Looking to leave the restaurant
March 23, 2011 9:55 AM   Subscribe

After a long and rewarding career in the restaurant industry I’m ready for a change.

I’ve been in restaurants my entire working life. My current job is great, but I’m ready to move on. Currently I’m a manager and sommelier at a high-end nationally notable restaurant. It’s a hard job, with all the typical management entanglements: long hours, high stress and limited mobility within my company. While I’ve loved many things about my job, it’s just time to look to take my talents elsewhere. I’m college educated, having completed my degree in Philosophy. I’m practiced in accounting and some business software (Office and InDesign, most notably.)

But here are my problems:

I’ve been at my job for more than 10 years. Before that I worked a series of service jobs, but nothing I’d think relevant for a job search. How do I make my resume look attractive to possible employers?

After a life in the restaurant industry I’m not sure who would be interested in employing me. I’d love to work in marketing, especially something business to business, but I’m not sure who would think my rather specialized skill-set is valuable.
posted by elwoodwiles to Work & Money (9 answers total)
 
Start hitting up your suppliers and partner businesses - I'm sure any number of food services supply companies would love to have someone with your experience and industry contacts on staff. Anyone from food vendors to commercial kitchen equipment manufacturers would be a great bet.
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:00 AM on March 23, 2011


Are you interested in moving deeper into wine? (Not meant the way that sounds.) Marketing wine might be a fairly easy transition.
posted by Ideefixe at 10:04 AM on March 23, 2011


I would think office manager / marketing person for just about any service based small business would be a good fit too. You could probably transition into selling to restaurants fairly easily also.
posted by COD at 10:21 AM on March 23, 2011


Seconding ideefixe - I have never worked in the restaurant industry, but it seems like in your position, you will no doubt have made many contacts in the wine industry. Let them know you're looking to make a career change, set up informational meetings with some of them, and start talking through what it is you want to do (even at a high level).

As you no doubt know, the wine industry (like many others) is very clubby, and very who-knows-who, and it may seem tough to get in. As a sommelier, though, you could easily become part of that world; you're already half way there and you should leverage your contacts as much as possible.

Good luck.
posted by pdb at 10:29 AM on March 23, 2011


Best answer: Having spent about the same amount of time in the restaurant biz as you, I agree that one is definitely pigeonholed. Sales is the most obvious and easy transition, as I'm sure you know. Selling to restaurants requires the inside and intimate knowledge of the industry which you already possess. That being said, a friend of mine in the biz got into selling mortgages (about 6 years back when it made sense to make that career change) because he was personable, even on the phone. To date, he's doing extremely well. Also, another I know from the hospitality industry became a "luxury brand manager" for a cognac importer. As a sommelier, you would have the kind of background to market the product, which is exactly what they're looking for. Take a look at high-end wineries, vintners, distillers, etc. They know the rigorous process it takes to become a somm, which will go a long way with them. I just looked within my company (1 of the top 3 food service providers internationally) and immediately brought up 2 postings for marketing positions at the unit/restaurant level, so that need is definitely there as well.
posted by ps_im_awesome at 10:46 AM on March 23, 2011


Best answer: More targeted answer: list skill sets and attributes first and foremost on your resume. "Extremely familiar with POS systems, Responsible for managing X total sales" instead of listing service positions. Set yourself up as an expert in the restaurant/hospitality/wine field. Unless its a Michelin 3 star, they wont care exactly where you worked but more what you did there.
posted by ps_im_awesome at 10:50 AM on March 23, 2011


As a potential career changer myself, I think it's a great idea to move to a different role in your same field/industry. I know a couple of people socially in my city who do marketing and events for the wine industry and/or wine country tourism. I think that might be a really good move for you as well, especially since you probably already have a network of contacts in the field in your area.
posted by matildaben at 12:26 PM on March 23, 2011


Response by poster: I've been thinking about talking with some of my friends working in various distribution industries. It is a natural transition, but I wanted to cast a larger net just to see what is possible. There seems to be a lot of growth in companies like yelp, groupon, google places, etc that are pushing into restaurant marketing. What I lack in an IT background I have in restaurant industry experience.

While it is most likely I'll end up in a traditional and food/wine related distribution field, I'm wondering how to market myself to the companies I see as having a real and innovative future.
posted by elwoodwiles at 12:29 PM on March 23, 2011


Best answer: If you're interested in the location-based tech companies like Groupon and LivingSocial, the easiest entry point is sales. You can check out Quora on q&a related to that industry. Did a market study on them for my company and it looks like the reps do a combo of telesales and canvassing, with some pretty aggressive quotas. According to a post on Quora, Groupon reps used to be paid $36K base plus 2 - 3% commission. There's other tech companies that specialize in wine, such as wine.com, lot18.com (job listing for wine specialist here), tastingroom.com and many many others. There seems to be a new deal site popping up each week. I would recommend signing up for Yipit - it's a deal aggregator so you can check out all the ones that are out there.

What are your strengths? There's a few different career paths if you're interested in moving to this domain. Business development, marketing, sales, product marketing are all traditional paths for non-IT folks. If you have P&L experience, and can take some courses in marketing, product marketing or business development is usually a great way to go. Memail me if you want more info.
posted by hampanda at 12:49 PM on March 23, 2011


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