Any advice for getting a good serving job in New York City?

I plan on visiting Manhatten this weekend, and would like to get a serving job. I have 10+ years experience, and am a damn good server. Im not looking for the tip top of serving jobs, but a good one, that will afford me a decent living. I would like to be in Manhatten. Any advice?Any advice for getting a good serving job in New York City?
I would advise you to check out the touristy areas of town. I used to bartend in times square and if you can put up with the tourists constantly you can make some pretty good money. If you are visiting, check out some restaurants for yourself. You might even want to get yourself a Zagats guide for nyc. If you want to make a ';decent'; living get 2 serving jobs. living in nyc is damn expensive. even if you live in one of the boroughs or in nj you still have to commute so take that into consideration. good luck.Any advice for getting a good serving job in New York City?
Hooker?
I am assuming that you are going to be doing more than ';visiting'; if you are looking to get a job in NYC. If you are planning on moving to New York there are a few things you need to consider before you go.


1. Make sure that you have enough money to fund a job search. It will take time to land a serving job that is good enough to provide enough money to live in the city.


2. Plan on tossing most of your 10 years in the biz out the window since most restaurants only want to consider NYC experience. It is really what I like to call ';metrocentric'; in that they like to act like only NYC experience counts. I think it is more of a way to try to weed out people who move to the city and soon find out they can't cut it and leave. It does cost money to train an employee and nobody wants to be the first one to give you a chance to prove yourself. Having said all that you can overcome it with tenacity.


3. Unless you have super-model good looks I wouldn't plan on being able to land a job while visiting for the weekend because the good jobs often require 3 or more interviews before a job is offered. You need to understand how much compitition there is for every job. 50-100 applications for maybe 2 or 3 openings.


4.Now to your actual question. Some good places to start your search are The Village Voice and Craigslist as there are many jobs listed in these places. Publications like the New York Times do not list as many of these types of jobs. Having said this the problem with looking in these places are that everyone else is looking there too.


5. Another way to go is to go to the neighborhood where you would like to work and pound the pavement looking for help wanted signs in smaller restaurants where you might get hired on the spot. This is how I got my first job in NYC, of course I had to take a second job in order to support myself because the place wasn't that busy. On the other hand you do get that ';NYC restaurant experience'; that everyone seems to require. You also will meet other people who are working in the business this way which will help you hear about other job openings.


6.There are certain restaurants chains in NYC that seem to always be hiring all the time and the reason for that is that they are very difficult places to work. Either the managment is horrible or very demanding of and demeaning to their employees. I know because I used to work for one of them known as B.R. Guest corp. they have many restaurants in the city and are very successful so they are always busy which is the good part. The bad part is that they treat you like you are totally expendable which...of course you are because there are hundreds of other just like you coming to the city everyday getting off the bus and looking for work.





I don't mean to sound negative about it but realistic. I know there are places that are good to their employees and are also good jobs but they are the exception and not the rule.


To get an inside view to the state of the restaurant business from an inside perspective go to www.shamelessrestaurants.com and read some of the posts written by NYC restaurant employees.





New York is a great place to live and work and I wish you luck because if you can make it there you can make....ah well you know.
just check craigslist, they are constantly looking for new servers. Also make sure you have the money to back up while your searching for a job. It may take a week to get one, thereafter it'll be another 5 days of training without pay, ya without pay.
Have you checked the local newspaper on-line?
I don't think that there is any place you can get a good serving job!!