How to Market Yourself after Culinary School

So, you’ve graduated or are about to graduate from culinary school—Congratulations! But, now what? As you prepare to begin the career you have worked so hard for, you need to understand the importance of effectively marketing yourself. If you plan to succeed in the food service industry you ought to start thinking of yourself as a freelance agent, and, most importantly, you need to have a clear cut set of goals.

First of all, you need to ask yourself a few questions: What city do you wish to live in? What aspect of the restaurant industry do you wish to enter? Do you want to work in a restaurant or a hotel? What are your long term service-industry goals? Perhaps you’d like to work in a different country or on a cruise ship. Maybe you’d like to qualify for a loan and go into business for yourself. Or perhaps the prospect of becoming a personal chef with a variety of clients may be what you’re most interested in. Knowing these answers is the first step in the marketing effort that will land you the job you want!

While you are in the process of earning your degree, take advantage of the career resources at your school. Prospective employers flock to fresh graduates, so there is no better time to market yourself than immediately after graduation. Spend time your school’s career center and make sure you keep yourself updated on job fairs, on-campus interviews, and other marketing opportunities.

Luckily, the electronic age makes the opportunities to market yourself and find a job easier than ever. Perhaps it’s best to start checking out websites like the National Restaurant Associate: www.restaurant.org, and the International Council on Restaurant, Hotel, and Institutional Education www.chrie.org. These sites provide a general idea of the types of jobs that are out there in the food service industry and the best places to start you on your career path. Other excellent online resources include sites like Monster.com or Craisglist.org. These and other “classified ad” sites are updated daily and provide the food-service job-hunter with some of the best resources to get started. We also suggest that you create a polished resume and post it online as well.

If you have the time, you may also want to check out some books like Marry Donovan’s Careers for Gourmets & Others Who Relish Food, or Mary Masi’s Culinary Arts Career Starter. These are excellent resources and contain a lot of comprehensive information and insider knowledge on how to best succeed in the food-service industry.

The best advice we can give the recent culinary school graduate about looking for a job is to always have a healthy attitude and a winning smile. In the food service industry it’s all about pleasing the customers with an enjoyable dining experience, and there’s no better way to prove you can do that than to put a smile on your face when you meet of your prospective employers. Good luck and happy cooking!