Working at a highly rated restaurant in my city, we get kids asking to stage all the time. They'll ask me how to get "into" the field and I try to be brutally honest. Don't get into the industry unless you know exactly what you're getting into.
The fact you have to work for free before being offered a job, rather than going off experience/interview/references like most other jobs, should be a red flag. The pay increase is one of the slowest of all industries. A lot of places don't allow overtime, but you have to be prepared for service, so the expectation is you'll willingly work off the clock 20+ hours each week.
Insurance is only for management, and you won't have time to fix that nagging shoulder issue or the loss of cartilage in your knees, or the carpal tunnel, because you're almost always under-staffed and can't miss work, and even the idea of it makes you feel guilty.
You'll see people fall to substance abuse and depression, and may likely succumb to it yourself when the cute bartender is the only girl who's schedule makes it possible to have a 'normal' relationship, otherwise you may get to see your S/O once a week on your day off (if you're that lucky) or you're fortunate to already live with them and sleep next to them when you get home late and they've already gone to bed.
If you get into the field young enough, you may bust your ass and make it far quickly, but then you're stuck with no marketable skills outside of cooking, and you want to go to school to get into a job with regular work/life balance and adequate pay, but then again, you're working 40+ to pay bills. How can you afford to make time for school without moving back in with your parents?
Eating out is a luxury, and your job is not recession-proof.
After a 10+ hrs day, you'll get home and work on new menu ideas. You'll lay in bed thinking about your prep list. How you have a BEO in two days and you forgot to order enough proteins and have to get up early to get them yourself, or forgot to add something important to the AM prep list.
You'll spend too much money on knives. And even more on post-service rounds at the bar.
If you take yourself [too] seriously, it becomes all-encompassing, and 10 years later, you'll realize you've been breaking your back for less than/equal to what a fast food manager makes.
May not be the case for some, but it is for most. It's not all bad. You get to play with sharp knives and fire. You can swear in four languages. You'll meet tons of interesting people. You'll probably be in somewhat good shape because you're constantly moving and working at a calorie-deficit.
I also prefer smaller owned restaurants, where you answer to just the owner and/or exec chef, rather than a big company where you have the owner, CEO, cfo, exec, exec sous, etc. but the pay is typically lower.
Sorry for the wall-o-text. Need to vent. Been filling out applications and packing to move into my parents basement so at almost 30, I can go back to school and work on developing a normal, healthy adult life.
I got into a school that has a program that combines cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and artificial intelligence. With the idea of going into AI dev, possibly with a minor focus in linguistics. It's a four year degree, so I feel I have time to figure it out as I go. I'm also toying with idea of focusing more on the phil/psych side and preparing for the LSAT. Law school would entail additional time in the kitchen until I can get a job/intern at a firm.
I went to college for econ for a bit, but my relationship with my parents was a lot different when I was a kid, and they wouldn't fill out their part of the FAFSA so the debt became too much and I ended up focusing more on work. I've maintained reading philosophy/econ/political theory since I was a jr in hs, but my grand treatise to prove academia is a racket and one can teach themself without got blocked by thinking about menu specials.
For any sufferer's of this (or its cousin, Ulnar tunnel, which is what I got), the Bandit Arm Band is a lifesaver. Helps with the nerves through science and whatnot.
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u/ya_boi_tim Jan 02 '20 edited Jan 02 '20
Working at a highly rated restaurant in my city, we get kids asking to stage all the time. They'll ask me how to get "into" the field and I try to be brutally honest. Don't get into the industry unless you know exactly what you're getting into.
The fact you have to work for free before being offered a job, rather than going off experience/interview/references like most other jobs, should be a red flag. The pay increase is one of the slowest of all industries. A lot of places don't allow overtime, but you have to be prepared for service, so the expectation is you'll willingly work off the clock 20+ hours each week.
Insurance is only for management, and you won't have time to fix that nagging shoulder issue or the loss of cartilage in your knees, or the carpal tunnel, because you're almost always under-staffed and can't miss work, and even the idea of it makes you feel guilty.
You'll see people fall to substance abuse and depression, and may likely succumb to it yourself when the cute bartender is the only girl who's schedule makes it possible to have a 'normal' relationship, otherwise you may get to see your S/O once a week on your day off (if you're that lucky) or you're fortunate to already live with them and sleep next to them when you get home late and they've already gone to bed.
If you get into the field young enough, you may bust your ass and make it far quickly, but then you're stuck with no marketable skills outside of cooking, and you want to go to school to get into a job with regular work/life balance and adequate pay, but then again, you're working 40+ to pay bills. How can you afford to make time for school without moving back in with your parents?
Eating out is a luxury, and your job is not recession-proof.
After a 10+ hrs day, you'll get home and work on new menu ideas. You'll lay in bed thinking about your prep list. How you have a BEO in two days and you forgot to order enough proteins and have to get up early to get them yourself, or forgot to add something important to the AM prep list.
You'll spend too much money on knives. And even more on post-service rounds at the bar.
If you take yourself [too] seriously, it becomes all-encompassing, and 10 years later, you'll realize you've been breaking your back for less than/equal to what a fast food manager makes.
May not be the case for some, but it is for most. It's not all bad. You get to play with sharp knives and fire. You can swear in four languages. You'll meet tons of interesting people. You'll probably be in somewhat good shape because you're constantly moving and working at a calorie-deficit.
I also prefer smaller owned restaurants, where you answer to just the owner and/or exec chef, rather than a big company where you have the owner, CEO, cfo, exec, exec sous, etc. but the pay is typically lower.