Laying out the “Mise en place” for a career change.

Mise en place (pronunciation: mi zã ‘plas): French culinary phrase meaning to put everything in its place.

In the kitchen a chef’s mise en place is more than a technique to make photos and the kitchen look visually appealing. It is the process by which a chef prepares his/her tools, food, garnish, and plating. This process creates a structured and organized environment to increase the efficiency of the kitchen and decrease the likelihood of mistakes. Coming from a 13 Year career in the Food & Events Industries, preparing all aspects of my life for a change is more important than ever to ensure success.

I began a career in food 13 years ago working as an apprentice in a Sushi Bar owned by an NFL Superstar in San Diego. What started out as a part-time job while I went to college turned into a journey of a lifetime. During my time at the Sushi Bar I moved up from an apprentice to the positions of Head Sushi Chef and Manager of the Bar. From there I was given the opportunity to work with another group opening Restaurants in San Diego. Which then led me to working for one of the largest Sushi Distribution companies in the US based out of Minnesota managing all their restaurants and bars on the West Coast of the US. But like all journeys there are twists, turns, paths that come to an end, and paths that lead to opportunities.

After my time with the company in Minnesota came to an end a path opened for me to begin working with this Bay Area start up in the mobile food and events industry called Off The Grid and their Sacramento Expansion office. With OTG I transitioned into the operations and business development side of the Food and Events industries. Which is where my interest in learning how to code and develop apps really began.

I have always had an interest in technology, from building all of my PCs since 2000, to creating a personal webpage in the early days of the interwebs on Angelfire, to just always keeping up with what is new and developing in technology. This interest pushed me into the unofficial role of emergency office tech support. I was the person who would transcribe the needs of the sales/business development teams to the developers who are working on the app/software that OTG is developing and vice versa, explain to all the teams why the devs coded the app/software the way they did.

What I learned from this experience and what was pointed out to me from the directors of the sales team and business development team was that I was a natural fit to go into the tech industry and become a bridge for the developers who sometimes have difficulty in connecting and explaining the way technologies work to the people they are building them for. Which I believe is the difficulty that most companies that are older or have not been founded in this more recent tech generation have and is a challenge for any non-tech based industry.

So there I was in Sacramento, realizing that there is a growing need in technology that could tie back into all the years of experience in food and events that I had. I immediately began reaching out to my network and began talking coding to those I knew in the industry. My “mise en place” for a career change began to develop.

I knew that I had to find a pathway to success, the only thing I didn’t know was how complicated that search for a pathway could be. Bootcamp? CS Degree? Online? Campus? So many options and questions it was overwhelming.

But, in the mix of it all I found The Holberton School.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was that I knew committing to a career change would mean that I would be going all in and have no time to work on the side as much as I do now. So being able to have the opportunity to not pay upfront would be literally life changing for me. The next thing was that they are peer-peer/project learning based to the technologies that are currently relevant in the industry. The third thing is that they prepare the students for the interviewing/hiring process to ensure their success. Finally the thing that really stood out was the mentorship they provide from current students, former students, industry experts, and more. To me this is the huge value add in how integrated the mentorship is in the program. One of the biggest things I have learned in life and business is that networking and partnerships are the life and death of all great ideas and businesses. I recently went to an open house and the staff is so friendly and engaging. The students are all helpful and interested in sharing their knowledge and opinions on all things. This is the environment I want to be a part of.

So with the optimal choice of school for my situation figured out, I just formed the rest of my plan around that. I have recently relocated to San Francisco from Sacramento to surround myself in the environment I wish to find success. I have identified the school I would like to learn from and begin my new career with. I have begun to immerse myself into a routine of tackling free online coding courses and absorbing as much about software engineering as I can. My mise en place is set and I am ready to begin making my career change.