Whats your REAL job?

[MamaMootz]

Silly question: why go to school for a job in the restaurant industry? You don't need a degree to do this. Even management. Seriously.

Because it's culinary school I'm going to - I'll be attending the culinary institute of america since I want to hone my cooking skills since I want to work in a kitchen as a cook, chef, baker, actually preferably pastry chef.

[Jester]

You know...im not liking this mental image im getting at the moment. It burns.

I do so try.

Because it's culinary school I'm going to...

Ah. Now that makes sense. Had you said you were going to bartending school or some kind of hospitality or restaurant management program, I would have probably laughed at you. Culinary school, however, is something I cannot and will not mock.

[Aethian]

Specially not with the chance of burning oneself with molten sugar. *shivers* Once...only going to do that once.

[protege]

When I still had the paper route, I'd get the "get a real job" crap from the local kids all the time. Of course, at least I could shoot back with "and where do YOU work?" Had that job all through school, until my senior year of high school. By then, the newspaper was out of business. Yet I was still making money as a "news courier" (my former route manager brought me along when he switched jobs) and working at the dreaded Hechinger's. End of that year, I'd saved up enough cash, to not only travel a bit...but buy my first car (the Tercel) as well. Fake job, my ass

[SG15Z]

Could you imagine the chaos, riots and panic that would ensue if everyone making minimum wage were to pull a 1 day general strike?

It would be like a combination of christmas/the rapture for anarchists; cities, entire civilizations would go down in flames!

I don't want to. The whole world would collapse in the chaos.

[Kristev]

Not the whole world, just corporate structure.

[MamaMootz]

I do so try.

Ah. Now that makes sense. Had you said you were going to bartending school or some kind of hospitality or restaurant management program, I would have probably laughed at you. Culinary school, however, is something I cannot and will not mock.

Nope, I already have the degree in business which really hasn't done much for my career at all. I'm miserable working in an office, so I had a sit down with myself and said "what do I love?" and cooking immediately came to the forefront.

Since I've worked in offices for too many years to count, though, no one really wants to hire me to work in a kitchen, particularly in the current job market, even though I'd happily haul trash or chop veggies or do whatever.

Specially not with the chance of burning oneself with molten sugar. *shivers* Once...only going to do that once.

Do I want to know what happened in this story? Is there a cautionary tale of which I should be made aware before i start working with molten sugar?

[EvilEmpryss]

Don't pour it on delicate bodyparts?

[Aethian]

Do I want to know what happened in this story? Is there a cautionary tale of which I should be made aware before i start working with molten sugar?

It was a case of visiting highschool students to a large college that had their own classes for culinary goodness. A particular chef vastly out numbered now then any other day, A goofball who only signed up to get out of classes for the day, four college seniors, and me.

Lets just say that idiot learned more then I when everyone is telling to pour the sugar slowly onto the mat you don't try doing anything fancy with pick up pan, tilt pan. He got far more burned then I.

[infinitemonkies]

I'm pretty sure that at the very least if every fast food place in any major city were to all close on the same day martial law would have to be declared.

[zara1269]

I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again. My friend Popcorn is a bartender, and some of his friends used to occasionally ask him that question. "When are you going to get a real job?" Finally one day he snapped, and basically told them, "Look, you asshole. I HAVE a real job. I love what I do every day, and I actually make more than you do at your "real" job. So piss off." They pretty much shut up about "real" jobs after that.

Myself, I have never, EVER held a real job. I have been a bartender, waiter, busser, food runner, cook, disc jockey, magician, restaurant manager, call center representative, and retail clerk, but I have never, EVER, had a 9-5 office job that these nitwits consider "real." And frankly, I have had a much more interesting, enjoyable, and fun life than most of them. So, as my friend Popcorn might say, these people can fuck off.

I do find that as a bartender I get this particular derision less than I did as a server, probably because most people, no matter how stupid, are not stupid enough to fuck with the person who is controlling their alcohol.



Silly question: why go to school for a job in the restaurant industry? You don't need a degree to do this. Even management. Seriously.



Yeah, she was a rude wench, but to her credit, at least she was showing her kids that that kind of job is respectable and teaches responsibility, or something like that. She was misguided, and said it in a very inappropriate manner, but at least she didn't use you as an example of what NOT to become.

Yes she was. That's why she looked directly at me when she said it. She and I never cared for each other to begin (ok the whole staff and her never cared for one another) with so that was her dig into me I think. Trust me, she degraded all the staff at just about every visit or so.

[Jester]

Is there a cautionary tale of which I should be made aware before i start working with molten sugar?

To use a ridiculously popular saying on this site in a far more literal sense than it usually gets used: "It burns! It burns!"

[Becks]

Could you imagine the chaos, riots and panic that would ensue if everyone making minimum wage were to pull a 1 day general strike?

Too bad I don't make min. wage...but then, I'm not horribly far above it.

[Magpie]

Lets just say that idiot learned more then I when everyone is telling to pour the sugar slowly onto the mat you don't try doing anything fancy with pick up pan, tilt pan. He got far more burned then I.

This idiot (well, klutz) also learned the hard way that when taking stained glass cookies out of the oven, you can't tap the stained glass part after only a couple of minutes. Yes, it's fine with the cookies themselves, but they aren't still at well over 100C, nor will they STICK to you, and then make a hard shell (with burning on the inside) when you run your finger under the cold water tap.

[Green_Fairy]

yay burning sugar...sounds a lot like burning plastic. i got to deal with that when i was testing printers...

i guess i'm lucky tho...i've never had a customer tell me to get a real job. if they do, tho...i can tell them i'm doing exactly what i want to do in life. i love my job. i don't stare at a wall all day, crunching pointless numbers. i have a challenge every day. i know exactly what i want to do with my life and i'm doing it. i tried school. not my thing. gr. i hate people that need to belittle other people to feel good.