Why You Should Work in the Service Industry During & After College

By Nico Gaspar on July 11, 2018

Everyone knows the daily grind of balancing classes with homework, a social life, your family, a significant other…and a job. Most of us take that plunge into taking out loans left and right to pay for school, so we work a job that doesn’t always pay the best, but it works with our class schedule and it covers our living expenses. Others take up a job to cover living expenses and to pay our way (read: some of the way) through school.

A lot of college students enter into internships, campus jobs, or work in the service industry. It’s not just those three areas that students go into during school, but those are three common ones. The service industry can be a fun job, be it waitressing, bartending, serving, whatnot…the service industry pays out small financially, but in experiences, it’s a goldmine. Here’s why the service industry is the job to work during, and maybe even after, college.

Stirred AND Shaken: The author putting the all-powerful skills of multi-tasking to use outside of the classroom.

1. Flexible Schedule.

As a bartender or server, you can put down your availability based off of your class schedule, and then even offer to work weekends and pick up extra shifts as your manager needs you to. Also, weekends can make you the most money since that’s when most “regular” people are out and about. Not only that, but once you’ve graduated and if you’re on the job hunt, working nights keeps your job out of the way when scheduling interviews during the day.

2. Tax-Free.

Sure, the measly wage you earn serving or tending definitely isn’t a plus, but that’s where your tips come into play. Credit and cash tips make up quite a bit of your wage, and they’re not taxed. Look at it this way, if you’re bartending by yourself and rack up 30 or so credit card bills at the end of the night worth, say, $20 at the least a piece with a 20 percent tip…that comes out to $120 on top of any cash tips and your wages for a single night. That’s not bad. That’s rent, textbooks, food, and even a little bit of beer money.

3. Free food!!

When you’re in college, free is free. Free t-shirt, free water bottle, free coaster for a coffee table you don’t have, free is good. In the service industry, the restaurant or bar you work in sometimes provides a “family meal”. This is completely free and with a good kitchen crew, absolutely delicious. Can you imagine working in a classy restaurant and being able to eat food prepped by chefs who people in the dining room are paying top dollar to cook their meals? It’s a fun perk of the job. Bartenders on the other have fun on another scale…customers can and do buy them drinks or shots throughout the course of a shift. This often takes the edge of off dealing with rude or annoying customers and can be fun…especially when you’re still in school, you’re getting drinks paid for!

Two bartenders (including the author) crafting drinks at a cocktail bar in Akron, Ohio

4. “Family.”

A lot of the people you wind up working with become a sort of family in the service industry. This stems from long, stressful shifts of dealing with a packed bar or restaurant. When you all, as a group become overwhelmed with customers…you’re all “in the weeds”. You’re suffering through impatient people wanting their drinks or their food or complaining about their meal or their bill. But you’re not suffering alone! The bartender needs their barback to get through the pile of glasses so they can keep slinging their drinks to the servers who have customers who are still waiting on their food being prepared by the kitchen crew. Everyone takes care of everyone in the service industry, just like a family would.

5. Networking Opportunities.

If you land a service job in a restaurant frequented by a lot of business professionals, you can take a shot at networking with them. Take, for example, a bartender at a snazzy hotel bar in a city frequented by a lot of out-of-town marketing or sales professionals. If you’re a business major, learn how to do some tactful eavesdropping and you can easily snag a business card for a reference or at the least a new LinkedIn connection. When businesspeople travel, they can wind up regularly visiting the same cities, and thus the same restaurants and bars. This offers more opportunities for a professional connection.

6. Work-To-Pay Ratio.

Yes, the pay isn’t that great, but there are a lot of times where you earn what you put in. This is definitely not always the case. But taking great care of that couple out for their anniversary, remembering that regular’s drink order, schmoozing the suits who came fifteen minutes to close for a drink can pay off quite well. The trick to this is just learning how to read people. Of course be polite to everybody, but be especially polite when you can tell a customer can be…financially responsive to your hard work.

7. Marketable Skills.

If you’ve ever wondered how to spin a service industry role in a resumé, it’s quite easy. When it comes to serving or bartending, speed and excellent customer service are key. In other words, “providing timely customer service in a fast-paced environment under pressure” is a skill you learn to hone in this industry. You learn how to read people which can be helpful in just about every profession where you’re working with others, be it the medical field, business world, you name it.

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