How To Become A Maitre D: What It Is and Career Path

What is a maitre d and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a maitre d. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.7 an hour? That's $38,898 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 372,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreMaitre DUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $38,898

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.8

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.56%

Asian 6.81%

Black or African American 10.22%

Hispanic or Latino 21.11%

Unknown 7.56%

White 53.73%

Gender

female 53.22%

male 46.78%

Age - 20

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 - 20

Stress level

5.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

3.7

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

10.0

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a maitre d

Explore maitre d education requirements

Most common maitre d degrees

Bachelor's

59.6 %

Associate

19.2 %

High School Diploma

12.5 %

Start to develop specific maitre d skills

Skills	Percentages
Reservations	29.04%
Wine	15.02%
Fine Dining	9.59%
Cleanliness	6.52%
POS	3.97%

Complete relevant maitre d training and internships

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

Research maitre d duties and responsibilities

Manage delivery schedules, outside vendors, and budget requirement, operations, and culinary staff.
Handle special requests for VIP guests and celebrities.
Use of Rezbook, OpenTable, and ResyOS systems.
Set up floor plan, and assign servers to their proper section through OpenTable.

Prepare your maitre d resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable maitre d resume templates

Build a professional maitre d 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 maitre d resume.

Apply for maitre d jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a maitre d job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do maitre ds rate their job?

5/5

Based on 1 ratings

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Maitre d reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Cons

nothing

5.0

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2019

Pros

I love to meet and greet with the cast the conversation that entertaining seeing offering wine watching the guests have a wonderful experience and do everything to while the guests so they returned