join us. Simply download the application form and send it along with your C.V. to jason.howling@pret.com