What to Wear to A Waitress Interview? #Considerations #Tips #Sample Q&A

As you know, waitressing is not just a job, it should be rather called an audition. It is said that way because you are often judged on your performance and serving skills. How well do you interact with your customer? How well do you tell the customer to feel relaxed and think of the space as a homely environment?

Table of Contents

These questions are rather important and need to be seriously answered. Think of yourself as a waitress and ask yourself what shall be the most important thing you need to be doing. Being helpful, customer-friendly, and having exceptional serving skills are important points to know.

The other aspect of this interview is definitely clothes. You have to go in your perfect attire. Frankly speaking, you cannot afford to look bad in this case. Clothes give away the first impression of how you are as a person. Simply meaning that, do you take things seriously? You cannot go out there wearing clothes that are torn and have holes. That will not be a good first impression. To start small, you have to first wear well-tailored perfect clothes. Here in this piece, you will know everything about how to present yourself in a good manner in your waitressing interview.

The Best Way To Dress When Looking For A Waitress Job

So being a waitress can mean that you have to look presentable in your job. If you do not look presentable, simply put, the establishment may sack you. Just because the establishment looks like promoting casuals at the outset does not mean that it wholeheartedly will accept you in casual clothes. The setup may promote any sort of work-related outfit, but they in essence would want their prospective employees to dress decently and put on formal clothes.

In certain cases, the clothing can be a convenience factor as well. People want clothes that they feel comfortable in and it can be done efficiently in a job that is best suited for Waitressing in a casual restaurant. In a casual restaurant if there is a waitress interview you can tweak it a little bit.

In general, the clothing type can differ with the type of restaurant you step in. But a general overview also needs to be done with the dress.

What To Wear To Your Interview?

Pants

Client-facing positions are all about your face. Many people can be swayed by the fact that might not be the case, and you can hide your pants if there is a desk between you and the interview. So, here’s the real truth, if you have an interview where you are seated in the open your pants will be visible. Try putting on some khakis, slacks, and Casuals.

Top

Top is always the center of the outfit. You can’t mess up your topwear in any case. It should look elegant. You can put on a very formal color-well buttoned-down shirt or just some off-white blouse. The colors should compliment your skin.

Footwear

Footwear has to be on point for you as well. So your footwear should be affordable and comforting for you. You should not face a lot of issues. You should experience comfort when putting on the shoes. It’s preferable if you wear shoes which are flat and that will level the base.

Makeup

For an interview, it’s best not to put a lot of makeup on. You can do some contouring just to highlight the features of your face. But rest assured, the makeup should be done minimally. Use some eyeliner and use it on your eyelashes. Very minimal contouring can be done by adding a very subtle color of lipstick, nude shall be the right color.

Accessories

It’s better to not wear accessories. Accessories tend to shift the focus. Especially in a very upscale setup, you will be judged a lot for it. It’s better to not wear accessories.

Recommended Reading:

Casual Restaurant

So, as far as a casual restaurant is concerned, a waitress can simply put on a conservative outfit. Most casual restaurant interviews take place in an informal setting. So you can just enjoy and soak in the aroma and be free of any worries. As far as your clothes are concerned, just make sure that you have put on your clothes in this manner.

A button-down shirt is a good option, if you want to wear a blouse that’s just white will also not look bad.
No high heels, try flat-toed shoes.
As far as pants are concerned, putting on a formal color Khakis and Slacks would be great.

Coffee Shop

Coffee Shops like Starbucks generate a lot of buzz in the waitressing industry, it’s partially true for many reasons. Coffee is very essential in a corporate environment setup. Especially when you are taking a charge and making decisions on the go. Coffee acts as a specific catalyst for you. It helps you through thick and thin especially when your body is just not able to deal with the beating that your body has got.

The attire in a casual coffee shop is simple. Trying on some button-down shirts or polo shall be a great option.
Make sure you have khakis and formal pants for legwear.
In case the coffee establishment is in a business setting. You have to put on some formal wear.

Pricey Restaurant

Industry and its demands can seriously change with time. You cannot expect the same level of outfit rules everywhere. In an upscale restaurant, it’s the value system that they want to create is more important. In these restaurants, waiters have to wear something profound and meaningful. For instance, the crowd here is upscale. And they will have their business meetings and discuss important issues. You have to wear a formal, well-ironed, button-down shirt. It shall be well put and perfectly done.

So outfit options are:

Business suits sort of blended with both shirts and a suit.
Flat shoes, formal wear.
Very perfect well-put shoes.

Factors To Consider When Dressing For A Waitress Interview

So first of all once you are done picking up your clothes. Now it will be imperative for you to select clothes that you like. How will you know which cloth will be the perfect fit for you? Here is a list of factors you need to consider when wearing your favorite dress for an interview:

Level of comfort

The question is very straightforward, is your dress comfortable. Going to any interview requires you to feel comfortable. Every time in the interview you are posed with a question, you will have to answer. If at the back of the mind you ruminate/overthink about things that do not matter, that can be seriously bad for your performance level of comfort should be an important aspect to consider.

Pick a conservative outfit

There are certain unsaid rules in any workspace. In a professional-client setup where the interview is done by looking at your attire. It becomes rather important to have a proper dress on. You will have to consider wearing formals like a blouse, a white shirt and if required a blazer or a suit. The strong no-nos are short dresses and casual/funky clothes. From top to bottom, your clothes should express how structured/well put you look?

Bottomwear

Shoes are very important for a waitressing interview. Formal shoes are usually preferred in this case as opposed to heels or stilettos and sneakers etc. The problem with choosing casual wear is a problem on many fronts. It can ruin your dress. Yes if your topwear is formal and you put shoes that are casual on the bottom, chances are you won’t look good. But also you need to consider the fact that you might have to carry trays, cups and many things along with you. How will you do all these things without proper bottom wear? The best will be to wear formal shoes, as the other half of your outfit is completely formal.

Why Is Grooming Important In A Waitress Interview?

See grooming in general plays a very important rather indispensable role in elevating your interview. Grooming helps establish the fact that you are sincere and putting in the efforts that are required to crack the interview. The other aspect of this is that the restaurant owner/HR staff knows the value of customer service. In the customer-first system, you have to make sure that the customer is happy at any cost.

So, if you look out of order. If your hair is dry, piercings all over the body can be a turnoff. So, please assess your situation and then run for the interview. Here’s a list of things that you can do to better groom yourself.

Tips To Groom Yourself For A Waitress Interview

First thing first, tie your hair and make sure they do not fall out. You need to look perfect and great.
Trim your nails. Having long nails can be a problem in the long run.
Make sure you do not have body markings like tattoos or piercings. These things are generally no-no’s in these jobs.
It’s always advised to hide all these attributes to have a better chance at the selection.
Do not wear jewelry.
Make sure that your shirt and pants have proper folds in them, are not rolled out and creases everywhere. Try putting on a well-ironed shirt.
Clean your shirts before wearing them and then iron them.
Sit in an upright posture. Do not lean or slouch. That makes you look old.
Try to put on a belt if your pants are loose, obviously formal pants.
Do not place any headwear, even if you do your research properly and find out about the headwear. It’s simply a big turnoff on many levels.

Tips For Waitress Interview

For the Q and A preparation, it should not be a very big deal. I will mention them at the bottom.
Research about the restaurant/coffee shop that you will be joining. Make sure what the vibe is like. You have to catch the pulse of the place and dress accordingly. Whether to put in full formal attire or casual will also be a choice.
Try practicing some waitressing tasks that they might ask you. As you know, greetings and picking the tray up in a manner that the restaurant wants.
Look for the dress code, and know what they want in terms of the top wear and bottom wear.
You should also look for if they have any specific take on grooming. Do they let all girls have a specific way of doing their hair?
Try speaking up near the mirror and express yourself. Make sure that you are able to express yourself without any problem. Try to communicate rather effectively and efficiently.
Read up on the basics of customer service, and waitressing. Watch youtube tutorials and what the place is like in general. See How the crowd is, you will be good to go in no time.

Type Of Questions Asked In A Waitress Interview

Following are a few questions generally asked at the waitress interview:

What Experience Do You Have In Waitressing?

So, here is the deal-breaker question. Simply because newbies are not the ideal preferred candidate. If you simply have less work experience that can also be a setback. Then it’s important that you focus on the experience you do have and focus on talking about the diverse range of things you learned there.

What Do You Like About Being A Waitress?

So, it’s a very important question but also very tricky. You cannot in any manner make up a superficial answer here. You will have to be honest with them. Tell them what prompted you to become a waitress. Is it because the work is so diverse, you get to meet so many people and hence the excitement. Be true to yourself and do not lie here.

What Don’t You Like About Being A Waitress?

This is usually a tricky question as well. Here the interviewer wants you to say things to know your intent. Do not say that you need money and hence the work. That is very unprofessional. So, the best shall be to mention an incident about customers being unhappy. You can be the bigger person and say, I felt bad or simply just say customers can complain but with time you become patient with them.

Tell Us About A Challenge You Faced In Your Waitressing Career?

So, here you are being sort of trapped to see How capable you are to work as a team. Here your focus should be on a story where you were able to contain a problem without any hindrance to the established. Make yourself the hero, it will be a great story.

Why Us?

The ‘why us’ is such a big question for almost every establishment. Why do you want to work specifically with us? You then have to do some solid research and state the exact reasons why they stood out in your eyes to apply for the job and other restaurants that might be equally offering the same pay as them.

Can You Prepare Tables?

So as far as tables are concerned, you have to know how to prepare them efficiently and nicely. You need to know where everything goes. The cutlery, spoons, bowls, and plates need to be arranged in a specific order. Try to answer it along these lines. You can be asked basic questions of cutlery etiquette like where shall the spoons be kept? Where do you need to keep the bowl? Questions like these are asked to see if you have the basic sense required here to know these answers.

Qualities You Should Possess to be a Waitress at a Restaurant

So to be a restaurant at first might seem like an easy job, no-hassle, casual, and everything. But the thing is it can be taxing and draining and can severely impact you if you don’t mold yourself.

You have to be resilient, sweet, nice, and do all your best to satisfy the customer.
From the start, you will be judged on the basis of your arrangement of cutlery at the seating table.
How you interact with the customers is also an important element. You have to be nice and jolly with them.
The test of your patience shall be when a customer can be mad at you, he might scold you. At that time you have to respond to him with kindness and make him understand the reason why it happened? So, the challenges can be many but you have to find a way around the problem. In case, you messed up with any order or swapped food items, just accept it’s your fault.
Try to treat the customer as nicely as you can. If you do not do that, chances are you will be sacked the next day. The customer service industry depends on the support of the customer. Your job profile is all about pleasing the customer and keeping him/her happy. You have to adapt to the changing times and make your customer happy.

Final say

Waitressing may look like an easy job at the outset but in general, it requires a host of sophisticated, well-mannered skills to do it. This piece covers all the requirements, processes, and requisites required to become a waitress. Scroll a quick read if you want to become one.

What to Wear to A Waitress Interview? #Considerations #Tips #Sample Q&A

The Best Way To Dress When Looking For A Waitress Job