How does waitressing work

This will help you to develop your skills before you apply for paid work. You can apply for jobs without experience, though you'll have an advantage if you've worked in customer service before. Your employer will train you on the job.

You can get more details about working as a waiter from the Hospitality Guild. You could specialise in fine dining and silver service waiting at formal events like weddings and banquets.

You may also be able to go into related areas of work like restaurant and kitchen management or stock purchasing. The Find a job service can help you with your search for jobs and send alerts when new jobs become available. Take an assessment to learn more about your skills and the careers that might suit you.

Call or use webchat. Thank you for your feedback. Click here if you'd like to let us know how we can improve the service. Frankly, our servers kind of have it easy. Green: Being a server sounds physically demanding.

What has that been like for you? I used to actually use a pedometer on my busier shifts just to see. You walk a lot, and blow through shoes. My right arm is superstrong. I really feel for the servers that I have now because [the restaurant has a very open floor plan]. It can get to you. Green: The wages are a big point of contention in the restaurant industry.

How do you feel about it? A lot of people throw around this idea that if people wanted to make more money an hour, then they would go back to school or they would get a better job. I think that is super short-sighted and unfair for a variety of reasons. How do you plan your rent, your car payment, or your student loans when you never know, should I be spending this on my electricity, or should I be buying food?

Or you might work another busy day, but serve people who are drunk and think they tipped you. I'm completely for abolishing the substandard minimum wage for tipped employees, because I think that if you are there to do the work then you deserve to get paid for it, end of discussion.

When people think generally of sexual harassment in the restaurant industry, they think of it coming from customers, which is certainly a very real thing. As waitresses, we also need to be able to improvise -- there are so many new experiences that this job throws at you, and you need to be able to think on your feet. Being clean and smart is important too. But you need to be able to remain calm and friendly even when faced with someone being aggressive about their fried chicken coating not being crunchy enough.

The hours I work are different from week-to-week. Some days I work pm, other days I do double shifts, and sometimes I stay late to help with the clearing up. Double shifts are obviously the most difficult. I like the variety and the flexibility though this does depend on where you work. At the minute, I work in a hotel restaurant. When I first started, I was absolutely terrified, but everyone made me feel really welcome and you work out the menus pretty quickly. Generous tips are rare, but they do happen.

I once had a table of 12 people, so gratuity was included. When a situation like that happens, you sort of assume it was a mistake and you don't want to let the person know. But I believe in karma, so I go up to them and let them know the tip is already included. I did that, and the man who paid for the table goes, "I know, this is all for you.

You did a great job, thank you very much. Customers will judge you based on how you look. Even though your appearance doesn't affect the service you're giving them, it definitely is a major factor in the results of the tip at the end. On Mother's Day, I forgot to take out my tongue ring and I served a table that didn't tip me because of it. After the meal, they went up to my boss and said, "We didn't like our service because our waitress had a tongue ring.

Customers will sabotage their food to get a free meal. There are definitely people who kind of make it a hobby to get their meal free.

Once they know a restaurant will comp their meal if there's a hair in it, they will come back and keep doing it until they can't get away with it anymore. Obviously, hair does get in the food sometimes. I wouldn't say this happens a lot, but when you're halfway through your burger and you say found a hair in the middle, it's kind of questionable for a place that doesn't form their own patties. If the patties are already formed, how did the hair get all the way in the center of your burger?

But of course, you can't claim that they're lying, so you apologize and you comp their meal. Teamwork is more crucial than you think.