students in the work force
I always suggest to students that they check with someone who works in the field that they want to study and work, and ask them about the salary and cap and how long it takes to reach that cap. I also suggest that they ask that person what they like about their job and how intersting is the job.
Bruce,
Great approach! They need to get a real feel for what they are looking for in a career.
Patty Aronoff
Our students are encouraged to speak with current healthcare workers to decide if this field fits their needs prior to enrolling.
Sherrie,
You have given us great insight into your school's careers. Many times we have glamorous visions of our future careers and dismiss the realities of what their true experiences are.
Patty Aronoff
We have an externship/internship program at our school. I suggest this to all students who do not have any experience in the area they are thinking about working.
As a chef I have know so many students who did not realize how grueling, demanding, physically challenging, and stressful working in the culinary field is. They don't realize that all the Chef's on the cooking shows on the Food Network have 200-300 staff people writing recipes, prepping, grocery shopping, testing recipes, cooking, and fielding questions from viewers! Many of the students decide not to become Chef's once they spend a little time in the kitchen.
With our wine students who have not worked in a restaurant and are thinking about opening a wine bar or restaurant I highly suggest that they spend some time working in one before dropping 250K into building one. The one student who did not take this advice found out the hard way that running a restaurant with no real life experience is a sure way to have the restaurant fail.
So, we have distributors, importers, wine bar owners, etc who let our students come shadow them for a term to learn what their "real" days are like and get first hand knowledge of what that reality is. It has been invaluable in terms of preparing these students to start their own businesses.
Thats a great suggestion. From personal experience I can relate; having gone to school & completed a degree that I ultimately did not stick with. It took completing an internship to see that It wasnt for me
