BJ’s has a true commitment to your career development. Our programs are all designed for Gold Standard performance.

Advanced Restaurant Management Program

Our Advanced Restaurant Management Program will guide you through the building blocks necessary to start you on your way to becoming a highly professional restaurant manager. Each block includes objectives, reading material, projects and activities that teach you how to manage our restaurants to the BJ’s Gold Standard of Operational Excellence consistently and correctly. This is a challenging 9-week (Kitchen Managers) or 10-week (Restaurant Managers) program that takes you through all the hourly and management functions in our restaurants. You will even begin learning how we brew our unique handcrafted beer! In all, this program provides our new managers with a strong foundation of both technical and managerial skills.

Kitchen Manager Academy

The Kitchen Manager Academy (K-School) Program is to assist our kitchen managers in their continued development within the role of Kitchen Manager and to create a clear path to the Executive Kitchen Manager (EKM) position.  The K-School program incorporates the active involvement of the EKM to ensure proper planning, execution, feedback and follow through with the Kitchen Manager. The program focuses on food knowledge, specifications, systems and execution from the view of an EKM at BJ’s. There are specific tasks the Kitchen Manager must complete and be validated by the EKM and GM.  Upon completion of the program the Kitchen Manager will possess the skill set to become an EKM.

Accelerated General Manager Program

The objective of this program is to learn and understand the responsibilities of the General Manager role in a condensed timeframe. The program is intended for highly experienced managers who have recently joined BJ’s, completed the Advanced Restaurant Management Program and have demonstrated the potential to move quickly to the General Manager Position. This program is a further extension of the Advanced Restaurant Management Program and speeds the transition of a new manager to readiness status for a GM role.

Gold Standard Career Development Conference

A four-day program, our Career Development Conference provides a series of seminars offered by various executives and directors from BJ’s Restaurant Support Center. During this program you will meet our CEO, CFO and several senior restaurant operations executives at our company, develop your skills as a manager and coach, as well as learn more about BJ’s Gold Standard of Operational Excellence. Most new managers attend this conference within the first year after the completion of the initial management training program.

Gold Standard Career Development Program

This program provides a path that will enable you to further your personal development and career with BJ’s. It is designed for a manager to progress at his/her own pace. The program encompasses the competencies and skill sets that are required at different levels of responsibility within the restaurant operational management team and allows for every manager to know exactly where he/she stands in his/her career progression with BJ’s at any given time.

Leadership Development Conference

A personal development conference involving two days spent with our top Restaurant Support Center and restaurant operations executives for those restaurant managers who are considered ready for promotion to the restaurant General Manager level. This program provides those managers who are selected to participate with immediate, direct feedback on their skills and competency levels, as well as a suggested personal development plan

The Gold Standard General Managers’ Conference

Held annually, this four-day conference for all restaurant General Managers and the field supervision organization develops both restauranteuring and business execution skills. The conference includes a special awards dinner where our “restaurant of the year” and hourly team members of the year are recognized.