Student Watch: Summer 2013

Photo: Jeff Miller.

During a business lunch, you order ribs and your potential boss orders fish. When the food arrives, you place your napkin in your lap and begin to eat the ribs one by one with your hands. Right?

Wrong.

Each semester, the College of Letters & Science holds an Etiquette Dinner at the University Club for students, teaching them tips and tricks for dining during a job search. Students are taught to avoid simple mistakes, such as eating with your hands when the rest of your table is using forks and knives. An etiquette professional leads the group through the proper way to enjoy common foods, including soup, salad, pasta, and dessert.

Caela Northey x’13 attended the event to learn what she was doing wrong and become a more conscious eater. “I never knew there were so many ways to hold a fork,” she says. She and peers at her table were surprised by the many meticulous details — from buttering a roll to excusing oneself to use the restroom — related to polite dining.

“You can find anything online about how to behave at a professional meal. But students learn quite a bit in this format,” says Angie White, the college’s coordinator of advising.

“I’d love to host a similar dinner,” Northey says. “It would be a good way to share what I’ve learned.”

“It’s amazing how effective the dinner was in a such a short amount of time,” says James Olrick x’14. “Eating has professional implications that can potentially secure a job.”

Published in the Summer 2013 issue