Waiter
Waiters serve food and drinks to customers in restaurants and cafes, take orders and handle payments.
What you'll do
Day-to-day tasks
As a waiter you could:
- greet customers, give out menus and take food and drink orders
- answer questions about the menu and give advice on ingredients
- serve food and drinks, handle bill payments and clean tables
- deal with any complaints and make sure customers are happy
Working environment
You could work at a restaurant, in a coffee shop or in a food outlet.
Your working environment may be hot, humid and noisy.
You may need to wear a uniform.
Career path and progression
With experience you could:
- specialise in fine dining at formal events like weddings and banquets
- progress to head waiter, restaurant supervisor or restaurant manager
- move into kitchen management or stock purchasing
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You'll need:
- customer service skills
- the ability to work well with others
- the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- excellent verbal communication skills
- a desire to help people
- active listening skills
- a good memory
- to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
How to become
You can get into this job through:
- a college course
- an apprenticeship
- volunteering
- applying directly
You could prepare for this job by doing a college course to get some of the skills you'll need.
Courses include:
- introduction to employment in the hospitality industry
- food and beverage service
- professional food and beverage service
Entry requirements
Entry requirements for these courses vary.
More Information
You could apply to do a Food and Beverage Team Member Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship.
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship
More Information
You could volunteer in a cafe run by a local community organisation or a charity like the Royal Voluntary Service to develop your skills.
You can also find more volunteering opportunities through Do IT.
You can apply for waiter jobs without experience as you'll get training on the job.
You might have an advantage if you've worked in customer service.
You can find out more about working in hospitality from Careerscope.
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External links
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.