Catering

Whether it’s called food service, hospitality, bartending, or being a cater waiter, it’s all basically the same thing – you’re serving guests at galas, Holiday Dinners, Luncheons, or Weddings. The great part about catering gigs is they’re usually on nights or weekends.

Here’s the catch 22, thought – I found with getting in with catering companies – Most of the time catering companies want food service experience. Personally, I had absolutely none, but I knew a lot of friends that made good money catering, so I wanted to get in on it! I called around and finally registered with a catering company. I didn’t get a call for months (and I’ll explain why in a blog post one day – I didn’t use the magic words) and then randomly got an email from them. They were doing a large event at a baseball field – and needed at least 100 people for their staff. I’m sure they pulled everyone they’d ever interviewed from their database, because I got a call.

I had to provide my own white shirt and black pants (which is typical) and I met them in the city and was bussed out to the event location. Advise: If you’re going to one of these events to work – don’t take a big bag if you can help it. There’s usually not a good place to put it and it’s definitely not secure.

I carried around drinks all day on a tray. All in all, it was one of the longest days I’ve ever worked, but great money and totally worth it.

At another catering company I was hired to do coat check. Sometimes they just need a greeter at an event. In my interview, I just let them know I was willing to help out in any way.

Once you register for a few catering companies – keep a few button up white shirts, pair of black pants, comfortable shoes (this is not a fashion show, people), and black socks clean and on hand at all times. You’ll never know when you may get a last minute call.

If you need a tux, check out OK Uniform on Church Street. If they need you to provide your own tux, they’ll tell you what kind to get. That’s usually the catering uniform – a black tux.

Oh – and you don’t need to wear your catering outfit to the interview – a nice pair of slacks and a button up will do just fine.