Do pizza chefs need a CV?
Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 by Alan Pizzaiolo Tribe — No comments
We hear a lot of pizza chefs that don't have a CV. They have always found work through word of mouth or when that wasn't the case they would go for a trial and show their worth. Of course in our profession what really counts is being able to perform the job we are hired for: making good pizzas. There is no amount of words that can substitute 2 minutes at the counter. Some of my pizzaiolo friends claim they can spot a good pizza chef in the first 15 seconds "it's the way you handle the dough" they say. On the other side of the coin we also see the new generations being active on LinkedIn and Instagram and they have a CV too.
We asked our friends and followers the following question: How important is it to receive a CV from a candidate? To make sure we could have a variety of opinions we ran two polls, one on the Pizzaioli in the UK Facebook group and one on our LinkedIn page.
These were the results.
LinkedIn results
Facebook Results
It was somewhat expected that the LinkedIn crowd would say a CV is important. They see value in connecting with other people and having a good presence online. They believe a CV shows more professionalism. I thought Davide Galbarino of The Wine College had a good, levelled opinion on why a CV is somewhat important "A CV is not to find out whether the candidate is good at his job or not, that only time will tell, but it is used to judge many other things from an employer point of view. So I suggest candidates spend 1 hour of their time to create a good CV, and then keep it up to date".
The Facebook crowd, on the other hand, comprises many people that are more hands on, and value the ability to perform the job above everything else. Dario Buonissimo, who is now in the process of opening his own pizzeria, put it this way "Personally I have always given more importance to someone's pictures of their pizzas than their CV as very often CVs are embellished. Furthermore sometimes 5 years of experience in a poor pizzeria are worth less than 6 months at Franco Manca. If I didn't receive a crazy amount of applications, I would just contact everyone and ask them to come in for a trial. Having said that a good CV, a Cover Letter and some pictures have always been a plus point as they show professionalism".
As Davide suggested, I would encourage everyone to have a CV. If you don't have one you can use our CV builder (just start an application and then, next to "Attach CV" click on "Build a CV using our CV Builder"). Make sure you read our blog on how to build a good pizza chef CV. A well thought CV gives you a chance to separate yourself from the crowd and be top of mind. It also allows you to be "filed" and remembered. When an employer or recruiter needs a new pizza chef they can simply go through their archive and find all the info they need.
Photo by Juan Manuel Núñez Méndez on Unsplash