Career
Cooks, short order
Cook meals to order at speed.
$35,880
Median pay
-5.2%
Job growth, 2025–35
17,400
Openings a year
No formal educational credential
Typical education
None required
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Clean food preparation equipment, work areas, and counters or tables.
- Restock kitchen supplies, rotate food, and stamp the time and date on food in coolers.
- Complete orders from steam tables, placing food on plates and serving customers at tables or counters.
- Plan work on orders so that items served together are finished at the same time.
- Grill, cook, and fry foods such as french fries, eggs, and pancakes.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on objects & tools, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Clean food preparation equipment, work areas, and counters or tables.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Time Management, Service Orientation.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though short-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $35,880 a year and 17,400 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- NO MATCHCIP 99.9999
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Cooks, Restaurant$37,390 · +12.1%
- Cooks, Fast Food$30,890 · +0.6%
- Food Preparation Workers$35,320 · -3.0%
- Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria$37,450 · +2.8%
- Bakers$37,160 · +5.5%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.