What you have to understand is that many people would give thier left, uh..buttock to be in your shoes. It's simple market economics: The demand is high so the pay is lousy. Like it or leave it, but the smart thing to do is to get the experience and bragging rights, and then milk them for all they're worth.
After my apprenticeship (3 yrs, monthly salary of sfr700) I sought out the 5 star Hotels in Zurich. The pay was lousy, absolute minimum according to the Gov't figures. Hotel Baur au lac, which had a brigade of 40 cooks and an Eidgenosische Diplomierte Chef (the highest a Chef can go in Switz.) HAD NO VENTILATION SYSTEM IN THE KITCHEN, the summer restaurant was almost 300 meters (yards) away from the kitchen, the ice cream freezer in the pastry dept must have been over 60 yrs old, ran on some kind of salt water solution. When I left the payroll dept. stiffed me for double staff meals on my paycheck. The Chef had written me a "Zeugniss", or letter of recommendation, this piece of paper was my goal and it was worth the effort. I repeated this at Savoy en Ville and Rest. Kronnenhalle, all 1 yr contracts, all lousy pay, (albeit better kitchens) and top of the line tyrinical Chefs. After that my personal life has started to make demands on earning better salary and I had the experience and paperwork to get it..  |