After graduation, what way is best to immerse myself in the restaurant business?

Look for the best fit for YOU! Upscale restaurants and country clubs have great benefits, and after graduation your going to need to be thinking of the future. Find a place where you can learn multiple stations or areas. Cross train for new skills and different experiences!

Assuming you are a Chef, you would need to find work in a restaurant that's tailored to your specialty. If you don't have one; any general line cook would suffice. This is the time to learn all you can learn hands on. Being in the class room you don't get the real feel for the environment such as the stress, the shouting , the noise and complaints! At the end of the day to become well versed in your skill you really  need the experience from the bottom up!

Good Luck.

Hi There!

Assuming you've graduated any area related to Food & Beverage , I guess the very fist step you can do is identify whether you are more interest to emerge into "Food", "Services" or "Office" area.

For the first one, try to connect with people that could refer you for a job at any well known restaurants/ chefs. If you have the possibility to travel for other countries and live/work there for a while, try to do so. Gaining international experience is very important for reaching a future role/status as Chef. And MOST IMPORTANT: have in mind the path is not glamorous as it seems to be. Hard work, pressure, agility and a little dose of self control is highly required.

For "Services", try to look after places recognized for offering such an excellent service. You can have the best food in the world, but if the experience is terrible, probably people won't come back. This area englobes the production and supply chain boxes, Try to get a little deep dive into each one.

For "Office" interest, you can even start at any small company that could give you a flavor of general Finance, HR, Marketing/Sales and Adm. Also, additional ADM courses here would be welcome.

Hope this could start guiding you :) If you have further questions just let me know!

best of luck, Livia

The best approach that I think would be the most helpful would be to try to get yourself to be involved in some type of restaurant and talking to the business manager and getting more insights on the steps of opening up a business, the obstacles that had to be faced and overcome, and how to promote and advertises your business.

I recommend that you gain experience in a successful restaurant with an established reputation. If you want to own your own restaurant one day, it is critical to understand every aspect of operations. Avoid a start-up which may experience growing pains or be disorganized. Learn from the best who to welcome guests, details of setting up the front of the house, ordering systems, stations in the kitchen, quality and speed of food preparation, measuring guest satisfaction. I owned and managed a restaurant and initially was misguided by some on my team who were self-serving. Learn how to become a part of a successful team to provide the best product and be proud of maintaining a high level of service daily.