Cafeteria Server Overview
Working as a Cafeteria Server
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a cafeteria server. For example, did you know that they make an average of $11.85 an hour? That's $24,642 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 14% and produce 775,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Cafeteria Server Do
There are certain skills that many cafeteria servers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, customer-service skills and physical strength.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a cafeteria server, we found that a lot of resumes listed 43.3% of cafeteria servers included menu items, while 18.5% of resumes included clean kitchen, and 10.4% of resumes included customer service. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the cafeteria server job title. But what industry to start with? Most cafeteria servers actually find jobs in the education and health care industries.
How To Become a Cafeteria Server
If you're interested in becoming a cafeteria server, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 22.6% of cafeteria servers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.3% of cafeteria servers have master's degrees. Even though some cafeteria servers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a cafeteria server. When we researched the most common majors for a cafeteria server, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on cafeteria server resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a cafeteria server. In fact, many cafeteria server jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many cafeteria servers also have previous career experience in roles such as customer service representative or receptionist.
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Cafeteria Server Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of assistant you might progress to a role such as teacher eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title general manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Cafeteria Server
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Dos Palos Oro Loma Jt. Unified Cafeteria Server PC # 970226 Cafeteria Server PC # 970226 | Dos Palos Oro Loma Jt. Unified Dos Palos Oro Loma Jt. Unified | 01/23/2021 01/23/2021 | $27,69401/23/2021 $27,694 |
Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified School District Cafeteria Server Cafeteria Server | Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified School District Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified School District | 12/23/2019 12/23/2019 | $27,69412/23/2019 $27,694 |
Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified School District Cafeteria Server Cafeteria Server | Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified School District Dos Palos Oro Loma Joint Unified School District | 09/04/2019 09/04/2019 | $27,02709/04/2019 $27,027 |
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Top Skills For a Cafeteria Server
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 43.3% of cafeteria servers listed menu items on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and customer-service skills are important as well.
- Menu Items, 43.3%
- Clean Kitchen, 18.5%
- Customer Service, 10.4%
- Portion Control, 7.2%
- Food Preparation, 5.5%
- Other Skills, 15.1% See All Cafeteria Server Skills