Waiters and Waitresses

Take orders and serve food and beverages to patrons at tables in dining establishment.

Sector: Government
Preparation: Zone 2 — some preparation needed
O*NET code: 35-3031.00

What you'll actually do

The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.

Performing for or Working Directly with the Public

a major part of the work — rated 75/100 for importance.
Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events

a major part of the work — rated 72/100 for importance.
Performing General Physical Activities

a regular part of the work — rated 69/100 for importance.
Handling and Moving Objects

a regular part of the work — rated 67/100 for importance.
Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates

a regular part of the work — rated 66/100 for importance.
Judging the Qualities of Objects, Services, or People

a regular part of the work — rated 62/100 for importance.

Take orders and serve food and beverages to patrons at tables in dining establishment.

What it takes

Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.

Skills

Service Orientation

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Speaking

Needed at a basic working level (37/100), and rated 63/100 for importance.
Active Listening

Needed at a basic working level (36/100), and rated 63/100 for importance.
Social Perceptiveness

Needed at a basic working level (36/100), and rated 60/100 for importance.
Coordination

Needed at a basic working level (37/100), and rated 53/100 for importance.

Knowledge

Customer and Personal Service

Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 74/100 for importance.
English Language

Needed at a basic working level (44/100), and rated 66/100 for importance.
Sales and Marketing

Needed at a basic working level (40/100), and rated 57/100 for importance.
Food Production

Needed at a basic working level (31/100), and rated 41/100 for importance.

Abilities

Oral Comprehension

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
Oral Expression

Needed at a solid working level (46/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Speech Recognition

Needed at a basic working level (45/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Speech Clarity

Needed at a basic working level (43/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.

How people get in

O*NET places this occupation in Zone 2 — some preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.

Education

A high-school diploma is the usual starting point.

Experience

Some prior work experience helps but is rarely required.

Training

Expect a few months to a year of on-the-job training.

How the work tends to run

Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.

The work is physical — you are on your feet and handling things, not sitting still.From “Performing General Physical Activities”
You are in front of the public, so the job is partly performance.From “Performing for or Working Directly with the Public”

How FlightWay scores your fit against this

No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.

1. You answer a short quiz: Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
2. We correlate the two profiles: Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Waiters and Waitresses. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
3. The number you see is personality fit only: "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
4. Every factor is visible: You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.

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Occupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.