Restaurant Management Careers
by Dawn Papandrea
If you're a natural born leader, gifted in making people feel warm and welcome and keeping them well-fed (plus, you're addicted to all of those restaurant reality shows!) you might want to consider a career in restaurant management. In this customer service-driven industry, restaurant managers oversee all food service operations, keep the restaurant kitchen and dining areas running smoothly, and ensure that guests feel at home and eager to come back again. The hours could be long and the climb to high earnings may take a while, but restaurant management careers offer excitement, opportunity, and the chance to meet new people everyday. Ready to get started?
How do I become a restaurant manager?
While some people may work their way up to such positions after years of working in the restaurant business as a head waiter or chef, more and more major establishments today require some sort of formal training program before hiring someone to run a restaurant. A degree in hospitality, restaurant, or hotel management is often the quickest route - the appetizer, if you will -- to landing restaurant management positions.
As such, there are almost 1,000 schools throughout the country offering postsecondary programs in hospitality and restaurant management. Most programs also provide internships for students to gain on-the-job experience.
For those who are interested in working at restaurant chains and food service management companies have internal training programs for management positions.
What will I learn in restaurant management school?
Restaurant management programs of study (or concentrations within a larger hotel and restaurant management program) are comprised of hands-on learning, business skills, and specific restaurant industry knowledge. In other words, students receive instruction in all of the skills that a restaurant manager would need to run their business. That means you'll be covering a wide variety of topics like accounting, economics, marketing, food service management and catering, nutrition, sanitation, food planning and preparation, business law and management, computer science, personnel management, and recordkeeping. It's quite a coursework menu!
While you're life as a restaurant manager will revolve around culinary creations, your daily responsibilities are actually more business-oriented. Your main concern is customer relations; managing chefs, wait staffs, and other personnel; pricing, budgeting, ordering, and hiring decisions; and more - all of which will be addressed in the business classes you'll take at restaurant management schools.
You'll also have to be well-versed in your state's health codes, as you will be responsible to maintaining certain health and safety standards in your kitchen and restaurant facilities. That's because as a restaurant manager, you'll need to keep things up to code so that your facility will pass thorough health inspections.
At most restaurant managements schools, students often get to learn in working kitchens (either on school property, as via internship programs), so they can truly see what the profession is all about, have a chance to handle issues that arise, and learn how to stand the heat and be successful in the kitchen.
How do I become a restaurant manager?
While some people may work their way up to such positions after years of working in the restaurant business as a head waiter or chef, more and more major establishments today require some sort of formal training program before hiring someone to run a restaurant. A degree in hospitality, restaurant, or hotel management is often the quickest route - the appetizer, if you will -- to landing restaurant management positions.
As such, there are almost 1,000 schools throughout the country offering postsecondary programs in hospitality and restaurant management. Most programs also provide internships for students to gain on-the-job experience.
For those who are interested in working at restaurant chains and food service management companies have internal training programs for management positions.
What will I learn in restaurant management school?
Restaurant management programs of study (or concentrations within a larger hotel and restaurant management program) are comprised of hands-on learning, business skills, and specific restaurant industry knowledge. In other words, students receive instruction in all of the skills that a restaurant manager would need to run their business. That means you'll be covering a wide variety of topics like accounting, economics, marketing, food service management and catering, nutrition, sanitation, food planning and preparation, business law and management, computer science, personnel management, and recordkeeping. It's quite a coursework menu!
While you're life as a restaurant manager will revolve around culinary creations, your daily responsibilities are actually more business-oriented. Your main concern is customer relations; managing chefs, wait staffs, and other personnel; pricing, budgeting, ordering, and hiring decisions; and more - all of which will be addressed in the business classes you'll take at restaurant management schools.
You'll also have to be well-versed in your state's health codes, as you will be responsible to maintaining certain health and safety standards in your kitchen and restaurant facilities. That's because as a restaurant manager, you'll need to keep things up to code so that your facility will pass thorough health inspections.
At most restaurant managements schools, students often get to learn in working kitchens (either on school property, as via internship programs), so they can truly see what the profession is all about, have a chance to handle issues that arise, and learn how to stand the heat and be successful in the kitchen.
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Delicious
Tweet This!Sound Off! Post Your Comments
You are not currently logged on. Please login to add a comment.
Request Free Information
on Colleges Near You
Find