How to Become a Waitress
What is a Waitress
Waitresses take food and beverage orders, typically in dining establishments. You don't need a lot of formal education to be a waitress, but you'll receive some on-the-job training. If you want to secure a lot of tips, you may want to brush up on your customer service.
Some waitresses depend on a notepad to make sure the orders come out right, fewer waitresses are able to memorize everyone's order. Even if the waitresses jotted down or memorized the order perfectly if there is a mistake with the food, they're the first to blame.
As a waitress, you'll probably have to deal with a lot of "hangry" people but, hopefully, once they've eaten, they'll be in a much better mood and leave a nice tip. There will undoubtedly be times that you have to deal with difficult customers, it's those days that make this job stressful.
What Does a Waitress Do
Waiters and waitresses take orders and serve food and beverages to customers in dining establishments.
How To Become a Waitress
Most waiter and waitress jobs are entry level, and workers learn through short-term on-the-job training. No formal education or previous work experience is required to enter the occupation.
Most states require workers who serve alcoholic beverages to be at least 18 years of age, but some states require servers to be older. Waiters and waitresses who serve alcohol must be familiar with state and local laws concerning the sale of alcoholic beverages.
EducationNo formal education is required to become a waiter or waitress.
TrainingMost waiters and waitresses learn their skills through short-term on-the-job-training, usually lasting a few weeks. Trainees typically work with an experienced waiter or waitress, who teaches them basic serving techniques.
Some full-service restaurants provide new employees with some form of classroom training that alternates with periods of on-the-job work experience. These training programs communicate the operating philosophy of the restaurant, help new servers establish a rapport with other staff, teach serving techniques, and instill a desire to work as a team. They also discuss customer service situations and the proper ways to handle unpleasant circumstances or unruly customers.
Training for waiters and waitresses in establishments that serve alcohol typically involves learning state and local laws concerning the sale of alcoholic beverages. Some states, counties, and cities mandate the training, which typically lasts a few hours and can be taken online or in-house.
Important QualitiesCommunication skills. Waiters and waitresses must listen carefully to customers’ specific requests, ask questions, and relay the information to the kitchen staff, so that orders are prepared to the customers’ satisfaction.
Customer-service skills. Waiters and waitresses spend most of their work time serving customers. They should be friendly and polite and be able to develop a rapport with customers.
Detail oriented. Waiters and waitresses must record customers’ orders accurately. They need be able to recall the details of each order and match the food or drink orders to the correct customers.
Interpersonal skills. Waiters and waitresses should be courteous, tactful, and attentive as they deal with customers in all circumstances to resolve any issues that arise.
Physical stamina. Waiters and waitresses spend hours on their feet carrying heavy trays, dishes, and drinks.
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Waitress 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 Office Assistant you might progress to a role such as Executive Assistant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title General Manager.
Waitress Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Waitress
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12 Waitress Resume Examples
Build a professional waitress resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 12+ resume templates to create your waitress resume.
Christina Mcdonald Waitress |
William Cooper Waitress Experience Waitress2012 - Present Cracker Barrel•Knoxville, TN
Take Out Waitress2009 - 2012 Darden Restaurants•Columbia, SC
Sales Clerk2003 - 2009 Ross Stores•New York, NY
Skills Daily SpecialsSeat GuestsCourteous ServiceCustomer ServiceSales TransactionsServer StationRetail SalesVIPMenu ItemsKitchen Equipment Education High School Diploma 2003 - 2003 |
Learn How To Write a Waitress Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Waitress resumes and compiled some information about how to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Waitress Resume Examples And TemplatesAnd if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Choose From 10+ Customizable Waitress Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Waitress templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Waitress resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Waitress Demographics
Waitress Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among Waitresses, 80.1% of them are women, while 19.9% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among Waitresses is White, which makes up 58.7% of all Waitresses.
- The most common foreign language among Waitresses is Spanish at 62.0%.
Find the best Waitress job for you
Waitress Jobs You Might Like
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Online Courses For Waitress That You May Like
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Top Skills For a Waitress
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, 19.3% of Waitresses listed Food Preparation on their resume, but soft skills such as Communication skills and Customer-service skills are important as well.
Best States For a Waitress
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Waitress. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Waitresses make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $39,530. Whereas in New York and Massachusetts, they would average $35,405 and $31,808, respectively. While Waitresses would only make an average of $29,527 in Vermont, 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. Arizona
$25,177
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$35,405
Avg. Salary
3. West Virginia
$23,689
Avg. Salary
How Do Waitress Rate Their Jobs?
Waitress Videos
Becoming a Waitress FAQs
How long does it take to become a Waitress?
It takes one year or less to become a waitress. That is the time it takes to learn specific waitress skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education.