I’ve just quit my gruelling waitress job, and for so many reasons, I am glad my first job in a foreign country was a restaurant job. Here are 10 reasons why you should do the same:
1. Free Food
Who doesn’t love free food?!
No, but seriously, when you first move to a new country, making ends meet can seem like a daunting task, and having at least one meal a day free of charge (one that’s probably more nutritious than you’re used to making anyway) can help a lot. It also relieves a lot of the mental pressure of cooking while you’re getting your immigration affairs in order.
My restaurant also offers a discount to my friends and family – allowing Ken to eat a good full meal every now and again too. Most places don’t offer this, but if you’re savvy about it (and used to not eating a lot) you can take your leftovers home and make them stretch an extra meal.
And if something is going out of date today, take it home and eat it yourself. Or freeze it to use another time. Restaurants have to use the freshest ingredients and will often discard them before they’re actually bad.
The number of times we’ve enjoyed a late-night cheesecake because they were going out of date is uncanny.
So enjoy your free food, Nomad! Eating out every single day is a luxury you wont get in any other job. (except maybe a food blogger – what a dream).
2. It’s easy to make friends
Leaving your family and friends (and everything you’ve ever known) to move across the world to a foreign country, can leave you feeling *slightly lonely.
The thing about working in a high-intensity environment is that you tend to rely on your co-workers a lot more than I think you would in a corporate environment. You’ll bond over the rude person at table 7 or laugh about how many plates you’ve broken. The culture of a restaurant’s staff is usually lighthearted and more fun than other jobs.
And the thing about working weird shifts and unsocial hours – is that everyone else there is doing the same. So the only people they get to hang out with are other restaurant workers. It creates a great social space.
Plus, you’ll find people of all ages and life stages working in a restaurant, especially if you’re closer to the city centre of the capital of a country. You’ll find people who have been working there for 10 years, or travellers just getting a few bucks before they move on. You’ll find people with all different kinds of world-views and experiences, many of whom might have travelled the same journey as you.
3. You’ll get some good advice
You’re going to be so grateful to find yourself caught up in the mash-up pond that is a restaurant when you first immigrate. There are wildly-specific expertise to be found in almost everyone who works there; many of whom will have gone through the exact process you are going through.
When I was trying to get my tax number and figure out the healthcare system, many of my colleagues gave me great advice on what I should be doing. Many of them have also left their families behind and know how lonely it can be and will come alongside you.
My advice: ask questions. Let people know what you’re going through and you’ll find, more often than not, some great steps to take to overcome your new-country troubles.
PS: You’ll also get the best recommendations for food, activities and pubs nearby (the locals always know the best spots!)
4. You learn the country’s culture quickly
One of the most important things to understand, when moving to a foreign country, is culture. Even moving from one English-speaking, British-colonised country to another, there are things to learn.
What’s considered polite and impolite, how has history impacted society’s current outlook on things, how does tax work? How much is a reasonable amount to spend on a pair of shoes or cup of coffee?!
It is much easier to get accepted into a society when you behave as their people do. Sometimes it’s big changes, sometimes it’s the subtleties.
More often than not, people are willing to answer your questions or teach you things you might not know. But for the most part, you might not even need to ask, you can simply observe. You will learn how people greet one another when they arrive at a table to meet their friends. You will learn who in the society are highly regarded and who are not. You will learn how people use their money. You will learn about current fashion trends. You will learn how to approach the country in the way that it’s own people do.
5. You’re forced to use the language in it’s colloquial sense
Working at a restaurant is great for learning a new language. Off the bat you’re forced to learn how to greet people and communicate essential needs: food, bathroom, coffee etc. Many people at The Grill have come from non-English speaking countries and within 2 months have learnt how to have small conversations. (I honestly have so much respect for people who do this. If you’re a person who moved to country not knowing the language and learnt it – you’re amazing! Bravo!)
And if you’re English-speaking and working at a restaurant in a non-English country (even if that restaurant operates in English for tourists) you have the best opportunity to learn how to speak the country’s language because the people working there do.
But it’s not just about knowing a language, it’s about learning how to use it to speak like the locals do. I have learnt so much Irish slang, working in an all-English restaurant in an all-English country, that has helped to me to connect with the locals and sound more like them.
6. You’ll stay fit
Who needs a gym membership when you’re averaging more than 10 000 steps a day anyway.
Carrying 20kg bags of trash to the dump and walking up and down the same square footage everyday might sound awful but I guarantee that you’ll feel so much better for it. I’m so much stronger and much more capable of physical tasks now than I was when I arrived in Ireland.
Travelling has become so much easier because I’m now used to being on my feet for 8 hours a day. When we went to London, Ken and I walked for hours without feeling tired. Learning to walk a lot is absolutely essential for travelling around Europe and it’s small roads and tiny towns. And there’s no better place to practice than the restaurant floor.
7. There are opportunities for growth
Working at a restaurant is a great place to figure out your life. With flexible shift hours and weekdays off, you can get a lot more admin done than the average 9-5, Monday-Friday job would allow. It’s great if you want to earn money while going for interviews for other jobs or work a couple of side hustles to save.
Maybe working in a restaurant isn’t a part of your long-term immigration plan, but if you find yourself there with no plan at all, it’s a great place to work your way up into a management role. Getting into a restaurant doesn’t require any training or previous experience and more often than not, you can prove yourself worthy and climb the internal ladder all the way to the top if you want to.
7. You’ll learn to problem solve
Problem-solving is not inherent and immigrating requires a lot of it.
A great place to learn how to handle the pressure of an ever-changing environment is a restaurant. Not only will you learn to pick yourself up and keep going on the bad days, you’ll learn to do it with your customers-are-always-right smile on your face.
It sounds harsh, but I promise that you’ll come out a tougher and quicker-thinker after working in a restaurant for a while. It’s not praised work and that can humble you somedays. But you’ll learn how to quickly solve issues so that they don’t grow into bigger problems. You’ll learn how to stand your ground with people in a calm manner, even if they’re being rude to your face.
And you’ll learn how to put out fires – literally and figuratively.
Looking back at my time at The Grill, I feel as if I can step into any high-pressure environment and thrive there.
6. More free stuff
I love digging in the trash at work.
I’m not talking about the gross food waste or anything that can make me super dirty or sick, just the ‘dry’ waste. Like glass and cardboard and random bits and bobs.
I have an entire collection of giant glass jars I (carefully) picked out of the bins. After washing them, sanitising them and then spray-painting the lids, they hold the dry goods in my cupboard – like my homemade muesli.
When we moved house, I spent a week collecting cardboard boxes that were on their way to recycling and reused them instead.
I once saw the chairs we replaced just sitting outside waiting for the garbage removal system to take them. Free dining room? Yes, please!
And if something breaks and you know you can fix it, just ask if you can have it or take it on your way home. We got a free portable speaker because my husband is a tech genius.
You’ll save yourself so much money grabbing cool things you spot heading to the landfills and you can pat yourself on the back for saving the planet while doing it.
10. It will improve your sense of self
You’ll learn many skills working at a restaurant: how to cook food, how to properly clean your space, how to interact with different people, how to engage with difficult customers, how to take complements, how to stay positive, how to treat blisters on your feet, how to speak like the locals do, how to use your money more wisely, how to teach people new skills, how to transfer what you have learnt to any new environment you find yourself in next…
And with every new thing you learn, your belief in yourself to do difficult things grows. You start to find your strengths in the chaos of a busy shift, you start to consider what you might actually want to do with your life when the restaurant is quiet. You’ll start to believe that you, a stranger to this country and its customs, might actually belong here. And maybe you’ll even start dreaming about what you might do next.
So, dear Nomad, if you’re wondering what kind of work to do with no experience, no expertise and no people to recommend you, then head to your nearby restaurants. You never know what you might walk away with.
With love, Chey.
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