Waiting Tables Can Be Beneficial For Future Jobs

Waiting tables offers a quick way to earn cash, especially if you're in college, looking for your first job or only need a part-time income. Despite the challenges that wait staff face, becoming a server at a restaurant gives you a chance to enhance your skills for future jobs. Discover four ways wait staff can turn their service-based jobs into something greater.

1. Willingness to Work a Demanding Job

Waiting tables means spending hours on your feet, remembering customer orders, multitasking with several tables at once, keeping up with kitchen staff and typically working late nights and weekends. When you include these experiences in your resume, you let employers know you are willing to put in long hours and hard work to get the job done. Although it might not say so on the job description, many employers value hard workers who can successfully juggle multiple tasks at once.

2. Presenting Yourself Well

Waiting tables allows you to represent your company and your personal brand at the same time. Set yourself apart from other wait staff by adding your own personal flair or touches to your work, such as putting a happy face on customer bills. Follow the company's rules, corporate culture and dress code for servers. Look sharp and be on your best behavior. Presenting yourself well can lead to bigger jobs and greater opportunities within the hospitality industry. You might find yourself stepping up to a host or hostess role, managing the front of the restaurant, or becoming a restaurant manager at some point in the future.

3. Experiencing a Customer-Facing Role

Perhaps you favor a career in a customer service department. Waiting tables gives you ample customer service experience. As a waiter, you must be kind and attentive while catering to the needs of every customer. You also develop great people skills since you must interact with new and different customers each shift. Eventually, you may even you find yourself with regular customers who ask for your tables because you made a great impression on them.

4. Highlighting Your Motivation

Waiting tables means earning tips beyond your hourly wage. Therefore, it's essential for wait staff to approach server jobs with the same enthusiasm and professionalism they would a corporate sales role. You are selling food and a service at the same time, skills that would work well in a sales-based career. You may also enjoy the challenge of working for a commission. Common sales industries include real estate, car sales, corporate sales or managing corporate accounts for various firms.

Waiting tables offers a chance to gain new skills and experiences for future jobs. Leverage your server job into something greater by showcasing the talents that make you a dynamite server to employers in your preferred industry.

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