Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager

Types of Degrees Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many food service, waiter/waitress, & dining room management/manager graduations there were in 2021-2022 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Undergraduate Certificate	59
Basic Certificate	21
Associate Degree	2

What Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
• Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

Skills for Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager Majors

When studying food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.

Abilities for Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager Majors

A major in food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

What Can You Do With a Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers	9.3%	$32,450

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager?

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	2
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

How Much Do Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

The median salary for someone in a career related to food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager is $36,190. This median refers to all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager

Some careers associated with food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

Find out what the typical degree level is for food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	38.3%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	44.7%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	9.9%
Some College Courses	2.1%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	7.5%

Online Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	8	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	4	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager Worth It?

The median salary for a food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager grad is $36,190 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Trades Related to Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, and Dining Room Management/Manager

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to food service, waiter/waitress, and dining room management/manager.

Major	Number of Grads
Culinary Arts/Chef Training	10,546
Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef	5,029
General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts	3,303
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager	1,394
Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant	786
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services	335
Institutional Food Workers	204
Culinary Science/Culinology	203
Bartending/Bartender	157
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter	28
Wine Steward/Sommelier	8

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By U.S. Army Europe Images under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.