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Introduction to Restaurant Career Education
A restaurant career can be a smart move for a job seeker in today’s economic climate. While many industries are struggling, the opposite is true with the hospitality sector. The restaurant industry in particular, is currently enjoying a resurgence in the U.S. today, hardly surprising given that the average US citizen eats out for 24% of all their meals. The demand for qualified workers in the restaurant industry is substantial for a booming industry and it competes with the healthcare industry and the US government.
A job seeker would do well to take advantage of current conditions in the restaurant industry. There are many opportunities available in a restaurant career, such as restaurant manager, caterer, chef, bartender and baker among many others. Of course, with the career opportunities presented, there are also various educational opportunities. Find out the options of a job seeker in a restaurant career. Here are some things worth knowing about how to get hired:
How to get hired: educational opportunities
A job seeker should be well prepared if they want to bag a career in the restaurant industry. Educational programs are of varying levels are available, including: diploma/ certificate, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and associate degree. The best thing anyone who wants to know how to get hired as a restaurant manager in the future can do is take a course in culinary management, hotel and restaurant management or hospitality management. The key word is “management” for those eyeing for a managerial position. However, those who prefer a restaurant career in the kitchen should look into culinary arts, baking, and other programs for food preparation.
The program selection will largely depend on what students want to achieve and how much time and money they are willing to invest in their education. For instance, a certificate in culinary arts could take several weeks to earn but a bachelor’s degree takes four years. A simple certificate is enough for most students to secure work at entry-level positions, but students who yearn for supervisor or managerial positions will have to aim for a bachelor’s degree. Like other industries, the best career opportunities are only on offer to those with higher level of education.
How to get hired by paying for education
To be in the restaurant industry, it’s impossible to avoid the financial responsibilities of paying for education. Any training, no matter what level, needs to be paid for and not all tuition comes cheap. The costs will depend on the degree level and the school. For those who are indignant about getting restaurant career education, there are financial aids available. The federal government and the state governments offer grants and student loans. It all depends if a student can qualify.
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Posted by Brian Carrick on 5/24/12 at 3:02 AM EST
“Thanks for another excellent article, Chef Krzak, it’s always a pleasure reading your opinions, thoughts, and commentary on foodservice operations in the United States and how to go about obtaining work. Having commenced my career in the late 1960s, the only thing I regret in life is that I didn’t move to the big city right away and apprentice underneath chefs in Los Angeles, CA. Instead, I spent many years working in a famed country club in the San Joaquin Valley before moving on to fine-dining chef’s jobs on Maui in the 1990s, then later on in Seattle, WA. It is important nowadays for one to graduate from the CIA Institutes of the Americas and not from a junior college as a fry cook. The problem is, it’s an EMPLOYER’S MARKET and not an EMPLOYEE’S due to the glut of junior college foodservice program graduates and rampant illegal immigrants working 2-3 jobs and diminishing the job and benefits opportunities. For those who came up the ranks in the traditional way, apprenticing under a master at a young age, he or she is beset by CIA and European graduates pushing down from above and junior college/illegal immigrant workers pushing up from the bottom. In the intervening No Man’s Land in between them, the workers like myself found ourselves trapped and all I can say is that the junior colleges need to stop cranking out fry cooks and the federal government needs to enforce the immigration laws. Back when I began my career, there was still government involvement in the law enforcement that made things good for the American workers and now that we have a BIG LABOR pretender in the White House who professes it’s for the Middle Class, we are in worse shape than ever! Thanks as always, Chef Brian Carrick, ACF Member, and WSCA, worked in California, Hawaii, and Washington State and briefly in Arizona. I commenced my career in the late 1960s as a busboy at age 12 and apprenticed to become a chef at age 17 in 1973. I’ve been in the industry for more than 40 years with another 10-15 to go.”
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