Many cooking schools and culinary institutes have arrangements to place students in internships with area hotels, restaurants, and other businesses — sometimes even resorts and cruise lines. For example, you might be able to intern as part of a wait staff, kitchen staff, or catering staff; such assignments, though temporary, can serve as valuable initial experience in a job market that prizes experience.

As you investigate schools, it’s certainly a good idea to ask where they place interns, and to find out as much as you can about those locations. (However, don’t necessarily depend on the school to place you; many businesses offer internships on their own initiative, without making any arrangements with particular educational institutions.) Keep these questions in mind as you look into internship opportunities:

• “What am I going to learn here that I can’t learn at school?”
  
• “Is this job just going to earn me money, or is it actually going give me the kind of experience that will help my career?”
  
• Most importantly, “Is this really a place where I want to work?”

It is occasionally possible for even young and relatively inexperienced students to get internships at very prestigious locations, but be warned that the more highly regarded and upscale a business is, the greater the demands that will be placed on you. Alejandro Granes, a former line cook at the renowned Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, Penn., tells of a friend who interned at the Paris restaurant of Joël Robuçon, one of the world’s top chefs: “He signed on for an unpaid three-month stint of working twelve-hour days, six days a week, during which he was to remain impeccably groomed and dressed. He lasted a month, and then he forgot to shave one morning and Robuçon let him go on the spot. But even a month at that restaurant — what a thing to be able to put on your resume!”