You Could Make Up To $99K A Year At Chipotle
STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — If making a nearly six-figure salary in a fun, hospitable working environment sounds good, Chipotle Mexican Grill might be the company for you!
The eatery, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, is looking to fill 300 positions at 140 locations all over Southern California.
New restaurants are also expected to open in Orange County, San Bernardino and Riverside.
The average compensation for an entry-level worker at Chipotle is $21,000 a year, which includes health benefits and two weeks paid vacation.
An employee, however, is able to work their way up the ladder.
Lidia Castillo from Koreatown went from an entry-level position rolling burritos to an elite management role.
"From January to December of last year, I went through service manager, apprentice, general manager, and restaurateur," she said.
Ronald Sedillo, the Director of Training and Development at Chipotle, said a restaurateur makes a comfortable salary.
"Those people make about $99,000 a year," he said.
Castillo added, "I get a bonus, I get a company car, and if I help somebody else become a general manager, I get $10,000."
The 22-year-old said she now makes more money than her parents.
"That makes me really proud to say because I never imagined I could do something like that in such a short amount of time," said Castillo.
Castillo also said she didn't need a college education for her job because she has 13 qualities Chipotle values in an employee.
"Conscientious, respectful, hospitable, high energy, infectiously enthusiastic, happy, presentable, smart, polite, motivated, ambitious, curious, and honest. As long as you have the 13 characteristics, you'll thrive," she said.
The company's atypical CEO, Steve Ells, also exemplifies those traits.
Ells, who graduated from the University of Colorado, went to culinary school in New York and landed a job at a swanky San Francisco restaurant.
However, it was the city's street food that inspired him to sell high-quality affordable burritos.
Sedillo said, "He went back to Denver. Borrowed money from his father and opened the first Chipotle (in 1993)."
For more information on employment opportunities at the Mexican grill, visit its website.
