A bus person, commonly known as a busser, is an entry-level position in restaurants or cafes. Bussers help support restaurant servers and set up the dining area. Their most important task is to help keep the tables and chairs clean and ready for the next set of customers. You, as a busser, will ensure the smooth operation of the restaurant business and delight the guests with a great dining experience. If you enjoy a fast-paced job environment and are eager to work your way up in the hospitality industry, bussing is for you!Read our easy-follow guidance on making or updating your existing resume. Let’s begin by showing our three standard busser resume samples, which you can choose to present your professional credentials.
See What People are Saying About Us
Job Duties of a Busser
A busser’s work is essential to the success of a food establishment. Bussers contribute as behind-the-scene workers to portray a clean dining experience for customers. The tasks range from assistance to the waitstaff, clearing of tables after customers have paid their bill, transporting dirty dishes to the dishwashing area, among many other tasks.
Some of the main busser job duties and responsibilities include:
Protecting the restaurant staff and patrons by adhering to proper hygiene and safety policies.
Maintaining menus by keeping them clean and replacing any damaged pages.
Preparing the dining room for service setting up tables and chairs as determined by the owners and chef. This also includes setting decorations like candles, refilling condiments, and setting clean napkins and plates.
Performing efficient table setting by checking on meal courses as completed, offering to clean and set up new utensils, and refilling water glasses.
Closing the food establishment by properly sweeping or vacuuming floors, chairs and tables, taking out trash and recycling to the main outside trash receptacle, effectively sorting the solid, liquid, and recyclable waste.
Updating themselves of busser job knowledge by participating in various staff training opportunities.
Carrying heavy objects and walking, standing, and at times running for long hours.
Busser Median Salaries
According to PayScale, the median salary for a busser of work experience between one to four years is $19,000. The pay scale usually hikes up as per your skills, performance, and years of experience.
Top Skills for Bussers
You, as a busser, are in constant motion while moving food and beverages between the kitchen and patron tables and resetting the dining area in preparation for new guests. Acquiring technical busser skills will provide you with the general view of work in the industry, and they certainly give you an edge over other candidates. Here are some of the most sought-after skills for bussers:
- Table bussing Bussing is critical for restaurants because it adds an extra level of service and improves customer turnout. You can practice these skills to provide excellent customer service.
- Bussers are your best friend.Bussers complete their tasks of clearing dirty appetizers, soups, or salad plates throughout the dining process. These allow patrons to eat, drink, and converse smoothly. The hassle-free process is only possible with excellent coordination with the server.
- Focus on empty tables.Patrons walking through the restaurant need to find all the non-reserved tables cleanly and neatly. The clean ambiance enhances their mood and is a step to gain their trust in the establishment.
- Excellent customer service There are some unspoken rules that a busser must follow diligently to keep a clean and elegant dining environment. The performance depends upon the partnership of a server and a busser. The main rule of thumb, for example, indicates the staff has to serve food on the left side of the guests. Clearance of plates and other cutlery is from the right side of the guest.
- Awareness of basic sanitation policies The cleanliness of the establishment is a significant part of the busser’s job. A busser should have an understanding of federal and local food safety hygiene policies. These laws and regulations are learned through past industry experience or by learning from courses.Alison offers Food Safety & Hygiene in the Catering Industry certification that introduces you to the concept of food safety and hygiene, food contamination reasons and the avoidance, and related policies.
- Awareness of basic safety requirements Once you’re working in a restaurant, you are working under the chef even if you’re at the bottom of the ranking order. This means also becoming informed about all security procedures, including what your role might be in an emergency situation such as a fire, an earthquake, or some other possible dangerous situation. It might also mean notifying your supervisors or the legal authorities.
- POS for bussers familiarity The successful implementation of point-of-sale (POS) systems contributes to the restaurant’s profit. Usually, restaurant servers or baristas manage customer transactions. In a busier cafe or restaurant, you, as a busser, may need to assist the server in successfully running the POS system.Acquiring knowledge of POS systems allows you to maintain patron orders, reservations, and monetary transactions. Learn the latest POS skills from Oracle that offers free training resources.
- Physical strength Bussers need to exert energy for long periods, from four- to eight-hour shifts, with most of their work time standing and carrying heavy trays. Restaurants’ work environment is fast-paced, which requires stamina to clear tables efficiently and maintain a high turnover rate and customer satisfaction.
- Good communication including staying in “respectful” mode The ability to remain in a professional and respectful mode for hours at a time, including but not only avoiding racist, ageist, and sexist language when you’re talking to other people, is critical to keeping your job and maintaining the proper expectation of customers, colleagues, and owners of the establishment.
- Knowledge of various menu items A busser works in many food-service cafes and restaurants to provide the best dining service to the patrons. Bussers have to coordinate with the kitchen staff to deliver the food hygienically. As a busser or a head busser, you need to know the entire menu and be able to answer the patron’s requests. You should discuss specials and menu items and provide recommendations. Restocking of ingredients and condiments is a critical job for you. Also, memorizing the dishes and beverages and their preparation is a plus to a busser.
- Work flexibility Working at restaurants requires working at all hours of the day if need be and within reason. Some diners might hire bussers that are only needed for the late-night crowd, between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. Others might need you to come in really early to help with moving boxes or setting up the room. If you’re willing to show that you are flexible and can work at different hours, you are more likely to get a busser job.
Educational Requirements for Bussers
Bussers don’t need to have a high school degree to work in this position and are usually above 16 years of age. You can always earn a degree or certification to learn new skill sets to scale up in the hospitality industry.
Degree
Restaurant bussers can study general hospitality business and management concepts or culinary arts. Pursuing an associate or diploma degree in culinary service and management can strengthen your passion for the hospitality industry. Many schools can provide this type of degree, but it all depends on which state you live in or want to move to and if the program is the best for you.Certifications
Generally, bussers do not require a certification for their job. However, suppose you are highly interested in progressing in a culinary industry career. In that case, you may consider graduating from high school first to then study various culinary and busser training certifications or enter a complete, specialized bachelor’s degree.- Member-associated organization:The National Restaurant Association offers ServSafe, a certification program resource to help individuals know more about the food and beverage safety standards. The ServSafe Food Handler online certification offers food safety management certifications specifically. This class provides preaching food cleanliness and workstation management. You can complete this certification by completing an online course and passing an assessment test.You should always also check if there are any state-, county- or city-specific certification requirements. There usually aren’t for bussers but laws change quickly and asking and searching around for it helps show that you are looking in the right places and that you’re willing to go above and beyond in your work.
- Industry-related company:In the Food Allergy Awareness Training course by StateFoodSafety, you will be able to identify the major food allergens, prevent cross-contamination, and respond quickly to an emergency if someone has an allergic food reaction at your establishment.
- For-profit organization:Typsy offers table service fundamentals, a course of over fourteen lessons that helps aspiring bussers in learning basics about table management and professional dining etiquette.
- Culinary arts schools:Starting from a busser position to the waiter, the sous chef, and the chef, everyone needs to start with a culinary art degree if they want to grow in their career. It is challenging to choose which school is the right one, but we will try to make it easier. The Culinary Institute of America in New York and the Culinary Institute Lenôtre in Texas are among the best-ranked culinary schools in the United States.
Busser Resume-Writing Tips
If you want to score that busser job, simply putting your details or accomplishments is not enough. You might have to write the busser resume in a manner that perfectly fits the particular job description.
You should follow these tips to make your resume appealing to potential employers.
- Present your busser resume design in a professional manner If you want to land that exciting busser job in the hospitality industry, your resume design needs precision. The layout of the busser resume is instrumental in deciding your employment.Try including white spaces in your resume and implement the one-inch margin rule from all sides. These suggestions make your resume less stuffed. Also avoid underlining and excessive use of bold lettering and inconsistent formatting.
- Quantifying your busser achievements adds weight to your resume If you have the relevant busser skill set, flaunt it professionally. Do not merely state, "helped as a busser in a catering experience" but mention that you "assisted as a head busser in a catering event of 90+ patrons."
- Use industry-specific keywords to fit the busser job description The food industry and restaurants, like most other professions, are bound to use an applicant tracking system (ATS) for the hiring process. ATS scans for the keywords in your resume to match their requirement with keywords set by the companyRefer to the busser job description you are applying to, and optimally use hospitality and food management-related keywords.Some keyword suggestions to include in your busser resume are:
- Time management
- Tableware
- Clients
- Multitasking
- Glassware
- Dining room
- Trash removal
- Cutlery
- Customer service
- Rush hours
- Pen a captivating busser resume objective A professional resume objective or summary is the key to catch the employer's attention. Hiring managers go through thousands of resumes on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, it is best to keep the resume objective or summary to four lines or fifty characters and use proper action verbs, soft skills, and accomplishments.
FAQ
What is the Busser work environment?
A busser has a fast-paced work environment providing delightful dining customer service to the patrons. Bussers usually work in many restaurant types that range from medium size to large dining areas to small family-owned eateries to bistros to cafes. Large establishments likely have more bussers that require excellent co-working skills for the bussers to work. The busser environment includes the kitchen, counters, and dining area, where they are maintaining the business with chefs, cooks, waitstaff, and servers.
How do I become a busser?
While exploring thousand Busser jobs, identify a need in the market and then prepare skill sets to fill that need.
Here are the main steps in becoming a busser:
Create a compelling busser resume.
An individual pursuing a busser career has to list his/her hospitality industry-related experience, education, and skills and target his/her resume to the specific job profile.
Identify and approach open positions.
Gone are the days where an individual had to explore walk-in job interviews. In recent times, many websites and applications, for instance, Linkedin, have come into the picture, where the person has to list the appropriate skills and get thousands of Busser job listings.
Prepare for the busser interview.
Bagging the busser job involves acing the interview. The interview can be telephonic, in-person, or recently famous online audio-video format. Prepare some usual Busser interview answers and the personality-gauging questions.