I got my first job when I was 14. Clearing glasses at the local pub which quickly moved on to helping in the kitchen and waitressing – all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. I worked hard, listened and got paid peanuts. As landlords and chefs changed I remained steady, chatting with customers and learning the trade. A mad, drunk Irish chef (who rode a tiny scooter and had to regularly be hauled out of the bunkers of the local golf course if a rogue gust of wind had hit him unexpectedly) taught me how to clean and prepare a sack of freshly landed mussels in record time. A stroppy French chef taught me how to make vat loads of the most perfect mayonnaise. He was far too posh for our local so didn’t last long but I can still rustle up a bowl of mayo if needed. And so started a varied career in hotel and catering. I did four years at college, travelled and worked abroad, had some really crap jobs and some really great jobs – all short lived and none ground breaking. I’ve hosted dinners for dignitaries and celebrities and pulled pints for the locals. However, if I’m honest it wasn’t really my choice to go into hospitality – it was dads. He had a pub and he was bloody good at it. Likewise any event that needed a bit of organisation or someone to take charge he was your man. He always said we would have a hotel together and I never thought to question it. Thirty years on I am still in hospitality and still loving it but I wonder what I would have done if I had made the choice myself. My 15 year old son is starting to panic because he has taken his options, is starting his GCSE’s and has no clue what he ‘wants to be when he grows up’. But how can he? He’s only been on the planet for 15 years and has absolutely no conception of real life. Is there a comprehensive list of every job in the world from Archaeologist to Zoo Keeper that you can go through and check off. He hasn’t found that one thing that lights his spark yet so what does he do in the interim? Generic subjects that show an ability to learn, absorb information and regurgitate it when needed that’s what.
I am sure there is a pointless government survey somewhere detailing what percentage of people are still in the same field of work that they studied originally – I would bet it isn’t high.
So to my slightly floundering son (and I suspect many of his friends) I offer the benefit of years of varied employment. Don’t panic, learn whatever you can whenever you can, take every opportunity presented to you big or small and remember you are unique and fantastic and life has a funny way of working out. Someone once said if life gives you lemons, make lemonade – the next person along invented straws!
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