Job Qualifications

A guide to careers and jobs.

Restaurant Jobs

People love restaurants. In the United States, eating out at a restaurant has grown into the number one recreational past-time. With the wide variety of foods and types of restaurants, there is no shortage of places to eat. All of this has created a huge market for candidates wanting to get a job in the restaurant industry.

Types of restaurants vary. There is everything from fast food joints, corporate chain restaurants, family diners, bar and grills, luxury dining, and those all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets. Many places hire young people still in high school or college. These employees are usually just working their way through school and the job can be a temporary one. Others see a restaurant job as a career. These are managers, supervisors, owners, and professional chefs. If a restaurant earns a good reputation and builds its client base, it can be a very profitable business.

Restaurant Job Qualifications

What makes a restaurant job so popular is that most positions require no formal training and no previous experience. Waiters, waitresses, hostesses, line cooks, and dish washers are all entry-level jobs that are fairly easy to acquire as long as you give a good interview. Some restaurants, such as luxury dining, will probably require some experience.

Manager positions can be obtained one of two ways. Some restaurants require their managers to have a college or associate’s degree in restaurant management. With little to no experience you will likely start out as an assistant manager at some location. The second way to obtain a manager’s position is promotion through experience with no college degree. This would be the person that started out as a waiter or cook and worked their way up to manager.

It doesn’t hurt to have some cooking skills and if you want to be a professional chef, you will need to go to culinary school. Courses there can take several weeks to several months to complete before you get your certificate.

Restaurant Job Descriptions

There can be several types of jobs depending on the type restaurant. However, no matter what type it is, there will always be one of the following jobs available: manager, cook, waiter, bartender, and host.

Cook – This position also includes professional chefs. Cooks and chefs may be responsible for cooking different portions, such as side dishes or dessert, or they may be responsible for all the food that comes out of a kitchen.

Manager – A manager has many duties in a restaurant. Their basic job is to oversee the daily operations of a restaurant. To do this, they must direct employees, manage finances, oversee receiving of food supplies, and take care of customer relations.

Waiter – Waiters and waitresses make up a large portion of the restaurant industry. The number of waiters and waitresses in an establishment depends on the size of the restaurant. There can be anywhere from one to twenty waiters. Their job is to take customer orders, deliver food to the tables, handle transactions, and make sure everything is to customer satisfaction.

Bartender – A bartender is an important position in any restaurant that serves alcohol. Whether it is a bar and grill or an upscale dining establishment, bartenders are responsible for mixing and serving drinks to customers. In an ever-growing recreational industry, a bartender can be a key employee to a successful restaurant.

Host – A host or hostess is a must for any restaurant that is not a fast food place. A host or hostess manages the seating of customers, takes reservations, and is responsible for customer relations at the door and on the phone.