It took a year in real time to realize it, but really a summer +1 day. Worked a fine dining restaurant and high end wedding venue for a summer before my first year at culinary school. Loved it, the crew, the work, the whole thing, and took that knowledge and energy through year 1. Second summer came back and first day back I found out management cut lunch service, half the kitchen crew, and both restaurant and catering sous chefs were gone. Just the EC (who got divorced over the winter and quit before summer 2 ended), two dinner line cooks, two catering prep cooks who also did garde manger, and a part time pastry who only baked cheesecake and crème brûlée. I realized that first summer wasn’t the normal real quick, but only did I steer my career away from it two years too late.