Career Tips Guides

You may dream that you want become a chef. It certainly can be an exciting career. Professional chefs create menus and dining experiences that people love. Some chefs prepare meals for celebrities or even royalty. Today, thanks to television, many chefs are celebrities in their own right, creating culinary product lines, hosting popular television shows, and writing best-selling cookbooks. And if you just want to become a chef to work in a local restaurant, you can find that you’ve chosen a satisfying career that offers skills that make others in your life happy as well.

If you want to become a chef, though, it might help you to determine exactly what type of culinary master you would like to be before you start on your path. There are several different types of chef you could opt to become. For example, an Executive Chef is responsible for directing all restaurant food production. He or she is the one who buys food, creates recipes, plans menus, oversees hygiene and kitchen safety and manages the staff at a restaurant. If the Executive Chef is the one in charge, the Sous Chef or the Chef de Partie is the right hand man or woman to the Executive Chef. The Sous Chef manages the preparation of food and cooks meals. He or she manages staff and helps with preparing food. In smaller restaurants, he or she may also prepare some menus and order food and supplies.

Perhaps you would like to become a chef who specializes in certain areas. Many restaurants hire a Pastry Chef, or Patissier, a professional who is solely in charge of creating tempting desserts and baked goods. Another specialty culinary arts professional is the Chef Saucier, which is the chef who is in charge of soups and sauces. This person needs mathematic skills, since determining precise measurements can be daunting to someone without this natural ability.

If you are artistically inclined, you may want to become a Chef Garde Manger, or a specialist in food styling. This type of professional creates works of art with food by sculpting and forming foods into beautiful creations. If you are just starting out and really want to become a chef but don’t have any skills built up yet, you may want to get hired as a Commis Chef. This entry-level position involves helping the professionals in the kitchen. You can often work your way up into bigger positions from this one.

Once you have decided what sort of professional chef you would like to become, you can choose the right culinary arts programs at the right college. You may want to speak to professionals in the field to find out where they went to school. You may also want to look at various culinary schools to find out which ones offer the best training. In general, if you want to become a chef, you will want to find a school whose graduates have gone on to do the sort of work you want to do. You will also want to find culinary programs taught by industry professionals you admire. When you graduate, your experience in the kitchen will matter for a great deal, so either look for a school that offers lots of hands-on practice or commit to finding your own work experiences outside the classroom.

If you want to become a chef, a degree in a culinary school can take from one to four years. This depends upon the type of education you are seeking and the type of chef that you want to become, as well as which school you opt to use for your program. You can get a culinary certificate in less than a year. You can get an associate culinary degree in about two years. If you want to get a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts, you will likely be studying for four years. All of these are good options if you want to become a chef, so do a bit of research and find the program that is right for you.

Andy West is a freelance writer for The Culinary Institute of Virginia College. Culinard offers two outstanding culinary school programs. Learn how to become a chef by attending one of the most prestigious culinary schools in the U.S. Please visit http://www.culinard.com .

I’m looking at going into the Air Force as a Flight Engineer. Is there anything you would recommend to me? Or more generally anything about the job I should know? I just wanted to get the opinion of someone who has been through it.

I assume from the way you worded your question that you are not yet in the Air Force. If so, you cannot join right into the flight engineer career field. Air Force Manual 36-2108 (Enlisted Classification) spells out the requirements necessary to gain entry into any AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code … job) that the Air Force offers. Page 111, Paragraph 3.5.2.2. states that, in order to be eligible for entry in the Flight Engineer career field (1A1×0), you must possess a prior 5- or 7-level skill qualification in either of the In-flight Refueling (Boom Operator - 1A0×0), Aircraft Loadmaster (1A2×0), Airborne Mission Systems (1A5×0), Manned Aerospace Maintenance (2Axxx), or Missile and Space Systems Maintenance (2M0×0) career fields, or possess a valid FAA Flight Engineer Certificate, FAA Pilot License or valid FAA Airframe & Power plant license or Aircraft Maintenance Technician license.

There has been talk about opening up the Flight Engineer career field to “first-termers”, but there has been no action taken as of yet that I am aware of. If you want to become a flight engineer, I would suggest you look at either the Loadmaster (1A2×0) or Boom Operator (1A0×0) career fields, and then retrain at the earliest possible time. Both are still aircrew and fly on the aircraft. I started out as a loadmaster, and then retrained to engineer.

You need to realize that the job of the flight engineer is to refuel aircraft, move cargo, etc. It is a job that centers on TDYs. Although, since 9/11 I’ve deployed more than gone TDY and staying in a hotel is now a treat instead of a desert brown tent. Again, you have to weight the benefits of a challenging job versus family separation.

The rewards go far beyond the tangible, however. At the end of the day you can see the end result of your work, you have moved your mission from point A to B. Since becoming an engineer, I have earned four Air Medals, two Aerial Achievement medals, and have been awarded the AF Outstanding Unit Award eleven times, twice with valor(getting shot at). My wife wasn’t thrilled to learn of that. Both events occurred over Afghanistan. I’ve flown 3 different aircraft and logged over 8,100 flight hours.

Making a good career choice is one I feel is very important. Today’s demands on the military are very strenuous. You can look up the job descriptions for every job in the Air Force via the regulation I previously quoted. I know this isn’t the answer you wanted, but you now have more information to take to your recruiter. This is obviously a career decision that is very important and will shape the future path your life takes. Please make sure you make an intelligent and well-informed decision.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for http://www.WarGear.info/. WarGear.info carries the best selection of military clothing, war gear, and combat accessories on the market.

Many people go into the music industry head first and heels up. They have no idea who to buddy up with, or what to do to get their name out there. Think about your career. Your biggest dream is probably to go to a recording studio and make your CD. However, who is going to buy it? Is it really professional enough to sell? How will anyone know who you are when they see your CD?

You have to get exposure. In truth, there is no promise in this industry. You just have to hope that you are heard by the right person. However, how are you going to be heard? Are you organized enough to impress those who hear? If you want to be in the music world, then you have to get a basic idea of how the industry works.

Before we go on, I would also suggest that you begin to read the many fine books on the music business. The more you know the more you will be prepared when success comes knocking at your door.

Many people believe that when they go to a local recording studio and create their record, they are ready to become famous. We all wish it were that simple, but it’s not. In truth, no matter how good your demo sounds, its never good enough until it has a professional label on it. This is where many people fall in the industry. How do you get a record company to sponsor you? It all starts with your demo.

The local recording studio is the first step to success.

Once you have recorded your music to the utmost professional quality, you may send it in to various record companies. What can you hope to achieve by doing this? Obviously you want a record deal, but do you really know what a record deal is? If a record company likes your music they will offer to give you time in their studio. They will do one of two things when they do this. If you show promise, and they believe that you have what it takes, they will loan you the money for the studio time. When you make money off of your record, you must pay them back with interest. Or they will offer you time in their studio that you may pay for yourself. Not just anybody can record in their studio so if you get the offer consider yourself lucky.

Advertising, Who Pays?

Once this has been completed, they will advertise your record through radio time, television, posters etc. This is important because most radio stations refuse to play any material that has not been solicited by a record company with good status. However, this service isn’t free. You must pay the record company back with interest for this as well. So where does the money come in?

Your first album is going to mainly be about getting exposed. You won’t make much money off of this project, but it will give buyers a reason to purchase your later records. This is how you make your money.

The biggest thing to remember is that if this were easy, every one would do it. If every one were noticed artists, there would be no money in the industry. Thus the reason many worthy musicians never get publicity. Just persevere, don’t give up, and you won’t have the burden of never obtaining your chance to fame and success.

The music business, it is a fascinating world and if you learn all you can you will be ready.

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