Internship in the Restaurant Industry - Essay Example

Introduction The restaurant industry is part of the wider hospitality industry. Though it has the largest flow of customers, they walk in and out during meal times. The basic undertaking of a restaurant is to prepare and serve food and drinks to individuals who come in for these services. In many cases, meal taking is an in-house affair. However, there are cases where the same can be taken out or some establishments can offer food delivery services. The industry is quite fragmented with perhaps the only commonality being menus and the general set ups. However, even these can be differentiated to build a unique identity which helps in retaining and attracting customers. There is also a question of services and food; though there are definite meals offered in different restaurants some restaurants also result to foreign or exotic meals to widen their customer base. Such offerings and the growth of restaurant based on live television shows has upped competition and the industry is perhaps the most competitive at present than it has ever been. During the summer of 2013, I worked at New Era Hotel as an intern in the Food and Beverage Department. New Era Hotel is located in Yantai, Shandong Province, China. This is also my hometown. Yantai is a seaside city located in northeast China. Due to the rapid economic development, Yantai government has put much effort in city planning, which has promoted Yantai to become one of the most popular vacation cities in China during summer season. Thus, the hospitality is also one of the fastest developing industry in Yantai, which is the reason why I chose to intern in a hotel that is located right on the beach to gain as much experiences as possible. New Era Hotel was established in 1994 as a five star resort. Because it belongs to People’s Liberation Army of China, it does not only serve travelers around China and the world, but also serves VIPs from government headquarters in Beijing. This means that it requires perfect facility and service qualities. Before the day I started, I first met the Human Resource Manager at the hotel to come up with a plan for my one-month internship. My initial intension was to intern at the front desk, because there I would be able to meet many guests and learn how to communicate with and satisfy them. However, the manager, Ms. Sun told me that it would require at least three months of work experience in other department to ensure that the employees at the front desk are most prepared and well trained. At that moment, even though I was quite disappointed, I was actually quite glad that I chose to apply to intern at New Era, as it seems that I would learn much from such a hotel with high level service quality requirements. As a result, Ms. Sun placed me in the Department of Food and Beverage. This would enable me to practice my communication and better understand customers’ needs. Responsibilities On the first day, I started with the initial stage of employee training. The first stage is quite simple, I just needed to spend a day to read the employee’s manual and learn the history of New Era Hotel. I met my supervisor Mr. Xu on the second day. He decided to let me start with learning customer service. Since customer service is not theory based, he assigned me with a mentor, Yang. The most interesting thing is that we happened to know that Yang was born on the same day of the same year I was born in. Chinese restaurants’ operation is quite different from that of American restaurants. In American restaurant, mostly there are only tables available for guests, but in Chinese restaurants, there are not only just tables in the hall, but also private lunch and dining rooms reserved for customers. So the first day at lunch, my mentor, and I were responsible of serving the customers in the hall. This was also one of my daily responsibilities for the rest of the month. The responsibilities included cleaning and setting up before lunchtime, service during lunchtime, guiding customers to the tables, and cleaning thereafter. During dinnertime, we were assigned to take care one of the private rooms. The service process is quite similar within the hall, but the difference is that we just need to serve the only table in that room instead of all the tables in the hall. Also, it requires a higher level of service quality in private rooms as most of guests who have reserved rooms are returning customers and many of them are very important persons. We were required to ensure all the needs of customers in the room were met, including little details such as providing napkins, changing plates etc. After guests finished their meals and left, we needed to clean the rooms, tableware and return the room at pre-meal condition. Several days later when it reached the traveling peak season, my supervisor assigned me a new responsibility to greet and welcome customers. As more foreign travelers were arriving, Mr. Xu thought it was a great opportunity to take advantage of my language skills. Thus, after the first week, my responsibility shifted from customer service to greeting customers at the door as well as answering phone calls to take reservation. When foreign customers arrived, I was responsible of providing translation service to define their needs. They also needed further assistance during their meals; as such I was also responsible of serving them to make sure they had a great time in our restaurant. Besides daily service and greeting, I was also responsible to plan and assist banquets. In China, banquets are mostly for corporations’, dining parties, weddings, babies’ and elders’ birthdays. Corporations’ dining parties are quite simple to plan. First we have to make sure that there are enough seats at the table as they are reserved, and then review the dinning menu with the guests. Birthday parties are usually 10 to 12 tables for 100 guests. In order to plan the parties, we had to decorate and arrange the tables in the hall. During the banquets, we were responsible of guiding guests to the table and taking records of the guests who were present. Wedding banquets required more details and procedures. The planning job starts several days before the banquet take place. Guests usually book wedding banquets several months before the wedding date, so several days before it, we had to contact the guests again to ensure the number of people who would be attending, and which hall they reserved for the banquet. After confirming the number of guest, final version menu, type of wine, and all the details, we started to set up all the tables in the reserved hall properly. The day before the banquets, the wedding planning agency would come in to do all the decoration. During the banquet, due to the big number of guests, which was usually over 200 people at 20-40 tables, we were responsible of ensuring the wedding process went smoothly and all the guests were satisfied with the food service. Similarly, for birthday parties, we had to guide the guest to the right table, and record their names with what presents they brought for the new couple. Besides the responsibilities above, I also took the job to provide English training to employees and several administrative tasks, such as counting the number of tableware etc. Restaurant operations are not as simple as I thought it was just customer service. There are tons of detailed jobs needed to be done before delivering high quality customer service. Accomplishments Restaurant service is most likely about daily routine tasks. Unlike working on certain projects, personal accomplishments can hardly be achieved. However, as an intern, I always tried hard to achieve the best. At the beginning while I was focusing on practicing customer service, I was able to service about ten tables each day at lunch, and one dining room table or 15 tables in the hall at dinnertime. By learning how to provide services from my mentor, I was gradually able to meet the guests’ needs and satisfy them. I was also able to complete cleaning task before and after meal times. For example, I was able to operate the floor and carpet machine, and meet other request from my supervisor. One of my biggest accomplishments was that I successfully provided service to foreign customers. In China, most people who work in a restaurant or even hospitality industries are lowly educated people who come from outside the city. As a result, their lack of foreign language training has become the biggest problem when foreign customers arrive. One day, two Spanish customers came in; one of the employees was trying to order food for them however the language barrier was a big hindrance. So I stood up and provided translation service and they were quite satisfied with the experience. Two days later, they came in to the restaurant department and were looking for me. I thought they came to order food, but they actually wanted me to take them to the gift shop at the hotel lobby to communicate with the shop assistant. I was happy that they trusted me. I think being trusted by a customer is one of the greatest accomplishments in the hospitality industry. Later on, more and more foreign customers came to the hotel, from Russia, UK, America and so on. The customer who came from Pennsylvania, United Sates said that he was quite impressed because he had been to Yantai severally but had barely seen anyone who could speak English that well in such a small city. So my supervisor decided to let me train the employees in basic hospitality how to communicate in English. The training lasted for forty minutes for two days. I made handouts with a list of daily conversations that they needed to know in order to process basic communication with foreign customers. Afterwards, I taught them word by word. My supervisor was thankful as it was much easier to deal with foreign customers this year than in the past years. Challenges The first time working in a hotel was not as easy as I thought. I had to go through many challenges. Getting along with colleagues was the first step I had to take. All the employees had known each other for a long time, so I had to let them accept me as their new colleagues. Fortunately, many the employees were in my age group and some were even younger than me. They were quite curious about my experience in the United States. As a result, my stories improved the bond. Later on during the month, they were willing to offer any help and even correct me when I made mistakes. Another challenge for me was to learn and practice some professional skills. Many of the employees had been working in the industry for several years. They were quite familiar with the process of serving and how to work efficiently. Some of them had even been to hospitality schools. Even though I am majoring in hospitality management as well, the things we learn at school are quite different. I take a lot of management classes, such as how to operate a hotel, how to manage people, how to deal issues when a hotel facing challenges in terms of lack of capital, all about administrative concepts. All I had done was just sitting in the classroom, learning theories and study cases. But in Chinese hospitality schools, they learn how to behave during serving, how to carry several plates at a go, how to service wine, how to clean the room and even how to make the bed. They have been professionally trained as waiters and waitresses. I had to start from zero. Sometimes, the plates were too heavy for me to carry, so it happened that several times I almost dropped the meals on the floor. I remember once that I was serving a huge plate of dumplings to a table, but the plate was so heavy that my arm and hand were shaking badly. I almost threw the plate onto the table. The guests were quite nice so they didn’t get mad and they just joked that I needed more muscles. The working hours are not quite long since lunch and dinner durations are usually several hours. Dinning is the time when most people spend time with families, so guests usually spend up to 4 to 5 hours on one dinner if the group has more than 5 people. It means that if they reserved the dinner from 7 o’clock, I would not able to leave after midnight since I would have to do all the cleaning for that table also. So working until late was a little bit challenging for me. As a serving staff, I had to stand all the time. So, after several hours of standing, it got very painful for my feet. But this situation got much better after a week or two when I got used to it. I think I have been spending too much time sitting in the classroom, and I am very thankful to this opportunity to practice standing myself. A big challenge for all the employees in the customer service field is that we have to fake smile at some point. Customers are always a priority; we have to ensure that they are enjoying their time. But sometimes I was tired or having a horrible mood that day which I couldn’t show to the customers. If I was at home, I might have been able to complain, to cry, and to express my emotions. However, at work as I was serving customers, I had to leave everything that was negative behind. In daily life, we might occasionally have to hide our emotions, for example for a meeting, during a presentation, or during an appointment; but having to hide it every day is definitely a challenge. The top one mission as a customer server is to satisfy customers, so that after a month of internship, I had learnt how to be empathetic and make others happy. Facing meticulous customers was definitely a challenge to me as a beginner in this field. As I said, people may have bad moods during the day, as a server if you are having bad moods; you have to hide while customers don’t have to. In fact they may become very meticulous when they are unhappy. I didn’t really know how to deal with the situation when customers were not satisfied with the meal. So when first time when I met this type of problem I chose to ask my mentor. She easily calmed the guest and sent the meal back to the kitchen. We usually offer 3 pieces of napkins for each customer. Once I met a guest that kept requesting for more napkins without having used the first 3. Yet the customer kept yelling at me “why are you so mean, do you even know how to work?” I was really upset and mad when I heard it. However I had to calm myself down and satisfy them. Challenges of meeting meticulous customers happened every day. It was hard to overcome the unwillingness in my mind at first instance. However I eventually learnt that whatever they requested, I just needed to do it. Overall, being patient was a challenge to me. I am not a patient person in daily life. I always want to do things fast and hate to wait. If you have to deal with customers, patience is the top qualification you need. I needed to wait no matter how long it took them to get the order; and no matter how tired I was. I had to be patient until all the guests had left. As an only child in a typical Chinese family, I have always been the center of attention. Since I was young, I was a person who always got answers to all my requests then I had to change my role from being satisfied to satisfying others. This was quite challenging. Evaluation The overall internship experience at New Era Hotel is very important to me. I definitely recommend students who plan to pursue careers in hospitality and other customer service field to spend time and actually work in one of these kinds of working environment. I have not only learned from the above challenges, but also from some other aspects. Restaurant management is definitely not as simple as I thought it was just customer service. There are many departments running behind the stage. Back kitchen is the department where the customers’ loyalty can be kept from. I remember there were several days during my internship; the back kitchen ran into some problem. The supervisor of food and beverage department had some conflicts with the person who controlled the back kitchen. Mr. Xu thought that the meals were of low quality than they were supposed to be, and the kitchen employees did that on purpose. And the truth was that due to the peak season, employees in the kitchen had not taken days off for several days so that was kind of a “silent protest”. It really did seem like a big problem to me. However, my supervisor told me that it was extremely hard to hire qualified employees these days. Only a small number are willing to take a job in a hotel or restaurant for the long working hours and low pay. Due to the limited number of employees and high demand of customers, it was hard to offer days off. Managing employees is also another aspect that determines a business’s success. The manager must create an environment of trust and ensure transparency in addressing all issues that face an organization. He must also be a good communicator who helps every employee understand the business’s vision and their role in achieving this vision. Besides, there must be a fair remuneration and a clear means of ensuring that employees are motivated that ensures they are consistent in service delivery. Thus, managing employees is not an easy job. This situation indicates the difference between the industry in China and America. In China, most of the employees who work in the industry are lowly educated people. Many of my colleagues were only twenty years old or even younger. They dropped out from school after 9th grade and left home to pursue careers in the city. The reason why they chose to drop from school is that the education system in the countryside lags behind. Hence, there are rarely any chances to get into colleges. Instead of wasting time and money for several years at school, they chose to live on themselves as early as possible. Owing to the low educational background, it is very hard for them to find jobs in a corporation to undertake higher income jobs; only places such as restaurant and hotels would like to hire them as the industry doesn’t require much technical skill. After several months practicing, they are be able to handle all the tasks thoroughly. The payment level for the employee is quite low, around 400$ US dollars a month, but hotels normally offer housing. The payment level is definitely not comparable to that in the United States. Also, employees don’t usually take shifts; instead, they have to work full day every day. After one or two years of working in one place, they often choose to leave the industry to go back home and get married. Some outstanding employees may be promoted into higher positions. From the education and career preparation I have got from GW, I think the career I choose is something I am willing to do for years in the future. I am willing to start from the bottom just like what I did in New Era Hotel, but I plan to go as far as I can in the industry. As I have mentioned above, some employees attended professional training schools. These employees are relatively higher educated in terms of foreign language skills and knowledge about the industry. It was around the second week after I started my internship when another group of ten interns arrived from a hospitality school in another city. I was shocked at how young and professionally trained they were. Unlike me who started from zero to learn, they already knew all the procedures such as serving, greeting and cleaning. So I really glad that I spent the summer working in the hotel. The opportunity taught me much about the industry. It also helped me realize that I needed to try to get more opportunities to practice in the real world. For students who want an internship at a hotel, I request them to try the food and beverage department. Unlike other departments within the hotel, the customers in the food and beverage department are not limited to the guests of the hotel; students would also get a chance to get in touch with customers who just went for their food. Hotel guests are usually traveling from other cities or other parts of the world, but most people who go the restaurant are local. Hence, as an intern, it would be a great chance to network. For people who plan their career path in event planning industry, I think getting working experience as early as possible is also quite necessary. During the one-month internship, I had several opportunities to get involved in planning several important banquets. We definitely can’t just sit in the classroom and learning theories. Actual practice experience can very well prepare us in many skills such as organizing, planning, assisting, etc. Overall, I have learnt much from all challenges I faced. Now, when I reflect, those experiences taught me how to be a good employee at the workplace, how to transform myself from a student to a person in the real world, and how to think from other peoples’ position. Read More