Man, I only been working as an accountant for 3 months since my graduation and I already hate it. The work has been stressful and not interesting. Basically, I sit at my desk and stare at my monitor for 8hrs everyday. Sometimes, there would be meeting, but it's nothing interesting. I am already sick of getting up in the morning and going to work. I don't know if I can work as an accountant for 40+ years. Recently, I been looking into culinary, and I find it very interesting. This could be the path that I want to go on because my strength has always been in art. However, I don't know how much risk I would bear if I were to go into the field of culinary. Are anyone familiar with this field? schools and salary?
well, first establish if it's just an interest or more than that. although i really enjoy immersing myself in some of my hobbies i'm not sure if i could do it as a career. maybe you could first take a few culinary classes and even participate in some sort of contest and see how your interest grows from there? my advice would be to start slow. i wouldn't rush into something to find out i also hate it as much as the accounting job. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos161.htm hope that link helps. i used it to do research for a project. there's way too much info or i would have pasted it here. ps. does that mean (you being an accountant) you have that universal accountant's license (something like that; sorry, don't exactly know the name) and although you have a boring job, what do you do? maybe i'll want to be an accountant. i still don't know :(
uhm... culinary's a big field... if ur good... ur looking at 6 digit salaries easily... ur best option is Las Vegas if you want to do culinary... they have a good school there and once ur done, you basically work in one of the hotels and get a decent salary that should rival your current accountant salary to start... you can then move on to bigger jobs after some more experience, start your own restaurant, work as a restaurant manager since you already have a business background, etc... the hardship is... working in a kitchen... after all, if u can't stand the heat...
Culinary School is expensive. My friend knows people who went to culinary school and graduate in debts, but some who graduate and do fine. Its up to you. Do the research and work hard. Did you want to own a restaurant? or make very nice food in a high end restaurant?
I agree, you really need to "Test the waters" first no point spending so much time and money to hate something too and although you will probebly always be able to get a job it will be hard to get the higher paying positions unless you are AWESOME, never as much as an accountant
Depending on where you are (or where you plan to study culinary), one thing about studying and getting qualification and/or credentials for culinary is constant: you will have to suffer through a very UNREWARDING period, which often is very long (to accumulate enough experience). And you say you are sick of getting up in the morning and going to work? I guess then culinary wouldn't be your choice of occupation since being a chef means you need to get up at 5am and start preparing, at least during the long period of time while you are an apprentice. You need to be extremely passionate about cooking in order to justify the effort to yourself since it takes a lot of effort and is often unrewarding, and it doesn't pay well AT ALL in the beginning (you practically only get paid to cover transportation and rent).
THanks for all your suggestions and comments. To Chickenutbread: I think you mean the CPA. I don't have that yet. I have to study for it. It's probably going to cost me 4 to 5 grands to prepare for it and take the test. To Aoes and Nunubutt: Yea, that's what I want to do. Have my own restaurant to manage. Be my own boss. you know what I mean. ANother thing, Cooking is universial, accounting is not. THanks Smallrinilady. To Hiake: I feel like I have nothing to look forward to when I get up every morning. It's like "here we go again", kind of thing. Do you have a friend who's in culinary? I mean, how do you know all that?
I know what you mean by "here we go again", but sometimes real life can be as boring as a Salinger short story. Most just kind of survive it without luster. And I just know people who are interested in culinary like you, culinary never manages to pass the reality check. But of course, I am a pessimist. So opinion is ABSOLUTELY skewed towards "better safe than sorry" -sweat
I am a lot less romantic than that -sweat The fields I study consists of thing(s) living and dead and ideas too big to grasp And I plan to be a penniless student for the rest of my life, so no, not out of college yet (or perhaps not ever) -lol
my cousin actually graduated out of CIA of New York, he liked cooking, but he couldn't stand working in a kitchen all day... so he went and got a degree in management and manages a 4star restaurant in LA right now and is doing pretty good... my brother was thinking about doing it in Vegas, but he backed out last minute... but the jist of it is basically u go to school for like 3 years... and 1 year of it is work experience/internship where u work directly under a head chef of a fairly good restaurant... so basically there's always someone holding your hand along the way... and if you work hard enuff and graduate out of there, there's always going to be a job for you... i think they also had programs for you to go abroad, so it's really not bad if u really like playing around in the kitchen...
Your job routine is just exactly like mine, 3 months only and started to get boring....culinary? If you are working for money's sake I don't think it's advisable, I couldn't comment any further, just that I witnessed 2 of my friends who changed their field. Both took culinary, one changed to engineering (a total surprise!) and the other to hair stylist. I guess it's not that easy staying in that field.
cooks..chefs..gota wake up early to u know...if u can't wake up early then its gonna b hard...in toronto its only 1 year so u can work full time and go to skool after.....it all depends on u..u can try it and if it don' work out then go bak to accounting
Toronto... You mean Calphalon? or George Brown (or some other college)? I personally would suggest finding a well-known institute (according to your budget, of course)... But anyways, if you want to be your own boss, it would be kind of difficult to cook AND manage the business... So you may have to decide which one are you more passionate about if you end up at a position where you have to pick one over the other.
I don't think the difficulty is in cooking and managing business at the same time... the difficulty is staying alive in the restaurant business... 90% of new restaurants fail :( as far as salaries go... it depends on where and how good you are... in Vegas, line chefs(bottom of the line -huh) make about as much as sous chefs(a step higher than line chefs) in other parts of the country; which comes out to be about $38-40k... head chefs(execs) hit 6 digit salaries at real high class places **o and of course... if this is what you really want to do, it really doesn't come down to the salary number... i mean... that's the reason you went accounting isn't it?
Stick with accounting, it provides a steadier income. Running a business or being a cook is somewhat risky.
george brown and if u want to manage a business u shoudl take culinary management and food and beverage management..which is like 3 years in total..and like about 10000
Go for your dreams man!! your still young dont get trapped in something you dont like for the rest of your life man.... thats the worst. Haha and u can always turn around again, trust me YOU DONT WANNA GET STUCK THINKING OF LIFE SIMPLY AS A 9-5
I thought i would tell you about someone i talked to this weekend one of my friends, while in college worked as a chef he LOVED cooking and he loved working as a chef but after doing it 8 hours a day when he goes home he has no more drive to cook dinner for himself so basically through that experiance, he kinda lost that passion of his hobby of cooking something you might want to think about
