Michael wrote to me today and sounded as if he was heart broken due to the fact that, after he has now reached a certain level, has been over looked for a promotion as he has been told that he does not have a formal education in the culinary field. He explained to me that he has been cooking for 10 years, worked in numerous countries, even on a private yacht and now that he has landed a plum job in a 5 star international chain hotel has unfortunately been told that he has reached a level where he is unable to escalate further. He also explained to me that some chefs who have just recently graduated from school, have now received better promotions unfairly as he believes they can’t cook anywhere near as good as he.
I would like to offer my 2 cents worth of advice and opinion here by starting to answer this question on a personal note. I always believe that others feel heart warmed by the fact that people understand their disgruntled feelings and have gone through it them selves thereby knowing how they feel. I am such a person, so I can open my closet a little and tell you that I have qualifications from a hotel school and went to college for 3 years before graduating. I do not however have a degree in business, what I do have is 34 years of practical experience in overall hotel operations which have sent me on a journey through the school of very hard knocks.
I had reached the stage in my career where I had been an Executive Chef for over 12 years and then there were Food & Beverage Managers that were coming out of school with degrees and certificates to show how clever they were…and were now my new supervisors whom were now going to tell me how I should conduct myself and how I should do my job.
It never made sense to me that I would not have a say on how the department was going to be run after so many years in the game and that this fresh graduate with no experience at all would be guiding the company in the right direction when it came to making money. Unfortunately some of the larger chain hotels have certain criteria built in to their manuals that state what qualifications you must have to be confirmed for certain positions and they are not flexible with this criteria, experience seems to count for little I am afraid.
However the good news is this, not every company has the same philosophy and we all have to find the company most suited to the way we work or most suited to the way we like to manage. I have no animosity towards Food & Beverage Managers I truly don’t, but it did not make business sense to me at the time as they just did not have the experience to make the right decisions at the right moment. In life you only get better and gain more experience by either making mistakes yourself or watching others make them and then taking notes so you don’t do the same. Standing by watching my boss making the same mistakes that I had made years ago was taking its toll on me and as I did not see this changing, I decided to move on, find a job as a Food and Beverage Manager myself and I have never looked back.
Michael has to do the same, he has but a few choices to choose from and they in my opinion are as follows:
He can go to his present employer and explain to them his worth, tell them he does not have the culinary qualifications needed to go further and request his employers to help him go through school, even offering to sign a longer contract so that the company can get back their return of investment. If his employer does not agree, then he must slowly look around for an employer who has different priorities, as in my experience many of them do.
Some companies for example like their General Managers to sit in the office all day and do reports for them to read, some hate this approach and want them to be available for the customers thereby hiring a secretary to type all the reports, some hotels today even put the General Managers office right in the lobby.
When he does find another position and he hands in his notice, he must still handle himself in a professional manner, never leaving on a bitter note due to the fact that he never knows when one day he has the qualifications and he may want to return to the same hotel.
Michael, the bottom line is this, nobody can tell you that you are finished, nobody can tell you that you have reached a dead end or that you can’t progress further, its just that you can’t do it with them. The only person that decides what you can and can not do is YOU. Nobody can convince you to believe that you are a Chocolate Chef if you KNOW that you are a Golden Chef. You must go and look for another employer who understands your worth, who deserves your commitment and understands that the most important trait about being a great cook is that you can cook.
Michael….Happy cooking young man.
Now you put it like this it makes sense why some chefs go on to be F & B managers. The CDP that I worked under years ago has gone for that career route too. When the F & B manager left at my previous hotel the executive chef merged that role into his own which is another way to do it. It definitely streamlines the decision proccesses.
Thanks for the link!
Unfortunately James what you are saying is correct, we really have to try and ensure that being a chef/hotelier is sought after with more glamour than it is today. I think that when more hotels open world wide, with many more people wanting to travel coupled with less people wanting to join the industry, this will ensure that standards in hotels will slide as the struggle to employ quality employees gets more difficult. What could be more important in a chefs role than the fact he can cook? I am not talking about the Executive Chef as they need to manage the operation as well, but Michael is only a Commis.
And please do not get me started on the topic of Tevelevision Chefs.
Its a pleasure to link to your site James, why not? its a pleasure to be associated with such good work. well done to you!
It is an old tale. Experience Vs. Recent degree.
The deciding factor should be WISDOM, which is a quality that
comes from applying experiences, combined with intelligence,
to one’s decision making processes, to effect a positive
outcome.
For me – I want experience first, to mentor the recent degree.
Very well said Paul, when I first left hotel school and went back to my hotel, the Executive Chef told me that, “now you have the papers I am happy for you, now I will teach you how to cook”. I think the papers may help you get the job, but it will not help you keep it.
“I think the papers may help you get the job, but it will not help you keep it” – I love this! Happy New Year!
Dear Alisa,
Yes it seems as if you know the business as well and have a good handle on the culture.
Thanks for dropping by and a Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
Warm regards,
Mike.
Hi Michael
The particular bit of this blog that rung a real chord with me was as follows:
Unfortunately some of the larger chain hotels have certain criteria built in to their manuals that state what qualifications you must have to be confirmed for certain positions and they are not flexible with this criteria, experience seems to count for little I am afraid.
I wrote about this “problem” on my blog some time ago (here, in case you want to look http://www.trainingreality.co.uk/blog/systems-undermine-sense.php) and, for me, the depth of the problem seems to be directly related to the size of the organisation – the larger the organisation, the less likely they are to allow people to make decisions based on common sense, and the more likely they are to suffer the unintended consequences of their rules and regulations.
I’m currently (as governor of a small primary school) involved in the recruitment process for a new headteacher. If there was ever a better example of systems and processes, rules and regulations, getting in the way of smart decision making, I’d be surprised!
Take care, and keep blogging and tweeting!
Hi Simon,
Very nice and informative post with a great article included as well.
You are exactly right when you say that common sense is not always taken into consideration.
When I was Executive Chef in some of the top hotels here in Asia, they decided to put the food and beverage manager in charge as they had more college qualifications.
Unfortunately they had no experience either and the hotel trade as we know it was thrown into disarray.
That was the time when I decided to go the other route, switched over to wearing a suit and I am luckily now a GM.
James, I truly believe that people like you and I, who have the experience, knowledge and hope, are the only chance left for the hospitality business to survive.
Many years ago hospitality business was derived from being hospitable, then it changed to an accounts paradise where the bottom line was all that mattered.
Now, low and behold, customers want to be treat as though they are someone, as though they are important and they want to know we care about them.
Gone are the days where people only care about Internet connection, bargains, facilities and robot hotels.
Its going to be people like you and I James that save the industry.
We cannot give up buddy, we cannot.
Sincere and warm regards,
Mike.
Well, paper qualifications are essential to most establishment (esp.in Singapore).. whether you like it or not; that’s the fact of life in Asian society.
I was engaged in cooking since I was 17. When I was near 30, I have made even money to set up a restaurant & I became a Chef Owner. But still with 13 years of hands-on kitchen experience, that is not good for the local industry. I ambit to teach & share my culinary experience, finally, I decided to leave this country for Australia to work in a Celebrity Chef’s restaurant & at the same time do a Culinary Certificate in Hospitality. I finally attained a Certificate III in hospitality (Commercial Cookery) in 2008; I was already 36 years old. I returned to Singapore, and do a Cambridge Diploma in Teaching & Training so that I could teach culinary. But then again, after these internationally certification & diploma, STILL, I was told by the local authority I am not good enough to become a Culinary Lecturer in a government-run culinary institute unless I do a local WSQ Culinary Diploma or another local training certificate ACTA. I was offered an assistant trainer position, but I didn’t want to..
How can a qualification awarded from the Australian National Trade Skill authority and a Teaching/Training Diploma awarded by the University of Cambridge, U.K be inferior than that of those local qualifications, I wonder?
Anyway, I decided to prove the local authorities wrong by building up my own profile; in my own way, that is to showcase my culinary skills in a worldwide platform in soon to come…
But then, and hopefully.. hands-on experience can outdo the importance mindset of paper qualification..