Dining Etiquette 101: Don’t Talk with Your Mouth Full!

Have you ever been to a business lunch with someone who had poor table manners and thought, “How did they get hired? They can’t even use the right utensil!” We all know they don’t teach practical things like that in college—but that’s not the case anymore!

The University of the Pacific, now offers a special etiquette dinner for students to learn how to act during business meals. The San Joaquin HR Association has sponsored the event for the past 5 years and provides students with tips on how to dine like a professional.

The event features a 5-course meal, 3 forks, 3 spoons, a white table cloth, and dozens of answered questions. For example, what to do when there is food stuck in your boss’s teeth! The dinner lasts about 3 hours and includes speakers who instruct you on topics like networking, navigating multiple meal courses (i.e. which fork to use), how to present yourself as a professional, and how to dine with people from different cultures.

After a speaker has presented, the students are then given the opportunity to practice. At each table there is an employer representative and an international ambassador. The employer representatives are made up of recruiting officials from top ranking companies, and the international ambassadors are typically students and professors who have traveled all over the world.

The representatives and ambassadors are there to help answer questions or enforce what the students have just learned. The event can often lead to internships and potential careers based on how successfully students networked—and practiced good table manners—during the meal.

The only downside to the event is that it’s only for University of the Pacific students. However, many colleges like Fordham University and Virginia Tech offer online guides to help you learn proper business dinner etiquette. These guides are extremely helpful for business dinners or even lunch with your boss. They cover many topics about who should eat first, what all the forks are for, and what to do if there is hair in your food!