Thinking about waiting tables instead of looking an internship? If your reasons for this are more that you’re interested in hospitality management, and less that you just want to put some money in the bank, then the Chicago based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises internship program might be a great alternative. LEYE is what some call a restaurant empire with over 70 restaurants and approximately 5,000 employees. Managing one restaurant is hard enough, but somehow founder and CEO Richard Melman has been able to do it over and over again.
Richard Melman has built LEYE with great people and a commitment to nurturing talent. This all begins with
Lettuce Entertain You’s internship program, which is directed at rising junior and senior hospitality students. Since it sounds like you need to be a major in hospitality management, we’re not sure if students outside of such programs would be accepted as interns. Interns are put in hourly positions at specific restaurant, and are expected to perform all of the duties associated with that position. In addition LEYE interns are asked to take on certain managerial tasks within the restaurant that they’ve been assigned to. Beyond the day to day tasks of working in a restaurant, interns will also participate in weekly meetings and seminars that bring all of the interns in the program together.
There’s a fine line between a “summer job” and an “internship,” beyond the fact that internships are often just a way to legitimize unpaid labor. Although LEYE interns work most of their days in an hourly restaurant job, the additional educational and management opportunities truly add perspective to the daily work experience - we think that’s what an internship should be about. There is no mention of compensation; however, we think it would be a bit sadistic to ask students who spend their summer working an hourly restaurant job (plus all the other responsibilities) to go unpaid. One of the more unique opportunities for interns at LEYE is the chance to work with other interns to develop a restaurant concept. At the end of the summer, interns present their ideas to LEYE founder, Richard Melman. If you’ve ever dreamed of starting your own restaurant, it doesn’t get much better than that.
LEYE hires a significant number of their new managers through their internship program, so the experiences that you will gain as intern will translate directly into readiness for real world jobs after college.
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Tags: food, hospitality management, Internships, restaurant
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