I am new to cake decorating. I took my first class about a year ago and fell in love. I am no where near opening my own business but I would like to eventually. I wanted some opinions as to whether or not I should persue a job in one of my local bakery's or grocery store bakery's in order to gain experience and to learn more of the craft?? Or should I be looking in another directions. Any opinion would be appreciated.

I think working in a bakery is good experience..a local bakery will teach u lots and a grocery store will too.. in my opinion, you can learn most about speed at a store.. oh and buttercream roses lol.. I wanted to work in a store bakery specifically for roses lol

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it.

If it's just to get a little bit of experience or work on speed, I say go for it. I'll tell you my experience with it... Keep in mind that it was for a grocery store chain, I won't say which one.

Cakes come in frozen, no baking. Loved that. (really bad tasting, because I cannot tell you how many times 1 cake would be taken out of the freezer, thawed out and put back into the freezer. 1 cake would have this done multiple times. Icings came in premade. Nice.

Had to keep 4 of the same cake made up at all times. 1 in the display, 4 in the freezer. Yes, again in the freezer. We had no freedom with design or decor, as stores have books as to what the cake HAS to look like. NO changing anything or BIG trouble. Some stores even weigh your cake to make sure you aren't using too much icing, filling, etc.

I won't work in another, but some people have worked in better bakeries than I did.

I can't honestly say that I learned anything about decorating or baking. BUT IT WAS A PAYCHECK. But at the end of the day, the idea of doing a cake or pretty cookies for enjoyment seemed more like punishment.

I've worked in both--the grocery stores taught me speed--invaluable really. In the local bakeries you get more of the decorating skills--though you often have to start at the bottom and work up to decorating more.

I definitely would say either would be great experience for you--if you want to run your business later then probably a local bakery because if you keep an eye on the business aspects you can learn a lot, not just about decorating, but about running a business.

I would definitely recommend it for working on your speed and seeing how things work in general. I worked at an upscale bakery in Manhattan. Learned a ton...some good, some bad. I have also worked in a grocery store bakery (Whole Foods) and it too, has positives and negatives. My experience with WF is as long as it is pretty and sells, they didn't care how it was decorated. There was no set way of doing things like the previous poster mentioned. It just depends on the store. I try to look at every thing as a learning experience- you may learn things you wouldn't otherwise but also you may see how you don't want to work, which is also learning and growing. It's a good way to find out if this field is for you!