Nervous as heck, staging tommorow

So I wrote a cover letter...a day later, I got a call to come in. So they scheduled me a week later. This would indicate to me they are either looking and haven't found somebody. Or they might actually be keen on training somebody. I did not sell myself as being an expert baker, rather a passionate person who would be willing to be working for reduced wages in order to obtain knowledge.

It would seem they probably are more than likely looking to hire somebody who has previous baking experience, but would be willing to train. I am nervous because this place is not simply a cheap mass produced operation, but a real high end bakery. It would be making breads.

I guess I either sink or swim, only one way to find out. It doesn't seem like a complicated job, but certainly hard work. I would much rather bake than sit in a kitchen dealing with servers griping, and customers doing stupid substitutions.

The beauty of baking is, you don't get substitutions or improvised orders. This is real brick oven baking and real natural leavened bread. It's as exciting as it is frightening. I hope the god's smile and give me dexterity needed to shape a ton of loaves. I hope for the best but truly expect the worst.

I mean it's not rocket science shaping loaves, but it's certainly something that takes time to be fast and efficient at. I suppose I should remain positive. I mean what are the odds of a single cover letter, and one week later being scheduled to go work? Something tells me they want a good hard cheap worker, which I am.

My biggest struggle in the food industry is comprehending why people work so hard to put out mediocre product. So this experience should be a huge incentive to push myself to really get a noble butt whipping.

I usually stay out of BoH as I haven't worked ITK for a number of years, but just want to say congrats and hope everything works out.

Where are you staging at if I may ask?

I just did a year at a sourdough bakery. A great learning curve, and being a chef sets you months ahead of that curve in terms of organisation and multi-tasking etc. I really enjoyed the process and reacting to orders over a matter of days rather than minutes.
One thing for me though is that it got old pretty quickly. Almost zero creativity, unless trialling a new bread, and even then its within the parameters of workable percentages. Lots and lots of weighing. You'll get stronger too, but, watch your back - bend those knees!
I now feel like a better chef, despite being out of a kitchen for a year.
Surely a stage is a stage though? Not necessarily a job interview... Don't get ahead of yourself, you might hate it!

Good luck!

I have found that even experienced bakers can struggle going into a artisan type bakery. Most bakeries these days are more like factory jobs. I have had good luck finding motivated people and starting them at the bottom. You'd be surprised how busy you can keep somebody shuffling racks, loading couches, and sweeping. There is so much repetition that a lot can be picked up through osmosis. Keep your ears perked up to over hear the conversations when they are trouble shooting. These can be fascinating learning opportunities.

Is it a super early start time?

Edit: just realized you are probably there right now. So how'd it go?

Thanks for the encouraging words Chuckles...honestly if I didn't read your post I would have went in with a self defeating attitude. I haven't gone in yet. I'm scheduled in the early afternoon. Hopefully I stay till late evening and come home with a few loaves of bread.

One thing is certain, they likely need extra help to get the through the thanksgiving holiday. Lot's of bread, lot's of bread is sold. If I am a dignified floor sweeper, packager, van loader, so be it.

I am re-evaluating where I want to be in life and I have always enjoyed baking. But after seeing my good friend make about 60k a year without a college education, he's woken me up to the fact that the tech industry is not so bad.

I am pondering saving up to buy the necessary tools for a PC repair shop. I'd rather charge 300$ for an hour than working 8 hours for the same coin. I also feel really good because this morning I took a huge bowel movement. If I didn't do that before this I would be overly anxious.

Making enjoyable dumpies is really the key to a happy life.

tru dat!

Hellz yes dude. Rock out that deuce! Great poops make life worth living.

Well I failed...but that simply reaffirms my faith in myself. I am going to be a millionaire and you all in the food industry will be compensated for it...Yeah I'm going to be big. I'm going to use my brain and get paid for it. To heck with shaping bread...I can fix a computer and actually do motherboard repair. Momma didn't raise no fool.

I just love food...But if solder fumes mean big bucks so be it...On to the damn computer industry. I hate it, but I am good at it. Yes I can do board repairs and all the other annoying crap most people don't want to do. I just don't enjoy it.

Why do you feel you weren't a good fit? Where do you feel you were lacking in what they needed? I have been a chef at my restaurant for two years and just recently ive been learning bread and fresh pasta production (read, 1000 covers on a friday and saturday night, EACH NIGHT). I enjoy it, but there is no creativity as others have noted.

Is that why you're being such an a-hole over in Broida's sub-forum?
Yeah, we all noticed.

lus1:

ecchef said:

Is that why you're being such an a-hole over in Broida's sub-forum?
Yeah, we all noticed.

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And your point being?

He offers a "special flattening plate" as traditional plates won't work.

He may or may not have known the source of it. He also isn't claiming it to be magic or anything and is offering it as part of the included price.

If seems you have a major hard-on for Jon over something. And the most you can get on hon is that his free flattening plate may or may not be an adaption of a granite polishing plate? Bombshell dropped. OMG.

As for this new super awesome career in computer repair I will be proactive as opposed to your approach elsewhere and say maybe actually look at the industry. Computer repair is currently a niche market and quickly becoming redundant. Computers are cheap so it's easier to replace than repair in most instances. So don't go investing great capital into it thinking you will be rolling in it without thorough market research.

Computer repair is currently a niche market and quickly becoming redundant.

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That's a very generous and kind way of phrasing it. The bottom line is, computer repair exists at this point for the sole purpose of exploiting old people and knuckleheads too obstinate to learn. And the old people are dying off, and the knuckleheads are giving in. The future of computing lies with inexpensive mobile devices you can rapidly and seamlessly upgrade once every year or two.

There is literally no future in being a computer repair man, because computers no longer need repaired.

SousVideLoca said:

There is literally no future in being a computer repair man, because computers no longer need repaired.

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AKA The Cloud.

AKA

SousVideLoca said:

There is literally no future in being a computer repair man, because computers no longer need repaired.

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Plenty of old legacy systems around at business. And the bigger the company, the greater the chance they have a few of them still in service, running old custom software/ programs that can only run on those boxes. and those are the customers who will pay $$$ to fix an old computer... You can't always source a replacement motherboard for a 10-year-old box.

WildBoar said:

Plenty of old legacy systems around at business. And the bigger the company, the greater the chance they have a few of them still in service, running old custom software/ programs that can only run on those boxes. and those are the customers who will pay $$$ to fix an old computer... You can't always source a replacement motherboard for a 10-year-old box.

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Well sure. The PoS system in my restaurant is like 20 years old, and twice a year we call up "the computer repair man" to come fix it. I'm not saying the work isn't there now -- I'm saying the work is running out. There's no future in it. As modern tech becomes more ubiquitous, simplified, and easy to implement, the demand for tech service diminishes accordingly.

Twenty years ago, computer servicing was a booming industry. Ten years ago, companies offering that service began washing out, consolidating, and focusing on more lucrative and realistic futures. Today, computer servicing is relegated to "the Geek Squad" and a handful of old nerds who still remember how to rebuild a PPPoE dialer in Win98, and their old, stubborn clients. Nothing is going to make that trend swing the other way, and ten years from now there will be very little demand left at all.

The field is dying. Not dead yet, but dying.

If you want to work in computers your options are pretty much: networking, security, or programming. Hope you like to study.

I am a network engineer and if I could give you one bit of advice it would be to specialize and don't generalize. You won't find much demand or pay in standard PC repair or in Windows environment (far to many people in those fields all competing for jobs, hence lower pay).

You could become a network engineer in a unix environment or enter the field of security architecture, but the amount of classes and certifications won't be much different then going to college. And be prepared to adapt with the ever changing demand.

I would also like to point out that once you get into a the six figure positions you are always on call, and will work many very long days.

AWS is where its at. I'm the instructor recruiter for the largest technical training company in the world Global Knowledge. Every sector of technology is faced with one question now. How will it operate in a cloud environment. Dave D. True there will always be legacy systems, but those are being phased out as fast a possible. Look at how fast Square is replacing those PoS systems.

Network Infrastructure: Cisco, VMware, HP... all loosing market share. Palo Alto is the only NI company that is gaining ground with their firewall network appliance.

Proprietary Software Development (.Net) is loosing out to Apache open source (java, Node.js, python, PERL...) Hadoop for data analytics is in demand now too.

My prediction, all Class A Cloud service providers with be running on the AWS backbone in order to offer their services. AWS is currently at 11-9's of durability! Remember, "everything fails all the time." Werner Vogle AWS CTO

Mucho Bocho said:

AWS is where its at. I'm the instructor recruiter for the largest technical training company in the world Global Knowledge. Every sector of technology is faced with one question now. How will it operate in a cloud environment. Dave D. True there will always be legacy systems, but those are being phased out as fast a possible. Look at how fast Square is replacing those PoS systems.

Network Infrastructure: Cisco, VMware, HP... all loosing market share. Palo Alto is the only NI company that is gaining ground with their firewall network appliance.

Proprietary Software Development (.Net) is loosing out to Apache open source (java, Node.js, python, PERL...) Hadoop for data analytics is in demand now too.

My prediction, all Class A Cloud service providers with be running on the AWS backbone in order to offer their services. AWS is currently at 11-9's of durability! Remember, "everything fails all the time." Werner Vogle AWS CTO

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I have no idea what you just said but it sounds impressive and like the industry is moving places

malexthekid said:

I have no idea what you just said but it sounds impressive and like the industry is moving places

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Here's a rough translation from earlier in the thread: