What Types of Job can I do in a Pub?
Pubs and restaurants are exciting places to work where you can be part of a team and make a real difference to the experiences of customers. You can also learn a new trade or develop new skills as you progress up the career ladder.
From front-of-house roles like bar and waiting staff to back-of-house roles like Chefs, plus leadership positions including Kitchen Managers and Assistant Managers, there’s a huge variety of roles for people at every level of experience.
If you have no experience but bags of enthusiasm and a willingness to learn, there’s a range of Apprenticeships that will teach you everything you need to know to make headway in a hospitality career. So, whether you fancy yourself as a kitchen person, a bar person or a team leader, a pub can offer you a role where you’ll fit in.
Let’s have a look at the different roles you can do, the rewards you might get and, most importantly, what it’s actually like to work in a pub or restaurant…
👉What are front-of-house roles?
👉What are back-of-house roles?
👉What do assistant managers in pubs do?
👉Can you do an apprenticeship in a pub?
Greene King Pub Team
What are Front-of-House roles?
If you’re just starting out in hospitality, you might be bewildered by some of the terms. In a nutshell, Front-of-House refers to any customer-facing role in a pub, restaurant or any other establishment where food is served. That can include waiting staff, bar staff and, in some places, hosts and hostesses and Maitre’ds (who greet customers and run the floor), right up to Assistant Managers and General Managers.
Bar and waiting staff welcome customers, take their orders for food and drink and serve them. A great waiter or waitress will bring their personality to every one of their duties—they do it because that’s just the kind of person they are: out-going and friendly with ‘the gift of the gab’. They’re the kind of person for whom ‘hello’ just doesn’t cut it. Striking up conversation, they’ll ask customers how they’re doing and how their day has been. For waiting staff, taking orders is a chance to interact, make recommendations (as well as ask about any allergies or special requirements that might need relaying to the kitchen).
The Assistant Manager makes sure everything is running smoothly with both customers and the Front-of-House team. They support the General Manager, who leads the pub from the front, making sure the business is profitable while setting the tone for whole place. At Greene King, that means making our pubs places where positive vibes reign supreme and the good times can roll.🥳
Front-of-House staff will need to communicate with both Back-of-House staff–based largely in the kitchen–and customers which makes good communications skills really important. It’s a lively environment to work in and all Front-of-House roles offer plenty of variety—not least because you never know who’s going to walk through the door from day-to-day.
Any Front-of-House role can get busy. Maintaining rapport with customers, even when you’re slammed with orders and customers are still coming through the door is the mark of a truly great Front-of-House staff. What’s more, being busy means meeting more people and making more of them happy with amazing service. And it’s good for tips, too!
Working Front-of-House can also come with great perks. At Greene King, for instance, you’ll be rewarded with heavily discounted food and drinks at any of our managed bars and restaurants as well as discounts at leading retailers and brands.
What are Back-of-House roles?
Whereas Front-of-House roles in pubs and restaurants are the members of the team who interact with customers, people in Back-of-House roles are often found in the kitchen.
There are a range of kitchen-based roles available depending on your level of experience, from an Apprentice Chef through to a Kitchen Manager with plenty of opportunity to progress and develop along the way.
When you think of a busy pub kitchen, one of the first roles you tend to think of is a Head Chef. A Head Chef takes responsibility for creating the menu and for the dishes that appear on it. It’s a busy environment where keeping calm and communicating with those around you is critical to producing great food that will wow customers. The Head Chef is the figurehead of the kitchen, inspiring and leading those around them.🦸♀️
Head Chefs are supported by a team of chefs who will help with cooking as well as ordering ingredients and helping to make sure the kitchen is clean and hygienic. For those looking to learn the trade, there are Apprentice Chef positions where you can get paid while you learn how to cook in a professional kitchen from experts around you.
Kitchen Managers assist the Head Chef with their food safety and hygiene responsibilities and help maintain standards in the kitchen. Communication is key–both with the rest of the kitchen and with the Front-of-House team to make sure the whole establishment is running smoothly. A Kitchen Manager will usually have leadership experience within a kitchen, whether that’s as a Head Chef or a Team Leader.
Greene King Pub Chef
What do Assistant Managers in pubs do?
Assistant Manager of a pub is an exciting and varied role with plenty of responsibility and a real say in how the establishment is run. The Assistant Manager can make a huge difference to the direction a pub goes in and its overall success.
The position sits between the Front-of-House team–that is the waiting and bar staff–and the General Manager. There are two key parts to the role. The first is making sure customers are wowed by their experience when they visit the pub. The second is managing the Front-of-House team and inspiring and motivating them by helping them to progress in their career journeys.
There’s scope for creativity in thinking of ways to attract customers, whether that’s themed nights or a music quiz. The Assistant Manager will get to know the pub’s clientele and understand the sort of events they enjoy. It’s a social role and one where your social skills can really drive profitability. You don’t always need hospitality experience to land yourself an Assistant Manager role—if you’re experienced in leadership in a similarly fast-paced industry, you might have what it takes.
From communicating with the front of house team to greeting customers and checking in on the kitchen, communication is paramount as an Assistant Manager. They keep the whole establishment running like clockwork and shape customer experiences that keep people coming back. Other important skills include enthusiasm, staying calm under pressure and being organised. An Assistant Manager picks up plenty of knowledge as they do their job, especially about food and drink, which they can share with customers and new members of the team.
Working as an Assistant Manager is also a chance to develop skills that will enable progression to General Manager when a position comes up. Greene King is the UK’s largest brewery chain which means we can offer an array of opportunities that just can’t be found elsewhere and we always support talented people who want to get more involved with what we do. There are also great rewards and benefits, from a competitive salary to discounts on food and drink, plus discounts at some of the UK’s leading retailers and brands.
Can you do an Apprenticeship in a pub?
An Apprenticeship is a great way to learn about any industry and build the foundation of a long career—with the bonus that you get paid while you’re learning. And they’re not just for those new to the industry—as you progress through your career you can to higher Apprenticeships equivalent to five GCSEs (Level 2) right up to MBA level (Level 7).
There are a variety of different schemes available and, at Greene King, we offer two entry level (Level 2) pub-based Apprenticeships. These are our Bar and Waiting Apprenticeship and Chef Apprenticeship. They give a complete insight into either what it’s like to work Front-of-House, or life in the kitchen, depending where on where you see your future. They take around a year to complete and, like any Apprenticeship, work on an earn-while-you learn basis and result in a qualification and a job.😎
The Bar and Waiting Apprenticeship is the ideal starting point for someone who wants to serve customers in a pub or restaurant and the Chef Apprenticeship teaches the tools of the trade to anyone with ambitions of cooking professionally.
There are many Apprenticeships on offer, others include a Kitchen Manager Apprenticeship (Level 3) and a General Manager Apprenticeship (Level 4) which help to develop all the key skills needed for a management position in a hospitality setting such as leadership and running a profitable business.
Those who wish to continue progressing their career could consider a Business Development Manager Apprenticeship (Level 5) or a Senior Leader Apprenticeship (Level 7).
An Apprenticeship is made up of both on-the-job and off-the-job training. Off-the-job could consist of catch-ups with a learning coach, meetings, workshops and feedback sessions. On-the-job, apprentices are trained by experienced colleagues who help them put learning into practice in a real-life settings. Both kitchen and Front-of-House are exciting learning environments where things move fast and there are plenty of chances to interact with customers and colleagues.
There are many benefits to doing an Apprenticeship. As well as the salary and the qualification, apprentices at Greene King get the same rewards as their colleagues, including a pension scheme, big discounts at any of our managed sites, up to 28 days’ paid holiday and the chance to earn £1,000 by referring a friend to work for us.🤩
From Apprenticeships to management, from the north of Scotland to the far west of Cornwall, if you’re looking for a role in a hospitality, the huge range of opportunities that Greene King have are definitely worth a look.👀
Leave A Comment