Waiter and Waitress career in Hospitality! How to start, grow, and live an amazing life as a Waiter!
Today we start with the guide to prosperity in the Hospitality Industry for the waitress!
I want you to not only learn how to get this first job, how to prepare for your first day at work, and how to start making good money!
I want you to create an amazing career in Hospitality, and live an amazing life….so basically I want you to be like me and to be as happy and proud as I am, being a waiter!
Let’s get it going!
The Waiter’s Academy is now part of the HospitalityGlobalNetwork.com, where every waiter or waitress should have a profile if they want to get a job offer from the best restaurants and hotels from all over the world! You sign up, fill your profile, upload your CV and referrals, and every company in the world will be able to search for you, find you, and offer you a job directly on your phone! It is a free platform for the companies and waiters so make sure you check it out and don’t miss on the next great job!
Now! You want to be a waitress or you are a waiter but you are looking for a better job and you want to grow! Here is your guide to prosperity:
Presenting yourself: how to stand out as a Waitress
Please understand that to get hired for a job you will have to impress the people with your resume and your skills so they select you for an interview among many others!
That’s why it is so important to prepare your CV the best way possible and if you are at the Hospitality Global Network you have to fill your profile with all the details that you can put forward so the companies can see who you are and what you can do! We also offer you a choice of modern, free CV templates you can use for your Resume!
When you are preparing your Resume and paperwork you should know that everything matters! If you are a beginner and you don’t have experience and a resume, make sure you have a certificate to show those managers that you have accumulated knowledge! Check the free Waiter Training course at The Waiter’s Academy and get your free certificate in just a few weeks!
If you have experience make sure you write all the tasks you have been performing at the past jobs and all the skills that they required! Make sure you contact your prior employers and ask them to give you a referral letter if you don’t have one! A good referral will take you a long way!
When you are putting your photo on your resume, make sure you are choosing the best picture you can choose and it is with a smile( not laughing your ass off but a smile)
Every little detail matters!
Find a waiter job / waitress job that fits you
The next thing is to search for the right job and apply for it! Don’t underestimate yourself and aim high! In our industry finding good people is very hard and the companies are willing to hire waiters that don’t match all the requirements they have posted with the job! You should always try to get the best job possible! At the same time if you are without a job, make sure that you apply for some not so attractive positions as well so you can get a job offer as soon as possible, and then once you have this job you can continue searching for a better one! The managers are much more willing to hire someone who has a job than someone who is currently without a job!
Job interview
Now you have done everything to get noticed and get an invitation for an interview! This is the make or break moment! If you cannot present yourself in your best light you have no chance of landing a good job and making a career in Hospitality! That’s why we have put a step by step tutorial on how to prepare for a job interview and how to win every interview you go to! Check the Waiter’s Academy website for the tutorial and download it so you have it every time you prepare for a new job! You can also check the many job interview quizzes we have posted so you know how to answer every question you might be asked during a job interview!
If you prepare yourself by the tutorial I have no doubt you will land a wonderful job as soon as they call you for an interview so let’s move to the next step: your first day at work and how to make it as easier as possible!
New job – new opportunities
No matter how many years of experience you have, every new start brings stress and excitement! In our business, the stress could be very high the first few weeks and months if you are not prepared! I have posted many videos and tutorials about preparing for your new job on the YouTube Channel! Some stuff like calling or talking to your new manager and asking for the menu and the wine list so you can study them and you know everything you need to know before even seeing the restaurant! You should learn what kind of guests visit this restaurant, what nationality they are and the languages they speak! Ask about the type of service and the system that is implemented in the restaurant! Take the floor plan home and learn the table numbers and even the seat numbers if the system requires you to work by seat numbers! This way, when you hit the floor I can guarantee you that you will know more and be better prepared than some of the old waiters there to serve your guests with a smile and confidence! What do you think will be the attitude of the other waiters and your managers once they see how well you are prepared and how well you perform from day one at work? Now imagine you start your job without any of this and you don’t know the food, you don’t know the table numbers and pretty much anything! They will have to teach you from the basics and you will feel stupid and useless! They will think the same! The relationship will be completely different from the start!
It is your life and you can choose how to live it but I am trying to give the right way to treat this job if you want the job to treat you well too!
Waiting tables is not carrying plates from the kitchen to the guests! It is a very hard and complicated job if you want to do it right! Check the Waiter Job Description and Responsibilities video and post I have written to understand the importance of you! You are the most important person in the restaurant, believe it or not! It is not the chef, it is not the manager it is not the barkeeper, you are!
Now we come to the fine side of the job! Learning the skills and the techniques that will separate you from the other waiters! You don’t think that many waiters will be reading this and will be willing to learn everything I am talking about, right! True, actually very few will do and this is good for you because it gives you a huge advantage over everyone else who thinks they have all the skills they need and all the knowledge they need! No one has it, me including! Learning is a lifelong process and the more you learn the better life you live!
Growing on the job
It is very important to take everything you can from your current job as fast as you can and if you are at the beginning of your career to move on! That not always means finding another job!
It could mean that if you are a backup waitress or a busboy/ busgirl you move to a head waitress position! If you are a waiter who works only lunch shift you want to move to dinner shift so you can start making money! If you are a dinner shift waitress you will want to move to a shift leader or the best station and the best dinner shift possible! You can also ask to be promoted to a supervisor or a floor manager! There are a lot of opportunities and as I said you have to hustle and learn so you can progress! Then of course, if you see that you are not getting what you believe you deserve in this place you start looking for a better job and better opportunity! Don’t quit! Don’t get mad! Don’t be disgruntled! Just execute your plan smoothly and find a better job and move on! You will have to repeat the process from above but if that will give you a better income and better opportunity to grow it will be worth it!
Waiter / Waitress skills
What are the fine skills I am talking about:
Learn how to be the best seller in your team! Selling the chef’s special will do you a great favor with the kitchen, with the management and will bring more money in your pockets! So knowing how to sell, up-sell, and cross-sell is very important for your social status and your financial situation!
Learn how to sell wine and suggest the right bottle of wine for your guests that match perfectly their food! This will build a lasting impression and a great relationship with your guests! Happy guests tip you way better than satisfied guests!
Learn how to handle guest’s complaints! If you want to grow and make a career in the business you have to master this skill! A restaurant relies on repeat guests to be successful and profitable! Letting a guest leaving the restaurant mad or even unsatisfied is a grave mistake and we are the people who have to make sure that this never or rarely happens! I have a comprehensive tutorial about how to handle guest’s complaints and every waitress should read and watch it so they are well prepared to handle those situations!
Be a Leader
Learn how to be a leader! What are the skills that make a certain person a leader? Do you possess them? Can you learn them and practice them so people follow your lead with joy?
You don’t have to be a supervisor or a manager to be a leader! I work as a waiter but I am still a leader in my restaurant and the hotel I work because I possess the knowledge, the skill, and the personal characteristics which the people around me appreciate and therefore they follow my lead! It is not just because I am old now and I had the time to accumulate all those! I have been this way for most of my life! Not all of my life but most of my life!
Being a leader is not an easy thing! You will be disliked by many, you will have to clash with your superiors sometime to defend your rights and the rights of your coworkers! You will have to work harder than anyone else and you will have to be knowledgable and skillful in your job (that means time and effort to constantly learn and practice)! You have to be mentally strong to keep your calm when the shit hits the fan and everyone else is freaking out! This is the time when a person molds into a leader! It is easy to lead and give orders when everything goes nice and smoothly but can you take charge and lead your team when the situation goes out of control! Don’t hide like most people do, stand up and take a charge! That’s how you earn the respect of the people around you and that is how you grow into a leader!
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