Lack of Training

On my externship I received no formal training whatsoever. I basically was thrown into the kitchen with a prep list. The prep list was especially big considering it was the day before Easter as well. Every once in the while the sous chef would come by and tell me I was doing it wrong, and tell me another way to do it. Ten minutes later the executive chef would come by and tell me I was doing it wrong, even though I was doing it the sous chef's way, and tell me another way to do it. This went on for the majority of the tasks and I felt very discouraged and felt like I had not done anything correct. When I started to get more adjusted to my externship site, a few weeks later I finally just started asking the chef directly what he wanted: this cut out any confusion, and when the sous chef would come by to try and "help" me I would just tell him this is what I had been told. While this may not have been the best way to go about the situation, my supervisor (the executive chef) like that I asked him how he would like things done. In turn this made the chef like me more as a person and extern and want to teach me more things, which resulted in a very educational externship experience. This helped me realize what was expected of me and to grow stronger as a student and chef.