kitchen team member

restaurant manager

assistant manager

cook/dishwasher

hospitality service support

Hooters

Typically, a single shift is about 7 to 9 hours. when you walk into work, you clean, bus, and seat your own tables. when a customer walks in, you allow them to sit at any table they'd like. you hand them a menu, introduce yourself, then let them know about the specials.  you run all your food and drinks, and basically you get paid in only tips. people usually tend to tip about 10 to 20%. its pretty average, but since the menu isn't anything expensive, you'll make about the same amount of money at hooters as you would at your local diner. 
I've learned that its not the best job, but you do make tons of friends. since you work with only girls, everybody (usually) helps each other out. of course theres gossip and drama, but nothing most people can't handle. I've also learned that a good amount of the male customers feel very entitled. Some men expect their servers to sit down and listen to their life story and life long complaints. 
Management as always been great. If you're comfortable in your work place you're able to work at your fullest potential. Any managers that have caused issues are usually fired or let go within a few weeks of employment. The managers are always there to support you and help you make the most money. They are a great help.
In the work place, you have your servers, cooks, and managers. All the cooks are male, managers are both male and female, and the servers are all female. For the most part, everybody respects each other. Its a fast paced work place, but its a lot of fun when you get into it. if you're good at multitasking and remembering, then this would be a great job for your! its not rocket science. 
The hardest part of this job would be the customers. There are many different types of people that walk through those doors. You never know which type you'll get. I have personally gotten $3 tips of a bill of $100 or more. Its never promised that you'll get the tip that you feel you deserve. Also, you get paid about $2 an hour but you never really see that money because you get that taken by taxes(because of your tips). 
The most enjoyable part of this job, at least for myself, are my coworkers. Everybody wants everyone to enjoy their time no matter what, so we all cheer each other up when we aren't feeling so well. Customers can be fun as well. Occasionally you'll get a family or a couple that will put a smile on your face. 
Its all about attitude.

It was a great place to start a new career.  The culture (pre covid) was very inclusive, as long as you didn’t rock the boat.  Many of the management have put years into the job, so change happens slowly.  The result being, you will need to play the long game if you are a movement of change.  The company at first was a fascinating model and history (one unlike any I had worked at before).  The clientele is what you expect (a mix of grown men wanting to spend time around younger females).  The job itself is a slightly more difficult version of restaurant managing than most brands.  The hours (even before covid) were 12 to 14 a shift, easy.  After, you could expect 15 to 17 a day.  The brand also decided to change some of its image standards this year (resulting in a different kind of uniform).  This, in turn, brings out more of a clientele than before.  Great for business, sure, difficulty added for management (who were already understaffed and unable to be on the floor as much as the clientele required us to be).  The staff, well, the staff is what you make it.  Recruitment is key, but it is difficult to find adequate time to Train and Retain your Girls.  Speaking of, be very mindful of the role the Girls play.  They are the reason the restaurant exists, not the management.  When dealing with your staff, be sure to maintain a fairness and not too tough of a workload, or they may turn on you.  The further you can do the job from the staff, the better off you will be.  Treat them as employees, and be constant in that behavior, otherwise doors open to them discrediting you to upper management.  Every staff member is given protections from day one, with Regional Mangers and Human Resources.  They have quick access to these tools, and will use them in their favor if they believe they should.  It is a great mechanism for safety and protection for the girls, but anyone could easily turn that against others.  So, in all, be prepared for long, long work days.  Take the time to recruit and train your staff.  Do not get friendly with the clientele, but do appreciate the great customers that respect your establishment and your staff.  And, be careful when dealing with staff.   You’ll do fine in this business.  

A lot of the time there are too many girls on the floor for each shift, so everyone can't get a lot of tables or tips. Slow days with too many girls on the floor definitely feel like a waste because my tips end up being equivalent to minimum wage (sometimes less). My managers also don't like to cut servers when it's extremely slow, but will cut the host and to go person when we need them the most. It's also not just a serving job a lot of the time. You're the server, busser, food runner, and sometimes the host or to go person. I don't feel comfortable with the tip out here since the to go person and host always leave early. It just feels unfair since I'm doing extra work that isn't mine. 

I don't necessarily feel like I'm valued or wanted by some of my managers, I tend to feel kind of unneeded. All of my managers tend to treat me differently, and I don't like working with all of them. The ones that I do like are super friendly and really encouraging. Our restaurant has lost money so they really pressure us to upsell and promote expensive items. 

As far as the other girls go, I like and get along with most of my coworkers. There have been times when a head wait will blame something on me that wasn't my fault or would give me way more sidework than anyone else (idk if it was just because I was new but oh well). 

Luckily I have been able to make my own schedule which is a bit all over the place since I'm in school. They're really able to work with you to make sure you get as many hours in whenever you can/need to. You can also swap shifts with other girls whenever.

I haven't really had any problems with creepy customers or seen many. Most people tip pretty well. Sometimes guests are rude when the kitchen takes long but there's only so much I can do.  

I feel like this would be an even better experience if their system was a bit better. It's probably better elsewhere.

A typical day with HOA goes like this: You walk in to find the management has purposefully understaffed the back of the house in order to save money. You run like crazy to meet a demand the staff is not prepared for while management berates you for your lack of speed while doing nothing to alleviate the issue themselves. I personally have not had a raise in three years even though we've "saved all this labor" by forcing employees to work in extreme conditions. Adding to the extremity is the fact that non-smokers like myself are offered no breaks throughout days that can last 10-12 hours, not even for food. HOA just took over my store, previously run by RMD, and changed our pay dates. Now, my tight budget is further stretched by the fact that we have been given a week's pay in the last month and a full check has not surfaced in a month, even though we are supposed to have them by now. Management has been paid, the front of the house staff has been paid, but the cooks suffer. I have bills already behind and have heard others complain of the same. The management staff largely consists of your typical 'I got into management to avoid hard work' types, though there are a few (very few) exceptions. Back of the house employees are screamed at, cursed at, and any attempt to take the issue to a higher authority is met with what boils down to 'Stop being a baby and deal with it'. If you want a job that gives satisfaction, mutual respect, good leadership, equality, and decent benefits, avoid HOA at all costs. This is no place for a hard-working person to advance. It's a sweatshop.

Everyday at work was simple only two shifts so we would walk in change in our uniforms upstairs in the changing rooms and the people you came in with were the people you left with at the end of the shift. I came about this working opportunity to become a server, but management didn't give me the opportunity to do so after promising position after the completion of my online courses, turning 19 years of age and me passing my food test. I did learn how to work alone under a lot of pressure as with others to inform managers of my every important move I would make and learned how to help my co-workers regardless of who they were. I learned that work is work and to be fully focus in what I'm doing will create my best performance. Learned how to deal with customers on a different working environment and how to help them have a great experience providing my help. the culture was way different from anywhere I've ever worked before all young ladies who seem to work more for themselves, not many helped each other was seen with most of the servers. Hosts and cashiers helped one another as a team or even bussing tables when wasn't part of duties to help restaurant maintain proper flow. Hardest part of the job would of been learning how to communicate with the staff it was tough for the first week or so, none of the girls talk to you unless you talk to them after that everything became comfortable and learning my duties was very easy for me. Most enjoyable part of the job was when they would teaching me new tasks. I enjoyed learning new tasks and having to talk to customers more frequently when I was placed as a cashier more than as a hosts.

Note: I worked here during Covid.
I was a kitchen cook and I won't lie the work isn't easy, but certainly not impossible. It might've been because we were a bit understaffed from what I was told. The mentality I saw there was to just do the bare minimum. Don't expect much or anything from others. Everyone there was nice, but I'd say that's dependent on yourself. There's always drama, so it's not a boring place. The managers are neutral in terms of personality, but lean more on the nice side. Management wise, eh. Pay wise was 9 for me an hour, but I'd say it's because it was my first job in anything restaurant related. If you have prior experience in kitchen then I'd say you probably have leverage to get 10. You can expect to always hit 39 hours a week once you get good, but again this was in kitchen. I'd get a little over 600 every paycheck. Pay is biweekly. Schedule flexibility wise, I can't say I know because I never called a day off while working there or rarely asked others to cover my shift. You can like I said swap shifts with others if you're in agreement with each other and have notified management. The busiest days are Thursday, Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday, so don't expect people to swap with you if you happen to work those days. It is stressful, but that's just any other job. It can be even more so depending on the type of person you're working with. Overall I loved the experience, but it wasn't for me. Not the way I am. If you're laidback and can handle menial labor then I'd say this is the job for you.

I have nothing negative to say about Hooters as a company, however, the clientele wasn't ideal. 
Hooters is hands down, the best, most amazing job I have ever had because you weren't just a server or a bartender, you were also a promo model and you would be paid to go to events across Southern California and promote Hooters. I went to Comic-Con, the X-Games, in Los Angeles for free, just to stand there and look pretty and take pictures with guests. I went to golf tournaments, I participated in Bikini contests and was even given the opportunity to apply for a month in the Hooters Calendar. It was high-paced, great money, and fun to work at. 
The only downfall I will say, was having to accept the fact you were being looked at as a piece of meat for your entire shift. Men were the dominating clientele there, and some weren't very nice to you. They treated you like a piece of meat and you kind of had to swallow your pride and accept it, knowing deep down in your heart that it wasn't true. But once you wear that uniform, you can't tell them otherwise. Another problem I had was the whole make-up ordeal. If you weren't wearing enough make-up or changed your appearance because you gained a few pounds, they'd either tell you to go in the back and put more make up on or suspend you from your position until you lost the weight. However, they have all legality to do so because you're hired as a model, not a server, and you sign a contract agreeing to if you change anything about your appearance, you will be let go.

I am not easily offended so I thought it might be a good opportunity for a light work atmosphere and fast paced environment. Nope. Compared to other restaurants the hooters girls have to do a lot of work. There was little to no understanding from management. When management wasn't busy being unprofessional (smoking twenty times a shift, on their personal phone, having personal relationships with some of the hooters girls, showing favoritism etc) they're locked up in their office. The other hooters girls weren't really the problem it was all the drunken idiots that would come in there. Management never reprimanded unacceptable behavior and frankly I just don't have to deal with that. Working at hooters made me feel undervalued and I felt degraded when I would work a night shift. The rules were never the same day to day. One day it would be okay to do something and then the next you would get yelled at for doing whatever it was. How they picked sections was ineffective and didn't allow for anyone but the girls that had been there the longest to get a good section. In addition to all of that I was stolen from. Oh and you have to buy the stupid panty hose every week. That's five bucks for one pair every week. Idk man. It was just emotionally draining for me to work there. The amount of money I made compared to what all I had to
do and wear wasn't worth it for me. I feel like I have ptsd from working at the hooters of Gastonia.

I worked as an assistant manager and we went through at least 3 other assistants while I was there. The GM at the time was lazy and expected you to follow protocols that he did not follow such as table touches. I oftentimes had to work the line to help get the food cooked because he would panic hire and get employees that would either not come to work or come to work impaired and I had to send them home. Some of the girls ran roughshod over him and had little respect for the other managers. My GM wrote me up for insubordination because I refused to let a girl work after she cursed me out during a shift meeting when I told her to go home.  I had warned her previously in private she would not be able to work if she came in late again. Everyone did what the corporate trainer said to while she was there but when she left it was back to the same old sloppy habits of nobody caring! Our restaurant made more money than all the other restaurants in our franchise but ours was dilapidated. I did enjoy working with my girls, the regulars and meeting the new people who came to the restaurant from out of town. I did not enjoy the GM not instilling values into the employees and letting them get away with serious offenses because he didn't have anyone to replace them and we were in the busy season. GM rarely worked mid shifts and NEVER closed the restaurant. Other folks might have had a different experience but this was my personal experience.

A typical day at work consists of serving people with good customer service and efficiency. I have learned how to work well under pressure & how to cope with stressful days which have helped me improve my serving skills. Management at Hooters has been very tough throughout this whole year that it has been open. They have gone through about 5 different general managers so all the employees have had to adapt to different managers in a very short time frame period. Although there is one manager that has been there since day one and I very much appreciate him for everything he does for us as well as a new manager that has been at our location for about a month now. I believe they will make a lot of good changes for our location. Our workplace culture is pretty much very diverse. I love it because we are located at a mall so we get all kinds of different people even our staff is very diverse. The hardest part of the job has to be when the restaurant gets very busy. Although I enjoy when it is busy because I have learned to become a better server through the stressful and busy days. I don't mean to brag but I have been told many times by customers as well as regulars that I am a very hard worker and am always on top of it. My managers have also said the same they like how I work and that I never complain even when it gets overwhelming.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Kitchen team member 287 salaries reported	$15.66 per hour
Restaurant manager 164 salaries reported	$57,591 per year
Assistant manager 68 salaries reported	$61,801 per year
Cook/dishwasher 5 salaries reported	$12.50 per hour
Hospitality service support 206 salaries reported	$11.96 per hour

Working at Hooters: Company Overview and Reviews

Hooters

Hooters Ratings

Popular jobs at Hooters

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected