How To Become A Fast Food Cook: What It Is and Career Path

What is a fast food cook 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 fast food cook. For example, did you know that they make an average of $12.54 an hour? That's $26,093 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 16% and produce 419,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFast Food CookUS Average

Salary

2.0

Avg. Salary $26,093

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.2

Growth rate 16%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.09%

Asian 8.64%

Black or African American 10.35%

Hispanic or Latino 18.49%

Unknown 4.65%

White 56.77%

Gender

female 25.82%

male 74.18%

Age - 37

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 - 37

Stress level

6.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.3

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.4

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a fast food cook

Explore fast food cook education requirements

Most common fast food cook degrees

High School Diploma

51.5 %

Associate

16.8 %

Diploma

15.6 %

Start to develop specific fast food cook skills

Skills	Percentages
Food Handling	18.04%
Safety Standards	17.33%
Customer Service	9.59%
Grills	6.30%
Kitchen Equipment	5.09%

Complete relevant fast food cook training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New fast food cooks 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 fast food cook based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real fast food cook resumes.

Research fast food cook duties and responsibilities

Operate mixers and manage ingredients to meet product quality and uniformity standards.
Execute daily operations of filtering of the fryers.
Leverage teamwork to fully utilize kitchen staff to generate remarkable food and service to ensure customer satisfaction.
Can make and food at mcdonalds.

Prepare your fast food cook resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your fast food cook 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 fast food cook resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable fast food cook resume templates

Build a professional fast food cook 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 fast food cook resume.