” You Need To Be Willing To Open A Big Door Where You Don’t Know What’s Behind It.”

The other
day someone asked me, “Chef, why is it so important that we change jobs? Why do
we have to keep moving from work place to work place?”

“Is
this a serious question?” I thought to myself. I was not sure and dismissed it
at the first moment. Later I started to think about it and found that it
actually is a legitimate question. I personally have been moving around places,
countries and even continents for decades now. So it feels totally normal to
me.

Why have I been moving around? Changing places does not necessarily mean that you have to travel the whole world. The important point is a different one. It is all about getting exposure to different environments and therefore gaining experience. Isn’t this what it is all about in our jobs eventually?

Yes it is.

It is about collecting experiences, getting involved with different people and building up our Know-How. It is all about learning new skills and improving existing ones. We are constantly learning.

Our
knowledge, our skills and our experience are our assets. So more experienced we
are so more valuable we make ourselves on the job market. Highly skilled and
greatly experienced people also earn more money. We make ourselves more
valuable and indispensable by constantly upgrading our expertise.

When we
move jobs we do exactly that, we are upgrading our skills. We are not only
increasing our work related skills. We are also enhancing other skills like our
relationship skills as well as our competence in leadership for example.

My
advice is to change jobs probably every 1 to 2 years in the beginning of your
career. I am talking about chefs here but it can also applied to other fields.

I did exactly the same thing when I started out as a young cook. I spent one year in Berlin, then 18 months in Zurich, another year in Stuttgart and so on. Later I moved to California. A couple of years after that I found myself living in Asia.

Here is another important thing: I have always promoted myself. What does this mean you might ask? By promoting myself I mean that I never waited for someone to boost me to a higher position. I always applied for the next higher position by myself.

I took the initiative.

I never waited for anyone. If I would have waited for someone to recognize my talents and support me then I would have waited for a long time. Who knows, maybe I still would be a line cook today.

Nothing wrong with line cooks. I want to make this clear. I was a line cook myself for many years. It was fun but not enough for me anymore at some point. I promoted myself. I got the jobs also because I had the experience I had collected over the years at different locations, hotels and restaurant.

I built up momentum early in my career and you have to do the same.

Certainly,
not everyone is made for this. Not everyone wants to make career. There are
people who are happy with what they are doing. They are happy staying in the
same position their entire life. I respect that. But if you want to grow faster
and develop quicker, you need to be open to new things. New things simply mean
new locations and new employers.

You need to be ready for a change. You need to be ready for new opportunities. Do you want to know the unknown? You need to be willing to open a big door where you don’t know what is behind it. You need to be curious and excited about learning new stuff and meeting new people. You even need to be ready to move to different countries and cultures.

It is
all up to you where you want to go. It is all in your hands. It is therefore
also up to you to make up your mind early. Think and contemplate what decision
you want to make and then do it.

We
always end up at a destination which we were heading for. If we are heading nowhere
then we will never end up anywhere.

Now
tell me, have you found your door? If yes, take a deep breath and open it…………….

I hope
I could answer the question.

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Thanks for reading!

Marcel

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