12 Occupational Outlook Quarterly • Fall 2013

My career

Tamika Dorris

Champaign, Illinois

BLS fast facts: Counter attendants 

(cafeteria, food concession, and coffee shop)

•	 May 2012 employment: 434,220 

(excludes self-employed)

•	 2010–20 projection: 6 percent growth 

(slower than average)

•	 May 2012 median wage: $8.92 hourly, 

$18,560 annually

•	 Typical education and training: 

Short-term on-the-job training

•	 May 2012 top employing industries: 

Restaurants and other eating places, 

special food services, motion picture 

and video industries, elementary and 

secondary schools, and other amusement and recreation industries.

Snack bar attendant

What do you do?

I work in the cafe of an academic building 

at the University of Illinois. I do it all: grill, 

cook, work the cash register, work in the dish 

room, and supervise student workers when my 

boss isn’t available.

But my job is mostly using the grill or 

the oven to fix precooked foods like grilled 

chicken breast, canned beef stew, and frozen 

mac and cheese. Our hard-boiled eggs come 

already boiled and peeled. In my job, I don’t 

fix anything that uses a recipe, so all the food 

I make is already prepared.

How did you get this job?

The specifics about the job were not advertised. It was just advertised as a food-service 

position. The ad didn’t even say where it 

was on campus. But I wanted to work at the 

university because it has great benefits, and I 

wanted to get a foot in the door. Once you get 

a job at the university, you can move around. 

There’s a lot of opportunity.
www.bls.gov/ooq • Fall 2013 13

Any surprises along the way?

No. My job is everything I was hoping it 

would be.

What are your future career plans?

I plan to retire from here, and even then, 

they’ll have to push me out the door! I absolutely love my job. I have a wonderful boss 

and great people to work with.

And I love the customers. Of the 150 

who might come in on a given day, we’ll only 

have about 3 who are not in a good mood. But 

when they see you smile, they cheer up. By 

the time they leave, they’re in a good mood, 

too.

What’s your best advice?

Always give great customer service. If you 

can’t give good customer service, you’re not in 

a good job.

I learned that from working in the hospitals. I would see all these people, these 

families that had been through so much, and 

I realized that if you smiled and treated them 

with kindness, you just made a difference in 

their day—a positive difference.

I took the civil service test [required for 

state workers] and got a perfect score. Then I 

had an interview, and I got the job. That was 4 

years ago.

What else prepared you for your current job?

I’ve always worked in food service, 15-plus 

years now. I worked over 9 years in the kitchens of two hospitals.

While I was working at one of the hospitals, I earned a food safety certification. I took 

a 2-day class and had to pass a test at the end. 

The test covers things like the proper temperature for storing food, procedures for cleaning 

equipment, and foodborne illnesses. When I 

passed, I got a certificate from the state public 

health department.

Having the certification helped me get this 

job, because I was the only applicant who had 

it.

What was your first job?

As a teenager, I worked in a fast-food restaurant and discovered two things. One, I liked 

it. And two, I was comfortable with it. I like 

cooking, and I like working with food.

Tamika Dorris was interviewed by Kathleen Green, an economist in the Office of

Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections, BLS. Kathleen can be reached 

at (202) 691-5717 or at green.kathleen@bls.gov.

Photos of Tamika Dorris courtesy of The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology