This post brought to you by National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. The content and opinions expressed below are that of upstartHR.

One of the areas we have focused on in previous weeks is how careers in the restaurant industry are more substantial than what they might appear on the surface. Today we’re going to look at career tracks specifically.

Here are a few of the key statistics from the infographic below.

• Your first job in the restaurant industry is only the beginning. The industry offers mobility, as more than 9 out of 10 restaurant employees 35 or older have advanced to a higher-paying job in the industry. 71% of those between 18 and 24 have also advanced to higher paying positions in the restaurant industry.
• Restaurant owners and operators climb the ladder to success as well. 55% of owners and operators worked in the industry as wait staff, 59% as a chef or cook and 84% as a restaurant manager.
• Most staff in the industry also see it as an industry of opportunity. A majority of waitstaff, bartenders, bus persons, chefs/cooks, shift/crew supervisors, managers and operations employees believe the restaurant industry offers opportunity for advancement.

Of all of these, my favorite is the second. Owners are typically seen as the top of the “food chain” (awful pun, but it’s true!) for the industry. But more often than not those owners are not strangers to the restaurant world–they are former employees!

That’s a powerful message for those working in the field, because it not only helps the owners to understand the roles of employees better, but it also gives employees a vision for what the future could look like for them if they aspire to achieve the same level of success.

In the infographic titled This Way to the American Dream below, you can see some of the ways the career path discucssion has played out for employees in the industry. What’s the most striking statistic you see?