How To Become A Cook, Cashier, And Waitress: What It Is and Career Path

What is a cook, cashier, and waitress and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a cook, cashier, and waitress. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.67 an hour? That's $28,436 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 14% and produce 775,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCook, Cashier, And WaitressUS Average

Salary

2.2

Avg. Salary $28,436

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.0

Growth rate 14%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.85%

Asian 6.49%

Black or African American 9.64%

Hispanic or Latino 18.63%

Unknown 6.92%

White 57.47%

Gender

female 87.82%

male 12.18%

Age - 21

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 21

Stress level

7.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.8

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

9.7

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a cook, cashier, and waitress

Explore cook, cashier, and waitress education requirements

Most common cook, cashier, and waitress degrees

High School Diploma

47.0 %

Bachelor's

17.1 %

Associate

16.6 %

Start to develop specific cook, cashier, and waitress skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	37.09%
Clean Kitchen	12.42%
Customer Orders	8.85%
Food Orders	6.76%
Food Safety	4.42%

Complete relevant cook, cashier, and waitress training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New cook, cashiers, and waitress learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a cook, cashier, and waitress based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real cook, cashier, and waitress resumes.

Research cook, cashier, and waitress duties and responsibilities

Help clean floors, clean fryers, and clean lobby.
Operate POS system and perform cash, credit card and check transactions.
Organize and split each bill accordingly and enter them in POS, for a fast and easy dining experience.
Monitor and maintain cleanliness, sanitation, and organization of assign station and service areas.

Prepare your cook, cashier, and waitress resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your cook, cashier, and waitress resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a cook, cashier, and waitress resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable cook, cashier, and waitress resume templates

Build a professional cook, cashier, and waitress resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your cook, cashier, and waitress resume.