Job advice: which job to take?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My goal is to open my own restaurant within the next 5-7 years. Most everything I do in the interim is to get as close to this goal as possible. While I’ve accepted the fact that I’ll have to be the primary chef in the early years, being The Cook is not my ultimate goal and I’d be plenty happy letting someone else take care of the dirty work.

I have three years of experience as a lead line cook in a very big, very expensive fish restaurant, where I trained and supervised just about everyone but the Chef and the Sous.

Two weeks ago, I moved to a new city and accepted a job as line cook in cheaper, far more casual fish joint. The new restaurant opens this weekend, when I start work. And, of course, other job offers from my job search are coming in, meaning I don’t get to relax just yet.

Fish Joint: Pros
[ul]
[li]Very, very laid back management and very cool coworkers. Understanding with vacation time, willing to accomodate set schedules, etc etc.[/li][li]Management is very open to suggestions, meaning I get some creative freedom in what I cook, and if I press hard enough, I can really make an impact on the menu and test my own dishes to see how they sell.[/li][li]Within biking distance[/li][li]Actual, real, honest-to-god cooking, which I enjoy and means I am proud of the product I produce. And somewhat in line with the kind of business I want to own myself, one day.[/li][/ul]

Fish Joint: Cons
[ul]
[li]Not seeing a lot of room for advancement.[/li][li]In terms of responsibility, a step backwards because I am supervising no one.[/li][/ul]

New job: Pros
[ul]
[li]Management position with responsibilities equal to my old job, so technically a step backwards, but not by a lot.[/li][li]Lots of room for growth, since they’re always expanding and opening new locations[/li][li]Unknown distance, but very possibly biking distance (several new locations opening up, including one very close to home)[/li][/ul]

New Job: Cons
[ul]
[li]It’s fast food. Granted, it’s one of the newer fast food joints that’s actually pretty good, but still. Supervising mindless automatons is not my idea of fun.[/li][li]Not nearly the type of food service I want to eventually operate myself.[/li][li]It’s fast food. Ugh.[/li][/ul]

So, I’m seeking all manner of thoughts and opinions on what to do. I really want to keep the fish joint job, but am not sure it’s the smartest option career-wise. What do you think?

2

Money will be a key issue. With the credit crunch the more cash you can save the better your ability will be when it comes to loans.

Benefits are your second issue. What about time off, hours to be worked, 401K plans and such.

Until you have two or more offers it’s hard to compare.

3

I’m confused. Haven’t you chosen already?

“Two weeks ago, I moved to a new city and accepted a job as line cook in cheaper, far more casual fish joint.”

4

I’d go for option A because it’s closer to what you want, and where you hope to go.

5

Yes, but I can quit. I haven’t even worked the first shift for them.

6

One question is: which one will let you learn more about how to operate your own restaurant? (Not the cooking end, but the business end).

7

If you’re working towards opening your own place what does it matter if it’s a step forward or a step backward? It’s a matter of developing skills and resources (cash) that will let you do that.

8

The choice seems obvious; while the current job doesn’t offer you the management experience you’d like, turnover in the restaurant business is sufficiently high that it you’re there for a year or two and are shown to be dependable you’ll get management duties whether you want them or not. It also allows you experience in not only cooking the kind of food you want to make in your future restaurant but test dishes and not only see how they are accepted by customers but also how profitable they are. (A popular dish that is expensive or time consuming to make may not be worth keeping on a menu for the trouble it takes to produce it.) It sounds like the current job will also allow you the opportunity to get involved in the off-line aspects of commercial food service, i.e. provisioning, negotiating with suppliers, maintaining equipment, et cetera, even if it doesn’t offer you management experience.

It sounds like the other (fast food) position is a franchise or corporate operation, which will limit your opportunities to get involved in the above activities. Cooking food you have no pride in is also just no fun; it is purely a grind that leaves you drained instead of jazzed.

Unless you want to operate a franchise or chain and want the business exposure of that kind of operation, I’d say it is a no-brainer that the fast food job gives you nothing. In terms of career advancement, since you aren’t planning to stay at either place long term, unless there is a substantial pay difference that will limit your ability for future plans, you should go with the job that provides you the opportunity to learn practical skills.

Stranger

9

I think I’d go with the fish joint. There’s more opportunity there than meets the eye–especially the chance to push your own dishes, and sort of test-market them.

10

Here’s something else to consider:

opening your own restaurant, other than being really really really hard, also takes a lot of money to accomplish. Do you have or are you expecting to have somewhere between $100,000 and $300,000 lined up in 5-7 years?
If the answer is no, then you’re going to need investors. Whether it’s the bank, a lending group, or a crazy wealthy uncle, you’ll need to somehow convince them that you’re up to the really really really hard task and have the capabilities of making it succeed.

So what job will help you develop your skillsets necessary to convince them of this?

11

Having “your own dishes” is less significant than it may sound. While many medium-to-high end establishments may have an exotic signature dish or a few, as a general rule restaurants (other than niche venues like vegan restaurants) fill their menus with stock selections that are identifiable to the public. This is why “ethnic” restaurants like “Chinese” and “Indian” all have what appears to be damn near the same menus as each other, even those the cuisines of China and the Indian subcontinent are some of the most varied and ethnically differentiated on the planet. I can go to practically any “Chinese”(-American) restaurant and order “General Tsao’s Chicken” and get the same deep-fried, syrup-coated chicken nuggets, even though no true Chinaman has ever eaten such a dish.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but a restaurant rarely makes or breaks based upon the composition of the menu; what allows a restaurant to succeed on a food basis is the consistency of the finished product, the appeal of presentation, and the quality of the ingredients, in that order. (Obviously, the quality of service, the ability to distinguish itself in the local culinary milieu of choice, and of course, location, also play a significant part in success.)

As for the plans of the o.p., if he has the experience that he indicates, he most certainly knows what a difficult and all-consuming business running a restaurant is. He is clearly approaching this in the intelligent manner, i.e. learning the business from the kitchen outward, rather than (as with many would-be restaurateurs) coming up with a cool marketing concept and assuming that the details of running a food shop will sort themselves out, which easily puts him ahead of ninety percent of the people out there.

Stranger

12

Which place will allow you the best co-workers, from which you can poach in the future for your own restaurant?

The best chef in Pittsburgh moved from place to place till he made enough of his own $ (I don’t think he had investors) to open his own place. In his new place, I see (on the website, I haven’t been there yet, it’s been open less than a month) all of these familiar sous chefs and faces from the best restaurants in the area. It’s like him bopping around from place to place from 20-early 30’s means he instilled in these people an admiration and respect for him that enabled him to poach them from their current workplaces. Seems like a winning design to me.

13

Sorry for the delay in responding; I have to tether internet from my phone to post here, and reached my bandwidth limit a few days ago. I declined the fast food job, but yet another offer has rolled in from a very famous beachfront resort resort. It’s in a management capacity similar to my old job, but the quality of the food is embarassing low and the level of creative freedom allowed seems minimal. Hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and kid food are the focus of the menu, but the upside is that I’d be working on the “sun deck”.

If the job responsibilities include food ordering and maintaining contracts with suppliers, I’ll likely take it. Those are the key areas that I am lacking experience in that would really help my resume. Additionally, this is an enormous resort with several dining options, so the opportunity to advance within the same company is definitely there.

Hopefully, I can find some way to keep both jobs. I can’t stress enough how much fun the fish job appears, and just how much flexibility and control they’re allowing me from day one. I’m going to talk with the GM and discuss my future plans, and see if there’s any way I could gradually assume more responsibilities in the future.

As an aside, Stranger on a Train, I really admire the way you write.

14

Have you actually opened a restaurant? $100K might get you enough to furnish your kitchen, $300K might keep you open for a few weeks. Unless you’re going to debt-finance your new restaurant (and hopefully the financial climate will be more friendly toward that in 5 - 7 years), having less than half a million seems outrageously optimistic. Even if you’re going to finance a good portion of it on credit, you need enough cash flow to cover yourself for a good long time, and you’ve got to show the bank that you’ve put up enough that this will hurt you BAD if it falls through, that way you have an incentive to make it work no matter what it takes.

Good luck to you, Rex, but definitely do your homework.