Your Career as a Food & Beverage Manager
If you embark on a career as a Food & Beverage Manager in a full service restaurant, a hotel, or a resort, you will experience the many challenges and rewards of a job that commands much respect and contains many responsibilities. You will oversee all aspects of food and beverage preparation and service, you will take care of the profit center, and you will lead and manage a team of staff members.
To be qualified for the job, you must receive training from one of the many schools worldwide that offers the basic coursework leading to a good career in the hospitality business.
The primary requirement for the Food & Beverage Manager is to ensure that the employees are friendly and hospitable towards the clientele. The job requires organization, leadership, good communication skills, patience, and an ability to improvise and show ingenuity in dealing with people, problems, and the overall hospitality profession. A good Food & Beverage Manager must have excellent interpersonal skills in order to ensure that patrons have a pleasant experience. Think about a time when you had either an outstanding or a horrible experience in a restaurant. Didn't the staff member's attitude and treatment contribute to that experience? Chances are, the manner in which you were treated made the difference between a good and bad experience, and impacted how you felt about that restaurant or other venue.
As a Food & Beverage Manager, you need to be detail-oriented and also anticipate how the customers might feel or react. In other words, you must be able to spot the minor irritants as well as the major ones. You will have to deal with issues like dealing with a packed room and having space for the other guests who turn up. You must maintain order in the restaurant, and ensure that things run smoothly. This attention to detail often means long hours for the F & B Manager. Typically, it is not the 9 to 5 kind of profession. In fact, it is normal to put in 12-hour workdays.
Along with significant responsibilities also come wonderful rewards. While working in the food and beverage industry, there are chances to travel around the world, visit new places, and have interesting experiences. The job offers the prospect of catering to a diverse clientele and striking up friendships and acquaintances with the customers. The pay and perks are also good, and one can expect professional fulfilment and satisfaction from the job. With the globalization of the travel and tourism industry, F & B managers from different countries can be found in dining rooms around the world.