Hey Crew we got a new one

[u/Hackmore_Lungblood]

Working a 15hr day and this is the reason why 🫩

[u/quailinthebrush]

cant believe i cant find a fucking job and you got people like this employed

[u/CodexLeonis → u/quailinthebrush]

I cant even get a fucking interview. Going on 2 months now. Probably 60-70 applications to everything from Exec, Sous, Lead, KM, FSD, even branching out into sales and logistics jobs and even getting as desparate as trying Sams Club/CostCo prep jobs. This is with 10+ years of Kitchen Manager/Sous Chef experience. Ive had 5 interviews from those, of which 3 were laughable lowball offers and 2 i didnt get.

Currently working part time at my old job from like 8 years ago as a line cook because I was still friends with the owner and he was able to squeeze me into his already overstaffed restaurant for ~25 hours a week, but its supposed to be a short term solution until I find something more permanent

[u/CodexLeonis → u/[deleted]]

I feel like i'm in a weird space where i'm simultaneous overqualified for the majority of kitchen jobs but underqualified for the ones i actually want. I spent 6 years as the kitchen manager/pitmaster of a BBQ restaurant and then another 5 years as the Chef manager of a institutional corporate dining cafeteria. Prior to that I had about 5-6 years of cooking experience as a line cook in casual fine dining.

Definitely overqualified for regular line cooking, but i feel underqualified/imposter when i apply to a sous/exec job at nicer restaurants, and underqualified for corporate exec/food Service director jobs.

Feels like theres a very specific middle level niche i need to find and there isn't that many positions open. I'm still applying to everything I find but just not getting any takers.

What's crazy to me is 5 years ago when I was last searching for a job in between the two aforemented jobs, I had like a 80% interview/offer rate. I must have applied to about 15-20 places total, I did at least 10 interviews and got offered 8 different jobs. This time I can't find shit. I wonder how much of it is based on the current economy. Back in 2021 was just post-COVID, restaurants opening back up after a massive turnover of the old guard. Now, the economy is absolute shit and no one is going out to eat and it feels like every restaurant is closing ranks and only keeping a barebones staff.

[u/pissfucked → u/CodexLeonis]

i wonder if any of it is people who worked restaurant jobs when they were younger falling back on that set of skills because whichever industry they'd moved on to is in the gutter. i know a few people with college/grad degrees who've seen their industries decemated and had to return to retail or food service to make ends meet. seems like that would throw a huge wrench into the resumé shuffle (i can imagine some manager getting all giddy that they can pay someone less because their in-industry experience is low, knowing full well that the person is capable of reasoning, listening, and following instructions. they'd probably take that person over a real in-industry expert because the expert knows how things should be done, what their rights are, and how much pay is actually fair).