I am patiently awaiting the 11th of January. Why, do you ask? Well, in a few short weeks I'm going to be shadowing chefs at a pretty upscale restaurant in Harvard. I'm talking four $ signs and 4.5 out of 5 stars on Yelp and Google reviews, $70 three-course dinner menus and octopus listed as a regular dinner item. I'll start by learning the ropes of prepping vegetables/meat for dinner, how to handle super sharp knives and stand in one spot for hours on end. I will then (hopefully) advance from prepmaster (copywright me, 2013) to novice chef, working the dinner hours on the weekends, and more nights if I wish. I'm super excited to take this next step to see if becoming a chef is the next step I should take in my career!
How did I nail such a gig? As summer wound down to fall wound down to winter, I found myself with increasingly more time on my hands. I am totally relishing in these free hours, but as you may already know, I'm a planner at heart. Rarely do I sit idle and not plan ahead, whether it be laying out work for the rest of my workday, planning after work and week activities, or rationing out my precious Paid Time Off hours in the form of mini-vacations over long weekends. By mid-November, I'm in full planning mode for Spring adventures.
It seems like nearly everyone around me is taking classes to further their education. I don't have a particular interest to obtain a masters for the following reasons, take 'em or leave 'em:
1. I'm told a Masters degree in engineering puts you outside of certain job's salary ranges. Furthermore, the salary increase is not substantial, at least compared to the salary increase that comes with completing a doctorate program. As much as I would love to have "Dr." in front of my name I don't know if I have time to obtain one, as determined by my rough life plan. Don't get me wrong - I am beyond impressed and jealous of those that know exactly what they want to do after they obtain various degrees or even what subject they want to get a degree in. In undergrad, I waited until nearly the last possible moment to declare a major, and all of my top choices were drastically different - I could have wound up as a Build-Your-Own-Major in fashion design, if I listened to my first-semester sophomore self. So I really don't know how you people even pick programs/majors/careers. To argue more to this point, see reason #2.
I am aware that these lives we lead are unpredictable, but if there's one thing I do know, it's that life is too short to bury my face in a textbook for the larger part of the day.
2. I have many, many, many interests. I don't see myself staying in engineering for a huge part of my career, as I would like to see where my passions in other industries may take me. The rough life plan laid out for my thirty- and forty-somethings unfortunately does not involve engineering. I couldn't be happier with my current job but I know that all good things end eventually. I do not see the ending to this current career any time soon, but as stated previously, I like to stay fully prepared for whatever may strike my fancy days/months/years from now.
3. Even in this economy, it is entirely possible to educate yourself for free. Textbooks do not immerse yourself in your possible future career in the same way as diving head first into your next career. In the year 2013 there are alternatives to "traditional" classroom education. Whether you check out online teaching portals or snag yourself an internship, you are already in less financial debt than the guy sitting next to you.
Along this same vein, college was four years of learning about personal and interpersonal situations, interests, and passions. I don't look back at college and think fondly of abstract algebra homework, I look back at college and thing of all the incredible/ridiculous trouble I got myself into with my best of friends.
Yikes, that was quite the tangent. TL;DR - formal, costly education is not for me at this point in my life.
Anywho, it may be cultivated by my cooking adventures over the past year or it may have come from watching various cooking shows on the Food Network, but I have become more and more curious about my inner chef. What if, with a bit of training, I could be the next big-name female chef? To quote some smart guy: you never know until you try.
One random afternoon, curiosity got the better of me and I began Googling restaurants around town that I may want to be a sous chef at. Similar to college applications, I emailed some "reach" restaurants and some "safety" restaurants, and surprisingly the one email I received was from a "reach" restaurant. The HR and admin manager I spoke to this past week seems to know his stuff. He noted that he has employed four engineers as cooks, remarking that cooking and engineering share similar characteristics - preciseness, mathematics, multitasking, etc. He also noted that I will be learning to slice and dice quickly and precisely, a dance that chefs master before even shadowing a night shift -- an education that is not available at chain restaurants (he offhandedly mentioned an above average chain restaurant as an example!). He said that an equal number of employees come from culinary school or straight off the street, which validates point #3 above. I was growing more and more excited throughout the conversation -- what an incredible opportunity!
So now we play the waiting game. Luckily December usually ends up being the busiest month of the year, and in due time you will be reading a blog post about my first prep shift!
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