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Private Chefs: Pros and Cons of Working for a Professional Athlete

You have seen them on tv shows and social media, and it is hard to not imagine taking your culinary skills and working as a personal chef to a professional athlete. You get to work for some of the most talked about and talented people in the world all while driving your passion for high end cuisine and helping professional athletes achieve their goals; it is even better if they play for your favorite team. However, as we know, the grass is not always greener, but sometimes the sacrifice is worth the reward. It is your choice on if you would like to pursue a career as a personal chef to a professional athlete, so let’s dive in.

Pros

The positives to being a personal chef for a professional athlete are relatively easy to come up with and are fun to imagine. Some of the dreamier perks would include being in close proximity to amazing individuals that have trained their bodies and minds for years to achieve success; wouldn’t it be great if some of that rubbed off on you? Being responsible for helping them achieve their dietary goals may also mean you get to travel with them to games and on trips to make sure they are able to easily maintain their diets. Not to mention, your “office” is likely in a multi-million-dollar home and your budget is very high or non-existent. As a personal chef, this is a huge blessing, especially if you are coming from a restaurant or other culinary business where it is about making money, not helping someone achieve a physical goal.

Cons

As mentioned earlier, the grass is not always greener for personal chefs working for professional athletes. There are many factors that go into being a professional athlete, which include many variables that would impact your job and the sustainability of it. Many of the personal chefs for professional athletes that we work with have an average placement rate of one year. This is due to athletes being traded or injured on a frequent basis. On a positive note, this is a “pro” for a personal chef that is seeking more freelance opportunities vs. a long-term position.

Timing of meals is another tough hurdle that personal chefs to professional athletes must also overcome, especially while balancing a personal life. Many professional athlete chefs adhere to a workout, practice, and game schedule that is much unlike the normal meal schedule most Americans with a private chef would be used to. Consider your day if you worked for an athlete that awoke early in the morning for their first work out that required a hearty breakfast to accompany it, then serving lunch late in the afternoon, and yet still having to be on-call for an evening meal, especially late following a game. Add in even more factors if the athlete has a spouse, family, and staff that needs to be fed.

Creativity; it is important during your interview as a private chef to a professional athlete, that you discuss in depth the type of cuisine you will be cooking on a regular basis. If your chef skills are motivated and inspired by delivering beautiful and exquisite meals, how would you react to an athlete that relies primarily on chicken, rice, and vegetable on a daily basis?

The purpose of this post is not to dissuade you from pursuing a career as a personal chef to a professional athlete, but more to ensure all red flags are lowered before you start making moves. Working with a domestic recruiter, such as Robert Hanselman, gives you more opportunities for longevity and security, especially as you build rapport with their clients. Building a trusted and positive background with your domestic recruiter’s clientele, opens the doors for many more future opportunities. Especially if you find yourself obtaining more freelance gigs vs. a permanent position.

 

At Robert Hanselman Domestic Staffing Agency, we have been very fortunate to work with a number of professional athletes to deliver high quality results in helping them achieve their goals by providing them with supportive household staff including personal chefs that are eager and willing to go above and beyond a normal cuisine or schedule. We look forward to assisting many more personal chefs and professional athletes to help each party involved achieve their individual goals and create a harmonious domestic environment for our highly appreciated clients.

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Quarantine Resume Tips

For the team at The Robert Hanselman Domestic Staffing Agency, this has proven to be one of the most unusual times we have ever experienced, much like the rest of our society. As we prepare for a comeback, it is important to remember your greatest asset is you. As an advisor to domestic candidates and clients alike, we are consistently advising to make smart decisions and remember your long-term goals. How domestic employees and employers react during this time could have long term impacts for them in the near and far future. If you find yourself becoming uncertain of your employment security, or if you have been affected by the recent economic impact, the best place to focus your energy is your resume.

Very soon, we will be back to a form of normalcy and commerce will begin again, hopefully even greater so than when this mess all started. For you, as a domestic staff member, if that means you are starting your career search again, this is the time to spend your energy at home focusing on how to best market yourself for the type of job that you want with the type of employer you want.

When discussing previous employment with candidates, we strive to go beyond just knowing facts, but it is important to understand how you performed, enjoyed, and excelled in previous roles. Your resume should reflect what you enjoyed and did well, this is to serve as a conversation piece with your next prospective domestic recruiter or private employer.

For example, if you are a great elite nanny, private chef, household manager, or estate manager and you are out of work, remember the industry of elite domestic jobs also has its seasons. Target the East Coast, nobody will be ready for a vacation like those who have a home in the Hamptons, with that will come household jobs. Do research on different summer hotspots that boom with visitors and vacation homeowners during the summer months. If you live in Florida, you may find that a Florida based family spends their summers in the Hamptons and is looking for a new elite nanny for their children once quarantine is over to travel with them. The options are endless and require a unique individual such as you, ready to be flexible and professional.

We are confident that this summer and fall may be one of the greatest we have seen as people are yearning so greatly for human interaction. Plenty of families have second home all over the country that they will be eager to visit this summer to reconnect with loved ones. Are you ready to join them and perhaps meet one of your greatest employers of all time? Let’s get that resume in order!

1) Think about what you are targeting. If you are a flexible domestic professional with transferrable skills that will apply to different job titles, you should have a tailored resume for each job title that speaks to your domestic skills. Search job postings and take note of what they are asking for. Find the common keywords used most in these postings and work them into your resume. With technology of today, view your resume as a google search. If a domestic recruiter or private employer were to search for your resume in a database using relevant keywords, would you be on the top of the stack for results?
Example: If you are seeking to be a nanny to the elite, consider what your next employer may be searching for and telling their recruiter they are looking for. Normal qualifications may include “CPR certified” “bilingual” “au pair” “teacher” “nursing” “therapy” “fitness” “active” “first aid” “clear driver’s license”

2) Put those keywords to use in your resume. If I am an elite nanny, I will have sentences under past jobs such as:

  • “Cared for two children under the age of 8 focusing on education and helping them learn French, which I am fluent in.
  • “Certified in CPR for both adults and infants, maintain recertification on a yearly basis.”
  • “Drove three children between the ages of 8 and 13 to school on a daily basis, clear driver’s license.

3) Next, let’s quantify your entire resume as much as possible. This answers black and white questions a prospective employer may have and opens the door for more meaningful conversation during an interview.

  • “Worked on a three-nanny team in shifts to provide round the clock childcare to four children under the age of ten.”
  • “Balanced daily care for three children ages six, nine, and thirteen.”
  • “Effectively communicated with two chauffeurs, the household manager, and private chef to ensure scheduling, care, meal, and transportation needs for the two children were met consistently.”

4) When working on your resume remember the following questions:

  • How many (how many staff, kids, principles, guests, rooms, square feet, acres, homes)
  • How often (child events, corporate events, dinner parties, vacations)
  • Emphasize the time period (two 10-person corporate dinners per week, one trip per month to vacation home in Hamptons, planned six birthday parties per year for 30-60 guests).
  • Answering these two questions for each bullet point of your resume will make you standout, save you time, and showcase your abilities and experience.

While you tweak your resume, look at it in detail and notice if there is anything on there that you actually do not enjoy doing (and hope you never have to do it again). Take it off. If you hated polishing silver, or the pressure of cleaning priceless artwork is too much to handle; do not showcase it on your resume. Showcase what you are good at and what brings you joy. This is a new season of realizing what makes us happy and perform at our highest level possible for our employers.

Finally, keep your files organized and your documents properly labeled for each version of your resume. They should read “John Smith Household Manger Resume” or “John Smith Estate Manager Resume” or “John Smith Butler Resume.” Now you will be more prepared than ever to take on your job search and stand out from the rest. As always Robert Hanselman Domestic Agency is here for you and thanks you for your continued support and trust yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

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