I was just at a restaurant that will hire you under the pretenses that you will be making A LOT of money. The tips are pooled, credit&cash, then divvied up at night and you walk with maybe 10$ in cash and generally more (like 200-1000$) from credit cards that goes on your check. From ONE shift. SUPPOSEDLY.
Your paid minimum wage during training and then server minimum when off training.
They will start you in training, basic processes of serving, for approximately 3 days. If you really bust your tail, you'll be told how awesome you are, and even have the opportunity to be off training early.
The training days I had, which I only earned 8-10$ in the tip cut I got & 0 credit tips (other servers had over 800 in tips for that dinner shift), we were selling 14k/day. We were packed with a line out the door; and even though I was training to be a server, I was pre-bussing other server's tables, taking orders, phones, running food along with all the server side work; and paying attention to doing it “their way”; & never being told I was doing something wrong. I was even told that I bailed my trainer out of a bind by helping him and taking charge of different tasks before being asked or told on an unreasonably busy FIRST night of training.
I impressed the FOH (front of house) manager to the point of getting me off training a day early.
My FIRST night on my own was our slowest, like 6-7k sales (i only made 10$ in cash and 86$ in credit tips). I was offered to come in early on my next working day to do a couple hours of training specifically on opening.
I came in early and was promptly fired by the GM (who hired me on the spot when I filled out an application) who claimed that he lives to watch the cameras (admitting it was creepy) and said I wasn't working fast paced enough on my first night and that I'm being let go, or I can go work at a hole in the wall pizza place.
How can you judge whether a server is fast-paced enough when their final exam is at a restaurant that isnt a full bar, and not airing Super Bowl Sunday on Super Bowl Sunday, and is predominately open air (oceanfront) on a VERY chilly and windy evening?
I do not recommend participating in their scheme of hiring a new server every couple of weeks in order to avoid an extra person to tip out. If they were actually hiring for season they would've given me the extra day of training they thought I didnt need, or waited to judge a server's skills on a night that would've actually challenged them.
/rant over