A bit about myself: Waitress

Big news today, well for me anyway!  I've got a little interview for a part time job, I love designing and would honestly spend all day everyday doing it if I could.  It does get quite hard to be on your own all day though, and I miss the interaction with people!  Going a bit stir crazy, but this will be the perfect opportunity to meet some new people and to bring in a little extra money.

Seeing as though I'm sharing this with you I thought I'd write more of a personal blogpost about me.  I began working part time at 15 as a pot washer and it was the best thing my parents could have made me do!  I felt more independent and I had money coming in every week to spend on whatever I liked.  At 15 I think this was saving up for a nice fancy phone that had a camera seeing as though my Nokia 3310 was albeit indestructible but a little out of date.  At 16 I moved up to working as a waitress and I absolutely loved it.  I've mentioned in my past posts that I am not a very confident person and can come across as quite shy at times.  However I feel at ease interacting with customers and it is especially nice when you do that little bit extra that makes the customer feel like their getting the special treatment. 

A lot of this job is about reading the customers, you've got to know when a customer likes you to chat to them and when they want you to be pretty much invisible.  I've gotten fairly good at reading people and spotting when something is wrong!

After working in a country pub restaurant for years (and years!) I worked in a very busy high class restaurant in the centre of Leeds.  You really get to know your strengths when you are under a huge amount of pressure every shift! It was a huge step up from what I had been used to, but I took it in my stride and loved (almost) every minute of it.  I went from being in charge and knowing the ropes inside out in my previous job to being thrown out of my comfort zone and into the fire.  I met a wide range of people and worked with some fantastic people and incredibly hard workers.  It is an experience that will stick with me forever. 

Christmas was unlike anything I've ever known, the shifts were 12 hours at least and you were on your feet for all but about 15 minutes to shovel down some food.  The restaurant was absolutely packed with huge tables in every direction you looked, people were everywhere.  You just had to stay as calm as you could, which got quite difficult when you were carrying 3 or 4 plates and having to shout above the noise to make yourself heard, all while a customer behind you wants to get out of their seat and another is shouting at you for more drinks! Madness!  The last friday of the year has to be at the top of this though, again imagine the chaos I've described above, mix in about 20 people out of their seats and wandering around talking to each other.  Which meant it was like an SAS course just to get to the table you were serving.  The private room then wanted the music louder so the manager was messing about with the music which was turned up and booming out through the whole restaurant a few times before he got it right.

Well I've learnt one thing about myself, I work pretty damn well under pressure!