One local bakery (of two or three in town) recently had a couple of positions open up. I currently work part time at an insurance agency but would love to be doing more decorating so I can improve myself. I really want to open my own bakery when I finish my business degree and feel this would be the best way to gain knowlege of how one operates a bakery business; including suppliers, pricing, and just plain skill. Has anyone done this before? What are your opinions if I am able to get on? Is it a good idea? Opinions wanted!

I think it depends on what you mean by bakery. If youre talking about the bakery in a Wal-Mart or some other chain place Id skip it. I would kill for a cake decorating position in a real bakery though. My SIL, MIL and good friend all work in the bakeries of Price Cutters, Wal-Mart and Summer Fresh. It sucks, the hours are long, the mangers dont appreciate their staff, the pay is nothing and Im constantly listening to them complain about how much they hate their jobs.

My MIL who works at Summer Fresh is the only one who gets a little free reign over the cakes. My SIL and friend have to make cakes according to a set design. Very rarely do they get to use their imaginations on something. Honestly the last thing Id want in a portfolio filled with sheet cakes littered with plastic doohickeys and airbrushing.

However, I know there are some folks here who work in chain supermarket bakeries and love their jobs. So Im purely speaking on what Ive seen in my area.

i think you should go for it. it will give you all the experiance you are looking for. plus it will allow you to network with people. you will be able to get to know the vendors and etc. and this inturn will help you in the future. this will all help you when you open you own business.

i agree though, if it is a chain- i might think it over.

Thanks for your opinions. It is at a "real" bakery that is highly know for its work. It has been around for over twenty years now. The funny thing though, when the manager asked me back to test my abilities, she scooped out ready made icing from a bucket. I always assumed they made their own icing. I'm not sure if they make their cakes from scratch now either. I guess if they don't, I can still practice on my own in perfecting my recipes and I'll never buy ready made icing. I just am a firm beliver in fresh quality. My icing and cakes is what people love about my cakes now. I just want the everyday experience if I can get this job. Thanks again for your replies.

I did that too. After I took the Wilton courses I knew I wanted to learn more. I took a job as a cashier at a small bakery. Since they were always short handed I ended up getting to learn a lot of stuff. I also learned a lot of short cuts that they don't teach in the Wilton courses. I recommend working in a good bakery. It's a great investment.
P.S. I don't recommend working in a grocery bakery. I only did that for a month and started picking up bad habits.

I think it's a great idea. You'll see all that goes into the business, gain experience and see if it's something you want invest your time and money into should you want one of your own!!!

We have a bakery on "The Hill" (sniff, sniff!) that is constantly looking for decorators. They have a high turnover rate, but I don't know why and I really don't want to know. However, I did apply for a job at the Baskin Robbins on the corner from me because I want to learn how to do ice cream cakes (actually, I really just want to work and the hours also fit my kids' school schedule). But heyu, experience is experience!

Oooo that sounds great I say go for it! You'll get to see how a real bakery runs and learn tons about cake decorating and whatnot. Good luck and be sure to take pictures of the cakes you make if you can!

I say go for it. You can always quit!

Jsmith, I was thinking about applying at a grocery store bakery but now you've got me concerned. What kind of bad habits?

One problem at a grocery bakery is the flourescent lights in the store. I tried to make cakes with pretty pastels but the light just turned them gray. So we had to use these horrible bright neon colors. I started to get used to it until a woman showed up and was disappointed with her cake. She said she was 40 and didn't want bubble gum pink colors. I was glad she snapped me out of that habit.
Another problem I had was that we used a decorators comb on all the cakes. I didn't get practice in icing cakes smooth.
Also, the cakes had to be under a certain weight which meant they had to be iced very thin. It didn't matter if there where crumbs all over it.
I guess the first bakery turned me into a snob. The owners there went ballistic when a new decorator tried to use a comb on a cake. They said it made the cake look like it came from a supermarket.
I just realized I probably offended anyone working at a grocery bakery. Sorry. But the senior decorator at the grocery was very good and liked her job. It just wasn't for me.

Oh my gosh! There are two major grocery chains in my area and at one of the bakeries I've seen that combing method on a majority of their cakes! I'll have to check a few other locations and see if they do it too. Maybe it could be just certain locations. One day I actually saw the male decorator combing a cake he had iced. This chain wasn't the one I was going to apply to but I just cracked up when I read that part in your post.

I work for a chain, but we don't comb, so I'm not offended

I work, very part time, for a chain and frankly, I like to comb. I would NEVER do it on one of my own cakes, but I was trying to learn volume and that is a great way of obtaining it. I say go for it! I wouldn't have to think twice if I had the opportunity.

Go to the bakery and ask if you can observe them while at work. The pace in a bakery can be very hectic, especially bakeries that focus more on production than on pretty. If you think you can handle the pace, or offer them something that they do not already do, the by all means, go for it!

Good Luck!

Theresa

It's definitely a good idea to get experience in the field that you want to work in. Especially if you want to open your own bakery one day. I imagine that you will have to get financing to do so, and the bankers like to see that you've had experience doing this. It's also good to get the experience working in a commercial kitchen and learning how to use commercial equipement. A lot of new business owners get sucked into buying equipment that they don't really need because they don't know any better. At the very least, you'll earn some extra cash, and learn what not to do in your bakery.