# Working Around School



## kam (Jun 8, 2007)

Hello there

I've been at cooking school for around 2.5 months now and as part of the curriculum I have to find kitchen work outside of my school hours. I've already had a few job offers for part-time work from various places, but the kitchen I really want to work in can only offer me a full-time position.

My current workload isn't that stressful, school is around 25 hours a week plus I'm working 5-10 hours each weekend tending bars, which I'm dropping the moment I get in the kitchen.

My question is this: *Would I be crazy to take on 40+ hours on top of school, this early on?

*I'm not afraid of hard work or even long hours, I'm just wary of burning out too fast or adversely affecting my performance at school.

Thanks for your help.


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## Chef W.G (Nov 8, 2001)

I did it, the best grades I had during school were when I was working full time.

The key is that you have to budget your time. Get yourself a day planner and keep track of all your homework assignments and tests. If its Monday, and you know you have a test on Friday, but are working everynight except Tuesday, that just became study night. I also took my books to work and studied between orders on slow nights and go ahead and plan on taking the weekend before exams off. 

Good Luck


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## cacook (Jan 18, 2006)

When I was in school (I think 30 or so hours a week?)...I had two jobs and got half a day off once every 3 months. Sometimes you get tired of it, but it can definitely be done.


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## atltournant (Apr 24, 2007)

When I was in school,I was a partner/sous for a catering company and my weeks were 90 hours long.35 was school and the rest was work.I would do 40 hours from Friday afternoon to Sunday night.In 15 months,I missed two days of school,one for an event and the other because I was just worn out.

GPA's don't mean anything in the real world,but I still graduated *** laude.


Once you graduate,you'll look back at school and work as an "easy" time compared to the daily grind of this industry full-time for a decade or so....THAT'S when you need to worry about burn-out.


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