Chef school isn't as boring as you think it is. It also isn't as unproductive as you might think it is. This is because you need to be creative enough to think of the different opportunities that being a chef can bring you. After all, being creative is the same capital that you need to draw on when you start practicing what you learned in chef school. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be very different from other chefs and you wouldn't earn as much as you’d like.

The first and most obvious job you can get out of chef school is being someone's chef. You could actually be part of a restaurant or something else. This means that you will be an employee. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as good chefs are paid very well. You can also use this as a stepping stone when it comes to building your reputation. You might be working under a corporate flag that is not your own but you will be compensated properly.

If you want to go beyond this, you might want to consider setting up your own shop. You can start thinking about what you can offer to the market. This is where you can start thinking about what cuisine to specialize in. This means that you will want to draw on what you learned and expand a specific aspect of that knowledge pool. This is when you can create your own corporate flag to cook under. You might earn more here but it might take more time as you will wait for your business to break even.