Foodservice assistants work in various settings, usually in large facilities where food is served to a high number of people, such as schools, hospitals, or nursing homes. Their job is to help with preparing and serving meals.
They work in the kitchen preparing ingredients, make sure working and serving areas are clean, serve food and beverages, and collect payment at the end of the service. They take on customer complaints and forward them to the manager if there is no immediate solution to the problem.
Having good customer service skills is a must here, as well as the ability to work as part of a team. If you have experience working in a food service environment, your chances might be higher for landing a job. But this is an entry-level position, so you should not worry too much about previous placements.
Food Service Assistant Overview
Food Service Assistant Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a food service assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $12.72 an hour? That's $26,462 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 69,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Food Service Assistant Do
There are certain skills that many food service assistants 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 dexterity, listening skills and physical strength.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a food service assistant, we found that a lot of resumes listed 28.2% of food service assistants included kitchen equipment, while 12.3% of resumes included customer service, and 6.6% of resumes included food safety. 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 food service assistant job title. But what industry to start with? Most food service assistants actually find jobs in the health care and education industries.
How To Become a Food Service Assistant
If you're interested in becoming a food service assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 29.8% of food service assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.3% of food service assistants have master's degrees. Even though some food service assistants 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 food service assistant. When we researched the most common majors for a food service assistant, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on food service assistant resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a food service assistant. In fact, many food service assistant jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many food service assistants also have previous career experience in roles such as customer service representative or sales associate.
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Food Service Assistant Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a food service assistant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as certified nursing assistant, progress to a title such as team leader and then eventually end up with the title general manager.
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Average Salary for a Food Service Assistant
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Saddleback Valley Unified Substitute Food Service Assistant I (Exempt Position) Substitute Food Service Assistant I (Exempt Position) | Saddleback Valley Unified Saddleback Valley Unified | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $29,21801/30/2021 $29,218 |
San Diego County Office of Education Food Services Field Assistant (PAF 3281) Food Services Field Assistant (PAF 3281) | San Diego County Office of Education San Diego County Office of Education | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $35,74601/30/2021 $35,746 |
Peacehealth Food Service Assistant Food Service Assistant | Peacehealth Peacehealth | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $29,71901/29/2021 $29,719 |
Soquel Union Elementary School District Food Service Assistant Food Service Assistant | Soquel Union Elementary School District Soquel Union Elementary School District | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $32,20201/29/2021 $32,202 |
City of San Bruno, Ca Food Services Special Assistant (20077898) Food Services Special Assistant (20077898) | City of San Bruno, Ca City of San Bruno, Ca | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $45,91401/29/2021 $45,914 |
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Food Service Assistant Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Food Service Assistant. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Food Service Assistant Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Food Service Assistant resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Skills For a Food Service Assistant
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, 28.2% of food service assistants listed kitchen equipment on their resume, but soft skills such as dexterity and listening skills are important as well.
- Kitchen Equipment, 28.2%
- Customer Service, 12.3%
- Food Safety, 6.6%
- Menu Items, 5.8%
- Safety Standards, 5.8%
- Other Skills, 41.3% See All Food Service Assistant Skills
Best States For a Food Service Assistant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a food service assistant. The best states for people in this position are New York, Nevada, Alaska, and Rhode Island. Food service assistants make the most in New York with an average salary of $35,610. Whereas in Nevada and Alaska, they would average $34,148 and $32,600, respectively. While food service assistants would only make an average of $31,226 in Rhode Island, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Nevada
$34,148
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$35,610
Avg. Salary
3. North Carolina
$28,809
Avg. Salary
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