10 ways to avoid missed opportunities in your cooking career
Cooking is a great career, and many chefs start off with high hopes for work that will give them a good income, recognition and satisfaction.
Planning the steps along the way can help you to move quickly and be offered the best jobs.
Keep up to date with market research. Visit trade fairs whenever you can. Use Google
to search for recipe ideas, food trends and suppliers. Keep track of professional cooking forums like eGullet and Chef2Chef. Your inquiring mind will attract employers if they can see you're looking for 'a better way to do things', not just another way to spend their money!
Attend short courses whenever you can. A smart boss will encourage you, and may even help with the cost or time off. On the culinary side, colleges and industry suppliers often have sessions on chocolate, sugar work, modern meat cuts, asian spices. Business courses such as Profitable Hospitality's one-day Kitchen Profit & Efficiency Workshop give your management skills a boost. Keep a record of what you've done and ask for a certificate of attendance for your CV.
Keep your CV looking sharp and focused. Focus on the work that you do, training undertaken and menu examples. Keep down the hype. Have it ready to email, fax or post.
Gain experience with 'production' as well as 'artistry'. Fine cuisine draws high praise, but these businesses sometimes struggle to make a profit. You need to be able to make 200 cupcakes with the same ease as you produce one perfect souffle.
Build up your digital photo collection. Not just dishes, but the life of a chef, cooking methods, special events and competitions. Keep your photos safe on a PC and put the best of them online using the excellent free Flickr.com or BubbleShare.com. This way you can share them far and wide, and if you email a job application you can include a link to what you've done. See how Chef Tami and
Pastry Life have done it on Flickr. I've added some Food Pics here on BubbleShare. Sign up now!
Keep an online diary of work highlights: a Blog. Use the free services at Blogger.com - keep the entries short and add photos for interest. Practice writing for a while before you announce it to the world (and check the spelling so bloopers don't make you look sillly). Here's a (fake) example I've started to show how: BusyChef. You can find more by searching for "chef blog" on Google's Blog Search
Travel - at home and overseas! Your skills and hard work are in demand everywhere. Make sure to visit Europe where modern cooking has it's foundations - time to do some saving!
Get advice on the best way to negotiate your salary. There could be a lot more to your package than just a weekly wage. Time off, holidays, flexible rostering and training opportunities are all of value and discussing them with a potential employer makes you look less 'money driven' than others.
Speak up against unfairness and harassment. The old-fashioned kitchen with swearing, dirty jokes, booze and drugs destroyed as many careers as it created. The modern team works hard, has fun and respects others. These are the workplaces that nobody wants to leave.
Finally, hurry slowly. Choose each job carefully, and remember that you're also doing the interviewing! Make sure you're offered more than just money (unless you've got a monster debt to pay). A stable work-record in recognised businesses gives you a much stronger hand when you're applying for a better position or asking for a raise.
Your thoughts? We welcome comments and suggestions on this topic.
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Restaurant Management
