Work Experience

Today was my second-last day off before I head home. Today I got some serious packing done – one week until I leave! Time has certainly flown by, it is incredibly difficult to believe I have been here for over four months, put in nearly one thousand hours of work, and only need to walk into work six more times here!!! Wow!

Today I will talk a little bit about work experience. I came on this internship fully expecting to work my butt off. I wanted to gain as much experience and knowledge as possible in a fairly short period of time. To become a better cook and really get to know the restaurant life in just 4.5 months. I was away from home, taking this placement as a very serious part of my education (it is a mandatory 600 hours), and therefore willing to put in long hours and not have many days off. Of course as a student, they would not keep me for all hours of the day, and have to give me my two days off a week, but there were still times I pulled twelve plus hour days and worked nine days in a row. It really doesn’t matter to me, I just count my hours, adding them up as I would my paychecks. Every extra hour in the kitchen was like the equivalent of one more cooking bible to my collection – I could chose to read through every page of it, or I could leave it on a shelf. What I take away from this experience is up to me.

Recently I had a few coworkers question me. One was surprised I tended to come in at 11:00a.m. and not leave until 11:00p.m. Another couldn’t believe I was in early when I was told I could come in later. Another questioned how I could just work all day without breaks. As I am not a smoker, I do not need frequent smoke breaks. I just take my water breaks and meal breaks and bathroom breaks as needed, and get straight back to work. I don’t see the point in dallying around when there are things to be done. It makes me look bad, especially if I am in charge of a section and don’t have everything ready on time. I would rather go in early and take my time, get ahead, ensure everything is done without rushing like crazy, and then if I do manage this, then I can take a break or take it easy and chat with coworkers. And hard work certainly pays off – don’t think it ever goes unnoticed, because it doesn’t!

Me on the run - busy at work. I think I accidentally took this photo while trying to quickly get a photo of a dish....whoops, I never was very good at selfies.