His current journey began with the ending of another, when Charter Bank, a regional financial institution consisting of around seven local banks and headquartered in West Point, Georgia, was sold to another bank.

At the time of the sale, Robert was one of the bank vice presidents, reporting directly to the president of the organization. How Robert began as a contractor for the bank and became an employee of the bank and then moved up to VP in just five years is another story for another day.

When organizations merge it's pretty obvious that they no longer need two corporate headquarters, and such was the case for Charter Bank. So Robert found himself in the job hunting mode. While the outgoing president of Charter Bank recommended him highly to the new organization, Robert was not that motivated by the new organization's offer of the duties and responsibilities that he might assume, so he began a very extensive job search. That is a story in itself.

Charter Bank was sold in the summer of 2018. The sale did come with two pieces of good news.

• The first was that Robert's MBA program at Georgia Tech that was funded by Charter Bank had been completed in 2017. It was no secret that the owners of Charter Bank hoped to grow the business to the point that some larger bank would want to buy them out, in which case the owners could retire to a life of ease. Robert was concerned that if a buyout occurred during his MBA studies, that Charter Bank or the bank that bought them out would not continue his funding. But, thankfully, this was not an issue. And, of course, having an MBA from Georgia Tech does enhance one's résumé . . . unless you're from the University of Georgia.
• The second piece of fortuitous information was that the phase out of Charter Bank into its new organization would be over a 6 to 7 month period; and that Robert would remain salaried during that period. Yes, this did provide a great deal of time for Robert to seek new employment.

And so that brought Robert at some point to an application for employment to Chick-fil-A and an ensuing initial interview. Understandably, Robert was interested in how his interview turned out, because he didn't hear back from Chick-fil-A. But he had made a contact there who told him when he called that all was okay and just please stand by. Somewhere around a month later, he was again contacted by Chick-fil-A and asked to appear for another interview at another location with another individual. This monthly process also included meeting with Chick-fil-A restaurant operators. (CFA calls the locations where one goes to get their food and beverages: restaurants; and the person in charge of a restaurant is called the Operator.) When Robert visited with an Operator he was normally shown how the restaurant was operated and given the opportunity to participate in some parts of the operation. It was a "given" that the results of his intervies and meeting were being reported back to the Chick-fil-A HR hiring office.

Then, one day in February 2019, came the call that Robert was waiting anxiously waiting for; it was his Point of Contact at Chick-fil-A, who notified him that he was hired! Robert said he was so excited that he didn't even inquire about salary, and when the POC asked if he were interested in the salary, Robert said no; that he was just so happy to be hired.

In retrospect, one has to wonder what was the rationale behind this long, long interview process. Noting that Robert had never worked in any type of fast food operation, the conclusion has to be that Chick-fil-A was hiring based on character (thank you Bonnie) and potential.

Now an employee, Robert, and about 20 other new hires began a training program at Chick-fil-A's Atlanta-area corporate headquarters, on all aspects of CFA operations. A fair amount of the training was held at one of the instructional facilities there at the headquarters and designed for just such purpose. The instruction site included a complete mock restaurant, of course.

Ultimately, Robert received his first assignment, and that was to be an Operational Consultant for about 20 restaurants in the Orlando area.

Chick-fil-A believes that Operators are the heart of its organization, and that Chick-fil-A will be successful when Operators are successful. While this sounds like something that any organization with franchises would subscribe to, the point is in how CFA puts feet to this belief.

Are you an Operator who needs some expertise in making kitchen operations more efficient?
No problem; CFA will send you a specialist to give you as much help as you need.

Are you an Operator who is looking to find ways to speed up the process to take orders?
No problem; CFA will send you a specialist to give you as much help as you need.