I quit a very stressful career of 15 years (executive sous chef) 1 1/2 years ago and since then have been working for myself. I’ve been applying to jobs and taking my time to make sure I find something that’s the right fit for me but the money I’m making on my own is only just enough to pay my bills so the past few months I shifted to looking for something more entry-level and low stakes in addition to my own work so I can have consistent income and health insurance again (with my short term goal being that I can make a little extra to save towards emergency expenses and the education I need for a career change).
I interviewed with several people at a company for a lower-level hourly supervisor position and made it clear that I was happy with taking the significant pay and title cut compared to my previous position. However they offered me an upper level front-of-house management position instead because “it would be insulting to offer someone with such an impressive resume such a low pay rate” and sold it to me as a better job and great opportunity to switch career paths. The salary is 15k lower than my minimum to accept a salaried position (that number based off what income I would need to be approved for the average rent for a 1bd apartment in my city) but I’ve been sending out at least 3-5 applications a week for the past 1 1/2 years and I haven’t been receiving call backs (and if I do, a similar situation happens—I’m told I’m overqualified). This has been the best and only chance I’ve been given for a career change that doesn’t require years of saving up to go back to school and this particular location in this company is world-renowned so having it on my resume would get me a job in this field anywhere in the world.
I’ve been in this position for about 6 weeks and while learning how to process payroll, I’ve found out that I am one of the lowest-earning full time staff in my entire department. The lowest entry-level position makes only 2k less than me a year, and that’s based on a 40 hour week. I am required to work 50 hours a week, but it’s been more like 60+ and closer to 80 when the busy season comes. Because of the nature of this work, my schedule comes out only days before the work week starts, changes frequently, and isn’t consistent on a week-by-week basis. Additionally this job alone doesn’t pay enough to cover my bills, I still have to work part time 15-20 hours a week to catch up. With the hours I’m working, I’m making less hourly than the original position I applied for.
How should I even handle this? It’s insulting they knew I would eventually figure out and think I’d be ok with it. I thought maybe things changed since I was last working full time but now it’s even worse: how do businesses expect to succeed with this model? How do they expect to attract and retain talented, forward-thinking, and intelligent leaders that will make good decisions and—more importantly—fight to change things in these industries to make work conditions better and more appealing for workers?