Job satisfaction is crucial to the pursuit of happiness and well-being. A job that requires you to utilize your weakest career skill will lead to immediate job dissatisfaction. Not only will you have difficulty performing certain tasks, but you will find it hard to get involved in your work, and will feel "under-utilized"--your strengths are not being emphasized. People should avoid jobs that require the use of your weakest career skill.
Someone who finds a job they love will never work a day in their life.
Utilizing your strongest career skill allows you to feel involved with your work and satisfied that you are operating "on all cylinders.". Your ideal job is one that utilizes your strengths, gives meaning and value to your best abilities, and avoids exploiting your weaknesses.
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From the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Outlook Handbook; Chefs, Cooks, and Food Preparation Workers ::
"Chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers prepare, season, and cook a wide range of foods - - from soups, snacks, and salads to entrees, side dishes, and desserts - - in a variety of restaurants and other food services establishments. Chefs and cooks create recipes and prepare meals, while food preparation workers peel and cut vegetables, trim meat, prepare poultry, and perform other duties such as keeping work areas clean and monitoring temperatures of ovens and stovetops.
In general, chefs and cooks measure, mix, and cook ingredients according to recipes, using a variety of pots, pans, cutlery, and other equipment, including ovens, broilers, grills, slicers, grinders, and blenders. Chefs and head cooks also are responsible for directing the work of other kitchen workers, estimating food requirements, and ordering food supplies."
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Regarding Experienced Chefs, Gallup researchers have documented the following, which I quote ::
Great chefs, for example, have a deep and enduring passion for food. Anthony Bourdain delectably described eating his first oyster in his best-selling book, Kitchen Confidential, like this:"Now, this was a truly significant event. I remember it like I remember losing my virginity -- and in many ways, more fondly."
When asked to name the three most important skills in the kitchen, Christopher Schlesinger, chef-owner of East Coast Grill in Cambridge, Mass. and author of four cookbooks, including License to Grill, rattles off three Gallup findings: teamwork, communication and sense of urgency.
Gallup also found out that truly great chefs don't simply order their kitchen staff around -- they also teach their art to others. Great chefs are adept at juggling so many varied tasks in a shift that failing to teach the other cooks how to maintain quality will ultimately hurt a restaurant's bottom line, says Nancy Jessup, executive chef at Mangia, a corporate caterer and specialty foods store in New York City.
But what truly distinguishes a great chef from a good one -- and great creative individuals from merely good ones -- has nothing to do with food and everything to do with numbers: Great chefs understand that the restaurant business is about money, Gallup determined.
Indeed, the great-chef selection profile shows that for any creative position an organization needs to fill, talent must be combined with good business sense. Adds Gallup profiler Miller: "What stood out for me was the business nature. Great chefs have the ability to make money with their food."
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Therefore if you are considering the professional kitchen as a career keep in mind the the following ::
A student of the professional kitchen should have the following 5 attributes:
(1) Physical stamina, keen sense of taste and smell and cleanliness
(2) Ability to work under pressure
(3) Decision making ability
(4) Problem solving ability
(5) A self motivated continuing interest to learn
And at a minimum, they should expect to:
- Develop a professional vocabulary of terms related to food and its preparation
- Learn and effectively practice advanced technical skills in food preparation
- Acquire professional caliber knife skills, organizational abilities, original recipe development abilities, and food presentation artistry
- Study non-culinary aspects of the foodservice industry including: sanitation, nutrition, food science, and food history And sustainable agriculture
- Learn professional foodservice management principles and applications including: budget creation, menu development, food costing, ordering and inventory control, staff scheduling and management
The following 20 questions will try to help you decide if you have culinary inclinations or not based on the 5 attributes listed above.
Please read the disclaimer I must post.
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