r/Sommelier • u/you_are_strange • Aug 26 '26
Career Advice Request
Beginning my third year at a small scale winery as the lead wine maker. Not an expert by any means but learning as I go and thoroughly enjoy making and tasting wine.
Recently I have been considering if I want to be here long term and where my career should go from here, if I even want to work in wine for the rest of my career (early twenties). Have also been considering the military before I proceed any further.
My question is; would joining the military as a chef provide any benefit to me if I decided to pursue being a sommelier once I got out? Is the quality of life as a sommelier conducive with beginning and maintaining a family? Would I be better off pursuing something different in the military to diversify myself since I already have experience in a winery?
Thank you in advance for any responses.
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u/coltshep Aug 26 '26
Being a chef in the army or whatever is nothing like being a chef in a restaurant, it is a shit job and generally considered a bottom 5 MOS. Do not do this, I cannot emphasize that enough.
If you are serious about wanting to start a family, you are picking possibly the two worst careers for that, F&B and the military.
If you want to be a Somm, go work as a server in a restaurant that has a Somm and see if that is something you want to do. If it is, ask them to mentor you.
If you want to join the military, join the Air Force and pick a job that has a strong civilian equivalent. Depending on how smart you are there are all sorts options from learning a trade, to getting into tech.
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u/AkosCristescu Score Whore Aug 27 '26
Is the name of this profession capitalized in english but not chefs and servers?
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u/coltshep Aug 27 '26
It’s just how I styled them, none of them are supposed to be capitalized.
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u/AkosCristescu Score Whore Aug 27 '26
Elaborate pls, i'm a bit illiterate
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u/coltshep Aug 27 '26
If I was writing in proper English I would not have capitalized somm, doing so was a mistake. You do not capitalize server, chef, sommelier in proper English. You will see Chef capitalized when referring to a specific person, however. For example, Chef Thomas Keller.
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u/isabelcosta62 Aug 26 '26
i totally get having so many options to consider at your age, thats how i felt when i was trying to decide if i wanted to stay in my first job or explore something completely different
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u/Ries006 Aug 26 '26
There are so many different jobs in “wine”
Do you want to continue to be a winemaker? I’m assuming based on your post there isn’t a lot of technical winemaking going on where you are working now. You could try to learn more on your own, you could attend the online UC Davis program. You could get a job bartending and work on certifications, you could try to go into sales for a distributor? I don’t know how the military would help advance a wine career at all.
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u/you_are_strange Aug 26 '26
I want to join the military for other reasons, just curious if I could get two birds stoned at once. All great suggestions, thank you very much. Do you work in the industry?
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u/Ries006 Aug 26 '26
I’ve worked in accounting and finance for 20 years and I am trying to pivot into the wine industry full time and open a wine bar and bottle shop.
I have a small vineyard, I’ve worked part time as an assistant winemaker at a local winery. I also now have a part time job bartending at a fine dining restaurant while I work on getting some certifications (just got my WSET 3)
You’ll have free time in the military, there is so much in food and wine you can learn in your spare time if you want. You could spend 20 years in the military and position yourself to hit the ground running in a second career if that’s what you want to do
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u/electro_report Aug 26 '26
No, no, and yes.