A food service manager works at restaurants and other establishments involved in offering food, overseeing the general production process and supervising the employees of the establishment. A food service manager is responsible for hiring and regulating the company’s employees, expanding the company’s services and potential, and sometimes even lending a hand in the day-to-day processes involved in the food’s preparation. The food service manager must, in some cases, prepare reports for the company’s upper-level management and frequently inform them of the establishment’s current situation.
To become a food service manager, a degree in a management-related field or something related to food preparation is almost universally required. In some cases, companies may be willing to make exceptions for candidates with lots of background experience and a good working history, and in these cases having a broad overview of the different aspects of the food preparation process can be highly beneficial to candidates (i.e. having worked different types of jobs in the same establishment).
Food service managers tend to earn somewhat less compared to other management positions – the average annual pay varies between $25,000 – $44,000. The job often involves long working hours, in accordance with the other employees of the establishment, which further lowers its ranking compared to other management-related jobs. There has been a slight tendency towards improvement in the position’s average salary for the last few years, though it’s not certain that it will remain for long, according to experts in the field.