Career Change Help

[Rob1]

Hi folks, I am a newbie and I thought what better place than this to share to you an important crossroad/dilemma that I have now and maybe seek some guidance.

I am a marketing professional (consumer goods) with an MBA and right now I am between jobs. The thing is, I do not feel the passion for my job anymore and more and more I am obsessed about foods and cooking. I think I am very able in the home kitchen (knife skills, cooking techniques, general food knowledge, etc..) and I am thinking to make a move into a food related career.

I am not sure how to approach this as I am uncertain of how life in a professional kitchen would be like. I actually volunteered to work for free in a nice restaurant in my town but they did not need help. I guess I would like to know if there is a way for someone like me to try the restaurant environment without the culinary school path, and if so, how do you approach an establishment and what are the protocols if any.

In leui of working in a kitchen, are there any other food related careers that can benefit from any transferable skills from someone with a business background?

Hope I am making some sense here and would be very greatful to hear some words of wisdom out there.....

Thanks

Rob

[MarkIsCooking]

Rob -
I suggest you think long and hard about leaving the business world and going into a professional kitchen. Generally speaking, much lower pay, worse benefits, difficult career pathing and on and on.

If you have a good business mind and an MBA, it seems like there are literally dozens of directions you could take. It's hard to make specific suggestions here, knowing almost nothing about you. Maybe it would be worth an hour with a career counselor (perhaps available free to you from where you got your MBA) to just brainstorm various options.

In terms of spending time in a pro kitchen, if you really want to try that, keep knocking on doors. I've done it. I kept trying high end, smaller restaurants and I did find some that would let me hang out for a day or 2.

Best of luck,

Mark