Do you want to have the responsibility and fair salary that comes with managing a small or chain restaurant? Do you love food, preparing food, and providing excellent customer service? Here are some tips from Terrence*, an ex-manager of a large restaurant.

How did you start out as a restaurant manager?

I actually started as a regular worker, making food and cleaning. I moved up to a maintenance-type person before I started running my own shift.

How was the pay?

It was decent, and it included benefits. It was under $30,000, but I only worked the position for a few years. If I had stayed on, I would’ve made a lot more within ten, fifteen years.

What was the hardest thing to learn?

Working with teenagers! I wasn’t much older than they were and it was hard to maintain a working relationship when they wanted to be friends, too. You have to stay friends off the clock so you can get them to actually do work and help around the restaurant. Dealing with customers was hard too.

How so?

People can be really stupid when they buy food. They think they’re royalty or something and that you need to kiss their a****. One time a woman complained that I had a hole in my gloves, even though it was only a courtesy and not a law or policy. I told her to make her own damn food then, and I got suspended for a few days for that. (Laughs.) That was before I was a manager, though.

Was it worth it?

Hell yes! I would do it again. She was obnoxious.

How do you deal with belligerent customers?

We used to get a lot of drunks and a lot of a**holes. You just have to keep smiling and being polite, especially if they look dangerous. When they want their food remade you have to do it, even if you get really pissed and you don’t want to.

Why did you leave the restaurant business?

Well, I mouthed off to too many customers. This one night this drunk guy was giving me and my team a rough time and I told him something I shouldn’t have and I got fired.

Do you wish you still worked there?

No. I’m glad I’m not there anymore. I did miss it at first—the money, I missed the money the most, and some of the people I worked with—but I have a better job that I like more now.

*Names have been changed to provide anonymity.