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There are a ton of similarities between the tech industry and working as an engineer or manager/lead and working in a professional kitchen as an executive head chef/head chef, sous chef, or even a chef de partie. I have been wanting to write this article for a while as it has been swimming around in my head for quite some time now.
Never, in my time of interviews and going through the rigamarole of the whole hiring process has anyone at any level asked me, "have you ever led a team and if so, blah blah blah?" Something I'd be asking applicants looking for the jobs I have applied for. That is neither here nor there however.
There are a lot of similarities, of which I have placed into five categories:
- Knowledge. How educated are you in your craft?
- Education. What knowledge do you possess and where have you learned from?
- Onboarding/Staging. Onboarding and Staging (STAH-zhing) are almost the same, you're learning the craft.
- Ethic and Style. How well do you work alone? In a team? How do you handle pressure?
- Management. How well do you lead a team? Can you perform the functions of a management role?
I worked many years in food/professional kitchens and for the most part, the same time working in development. For many people, with many people. Some I got along with great. Some I did not. Some people do not like me as a teammate and that carries over to the real world. I have worked with people that while it was just an "okay" experience, I have worked with people with zero support (which goes against everything I look for in strong leadership).
So let's get to the meat and potatoes of this article. I'll break it up into Tech and Chef categories.
Knowledge
Tech: You go to school, you get a CS degree. You have been an intern (paid or unpaid and please, never do unpaid work these days), you have attended a bootcamp. You learn (and as much as I abhor it, accessibility is not often taught in higher learning, but is getting recognized and a little better) your craft through lessons and homework and projects. You are constantly learning as you go, you learn new methods and ways to simplify code or workflows, learn coding languages you may not have known before. You have tools at your disposal to help you learn and create things.
Chef: You attend a culinary school, or more than one for some folks. You stage (staj) which is 'traditionally' been unpaid for the longest time, but there are paid staging opportunities. You learn by doing, creating, working, cooking. While you learn in the kitchen, you are learning many new techniques, ways to cook, or methods of cooking you did not know. Your tools are what help you create beautiful dishes and delicious food. Those tools are at your disposal to create great things.
Regardless of which field you are in, your knowledge grows when you are in a healthy environment to learn. If, such as the kitchen culture was and still can be today with high pressure and yelling an screaming, the work environment may be a very high energy, high stress, high expectations kind of environment. Which tech is also. Either way, you accumulate knowledge through watching, listening, and doing.
Education
Tech: Again, higher learning, bootcamps, online course, MOOCs, etc. You get your education at a trusted source. You learn, you take X amount of time to learn how to design, develop, work with tools, grow as an engineer. Putting all that time learning (and the learning should never stop) your craft to create things digitally. You learn to learn to code, you learn to write tests, you learn how to deploy, debug, make things accessible, learn to work well with your team.
Chef: Culinary school, staging, learn on the fly. That is how you learn in the culinary field. You hone your skills as you work, you become more efficient as you work, you get faster and hopefully more skilled as you work. Learning how to balance flavors, run an efficient team, lead by example, control food costs, learn the science/chemistry side of food. The more you learn, the more you grow, the further you progress in the field.
Onboarding/Staging
Tech: In tech the onboarding process, the new employee is welcomed, emails, paperwork, checklists, read the handbook, say hello to the team, add member to projects, meetings with manager and a team member perhaps weekly as a somewhat informal mentor/mentee relationship. There is a lot of moving parts. Same with traditional blue-collar jobs as well with lots of paperwork and manuals or handbooks, meet the team, work with someone by your side, etc.
The onboarding process is an assimilation to the new job to get one comfortable and working as soon as possible.
Chef: You stage in traditional circles for free. Usually a month, depending on the chef. I would do one month stages then evaluate and if they did a good job or better, usually write a recommendation or even hire them to work on the line. If you can show a work ethic and an attention to detail, then I wanted to see how you fared in my kitchen.
Most of the time, you get someone that hasn't staged. So they immediately get thrown to the lions and you are in it to win it. Are you going to perform the duties and handle the position and the station you are working?
Staging will lead to opportunities either where you stage, or some place else. The restaurant industry is a close-knit community and chefs always talk to each other about people that have worked for them to other chefs. Good, bad, or indifferent. Usually a kitchen will then hire the cook and then the paperwork and all that fun stuff will follow.
Both roles really need an attention to detail and organization on some level. When you run an efficient team, or an efficient kitchen, you are going to win big.
Ethic & Style
Tech: Your work ethic keeps you in your seat. Bottom line. Any fluctuation in that is scrutinized and placed under a microscope with most places. You do great and are a steady employee that shows up and does their job and goes a little above and beyond then you get praise. And maybe one more pizza for the staff party. Or a $10 DoorDash gift card. You do poorly and are under-performing and you get a trip to the principal's office and a sit down with management and HR, you get the finger wag and possibly the worst thing ever created, the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). Don't ever sign a PIP.
You may have monthly reviews, quarterly reviews, but whatever the case may be, you are under heavy pressure to perform. Most folks can do it. Some go even further and do phenomenal work that gets them raises and promotions, or they hone their skills for when they move on to another role, with another company, in a higher position or maybe the same position.
Chef: You over-perform or perform to what the job entails, you have your spot on the line. You are one of the brigade. You work that station or stations like a boss and you're going to advance and go places in the culinary world. As I stated perviously, you work like a fiend, you perform and go above and beyond, you make a name for yourself and chefs start discussing your name in outside circles, you're going to advance and go far.
Your review is while you work. As informal as that is, that is the barometer. A formal review with a sit down with the executive head chef (EHC) or Head Chef, Sous Chef, partner/owner will be where the details are discussed. Did you work good enough to stay? If not, more than likely, until you can be replaced, you'll work that station and hear it from others on the brigade. The line is the worst place to be if you are under-performing.
Management
Tech: When you become a manager or team leader then the leadership skills come out. How well do you support your team? Do you regularly have 1:1s with the people that work under you? Are you checking in on how things are going with your team and what, if any concerns or comments there are? Are you driving the team to make quality work and code?
Of course, there is a lot more to it then that, but those are just a few things. You work with many different people across the organization, you plan and coordinate with your team, you'll apply best practices (and hopefully accessibility practices!) and design, test, develop and verify methods for product QA, to develop scalable and user-friendly products.
A lot of moving parts.
Chef: A chef also has a lot of moving parts to the job. Which was the parallels I could see when thinking of this article.
A head chef, or executive head chef will have the following duties:
Planning and directing food preparation in the kitchen, creation of the menu and coordinating with the restaurant owner or manager. Managing kitchen staff and delegation of tasks performed by the staff, ensuring quality (acting like QA) and taste of food.
Head chefs and EHCs also take responsibility (in most cases) of the kitchen's financial performance like budgeting and cost control so food costs stay as low as they can be. They oversee the safety and the cleanliness standards of the kitchen, and then there is inventory management and supplies for the kitchen.
Knowledge, business-wise and culinary knowledge along with being able to manage and handle immense pressure (in larger or more fine dining kitchens) crucial. There is also one other component to the job of a chef. Communication. A kitchen needs to have constant communication in order to run efficiently. Communication skills when dealing with patrons, staff, management, and vendors.
Summary
Why did I write this?
I think skills crucial to the position (when applying for tech jobs) that are learned and gained in other fields can be a plus for a company.
You take these two fields and you compare them (and a lot of folks I have talked to have at one point or another worked in a restaurant, or even in fast food) and the systems are very similar. When I was looking for people to assist me on a project when I was doing freelance I wanted to see their work history and the number of different jobs they had held. Not a to judge, bu tto see how people could shift left so to speak and start something new. To adapt to something entirely different but mutually the same maybe.
As much as you want to learn someone's background before hiring them, and being that personal questions aren't allowed by law in any interview, I think that putting your time on a resume in a restaurant you worked in is a good thing. Especially the higher up in the food chain as it were, that you were. Adapting is important in tech when trying to handle a bunch of different tasks, just like the kitchen.
Just some random thoughts I wanted to put up here. That is all.