[rosejah bless]

Hi my name is Rose, I completed school and now I am doing my externship. I did have a fabulous externship all set up. But due to to some unfortunate circumstances It didn't end up falling through . I found out only a week before my externship was going to start I ended up having to do my externship at a homeless shelter. I am grateful , please dont get me wrong , how ever today was my first day and it is definitely not what I had expected . All my other class mates have went off to nice restaurants with pay while I am not practicing what I have learned nor am I getting paid... /img/vbsmilies/smilies/chef.gif

 

[nicko]

That is a tough break but let it be a wake up call to you it is how it goes. Years ago I went through numerous interviews only to find out after weeks of interviews with different people, cooking test for the staff and so on the chef had left and they could not hire me till a new chef was in place. 

Working at the homeless shelter is not all bad and I certainly would not let that stop me from seeking out other restaurants and switching. Let me give you one piece of advice. Unless you are really working for one of the top dogs like say Alain Ducasse and only for a brief stint do not ever work for someone for free. 

 

[someday]

You should stop what you are doing and seriously try to get a better internship. There is nothing wrong with working in a homeless shelter, per se, but it is clearly not what you want to do and I think your skill growth will be very limited. 

The fact that you aren't getting paid is icing. Like Nicko said, unless you are doing a stage or something at a really really high end place, no reason for that. 

You don't say where you are from but there has to be some options out there. You are talking about your future and the rest of your work life, you should start it off better. 

 

[slurm]

Finding a decent place to extern isn't as easy as I thought it would be.. months back I had spoken with places about my externship and they all couldn't do anything for me at the time being i was a full time student. Now I'm weeks always from beginning my externship and no offense but i certainly did not go to culinary school to work in a homeless shelter I'm way too good for that and so are you. Gl in the future I hope everything works out

 

[slurm]

Besides I got loans to pay off haha

 

[cheflayne]

i certainly did not go to culinary school to work in a homeless shelter I'm way too good for that

You could learn many things doing such work and quite a few would be about truly being a chef.

 

[someday]

You could learn many things doing such work and quite a few would be about truly being a chef.

Like a little humility? Agreed. Humbleness and a servants heart are great things for a chef to have, and a great chef has those things.

 

[Iceman]

[justify]Half of my job life is cooking in homeless shelters. I went to the CIA. Since you got NO experience ... I'll let you get away with no knowing how good a situation you have on your hands. First off ... You have total control and complete creativity looking right in your face. If you're any good at all ... nobody is gonna argue with anything you want to do ... as long as it doesn't suck. Generally speaking, dishes don't come back. On your off time, go meet the people at the restaurants around your shelter. Make friends fast and see if they can lay inventory off on you before it goes out of code. Make friends with the residents and you'll never be in a bind for clean-up help. Now if you do suck ... nobody is gonna know that either. You got a "Get Out of Jail Free" card in your hands. You get to learn all kinds of mistakes without anyone taking your head off. When you're done with your externship ... all those restaurants you've been cool with just might be real happy to talk to you. [/justify]

"We work in kitchens ... It ain'te rocket surgery."​