GRIT
I've thought a lot about what I can potentially bring to the table when I interview for a career in the developer world.
The more I thought about it, the more confident I became in creating a clear picture of just how a career chef (literally the only thing I've done professionally) can code professionally.
Here's excerpt 1 where the GRIT developed early in my career will help me stand out when interviewing for my new career as a developer.
As a fresh graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, I came out pretty confident. I was often one of the strongest cooks in my class and picked up on things quickly. I could cook traditional french cuisine well. I'm all set!
This was in 2009-2010 and there was a movement in the world now known as modernist cuisine or "molecular cuisine". My then girlfriend, now wife moved home and it just so happened that there was a new restaurant in town. It was called Volt and the Chef/Owner was Bryan Voltaggio. He had not yet been on Top CHef Las Vegas and I knew nothing about the food or restaurant.
I emailed the restaurant and set up a "stage" or tryout (not unlike a technical interview) and spent a night in the kitchen. It was an amazing experience so I was brought on to work and started on cold side. One of my first tasks was to make these cucumber disks. I was told to juice some cucumbers, mix in this strange powder called "agar" and pour them into a silicone disk mold. They would "set" like jello when cooled. Awesome! Well, it came time to start setting up the "Amuse" of the night , so I went to grab my disks and they're still liquid. This is crazy. At this stage, when you work in these kinds of restaurants the Chef, in this case Chef Bryan will not speak to you. They grab their sous chef to take care of it.
This does two things
#1.
It makes you feel like shit as a cook BUT, depending on the person, they'll want to do better so the chef does give you the respect of reaming you out personally.
#2.
This puts your mistake on the sous chef and they come down on you twice as hard.
The sous chef asked me why I didn't follow the directions and well, I thought I did. Turns out "agar" needs to be "hydrated" or mixed with the liquid it's going in while it's hot for about 5 minutes. I didn't know this nor was I told this. I was definitely out of my element but I didn't give up. No one was going to tell me how this stuff worked, I had to do it. And I did.
This experience and many, MANY others set me up to be prepared, no matter the circumstances or be crushed. I didn't want to be crushed.
I went on to work in Chicago to open Grant Achatz's new restaurant Next where I would NEED that grit to survive and later thrive.
While the environment may be different the same principals apply. You will no doubt be told to do something you have no idea how to do. You MUST be 2 steps ahead or you'll be crushed. You will also no doubt encounter someone who looks down on the boot camp path. With enough grit, this is welcomed and being the underdog is when you do your best work.
Thank you for reading!
-Michael
