What is Career Day?Career day is an opportunity given by many schools to their students to get a feel for what its like to work in a profession of their interest. Students are to contact artists, scientists, chefs, business men and women, engineers, etc..etc...in hopes to find someone to "shadow" for one designated day. This day can be described as a one day internship. Once students find somebody to shadow, they show professionalism when attending their career day and ask their mentor a few interview questions about the work field they work in. Students go home, and return to school the next day to reflect on their day. Students are left with a better understanding of what working in the job of their interest feels like.
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Photos From My Career Day |
My Career Day
Career day Expectations:
"Since there’s many different kinds of jobs on this site (Hyatt Aviara Resort), its hard to pinpoint the kind of typical things you might do if you worked there. As a worker, you would have to be really friendly and helpful to customers, and be a teamplayer. As a chef at one of the five restaurants, you would (like any restaurant) need to move quickly and be always focused on accommodating and serving the customers. It is extremely difficult to work at a fast enough pace in a kitchen, especially when you’re serving complex meals like in the 5 star restaurants at the Hyatt Aviara Resort. I am expecting that I will be doing some cooking in a few of their restaurants, but I assume the environment will be very busy, so I am afraid I will get in people’s way. I’ve only worked in a restaurant kitchen once before, so i’m a little nervous. I will get to see what goes on in the kitchen as opposed to just the dining area, which will be new. I’m excited to see how a fancy high class restaurant differs from others. I’ve never been to an extremely nice, 5 star restaurant before, so seeing one not only as a customer, but as a chef will be informative and exciting." |
Reflection:
I really enjoyed my career day working in kitchens at the Hyatt Aviara Resort. I've always been interested in cooking and attending culinary school, so working in a kitchen for 8 hours opened my eyes to the realities of working in a kitchen. My dream school has always bee the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and it turns out that the chef I was shadowing, Pierre Albaladejo, and many of his workers at the resort's restaurants are graduates from that school. I really appreciated how informative it was to talk to the chefs and how supportive they were of me. At the location, I helped prepare food, but I mainly observed and talked with chefs. It wan't a busy day for them, but there were still over a hundred workers moving about and preparing food. I didn't find that I was in the way, but I turned out to be a conversation piece for many of the chefs there. It was different for them to see a young chef working in their kitchens. After a tour of the resort, I dressed in one of their chef coats and headed to their pastry kitchen where I worked with about four chefs to complete orders and prepare pastries in advance. I worked there for three hours then worked with and observed other chefs in their bistro kitchen. I worked alongside one chef who prepared deserts, then had lunch with a few chefs in the cafeteria and went home around 7 PM. Thanks to this opportunity, I am much closet to achieving my dreams and will forever remember this day. |
Interview with Chef Ian:
Question: How did you cover the costs of attending culinary school?
Answer: Oh geez, I'm gonna be paying off student loans for years! But I did get some scholarships which help a lot. CIA has a billion scholarships. They have one for everything; competitions, good grades, internships, Asians, everything. It's all completely worth it though. Plus, your parents will probably tell you this, but you can build a good credit by paying off student loans. Car loans and house loans too, but you wont have to worry about that for at least a couple years. It looks good to banks to put in regular payments to pay off loans. It shows financial strength, which is what people you want to rent apartments or houses from want to see.
Question: What culinary school did you attend? Would you recommend it?
Answer: I actually attended your dream school! Yep, the CIA (Culinary Institute of America). In New York. It's an amazing school. Pretty much the best America has. They have a management program and a food science program, and many others as well. You can earn your bachelors degree through the food and management program, but its a little hard to get into because many people each year want to earn a bachelors degree in food and management. Actually, a few people in my year who got into that program left school for exciting culinary opportunities right before they could earn their bachelors degree. Don't do that. A bachelors degree is extremely important.
Question: What's a fun fact you might have to share about the Culinary Institute of America?
Answer: Ooh, glad you asked this actually. The ground hogs. Yep! Every winter-spring, the ground hogs around CIA's campus come out and visit the students. They're extremely friendly, adorable, and you can feed them. The school board actually had to make a rule, though, that students can not hold the ground hogs because of safety hazards. Us students joke that they're our mascot.
Question: How did you cover the costs of attending culinary school?
Answer: Oh geez, I'm gonna be paying off student loans for years! But I did get some scholarships which help a lot. CIA has a billion scholarships. They have one for everything; competitions, good grades, internships, Asians, everything. It's all completely worth it though. Plus, your parents will probably tell you this, but you can build a good credit by paying off student loans. Car loans and house loans too, but you wont have to worry about that for at least a couple years. It looks good to banks to put in regular payments to pay off loans. It shows financial strength, which is what people you want to rent apartments or houses from want to see.
Question: What culinary school did you attend? Would you recommend it?
Answer: I actually attended your dream school! Yep, the CIA (Culinary Institute of America). In New York. It's an amazing school. Pretty much the best America has. They have a management program and a food science program, and many others as well. You can earn your bachelors degree through the food and management program, but its a little hard to get into because many people each year want to earn a bachelors degree in food and management. Actually, a few people in my year who got into that program left school for exciting culinary opportunities right before they could earn their bachelors degree. Don't do that. A bachelors degree is extremely important.
Question: What's a fun fact you might have to share about the Culinary Institute of America?
Answer: Ooh, glad you asked this actually. The ground hogs. Yep! Every winter-spring, the ground hogs around CIA's campus come out and visit the students. They're extremely friendly, adorable, and you can feed them. The school board actually had to make a rule, though, that students can not hold the ground hogs because of safety hazards. Us students joke that they're our mascot.