10 Reasons Why Serving Is The Best Job For A College Student

Are you in college and looking to make some extra cash? Are you looking to make that cash as quickly as possible? Is your 9-5 desk job just not paying the bills quite yet?

If the answer to any of these questions os yes, then you need to get a serving job! Here are 10 reasons why serving is the best job for a college student:

1. Great hours

Taking classes during the day? Being a waitress allows you to balance the double life of being a student and a working adult. You can work on furthering your education and getting a degree while being able to afford everyday life.

You can provide your availability and create your schedule to prioritize school. Essentially, you can make a schedule that works best for you.

If you want more hours on a certain week, then you can always just pick up another shift or two. If you need an extra day to finish up some school work, then you can request a day off, offer up your shift to your coworkers, or switch shifts with a coworker.

2. Good Pay

Being a Server allows you to make the most money out of a minimal amount of hours. You can ultimately dictate the amount of money you make by deciding to take more tables than necessary. You can either take it easy and make an average amount of tips, or double up on tables and maximize the amount of tips you make for the night.

For the amount of hours a waitress typically works, they can often make up $25 an hour. Obviously shifts will differ, and there will be times when you have a bad shift where you do not make as much, but serving overall can offer a livable wage or just extra spending money.

3. Food Perks

Whether you get an included staff meal with your shift or constant discounted food, being a server is an awesome way to save some money on food.

Unlike working a corporate or retail job, you will never have to bring your own lunch, or leave work to buy a lunch because you can get a nice meal right where you are.

After being at a certain restaurant for some time, you will often make friends with some of the kitchen staff, and they will give you some extra snacks throughout the day at no cost.

4. Communication Skills

A waitress often deals with all kinds of personalities, inside and outside of the restaurant staff. Whether it be a customer or one of your coworkers, a waitress will usually be forced to endure the attitudes of some of the rudest and neediest people you will ever meet.

Learning how to appropriately respond to these people is a great skill to obtain in the working world because you will not always deal with the nicest crowd.

Also, by having constant conversations with customers will teach you how to communicate with all kinds of people with all different stories and backgrounds. Creating relationships with these people and turning them into regulars is also an amazing way to make connections for yourself in the working world.

5. Motivation

A waitress is, in part, in total control of their tips. Depending on the quality of service they provide to a table, and how well they are able to serve them can more often than not increase their overall tip from that table.

Being a server and working for tips also helps to improve your work ethic. This is because you have to work for you money rather than have a high hourly wage.

The harder you work, than the more money you will make, and you can see it adding up in front of you. Serving and making tips is like getting instant gratification, therefore it’s motivation.

6. You Are Never Bored

Working as a server and entering into the restaurant business will allow you to quickly learn what it feels like to be constantly busy. You will be on your feet and moving for hours at a time, but you will often be so busy that you will not notice.

Whether you have six tables that have you running in circles or crazy coworkers that can keep you entertained, there is always something happening inside a restaurant. Also, when it is a busy night, the shift goes by super fast, which makes you feel as though you earned a large amount of money in a short time.

7. Easy to build relationships

Because of the communication skills you earn on a daily basis by being a server, It is incredibly easy to build relationships with all sorts of people.

An Open Letter To Customer Service Reps

Whether they are older, younger, businessmen, or stay at home moms, any connections you make are good connections that could help you out later on in life.

8. You can do it on the side

Serving is a great job to have, especially if you have a 9-5 desk job that just is not paying the bills, but you can’t quit it because it is a step toward your career goal.

You can pick up a couple shifts on the weekend to get by, or even grab a few shifts after your regular work day to make some extra cash.

9. Easy dress code

The great thing about being a server is that you never have to dress fancy. Usually, you will have a uniform to wear that consists of dress pants or khakis and a plain shirt that you can get dirty.

You never have to do your makeup if you don’t want to, and your hair always has to be up, so you never have to worry about doing it.

When getting ready for a shift, you can just put on your uniform, throw your hair in a messy bun, and head to work!

10. Pick up shifts

As previously stated, it’s incredibly easy to pick up shifts when you are a server. If you need some extra cash to either pay your bills, or just to have some extra spending money for the week, you can just ask your coworkers if they want a day off.

More often than not, one of your coworkers will be itching for a day off and will give you their shift. If not, you can always talk to your boss. Sometimes, they will want the extra server on the busy shift so they do not feel slammed when the restaurant is full of customers.