Do you want to be in the restaurant industry? Whether it’s in the kitchen, front desk, or back offices, your work will take a lot from you. The days are long. The nights are horribly busy. The inventory is a hell to do. We’ve always believed that Tampa restaurants employees are very special because of all the everyday things they have to go through—a bossy boss, an irritant customer, and an annoying coworker.
And we are not even looking at the fact that they are poorly compensated, too! So, why take on this industry? Working in a restaurant takes a lot from you, yes, but you are also rewarded with experience. If you want to make it in this industry, make sure you have the following qualities:
Patience
Your patience is needed for everything you will be doing in your work in this industry. Some chefs are naturally bossy and rude and a little crazy. They think about the food and its taste and its presentation and nothing else. Do one wrong move and there will be a shouting match. You have to be patient in dealing with a lot of things, including working harmoniously with your coworkers, your bosses, and serving the customers, even the annoying ones, yes. Impatient people will never ever survive in this industry because there’s a lot of waiting—for opportunities, for customers to arrive, for the food to be ready.
Willingness to learn
If you want to make it in this industry, you have to be willing to learn… even from the people you don’t particularly like. Chefs may scream at you for cutting the carrots the wrong way but remember that now you know carrots should be sliced in certain ways for particular dishes. Learning is a process and part of that learning is having to listen to every sermon out of a chef’s mouth or your manager. Want to learn how to manage the business side of things? Hang around long enough and watch your manager as he makes the inventory, adds the gross sales, subtracts the expenses, and come up with almost nothing for net income. The industry is frustrating at best, but you will never not learn here.
Mental toughness
Some customers will be nice enough to you. Some of them will be rude. But some will also be horrifically abusive of you. They will scold you. They will request endless things. They will not even tip you after a good service. Restaurant employees can break down because of the pressure and the frustration of having to serve customers like those, but surviving in this industry will require you to have a mental toughness as hard as China’s Great Wall. Nothing should go through that shield of yours.