JWU Relationships Matter in Planning & Growing Your Career

JWU Relationships Matter

Amy Tormey ’05, senior culinary recruiter for Delaware North

As a senior culinary recruiter for Delaware North, Amy Tormey ’05 knows what she is looking for in great JWU talent. Why? Because she is JWU. As an alumna, and experienced in finding the best talent, Amy is well positioned to share her expertise with students preparing for their careers.

“It’s really all about relationships” says Amy. Who shares that she never would have received the opportunity she did as a graduating student had it not been for the relationships she built at JWU.

Amy began her career at Compass Group as the catering director at the Charlotte Merchandise Mart before moving over to be the café manager and r&d chef for Café Ritazza at corporate headquarters. Amy then moved to the college recruiter position segueing into talent acquisition. Flash forward to today where Amy is a senior culinary recruiter at Delaware North. She has been recruiting JWU talent every step of the way.

Along the way, Amy has appreciated and nourished the relationships she has made; never forgetting where she comes from. And, because she knows what JWU students are capable of, she holds them to a higher standard and has expectations that JWU students will take advantage of opportunities and nurture their own relationships as she did. Why? Because when it comes to JWU it’s a small world really.

"I love to recruit JWU students. I think the wide variety of course topics really encourages the growth and learning mindset in students."

College to Career Success

Your reputation and ability to nurture relationships will stand you well. As it did with Christine Meehan ’12, ’17. Christine applied to FLIK,

a division of Compass Group, for their MDP program in her senior year. She was one of 30 applicants chosen to interview, twelve were invited to the FLIK dinner with senior management, and all were offered positions. Enter Amy Tormey who was at the dinner. She was impressed with Christine and negotiated with her colleagues to steal Christine away from the FLIK division to the Compass corporate division where Christine was hired as Amy’s first college relations coordinator. This set Christine on her path to talent acquisition and human resources coming from a Hospitality Management and MBA in Finance degree at JWU.

During her experience at Compass, Christine built a relationship with Amy and grew into her responsibilities as a young professional illustrating all the traits of a great JWU alumna – excellent work ethic, commitment to the work, solid multi-tasker, great personality and successfully managed work/life balance!

In 2014, Christine moved on to an HR role with another company and maintained her relationship with Amy. Flash forward to 2016 and a cross country move for both Amy and Christine to the West Coast where their paths cross again. During that time, an employer who was looking for good talent asked Amy if she had any recommendations and Amy recommended Christine for the position. Christine was then hired into her current role as the regional talent acquisition manager at Auberge Resorts Collection in San Francisco. Once again, nurturing those JWU relationships paid off and Experiential Education & Career Services gains another alumnus employer nurturing their JWU relationship and recruiting the best talent during on-campus recruitment at career fairs.

Christine shares that the reason she chose JWU for her hospitality education is because she was attracted to the wide variety of courses offered. The other schools she considered only offered a core group of hospitality courses with very few elective options. As a result of her success at JWU, Christine’s younger sister Michelle followed in her sister’s footsteps to JWU. Following graduation, Michelle also started her career at Compass Group in the FLIK division keeping it all in the family.

Christine states: “I love to recruit JWU students. I think the wide variety of course topics really encourages the growth and learning mindset in students. This is important to us as a company because that growth mindset has really been a success factor for those participating in our internship and management development programs. As we continue to grow as a company, it has been great to welcome students who are ready and able to grow with us.”

JWU students group shot

Seeking the Best JWU Talent

Every day Amy is building relationships that are a fit for the employer and the JWU student or alumnus. She knows what Delaware North is looking for and what JWU students can bring to the table.

In her current role with Delaware North (DNC), Amy values the organization’s commitment to building relationships and career paths for all of their employees making it a great fit for her with her values. Amy’s value to the DNC team built upon some of the great relationships with local accounts building a relationship at the corporate level with JWU.

This has opened up nationwide opportunities for JWU students that go beyond Sous Chef roles to setting up DNC and JWU graduates for success with the Culinary MIT program which is just two years old. As a result, DNC now has a consistent presence at the career fairs and we partner with Patina Restaurant Group to show the synergy with the various companies providing more opportunities to JWU students.

Christine's wedding

Delaware North Builds Career Paths

Here is a peek at Delaware North’s commitment to building career paths for their employees:

Students with an associates degree and who are completing their bachelor’s degree can enter into the manager-in-training program and are trained during a two-year period as salaried associates. They are looking for a minimum of 3 years with sous chef experience prior to the training program and count your JWU education toward that experience. At the end of a successful training period you can expect to become a sous chef. Training includes four rotations of six months each with two rotations at Patina Restaurant Group and two with Delaware North. There are five alumni in the program now with three in the latest program that has begun.

Because Delaware North has a seasonal business model, they offer a 12-18-month training program for existing employees that requires traveling to the business in its highest season to train at a variety of venues. To be successful in this seasonal business model, chefs need to be flexible and travel a lot. For instance, with the MLB playoffs some chefs traveled to the Milwaukee Brewers. Now they are traveling to Patina properties and next will spend the holiday season at Rockefeller Center.

What this boils down to is that Delaware North is committed to getting their employees to the level they want to get to for themselves while ensuring that even executive chefs still cook. All executive chefs cook whether it is a $52 million venue or a suite supported stadium. They all butcher, do sauce development, use their knife skills, and all of them get Pro Chef or ACF Chef certifications. It is this commitment to investing in its employees and promoting from within, building relationships if you will, that makes Delaware North such a great employer partner for JWU.

Recent Openings With Our Partners

Here’s a peek at some of the recent openings at TD Garden a Delaware North property, Patina Restaurant Group of which Delaware North is a majority share owner as well as openings with Auberge Hotel Collection:

Delaware North/TD Garden: Analyst – Hockey Operations, Food & Beverage (F&B) Supervisor, Internships in: F&B Management (Concessions), F&B Management (Restaurant & Catering), Catering & Events, as well as Human Resources

Patina Restaurant Group: Director of Food & Beverage, Finance Manager, Recruiting Manager, Catering Sales Manager, Culinary Staff, Catering Coordinators, Front & Back of the House Internships

Auberge Hotel Collection: Manager-in-Training Program, Internships in Rooms, Culinary, as well as Food & Beverage