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Applying for Chef jobs.


Kata Ha Jime

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Posted

Right, at the moment I am on Job Seekers. I have to apply for at least three jobs a week and I was looking in retail and admin. I've been unsuccessful and mentioned to the person who see's me that I wanted to be a chef work but I didn't have the Food and Hygene certificate. She mentioned I can get it from them abnd I have asn appointment on the 31st. As it's fairly miserable here for retail work I'm wondering if trying to be a chef will be any easier and it is what I'd like to do. I realize a lot/most Chef's have gone to college and really studied hard but I was wondering if there was anyone here with any expeience to share or advice to working in a kitchen? What the first role to apply for would be?

 

Thanks.

Posted

I've got a few friends who are chefs and have started right at the bottom in local hotels and eateries. You can easily get Food & Hygiene certificates, like most jobs they'll train you and you'll obtain that along the way. If you want to become a chef, you'll most likely start off peeling spuds, chopping carrotts. The donkey work, doing all the prep rather than doing any cooking, but like I said you'll learn all that along the way. Its a decent career, long long hours though. Its one of the most demanding chops in the world because you're always on the go, you're always doing something and you're always under pressure. Not to mention, Head Chefs are notorious for being perfectionist arseholes during work hours. So if you really want to do it for a career, then prepare to be shouted at and giving all the shit, every day, all day.

 

If you can handle pressure, long hours and don't mind being the scapegoat until you work your way up, then it's a good job. Unlike retail & admin staff, Chefs are always on the lookout for Sous chefs and people to help out because not many people leave school and want to be a chef. Its not something you just fall into, you have to want to do that job.

 

One my friends started off in the kitchen at McDonalds, flipping burgers and all that kind of thing but now works in a top hotel here in Glasgow. Took him a few years but he's making some serious money, but he doesn't get many days off at all.

Posted
I've got a few friends who are chefs and have started right at the bottom in local hotels and eateries. You can easily get Food & Hygiene certificates, like most jobs they'll train you and you'll obtain that along the way. If you want to become a chef, you'll most likely start off peeling spuds, chopping carrotts. The donkey work, doing all the prep rather than doing any cooking, but like I said you'll learn all that along the way. Its a decent career, long long hours though. Its one of the most demanding chops in the world because you're always on the go, you're always doing something and you're always under pressure. Not to mention, Head Chefs are notorious for being perfectionist arseholes during work hours. So if you really want to do it for a career, then prepare to be shouted at and giving all the shit, every day, all day.

 

If you can handle pressure, long hours and don't mind being the scapegoat until you work your way up, then it's a good job. Unlike retail & admin staff, Chefs are always on the lookout for Sous chefs and people to help out because not many people leave school and want to be a chef. Its not something you just fall into, you have to want to do that job.

 

One my friends started off in the kitchen at McDonalds, flipping burgers and all that kind of thing but now works in a top hotel here in Glasgow. Took him a few years but he's making some serious money, but he doesn't get many days off at all.

 

I'd agree with most of this. Before I retrained, I was a hotel General Manager. Hospitality is one of the most demanding jobs; you're up later than you're guests clearing up after them, and then up before them to prepare breakfast. There are still some dinosaurs out there who think that yelling and teaching by humiliation is the way to get respect, but they are thankfully on the decline. What I will say is that if you're prepared to start from the bottom, washing pots, peeling veg and mopping floors, prepared to work very hard and prove yourself to be a team player, then the world is your oyster.

 

In terms of education, I always found that guys who'd started at the bottom and worked their way up were better employees than those who'd graduated management training programmes or hospitality degrees.

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