There’s no better way to gain an appreciation for good customer service than to work in the food industry. It’s easy for people to judge the workers and customer service at a restaurant, but they may not realize how difficult of a job it can be.

One of the most important things that you’ll take away from your job in the restaurant business is how to interact with other people when they’re upset. Whether it’s your boss, the waitress, cook or a customer, it’s definitely going to happen time and time again while you’re working there. In fact, at this job it seems to happen a lot more than most places (don’t mess with people when they’re hungry). To survive at this job, you’ll learn the skills to defuse or avoid these situations. They will definitely come in handy in other aspects of your life as well.

In this restaurant, you’ll hopefully learn to have fun while still working. You’ll naturally fall into friendships while you’re working because you spend so many hours a day around these same people. This means that you’re going to have to entertain each other in order to make the long shift tolerable. Not only will you find unique ways to have fun and joke around on the job, but you’ll also be working with a mix of people that you might not otherwise get the chance to interact with.

The importance of leaving a good tip, understanding the value of money, and hard work in general are things that will stick with you long after you find another job. After knowing what it’s like to run around a dining room, waiting on a difficult customer only to receive a less than generous tip, you’ll be more conscious than most people to do the same to those who wait on you when you’re out to eat. After all, fellow restaurant employees can make for the best customers.

Time management and being able to multitask are other things that you won’t be able to fake or get by without in this industry. From the cook to the dishwasher to the waitress, everyone getting his or her specific job done is what enables the others to do the same. If one worker falls out of sync it’s hard for the others to do their jobs well. It’s a team effort.

Some days the work may be more frustrating and stressful than others. It may have been hard work but overall, you have no regrets about the time you spent working at a restaurant. You came to find that your coworkers were like family to you, you better understood how to talk to all different types of people, you could handle stress and gained many other skills that you didn’t have when you first applied for the job.