what is a food service worker?
Food service includes all activities from food preparation to serving meals to customers. As a food service worker, you are responsible for preparing meals, whether it's in a cafe or a restaurant. Your duties include taking orders and preparing and serving the food to customers.
Your responsibilities change depending on your working environment. For instance, working in a cafe-style restaurant involves serving the general public while, in schools, your customers are students. Some food service workers also serve food in hospitals, delivering the food items to various wards.
The job involves preparing different kinds of food, including salads, beverages, and, hot and cold foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You also perform cashiering services and provide customers with relevant product information. That means you greet customers as they enter the restaurant and answer any questions about the menu items.
As a food service worker, you work in a fast-paced environment requiring multitasking skills and excellent customer service abilities to keep the customers happy. Attentiveness to detail is also crucial in food preparation since it ensures you are preparing the food items according to the recommended recipes and meet the desired health and safety standards.
Would working as a food service worker suit your customer service skills and multitasking abilities? Then read on to find out what competencies and qualifications you need to thrive in a food service worker role.
view jobs near youaverage food service worker salary
According to the BLS, the average food service worker salary in the United States is $28,130. Educational and healthcare services tend to pay the highest wages for food service workers. In some positions, you earn tips in addition to your hourly wage. However, some employers combine part or all of their workers' tips and distribute them evenly among the qualifying workers. Some employers include meals, but others deduct it from your pay.
Wondering what you can earn as a food service worker? Find out immediately with the Randstad salary checker! You can quickly and easily see what the average salary of a food service worker is.
types of food service workers
Some of the common types of food service workers include:
- hospital food service workers: As a hospital food service worker, you prepare meals and serve them to patients, employees, and visitors. You also clean the kitchen equipment and dishes after meals. You stock the food supplies in hospitals and ensure patients eat healthy food.
- hosts or hostesses: These food service workers welcome guests and manage the reservation desks at the front of the restaurant. Your job is to greet guests, lead them to their tables, and provide menus.
- waiters or waitresses: You assign tables to guests and hand out menus. However, your primary role is to take customers' orders to the kitchen and serve food and drinks. You serve the meals to guests and clean their tables when they leave.
working as a food service worker
As a food service worker, you assist in preparing meals and serving them to customers. Below are more responsibilities and the types of places you are likely to work:
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food service worker job description
Your duties as a food service worker involve:
- conducting general cleaning in kitchen and dining areas: You perform cleaning and sanitization duties in your workspace. That means you clean the work surfaces in the kitchen and dining areas to ensure a clean and hygienic work environment.
- performing basic food preparation: You assist with food preparation, such as washing and sectioning fruits, slicing meats, and chopping salad ingredients and dressing. You also prepare simple dishes like starters.
- serving meals to customers: You ensure every order arrives promptly and aligns with the specific customer instructions.
- washing dishes: You should ensure the kitchen is clean and orderly. That means you perform cleaning duties like washing utensils and sanitizing pots, pans, and other food preparation equipment. It is your job to maintain health and safety standards provided in the regulations and adhere to food safety guidelines like washing hands and food storage techniques.
- delivering food to the serving area and customers' tables: As a food service worker, you convey food served from the bakery or main kitchen to the serving area. You lay out the dishes on the plates artfully to ensure they look delicious.
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food service worker work environment
As a food service worker, you typically work in an indoor kitchen or cooking environment. The working environment exposes you to extreme temperatures and loud noise. Other hazards include physical risks, especially if precautions are not followed. The job offers different working environments, such as hospitals, cafeterias, and correctional facilities, both in the public and private sectors. Some food service workers work outdoors, such as street food vendors. You serve dishes from an open-sided vehicle, which allows you to work in semi-outdoor settings.
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who are your colleagues?
As a food service worker, your colleagues may include receptionists, food service managers, restaurant managers, and assistant managers. You may also work with food service associates and cooks as well as other specialists, including chefs, bar persons, and cruise ship stewards.
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work schedule
Food service workers enjoy flexible work schedules. However, the schedules change with the demand. Most food outlets have peak seasons or times when they receive many customers and off-peak times when there are fewer customers. Peak times occur during public holidays like Christmas and New Year.
Food service workers typically work in shifts, with the management creating rotating shift schedules. For example, most cafeterias open at 6 a.m. If you are on the morning shift, you start your day at 6 a.m. and end at 2 p.m., after which someone else comes in to cover the evening shift. Generally, you work 32–40 hours a week, depending on how busy the working environment is. You also work on weekends or night shifts. Your schedule generally depends on whether you work in a school, hospital, cafeteria, food court, or another type of facility. The business's hours and availability for shifts also influence what hours you'll work.
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job outlook for food service workers
Among the many opportunities for career development, a food service worker has an opportunity to become a food stylist or a food service manager with additional training. The job offers you daily opportunities to grow and advance your skills through on-the-job training, preparing you for career advancement. With improved skills and experience in the position, you can move from a first-class food service worker to a restaurant manager or chef role. Other career advancement ideas in the food industry include food service consultant, food trainer, and health food salesperson.
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benefits of working for randstad as a food service worker
Working through Randstad offers you a range of benefits:
- being paid weekly
- flexibility
- always a contact person you can fall back on and ask for help from
- many training opportunities
- a range of jobs in your area
Want a permanent contract? But you wonder why it would be interesting for you to work with a staffing company? A temporary job as a food service worker is often a stepping stone to an attractive permanent job. Every year, thousands of people earn a permanent contract with great employers thanks to a temporary job found through Randstad. What's more, many companies recruit their permanent employees through Randstad too!
food service worker skills and education
Most food service worker positions don't require a formal education. A high school diploma or an equivalent is usually enough. Some students who are still in high school can also find a job as a food service worker. You typically receive short-term on-the-job training to learn the business's processes for serving food. In most states, you need to be at least 18 years old to serve alcoholic beverages even if you're working at a restaurant instead of a bar.
skills and competencies
- customer service: You interact with customers as a food service worker, so it's essential to develop customer service skills. Good customer service skills help you have positive experiences and increase your chances of advancing to a higher position. A business typically loses customers if customers aren't happy with the quality of the service. Thus, employers look for employees who have good customer service skills. Working on your emotional intelligence, patience, and self-control help you succeed in this role.
- communication: Clear communication is necessary for ensuring that customers receive the correct orders and preventing long waits. It's not just how you phrase sentences that matters but also your pronunciation. If people often have trouble understanding what you're saying, you may want to improve your pronunciation through training videos.
- physical stamina: You usually stand on your feet all day as a food service worker. Other physical tasks include cleaning, preparing food, carrying food, and collecting trays and dishes. Regular exercise and stretching can prepare you for the physical demands of this job. Wearing the right shoes for being on your feet all day also helps with your comfort at work.
FAQs about working as a food service worker
Here, you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions about food service workers.
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what are the benefits of being a food service worker?
As a food service worker, you learn how to work with a variety of people and handle conflict. These are valuable skills that may help you later succeed in another career if you plan on ultimately pursuing another type of job. If you want to stay in the food industry, you have career advancement opportunities. You can become a manager, a supervisor, or a consultant.
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how can you succeed as a food service worker?
It's no secret that working as a food service worker is stressful for some people. It's possible to make it easier on yourself by implementing stress management techniques, working on meaningful goals, and focusing on the positives. A food service worker position is an opportunity for great personal growth if you recognize that opportunity and actively seek solutions for whatever aspect you struggle with.
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how do I pass the food service interview?
Practice answering the commonly asked questions during food service interviews. This will help you feel more confident and answer more clearly during the interview. You should also prepare a few questions about the job to ask when they ask you if you have any questions. Asking questions shows that you're interested in working there. As with any interview, you should dress nicely to make a good first impression, too.
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what are other terms for food service workers?
When you're searching for work as a food service worker, you should check for other terms that this role is also known as. Other terms for food service workers include food service assistants, food servers, cafe servers, and cafeteria servers.
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what's the most you can earn as a food service worker?
The top earners have a salary of $41,500. Where you work influences your maximum earning potential as a food service worker. California, Hawaii, Washington, Massachusetts, and New York have some of the top salaries for food service workers in the United States.
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how do I find a job as a food service worker?
Applying for a food service worker job is easy: create a Randstad profile and search our food service worker jobs for vacancies in your area. Then simply send us your CV. If you do not have a resume, no worries. Just check out our resume builder. This state of the art tool will help you to create your own resume. Need help with your application? Check out all our job-hunting tips!
