|
Pass the Job Offer: Students Learn
Social Graces Needed to Clinch Job Offers Over Fine Fare
Ioana Patringenaru
| February 26, 2007
Cherry tomatoes? They’re deadly. Spaghetti,
linguini and other sauce-soaked Italian pasta? Forget
about it. And if you really want to eat that crouton
in your salad, scoop it up. Don’t try to stab
it with your fork until it shatters into a million
pieces.
More than 100 UCSD undergraduates eagerly devoured
these pieces of advice, and much more, Wednesday night
during a three-hour, four-course meal at the UCSD
Faculty Club. Entitled “Please Pass the Job
Offer,” the event aimed to teach students table
manners and prepare them for that crucial job interview
that might take place over a nice meal.
|
| Students get ready to enjoy a four-course meal and learn about etiquette at the UCSD Faculty Club. |
|
It was the first time UCSD’s Career Services Center offered an etiquette dinner for undergraduates, said Lauren Payne, a career advisor who coordinated the event. The dinner was a sold-out hit. Vladimir Sadoma, a third-year electrical engineering major, was one of the 105 students who signed up. He takes job hunting seriously. He enrolled in a professional career development class. He attended a seminar about dressing for success at the Career Services Center. Wednesday night, he was getting ready to tackle networking and food.
After hobnobbing with other students and a few business people over crackers, nuts and punch, Sadoma sat down for dinner. The Career Services Center had drafted Sandra Punch, from California State University, San Marcos, to guide him and the other undergraduates through the niceties of a formal, sit-down dinner.
Having dinner with Punch is a little bit like dining with your mother or grandmother, back when they were trying to teach you table manners – only it’s more fun.
“I’m the first to tell you, I don’t spend my evenings at tables like this,” she told her audience. “Last night, I ate in front of the TV, watching American Idol.”
But dining can be fun, she went on. First, you have to figure out which plates, glasses and silverware belong to you, especially if you’re sitting at a round table. Hold your hands on your lap, forming an “o” with your index finger and your thumb and holding your other fingers straight up. Your right hand will look like a “d:” that’s the side where your drinks and your napkin usually are. The left hand will look like a “b:” that’s where your bread plate is.
|
| Sandra Punch, a career services official at Cal State San Marcos, gives students advice during the dinner. |
|
Take your napkin and put it on your lap. Keep your feet in check. And whatever you do, never, ever put your elbows on the table, Punch said. It’s okay to rest your forearms on the table between courses, though.
Next, Punch showed students how to eat soup, in this
case, cream of mushroom. Sit up straight. Never blow
on your soup to cool it. “Wave through it and
hope for the best,” she said. Dish up the soup
away from yourself, bringing it to your mouth by forming
an inverted “L.” Also, never slurp your
soup, unless you’re in Japan, where it means
that you’re really enjoying your dish. Then
it was students’ turn to practice. Some handled
their soup and spoon like explosive devices. Others
seemed more at ease. Punch walked from one table to
the next, dispensing praise and advice. “You
are all doing really well,” she said. “I
don’t see any spots on any ties.”
After most students successfully tackled the soup, Faculty Club staff served a salad with pears, blue cheese, strawberries, greens and cherry tomatoes. That tomato is the most deadly thing on your plate, Punch warned. Try piercing it with your fork and it will end up all over yourself and your neighbors, she explained. “Leave it, leave it, you don’t need it,” she said.
Then she went on to demonstrate how to hold your fork and knife, pressing down on them with your index fingers. The fork goes in the left hand, the knife in the right. When you’re done cutting your greens, put the knife down and switch your fork to your right hand. “It’s not practical,” Punch admitted. “Maybe we’re trying to make you lose weight.” When you’re done, put your knife and fork at an angle on the center of the plate.
|
| Which fork should I use anyway? Students talk during Wednesday's dinner. |
|
Moving on to the main course: chicken with mushroom sauce, vegetables and pasta. Punch fingered the pasta as the students’ biggest challenge. “If you’re going to an Italian restaurant, your choices are lasagna or eggplant,” she said. “Stay away from anything with long names.” Don’t cut your pasta, she went on. Twirl it around your fork and guide it gently to your mouth.
By the way, if you want lemon in that ice tea, put your hand over it while you squeeze it. Whenever you’re pouring a drink from a pitcher or a bottle, never touch your glass. “The lips should never touch,” she said. “They never kiss. Why? Because you don’t know where that lip has been.”
“The main lesson I learned was that whenever
you meet with another professional over lunch or dinner,
it’s not about the food,” said Sadoma,
after the event. “So don’t get distracted
and don’t distract others with food, especially
by putting anything larger than bite-size in your
mouth, because you never know when you might be asked
that ever-important hiring question that requires
a quick response.”
Actually, Sadoma said he had trouble breaking up
his bread roll into bite-size pieces, then buttering
each one, as Punch instructed. “I am used to
taking bites right from the roll itself,” he
said.
Etiquette tips
|
Tip # 1: Don't salt your food before tasting
it. It's an insult to the chef —
and your host.
Tip # 2: Always pass the salt and pepper together, even if you're asked for only one of them.
Tip # 3: Where to start using your multiple layers of silverware: on the outside, working your way in as you eat.
Tip # 4: Small-talk topics: limit the
conversation to careers, food, travel,
jobs, books, movies and hobbies. Never
talk about politics or religion. |
|
|
