Task 1 - Job Specification

Restaurant Manager Job Description

• On average, restaurant managers make around $50,000 per year
• Restaurant managers often work more than 40 hours per week
• Many colleges and universities offer bachelor's degrees in restaurant management

What do restaurant managers do?

Restaurant Manager

In a well run restaurant you may never know that a restaurant manager ever exists. Most people never even see one until something goes wrong. Hair in your food? Poor service? Wrong order? Bet you'll be asking for the manager. But they're more than just complaint filters. Restaurant managers are responsible for every aspect of the hiring process for all of their employees including interviewing, hiring and training. When they're not attending to personnel needs, they're also responsible for food service and administrative duties.

Typically payroll, licensing, food ordering, inspections and all sorts of other paperwork are handled by restaurant managers. These tasks require extensive training and experience, because errors can be extremely expensive. Most restaurants employ a general manager and several assistant managers. Assistant restaurant managers are often responsible for either the "back of the house," which consists of chefs, cooks,dishwashers and other kitchen staff, or for the "front of the house," which includes hosts and hostesses, servers and sometimes bartenders. Assistant managers report to the general manager and help oversee the day-to-day activities in the restaurant to keep things running smoothly.

Waiter or Waitress Job Description

Mr.Waiter

• On average, waiters and waitresses make $7.14 an hour
• Tips usually make up most of waiters' and waitresses' pay
• Waiter and waitress jobs are great for people with outgoing personalities

Are you the type of person who can charm even the grumpiest of old men? Could you carry a hot bowl of soup through a hurricane without breaking a sweat? Then you’ve got what it takes to be a great waiter or waitress. Most waiters and waitresses, also called servers, work in full-service restaurants. They greet customers, take food orders, bring food and drinks to the tables and take payment and make change.

Casual dining restaurants and caf's will expect you to be quick, efficient and friendly. Casual dining restaurants can be small family-owned restaurants or larger chain restaurants like Applebee's and Cracker Barrel . You may have to make drinks, salads and desserts all while serving several tables at one time.

Upscale restaurants will require a little more of you. You may need to know about wine and food pairings, understand how each dish is prepared and be able to make food recommendations to customers. Some fine dining restaurants even require servers to prepare specialty food items at a customer's table.

Make no mistake, being a waiter or waitress is hard work. You will have to deal with rude customers, screaming children and people who don't tip. You will roll a lot of silverware and clean a lot of ketchup bottles. Your feet will hurt. But it's a great career for someone who likes to work with people, and waiting tables can be great money for someone with the right mix of personality and serving skills.

Bartender Job Description

I'm your MAN (when Parties)

What do bartenders do?

So you wanna be a bartender? OK. Make me three dirty martinis, four margaritas (one frozen, three on the rocks, one with no salt), a black and tan, two pina coladas, a manhattan, a scotch (neat), and seven orange crush shooters.

Oh, and I need those all in less than five minutes. Still sound like a job you might want to do? Then read on.

Bartending can be a great job. You get to laugh, joke and have fun with people who come to you to have a good time. You make a few drinks, chat with people and maybe even get to dance a bit. Almost all bartenders are extroverts who don't mind being the center of attention - but you've got to have a long fuse, especially with people who have had a bit too much to drink.

Different types of bartenders:

Show bartenders are the kind you think of when you think of the movie "Cocktail." There is a lot of bottle flipping, tossing and even setting things on fire. Show bartenders typically work in large restaurants and are frequently found in Las Vegas or at resorts.

Educated bartenders (who have extensive knowledge of wines, scotches, whiskeys and bourbons) can work at high-end restaurants or specialty shops, pairing foods with drinks and recommending $100 cocktails.

The average bartender, though, works at a restaurant or bar. You'll be required to quickly make drinks for your guests, serve food and make drinks for the servers to serve to their guests.

Bartending isn't all fun and games. Every so often a person will vomit, and you may be the one cleaning it up. If you're a girl, you will get hit on by drunk guys - and it won't always be pretty. Guys, you too will have your fair share of girls flirting with you, which I promise is not as fun as it might sound. People will grab your arm as your working to get your attention, causing you to spill drinks. You will have bar patrons yell at you for not putting enough alcohol in a drink, others who tell you you're making their drink wrong and many who won't even tip you at all.

You have to be able to tell people "no" and mean it. If someone has had enough, you have to stop serving them, make sure no one else serves them and deter them from driving. Not only can you be held legally responsible if they cause an accident, but stopping someone from hurting themselves or others is the right thing to do. You absolutely cannot serve anyone who is underage. Law enforcement officials routinely hire teenagers to come into bars. If you serve them, don't check their IDs or don't recognize a blatantly fake ID, you will lose your job, if not go to jail.

As fun as bartending can be, it comes with some very serious responsibilities. Bartenders are on the frontlines of what can sometimes be a brutal world. You will see normally nice men and women showing the ugliest sides of themselves. If you ever witness a domestic situation, someone attempting to drug another person or someone taking advantage of someone who has had too much to drink, it is your responsibility to step in. If you can't stomach it, then don't become a bartender.

Runner Job Description

On My WAY 

WHAT DO RUNNER DO?

Do you like working with people, making them happy, and being surrounded by delicious food? Then you might be ready for a server job. Runner are the front lines of food and beverage customer service, taking orders, delivering food and cleaning up and resetting the table afterwards. Whether it's a full service restaurant or a casual dining place, you are the smiling, aproned harbinger of deliciousness.

You make sure the order is right, the food comes out fast, everyone has enough wet-naps, and you can roll a mean fork, knife and spoon in a napkin.

JOB SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS

• Communication Skills: Communication is key to server jobs. You will need to listen to the customer's order, relay it to the cooks, tell customers about specials, and more. You will need great listening and speaking skills to create a great dining experience for customers.
• Customer Service: A dissatisfied customer is not going to tip. A friendly, relaxing demeanor, courteousness and quick service will help you get repeat customers.
• Good Memory: Big, complicated orders happen. You will have to remember food and drink specials, what food the kitchen is out of this week, who ordered what, and that kid at table 16 keeps needing root beer refills. A great memory will help.
• Stamina: Long, busy days on your feet are the trademark of a server job.
• Teamwork: Servers are part of a team. You will be working with other servers, busboys, bartenders and cooks to make a great dining experience. Being a team player is essential.
• Cleanliness: Nobody wants their food delivered by a slob. Being clean and neat when serving food and drinks will help create a great first impression to your customers.

Steward Job Description

• On average, Steward make around $8.20 per hour
• Steward jobs are a great way to get a career started in restaurants
• Job opportunities for Stewards will be steady for the near future

What do Stewards do?

Mr.Steward

A lot of people hate to wash dishes. So much so, in fact, that they're willing to pay big bucks to eat out at restaurants to have someone else cook their food and wash the dishes for them. If you don't mind washing dishes, or if you're just looking for a job to get you into the restaurant business, a Steward position is a great job.

It's not really the same as washing dishes in your house. Most restaurants have large, commercial washers that wash trays of dishes very quickly. Dishwashers are responsible for unloading the dishes and cutlery brought to them by bussers and loading them into dish trays. The trays are then placed into the commercial washers and blasted with scalding hot water. The commercial dishwashing machines can't always accommodate larger pots and pans, so occasionally you may be required to wash things by hand, the old fashioned way.

Steward are almost always the last person to leave at night so be prepared for some late nights (especially on the weekends). Even after the last table's been served, the kitchen needs to be cleaned and the trash has to be emptied.

Host and Hostess Job Description

Please come In 

• Nearly 75 percent of hosts and hostesses work part time
• Slower than average growth is expected for host and hostess jobs
• On average, hosts and hostesses make $8.42 an hour

What do hosts and hostesses do?

Think about the last time you ate dinner at a sit-down restaurant. Remember the person who greeted you at the door, chatted with you about the weather and then took you to your table? That person was probably a host or hostess.

As a host or hostess you'll be responsible for many things. You'll need to cheerfully greet guests, take them to their table and provide them with silverware and a menu. You'll need to be able to monitor the table rotation and make sure that each member of the wait staff gets a fair amount of tables without giving them too many all at once. At the same time, you'll need to know which servers you can count on to take extra tables when you get slammed with customers. You'll also need to keep track of which tables are cleaned and available for new guests, and you may even be required to answer the phone, take reservations and in some cases take-out orders.

While the hazards of being a host or hostess aren't quite as extreme as those faced by servers, they are similar. A good majority of the people you deal with will be pleasant, but on occasion you'll have to deal with some truly nasty people. You might have guests who will get angry that they can't have the best table in the house - even though it's already taken. Or you'll get guests who try to sneak in last-minute reservations, guests who yell at you because they think you're moving too slowly, and even the occasional irate waiter who is upset at how many tables he has.

If you can't hold your temper, then a host job is probably not right for you. However, if you're looking for a fun part-time job that offers flexibility and a fast-paced working environment, then hosting might just be up your alley - especially if you're just looking forpart-time work. Nearly 75% of all hosts and hostesses work part time.