Ethics in Job Hunting

[isaac]

Hello all!!

I am leaving the country club life and I put out some resumes to some jobs that look good. The other day, I took a job as executive sous chef of a restaurant in oregon. My start date is the first of next month. This morning I recieved a phone call for an interview for executive chef. Both jobs look great but if I had to pick, it would be the executive chef position.

What do you do when you take a job but another one comes up that is better? Has this ever happaned to anyone?

[Suzanne]

Originally Posted by isaac

Hello all!!

I am leaving the country club life and I put out some resumes to some jobs that look good. The other day, I took a job as executive sous chef of a restaurant in oregon. My start date is the first of next month. This morning I recieved a phone call for an interview for executive chef. Both jobs look great but if I had to pick, it would be the executive chef position.

What do you do when you take a job but another one comes up that is better? Has this ever happaned to anyone?

Just because you have been called for an interview, it doesn't mean you will be offered the exec job. So it's a bit premature to make a decision between the two. IMO, you need not tell either about the other, since only one is a reality at this point.

Take the interview, because you can learn from it. Just keep your mind open until you actually have to make the choice. Then, if and when you receive an offer for the exec job, examine all the plusses and minusses of each: especially where will you learn the most? Because in this business, if we stop learning, if we think we know all there is to know, we're dead in the water and a menace to everything around us.

One other thing: I'm moving this thread because it has nothing to do with cooking.

[chefboy2160]

Suzanne , dead in the water is oh so true. You learn by hands on experience and when you are young in this biz it is actualy much more of a benifit to work with an experienced chef than it is to be the chef! when I was 26 I had an exec job at a country club for almost 2 years and I found myself for the most part stagnent in this position as far as my growth and learning went. A chef friend of mine graduated from the CIA in NY back in the mid 80s
and he has told me on numerouse occasions that he thought his degree would give him more juice in this industry as far as jobs went . He even did 2 years at the Fountain Blue in Florida as his internship after leaving school and still is concerned about his knowledge of this biz and its trends. This man was a cook for 5 years before attending school so that should tell you something about knowledge. He told me that the hardest thing he had to learn was the business end as well as the management end of it and that he is still learning daily as an exec of a high end hotel casino! He was only promoted to this job after being assistant exec for more than 10 years and the exec retired! I have seen far more new execs lose there jobs rather quickly and abrubtly than I have seen them last!
My advice is the same as Suzannes, keep your options open till the last possible moment. Good Luck, Doug....................

[culinarian247]

Do the interview as stated. If you wind up with both pick the one that leaves you feeling more satisfied and paying more. Do you want to be Exec Chef? If you didn't you wouldn't have applied. Best of luck to you and I hope you make the best decision for you and your family.

[kuan]

So those new steak ideas didn't go over too well eh? Oh well, live and learn. Seems like chefs spend half their lives looking for jobs and the other half rotating stock.

Don't burn out Isaac, don't always chase the money, don't always chase the title. I know some good line cooks who make 40k a year working 10 hrs overtime each week.

Kuan

[dano1]

Kuan has some very good advise. Like a pair of shoes, the title is meaningless if it doesn't fit. Line work gives me the greatest satisfaction-I'd rather be on the line than in the office , BEO meetings, Quarterlys, etc...
Crash and burn is a very real fact of our lives in the kitchen-we've all been there to some extent. Get the foundation under your belt first, a culinary diploma does not a chef make.
hth, danny

[emhahn]

If the Bush administration gets their way, no chef will be getting overtime. Everyone understands this, right?

Here's what's happening: The Labor Department wants restaurant operators to claim that their chefs, managers and bartenders to be classified as "white collar" employees.

Thanks, we certainly have earned that right! However, this means that your employer will also be able to offer you salary, not hourly wages as a result.

Any restaurant person who goes for salary, rather than hourly is making a huge mistake! (My opinion, but it's true)!

Eric
RestaurantEdge.com

[Peachcreek]

When I hire people it is because I have work that needs to be done. Period. If I did'nt have to hire someone I wouldn't and you and I would never meet and go through the hiring process. For all you guys think of your work, to me, you are a person there to fulfill a need I have in my business. And before you start debating the merits and such of what this job does for you, do me a favor and think can you do what I need you to? With as little BS as possible and for long enough to make training you worthwhile? Be honest enough to know if you can work here and stick it out for a while and do what needs to be done. This is all new to you, but for me after all these years of doing what I do I have seen enough fresh faces come and go for every reason imaginable and more. So think it through before you take a new position and save everyone involved trouble down the road. Just a managers' perspective. Gook luck.

[cyberbeet]

I've been in the business for 37yrs., working my way up.
After working for large hotels, casinos, clubs, etc....I'm ready for a change.
I have heard that the big companies (IBM, ATT, etc.) have a chef who runs the cafeteria or resteraunt for their employees. (A corporate EDR)
What would be the chef's title and where is the best place to look?

[chiffonade]

If you got seven calls for interviews, you should go to all of them! In this terrible market (there is no recovery, believe me), you can't count on anything. You must look out for #1.

Reverse the logic. What would happen if they offered you the job but another candidate contacted them after being out of the country or something. Do you think for a minute, if that candidate was great, they would not interview that candidate??

Look out for #1 (you) and keep your feelers out, even after securing a position. My DH is extremely happy in his job (1.5 years) but he never took himself off the Career Builder daily e-mail list.