Some restaurants take the promoting-from-within concept so seriously that they rarely hire general managers or chefs from outside. They prefer to develop their own talent from within the organization.

        If an external job applicant was a bar back at another employer, the person won’t get a job as a bartender. A sous chef wouldn’t be considered for a chef job. A vice president would not go to the new place as senior vice president.

        So does that mean you can’t get promoted to the next level of your career path if you change employers? Not necessarily, some experts say.

        “There are times when you may be ready to be promoted because you’ve improved and enhanced your skills, but your company doesn’t have a higher-level position available for you at that time,” says Naomi Clarke, manager of human resources for Lebanon, Tenn.-based Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. “In these cases, you may be able to find another company that does have a need at that higher level that is appropriate for you.”

        Thomas Salamunovich, who owns the fine-dining restaurant Larkspur in Vail, Colo., says that before making a move, make sure you have truly reached the top level of your job description.

        “Stay at the job you are at, if it is a quality job, until you have mastered it,” he says. “If you have been there less than a year, there is no chance you have mastered it.”

        It helps if you are trying for an upgrade within the same industry segment. If you work in casual dining and you want to get promoted, you can probably find a higher-level job in another casual-dining company. It would be more difficult if you wanted to move, say, from hourly worker at fast casual to a manager in a fine-dining establishment.

        Don’t overlook your current employer for an upgrade, Clarke says.

        “Restaurant companies always need talent, so the best thing is to make yourself visible and build relationships and networking groups,” she says. “Sharing your talents that are broader than your job description makes you employable and promotable.”

        Another strategy is to move up to a new restaurant within your own company. Salamunovich soon will open a new restaurant called Avondale. Jelena Musa, a floor manager at Larkspur, will be general manager at the new place. Musa says it’s true some restaurants don’t hire job applicants at a higher level than where they worked before.

        “That did happen to me,” she says. “But that didn’t stop me.”

        Her advice: When you interview, show passion about your foodservice career.

        “It’s all about self-presentation,” she says. “If you believe in this business, you need to love food and wine, and you need to love pleasing people.”

        Salamunovich says sometimes it’s better to be promoted at a new job than at your current employer. For example, if you are one of five managers and you get promoted, it changes your relationship with your co-workers.

        “It’s more difficult to stay there and become their supervisor because they say, ‘You were my friend yesterday and now you’re on me for coming in late.’”

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