Working at a Drive-Thru like Sonic at first would seem rather ordinary, and it should be your typical entry-level job. However, the moment you stop thinking of Sonic as a young-adult's entry job, this place stats looking a lot less enticing. Sonic is fairly popular and there are reasons why. Sonic's menu covers a very wide range of products ranging from burgers to chicken; or slushies to ice cream shakes or cookies. Sonic also lets customers heavily customize their orders to the point of personalization. However, all of those things I just mentioned are also Sonic's biggest problem.
The overarching problem with working at Sonic is that Sonic's menu is too large and too complicated for the current equipment and procedures that Sonic implements. Sonic encourages speed when working there, but the procedures don't match this. Customers can ask for the most ridiculous combinations, and creations, many of which are nowhere to be found on the menu. This is bad for new hires because it will take quite a while to learn how to make/punch in everything on the menu. Some items outright can't be punched in to the carhop switchboards which is the key to everything in the restaurant in many cases. Sonic also constantly introduces new items monthly, and often times does a poor job explaining them to both employees and customers. Your manager will have you do an online activity that is meant to teach you about the new product and how to prepare it. But you only do it once and it isn't hand
Could be a good job but it depends on the management
When I first started at this job, management was okay and I was able to do the job properly. I got a quick training and they told me the basics of what to do. However, it was not as easy as I thought. I was not properly educated on their changer system and most of the new people always came up short on their tills meaning they were missing money. At certain times, I would have to take money out of my own pocket because my changer was short. If I counted all the money I put in, it would probably be a lot of money. As far as the employees, most of them succumb to stress and start not doing their jobs properly. People chill outside in the middle of the shift or even go as far as to go smoke while we need them on the inside. If you start working here, you most likely have to do more than what the job requires you to do. The equipment that they have ALWAYS messes up and is extremely outdated. They are certain days where the credit card readers aren't working, the screens start freezing in the middle of taking an order, and bits and pieces of an order are not coming through so you have to yell out what each person had. The headsets are terrible and you have to fish for the ones that won't static in your ear. I feel so bad because, at certain times, I genuinely cannot hear the customers and what they want. For example, in my last days, I came into work and the orders were not coming through on the bagging screen. So I had to print out every receipt in the drive-thru and tape them up
ProsFree drinks
ConsLow pay, hostile work environment, inadequate training, stressful
It’s a good first job for a high school student because your next job can’t possibly get worse. Think of it as setting your standards to the lowest possible degree; it would be almost to be not content with your future place of employment because it is bound to be a better experience than what you experienced here. Sonic is like the misfortune of the food industry. There’s always something down or broken. At my particular sonic, our order system was severely outdated and was way more complicated to learn than it should have been. Our system would go down at least once a month and halt all means of service. Which in turn, would get customers upset at us even though we had no control over the situation. Our headsets even burnt out once, forcing us to take orders by hand and manually keep track of what was being served. A lot of other fast food places have a system in place where you enter the total amount of money a customer has given you and it automatically calculates it for you—not us. At least we have calculators on hand though.
Along with the technological issues, the nature of our chain forces us to be constantly understaffed. The allotted plot of land that a Sonic is built on is primarily taken up by parking spaces for stalls that customers can pull into. This forces the store itself to be built incredibly small, which means you can only cram so many employees into it. That number is usually never enough to keep up with the amount of business Sonic receives on a daily b
ProsDiscount during shift, lax work environment, flexible schedule, fun people
Customer Service Representative | Tempe, AZ | Aug 22, 2014
sonic
no longer work there was let go. training was horrible. i was put on drive thru by myself the second day i was there with no help at all. then was put in front of the computer to do training on it and was constantly interrupted because the computer they use for training is the same computer they use to run the store (i.e. cashing employees out, sending requests for delivery to restock the products they were running low on such as slush mix, cups of different sizes, candy and whipped cream that needs to be restocked and that is used in making sundae's,shakes and drinks as well as other dessert foods
management was nice at first but then after a couple days i saw the way the manger really was. she would leave the restaurant and go outside and smoke or talk to friends which is not aloud. she swore all the time.the worst thing i think a manager could do and what she did do was call me at home and didn't ask me to come in to talk to her or anything she just said she was letting me go because i wasn't fast enough and she is sorry and to have a good day and wished me luck in the future. I guess for me if I was a manger I wouldn't let someone go over the phone I would do it respectfully in person and one on one and take their feelings into consideration and not emberacce them in front of there coworkers who may also be there friend as well. they absolutely give you no breaks at all. you could be working over eight hours on a shift and no breaks. they give you a discount on food t
Proslocated close to my apartment, some of the employees were really nice and helpful, i found that i really like to work the drive thru.
Consno breaks, no benefits, threats of being fired, treated unfairly by higher ranked employees, and the hassle i had to go through to get my name tag.
Fun job that allows you to express your creativity and communication skills!
I love this job! It's located close to where I live, the schedule is flexible, and the managers and co-workers (for the most part) are your average, quircky, down-to-earth people.
Things can get heated sometimes, but we're a growing team, and at the end of the day: We're usually having fun, playing some music in the background to keep us motivated, and tossing some funny jokes left-and-right to ensure we're pumped up throughout the rest of our day.
I came here for some part-time work and quick easy-cash, but stayed mostly for that family atmosphere and the delight of working with some "interesting" personalities - they know who they are. Sonic is fun! Sonic is fast-paced, skater-friendly, and competive - (insert: Dr. Pepper Sonic Games; look it up).
Don't know if you should work here? Consider this, then. Name one fast-food franchise in the area that does even 1 of the following: Multiple checkbacks to all customers served; a personal carhop/server equipped with a "smiley" tray at your beck and call; a drive-in; motivational and promotional events like holiday, dressup, sales events, and annual competitions between different stores; possible vacation trips (we went to Dollywood last year); SKATES; actually recognizing good performance in job roles, showing you are valued - even in a fast-food environment; SKATES; employee discounts; cool uniforms that change seasonally; chances to win awards if you test well during annual or promotional training; and ... did I mention
ProsSkates, full-time or part-time, vacation trips, promotional sales events, competitions, awards for high score testers, freebie sonic paraphernalia, personal music broadcasting within store, flexible hours, negotiable starter pay (based-on experience).
ConsEasy to set-off certain employees, some managers need more training, higher customer call volume than any other fast-food fanchise (not an understatement), skate or run (not that hard - but you have to do it), dealing with angry * ignorant * or "entitled" (you'll know it when you see it) customers.
Its decent at best if you just REALLY need a job until you find a better one. They pay is terrible.
A typical shift at Sonic is a bit of a mix for me. Most days, were good, fun and then there were those couple days out of the work week where it felt dreadful, i'd be forced into a bad mood by one of the managers/shift leaders. It was as if that is what this person looked forward to anytime they knew i'd be working on their shift, you could just feel the hatred radiating off of this person. Hatred not only for me, but everyone including themselves.You just knew this person hated themselves so much, that the only thing that would make them feel better about themselves is yelling at carhops or cooks about anything they could, no matter how small, for the sole purpose of making them feel like garbage. And this person would do this every single shift they worked. I thought about walking out at least 3 times a night every time i had to work on their shifts. The tips there were trash.. During the week id make no more than $20, which was somehow considered good or decent. and on the weekends i never made more than $30.. The majority of the time I'd would leave with $8-$10 during the week and on weekends almost always $20-$25. There were even a few times i left with literal change. There are 3 managers/shift leaders that actually do their jobs correctly and for the most part treat everyone with fairness. The other managers/shift leaders are insanely rude, love to play favorites, and they will often pick on newly hired employees and are just terribly backwards and just unprofessional.
Fun, fast paced family drive-Inn turned hostile towards employees
When I first started working at Sonic, the management was very friendly and i enjoyed the company of my co-workers. Since I had fast food experience, I caught on very quick and was moved to full-time after the first week. I was made the primary grill cook during peak sales hours, as I was the fastest of the grill crew in the store. The assistant and store managers were very nice and easy to work with at the time. After I had been working for about 3 months, they offered me a manager position, on the condition that I remain at Sonic for at least a year. I accepted their offer and began training as a manager. A few months passed and I had learned everything a manager needed to do, and performed manager tasks regularly, but still received minimum wage. Just before I could ask for a raise and official promotion, our store manager announced she had found a new job and we would be under new management. Once the new store manager stepped in, I showed off my work ethic and speed in the grill, only to have my hard work go unnoticed. The assistant manager, however, still liked me very much and always gave me praises for my hard work. Since I was still unofficially a manager, I was not allowed to take breaks, so the assistant manager always allowed me to ring up a meal at the end of the day. On Super Bowl Sunday, I worked with only the new store manager. She ordered pizza from Papa John's and told me I could take one home with me, so I put it in the walk-in refrigerator. At the end of m
To much drama for one place, poorly trained and uninformed team members
When I first started here everything was great this was my first job ever and for a short time I enjoyed it. However as time went on it got worse and worse. Employees were rude to one another and when management was informed you were told to stop and that was it. However if you were in a situation with someone who was considered a favorite of the managers then you basically got away with whatever you wanted and never and I literally mean never got in trouble. Then came my oh so favorite employee meeting where every carhop was informed that we literally had to start running, yes I mean legit run like a dog is chasing you. This was news to me and when I questioned when this came into effect they said it always had been. Wait hold on "always in effect". Upon my hiring I was not informed of this nor was I informed of this during my training. So of course I brought up the issue of safety. Cars tend to leak oil at times and no matter what shoes you have on you will slip and fall which could then lead to bigger issues so when I brought this up I was told simply you just won't carhop if you don't run. Now there are carhops who are physically unable to run due to knee, ankle, or leg problems. Some carhops were pregnant at this time and others would just be getting out of high school sports and then have to come to work and run or get in trouble or fired was highly aggitating since I was not informed of this when I was trained or hired. Now I was informed of always moving with a sense
ProsFlexible Schedule
ConsRude coworkers, uninformative trainers/management, working conditions
I loved my job but takes an entire crew working together for job to be ran properly.
A typical work day would consist arriving at least 10 minutes before shift being in uniform having skates on name tag and visor on as well. Depending on the time you came in really determined what u would do when first clocking in morning crew focused more on prep and taking care of the school rush when school was in session. 9 am-11am were slower which allowed me to stock up front back up and prepare everything for the lunch rush, also cleaning any mess that had been made during morning rush and finishing the upfront prep so throughout the day we wouldn't run out. Lunch rush would hit usually 11:30am-1:00pm during this time business picked up and you were to work fast get the orders out quickly and keep customer happy, years ago when I first started this job it ran smooth everybody worked as a team and everything was done effectively. past few years under went a lot of management changes and during all that the crew we was fell apart, new management didn't really have any management abilities only a title which allowed a power trip. the store would be busy but most employees would be huddled together laughing talking on their plans for the upcoming weekend everything expect work and regardless how busy with customers we were they didn't try to help those of us that were trying to keep customers happy and not wanting them to wait long on their orders, those fellow employees had more important matters and once their conversations ended then they would decide to help somewhat.
Prosi loved skating and loved my customers
Conslack of management leadership, no structure, no team work, lack of respect to true emplyees
A good job if you’re extroverted, if you’re introverted, not really
Most people at my workplace enjoy where they work, but I did not. First of all, you really have to be extroverted in order to work there. Sonic behind the kitchen is a very social place and if you don’t bother to talk to others, people will be put off by you and won’t bother to talk to you. I realized that i’m not really the social type, but it felt strange seeing other coworkers start at the same time as I did and be able to be more extroverted and seek more connections, and eventually seek higher positions than I ever did within the first couple of weeks working there. My position was also really terrible, and the people who I did briefly talk to who held the same position as I did (doing ice cream and drinks) said they rarely enjoyed it. It’s a very exhausting job that requires you to move around quickly, from doing drinks to making ice cream. When you’re not doing that, you have to restock the items. I’d say people who work in ice creams and drinks work harder than most of the people (besides the cooks) working there (such as the other car hops and the people working in at the drive thru) where a lot of the times they can chill and talk to their friends. So I’d suggest NOT being a general “crew member” and specify being a carhop or handling drive thru. Or if you do pick “crew member” make sure to ask one of the managers for a raise in positions. Please. Although the managers were kind of friendly, some of them were a little bit intimidating. And yes, as other reviews have
Prosfree lunches, nice breaks
Conshighly stressful when it’s busy, customers are rude
Questions And Answers about Sonic Drive-In
How often do you get a raise at Sonic Drive-In?
Asked Sep 15, 2020
once a year
Answered Jun 1, 2023
Rarely
Answered Jun 1, 2023
What is the promotion process like at Sonic Drive-In?
Asked Sep 14, 2020
Slow going, usually .50c a year
Answered Jun 1, 2023
There isn’t one
Answered Jun 1, 2023
What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Asked Mar 9, 2020
Sunday
Answered Jun 1, 2023
Very busy no breaks working for other positions when people call out
Answered Jun 1, 2023
What is the work from home policy at Sonic Drive-In?
