Moving into contract catering

Question

I have been working in retail catering for the past seven years, holding supervisory and managerial roles for the last four to five years. I am trying to get into contract catering because the hours are much more sociable. I have only had a handful of responses after e-mailing my CV over the past four months. I am aware that because of my lack of contract catering experience I may need to start off as an assistant manager. I am fully prepared for this, but still haven't had any positive responses. I have attached my CV and any feedback would be helpful. I have also registered with some recruitment agencies and set up job search e-mails, but these still have not matched me to any suitable vacancies.

What the expert says

Lesley Reynolds, chief executive, Portfolio International

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You have a good attitude and a great CV and there is no logical reason why you should not transfer to the area of your choice. Of course, the market is very up and down right now. One perception not in your favour that needs to be overcome is that some retail catering operations function with little or no innovation or flexibility and there are more varied and changing menus in business and industry site catering, meaning that a strong knowledge of food is necessary. Maybe you need to bring out an argument to overcome this perception. The hospitality side of contact catering requires full-service restaurant skills either from conference and banqueting environments or restaurants. The smaller catering manager jobs may also require cheffing skills and given a very retail-led CV, this could hinder progress. Being prepared to enter at assistant manager level is a good attitude to have. You need to keep at it and keep speaking to different contacts in the agencies and consultancies to make sure your intentions are fully understood and work out a strategy for overcoming the problems highlighted above.