What it’s like to work as a waitress with absolutely no experience

My parents have always wanted me to be a waitress. Over the years, and no matter the other jobs I had, they reminded me that there were innate skills and lessons to be learned by being a server. When you handled someone’s food you learned how to work quickly, how to handle different personality types, and how mastery of your job always worked out in your favor (can you say tips?). So when I headed home from school for the summer with an unpaid internship and a part-time lifeguard job, I decided to take my parents advice and finally work in the food service industry. Easy… right?

The first eight days I was home were spent in front of Craigslist ads and in person interviews — talking about my availability, discussing my personality as an employee, and spinning any details of my past job experience into some semblance of a hire-me-please-even-though-I’ve-never-done-this-before. In those eight days I applied to eleven wait staff positions and only heard back from one. Here’s what happened…

Spoiler: I learned how to make foam art!

The Atlantic Golf Club located in Bridgehampton, New York is exclusive, elite, beautiful, and I have absolutely no idea why they hired me. From members and frequent guests such as Michael Jordan, Vera Wang, and Hess Gas, I found myself thrown into a world I didn’t understand, expected to carry perfectly balanced martini glasses with one hand. As I waded my way through my first event and felt myself drowning, I thought I would never make it. Treating the day as a sink or swim, and forgoing any and all official training, here is what I found out…

Try not to freak out, even though you will

Like anything else that is new and unnerving, waitressing for the first time is scary. You don’t know how to properly hold trays, balance drinks, walk without watching where you are going (or crashing into anything), or approach a crowd and take their order. Saying “Can I get you anything?” is surprisingly dreadful when you’ve never done it before. But it’s honestly going to be all okay. The best part about any job, but especially being a server, is that the only way to learn how to be the best is by giving it a try; so swallow your pride and your fear, and just go for it.

And try not to be jealous of the food you serve!

Everyone messes up

As your insides churn with nerves, and you have apocalyptic visions of red wine flooding white linens and clients’ shirts, you swear that you will never, ever mess up. But you will. Because, let’s face it, everyone does and that helps you too. On my first day I took special care to do everything perfectly, and on my way back to the receptacle as I cleared my last drink of the night, I dropped it right down the front of my face and shirt (I smelled like gin for the next twenty-four hours). But what made it okay was that when I confessed to my coworkers of the blunder, they all smiled and shared stories of their first follies — some far, far worse than mine. I left that night determined not to have it happened again, but understanding the necessity of my blunder in order to bring me closer to my peers and my profession.

How it feels to know you’re not the only one who’s messed up.

People are weird

You know that saying, “don’t mess with the people who handle your food?” Well you would think everyone’s heard that by now, but you’re wrong. There are some people who, no matter how attentive you are or how polite, will treat you as if you are their beck-and-call slave; but in those moments kindness really is the best revenge, because there is nothing more satisfying than forcing a “thank you” out of the mouth of an ungrateful user. Then there are the people who are perfectly kind and easy going, or the ones who refuse to let you do anything (even though doing something is your job). All of this applies to your bosses and your coworkers, too. Yet mastering the balance of all these personalities in a dining room setting makes handling them in real-life situations a cakewalk.

A look into my mindset.

It gets better

On my first day of work, I hated it. I came home and never, ever wanted to go back because I felt slow and incapable and clumsy and unworthy. I spent the week practicing the things my supervisor had approached me about (like not placing down a tray with drinks on it, but rather passing the drinks with one hand), and dreading the moment when my next shift would arrive. I hadn’t been fired yet, and even though my parents tried to convince me I wouldn’t be, I kept telling myself I would quit before that happened. On the day of my second shift I felt sick with unease and fear — I couldn’t believe I was going back to the worst feeling, and I replayed in my mind what my parents had told me that morning. “Time to break through this wall of fear, because if not now then when.”

How I feel about going to work and carrying beers now.

That day I poured thousand dollar bottles of pinot noir with one hand without spilling, carried tangerine martinis without looking at the tray, and hauled twenty pounds of plates to the kitchen over my shoulder. If I hadn’t given that job a second shot, I never would have known that I was capable of doing all the things I messed up previously perfectly, or that I could actually enjoy being a server. So if you ever feel like throwing in the towel because you don’t think you’re cut out for something new and unusual, keep trying and you’ll find out just how capable you really are!