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| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Food Service |
Applying to be a server/hostess at Olive Garden? |
I'm going to apply to be a server/hostess at an Olive Garden which will be opening soon. In addition to dropping off my application, should I include a cover letter and resume, or one or the other? This would be my first job, and I WANT to get hired. I have a lot of school activities and volunteer activities that I could include on a resume... Since you are already filling out an application and don't have prior work experience, I would just attach a cover letter and no resume. In the cover letter, you could give examples of your activites that prove that you are a responsible hard worker. Let them know that a full resume and references are available upon request (if you didn't already include them in the application). You might also ask if you can hand these things in directly with the manager. Take the opportunity to introduce yourself and state that you hope that you and the Olive Garden will be a good match for each other and that you look forward to hearing from him/her once they have a chance to view your information. It will make a good first impression. Good luck! In my opinion, a resume for a first job would be a very nice touch. If you do this, since it is your first job, you should include a cover letter explaining so. This is contingent on a couple of other items though. Since you have no previous work experience, the only thing that you have to show on a resume is your academic career. Activities alone will likely not suffice. Do you excel at academics and have a high GPA? Do the activities you mention suggest that you would be a valuable employee to them? For example, playing football will probably not impress them. Captain of the football team will (will show leadership qualities). Being a member of the class board alone (or whatever; sorry, don't remember how all of that works -- high school was a very long time ago for me) in and of itself is not that impressive; being secretary of the class board is (shows organizational skills). Are you a good writer? If you were to present them with a resume/cover full of misspellings and grammatical errors, you would be doing more harm to your chances than good. I think that you know what I mean. If you can meet the criteria that I mentioned, I think that a resume/cover would be a great idea for you. If you can't, forego the resume, and just go into the interview being as clever and charming as you can muster. JMHO. Good luck. Olive Garden? They are part of the Darden corporation, which are known to be really lax on hiring staff. I will tell you how it goes. Keep in mind this is when I was applying at Red Lobster, another Darden chain. You come in and ask for an application. If you are under 18, then you can only apply for a busser or host position. If you are over 18, then you can apply for a server position as well. When you ask for an application, you have to fill it out there as they will also include a test for you to fill out. The test is basically just to see what your personality skills are if you can do basic math. Don't bother to bring in the cover sheet or resume since they will only use the test and the actual application since they will fax it over to corporate. After filling out the test, they will interview you. If they like you, then you will come back for a second interview with the GM of the restaurant. If he or she likes you, then you will get hired on the spot. As for tips to swoon the management, as long as you don't act like an idiot with stupid answers or dress horribly, you will be fine. Generally Darden restaurants are know to hire just about anyone due to high turnovers, and I mean really high turnovers. If you do get hired to the Olive Garden, expect to go through around a weeks worth of training, first with orientation, a go through with the menu, a day or two of shadowing, then actually serving or helping around. If you're a server and you actually do well, then you might get bumped up to a bartender in 3 to 6 months. Bartenders at Darden restaurants vary in pay. Some make way less than servers while in other restaurants they can make more. On pay, hostesses get $6.50 an hour, but you will be fighting with other host/hostesses for night shifts. Generally for their shifts on Monday through Thursday, there are two each night. One 4 - 10 pm, another 6 - 10:30 pm. If you're planning to work their for lunch as a hostess, then you will get plenty of hours as there are a dire lack of them during lunch hours. On Saturdays and Sundays, expect 5 of you to be working throughout the day at intervals. Also hostesses are responsible for checking up and cleaning the restrooms. Servers, at any Darden chain, generally get around server's minimum wage plus tips. Usually you will walk away with $70 to $100 on a night shift with $150 or more on doubles, which are catigorised into splits or BDs. Splits have you working lunch shift, an hour or two of a break where you can leave, then come back for the night shift. BDs are when you can work the whole period, from around 11 am or 12 pm till night without a break. It's up to the management's discression of whether or not to feed you on a BD. On how people are cut on a night shift, BDs are cut first, then splits, then the night shift usually closes, but be warned being cut is not a guarenteed. Splits are know to even close in some restaurants that are lacking staff. Be warned also that the management will try to get you to work 5 to 6 days a week, trying to push you into doing BDs and splits. If you're lucky or unlucky enough to be a bartender, I'll tell you how it goes down. Bartenders in the morning come in at 10 am and work till 4 pm, then the night shift works from 4 pm to close, and on a weekend night, usually there will be another bartender that comes in at around 5:30 pm that closes. At the Red Lobster I worked at, bartenders made less. Be warned though that if you are extremely good at serving, they will generally not let you be a bartender as Darden restaurants lack good serving staff and the management's pay and bonuses depend on sales and customer service reports. Bussers, make $6.50 an hour but have to deal with a lot of ****. They stock glassware, clean off tables, and set up and close down the soda machines depending on whether it's a lunch or night shift. Note that hostesses and bussers do not get tipped out by the service staff. The server only has to tip out the bar sales, and that's about it regarding tip out. What I recommend to you is that if you really want to join up with a Darden restaurant, is that you keep a happy face throughout. Darden will hire any management and they generally only have high school diplomas or GEDs. Also guests are Darden restaurants are generally trashy since they are located around mall areas so expect around 10% tips if you do become a server or bartender. The computer even prints out a report of your tip percentage. I was lucky enough to generally rack up around 15% of sales but I have known servers to only get around 8% generally. Long story short, join if you want but keep an eye out for yourself. A years worth of experience working at a Darden chain. |
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