Online Culinary Degrees

An online degree in restaurant management can give you the food and beverage, business, and hospitality training you need to qualify for positions in restaurant management. A career in restaurant management and culinary arts can be highly rewarding, but competition is fierce in this sector, and you should have a better shot at the best jobs with a degree under your belt. Many restaurant managers have built their career on experience, not education, making a degree a highly valuable asset to new managers. Your resume is extremely important to your career as a manager, and starting it with an online degree is a good way to show employers you are serious about your profession.

A Challenging and Rewarding Restaurant Career

The pressures of providing services in the hospitality industry can be quite intense, given the high failure rate for new restaurants (over 50 percent annually), and the high competition in major cities. For these reasons, the best restaurants and hotels tend to recruit professionally trained candidates.Although the challenge is evident, the rewards can be great. Managing a successful restaurant can lead to bigger career opportunities, chain restaurant management, corporate dining marketing, and hotel and resort management. Don''t forget the many locations in which restaurants are located, and how wide the career path can be based on this variety:

• Shopping malls
• Hotels
• Resorts
• City shopping and dining districts
• Vacation destinations
• Foreign countries

Restaurant Management Career Training

Restaurant management and culinary arts degrees focus on many areas, but they all aim for one thing--managing the operations of a hotel or restaurant by providing good food and excellent service.

Online degrees in restaurant management build students'' expertise in a range of areas:

• Food and beverage management
• Nutrition and sanitation
• Communications
• Human resources
• Marketing
• Hospitality
• Business administration

Some of the courses offered by restaurant management and culinary arts degree programs include specialty food, baking and cooking techniques, but they all focus on creating managers out of students. Managers are professionals who oversee the entire operations of a restaurant, and are in charge of the customer''s experience, from the moment they walk in the door to the moment they leave.

Building Your Earning Potential as a Restaurant Manager

Earning a living as a restaurant manager can vary depending on the city, state, location, ownership, and history of the restaurant. The top 10 percent of restaurant managers earned a median salary of $74,060 in 2007. However, when starting out, the median salary can range between $28,000 and $35,000. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary for restaurant mangers was $44,570. Working for a chain restaurant can lead to district management or corporate positions that can pay well over $60,000. Depending on your career path, these kinds of opportunities may be available to you. Also, with a degree in restaurant management, your salary eligibility should increase as you grow in your career.