Working in the food industry is fucking awful, trust me. Hardest work you'll ever do and its so fucking boring. Only people with a criminal record takes those jobs.

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line cook

I work the line (cooking steaks, scallops, pastas, salads, etc.) and do prep (making soups, cakes, prepping line stuff)

I also do random cleaning stuff and help on dishes.

I get $14/h plus tip out which averages $2/h. it's not great pay but it's not poverty tier. When I was working fulltime I would work on average maybe 37 hours a week, sometimes less sometimes more. I've worked 50+ hour weeks.

I thoroughly enjoyed it for about 2 years. Then I started to feel uninterested in it and a bit of a dead end and I went back to school.

You do work with some fun coworkers and if you like food, it is genuinely a fulfilling job. The feeling of making a special and it selling well and people saying they like it is amazing. I do miss that. But it's also stressful as fuck and frankly the work culture in kitchens is bullshit. Some people literally kill themselves working so hard and it's just how it is. Sick days? forget about it unless you're in some corporate hotel restaurant. vacation? maybe 2 weeks a year.

The more you move up the more it sucks away your life. once you become sous chef and then head chef your entire life will revolve around work.

I love cooking and I'm really glad for my time working in kitchens, but it's not something you want to do for your whole life. It's a solid transition career for your 20s or as a side job for extra cash and excitement.

I've been a busboy, a server, a prep cook, a chef, an assistant manager, and a general manager. I had about 9 years of experience in the industry.

In the order that I listed those positions the hours, the work, and the responsibility increased.

The higher up you get the more hours you work where you aren't actually compensated for them. As a GM I was salaried at 45 hours yet often worked 60+ hours a week. My health/dental benefits sucked. If those are the kind of benefits you're talking about. Eating free food isn't really a benefit and depending on where you work it's difficult. As you want to control food costs you can't really eat infront of employees without them getting annoyed.

I love working in kitchens and around food. I'm actually a really good cook. I work very well in stressful environments. Keyword "I", but the problem is dealing with and handling other people. I still love cooking and it'd a dream to open my own place one day but it won't happen because I know how much a headache it can be. I can easily make more money doing something that requires less hours, less stress, and better benefits. Not to mention actual holidays. Oh and the "customer is always right" thing is really annoying. Getting walked on by people and taking it gets real old. I can cook at home and enjoy cooking that way. As a career I would advise against it unless you have no other choice.

>>17196980
>>17197021
>>17197038

So far it sounds like my some of my concerns were right. I'm curious then: What do you guys do now?

>>17197159
I'm >>17197038

30 years old by the way. Electro-mechanical technician for the last two years. Currently oil field services. I'll hang on here as long as I can. Will probably do this as long as I can and just transition to another industry if I have to.

The pay scale is substantially higher than anything I'd ever find in a restaurant. Even at the bottom here I still make more than I made at the top in a restaurant. Plus like I said I get tons of holidays, vacation time, and great benefits. I get 12 paid holidays off and about 3 weeks worth of vacation time. I worked like 3 days in December last year and still got paid the entire month. As a GM in a restaurant I was guaranteed Thanksgiving and Christmas off. Any other time off I had I could expect a phone call because something got fucked up, someone called in, or there was some minor problem.