Students and alumni got the chance to add fine dining to their repertoires Tuesday as they sat down for a hands-on lesson about the value of dinner etiquette in the professional world.

Over the course of a three-course meal, participants learned and practiced the correct way to hold a fork and eat dinner rolls with the goal of standing out to prospective employers and clientele. The annual etiquette dinner’s 130 seats in Stamp Student Union’s Colony Ballroom filled up quickly, and attendees arrived in formal and semi-formal wear ready to learn the use of all three forks dressing their plates.

“A lot of business is done in the restaurant,” said Linda Lenoir, assistant director of Alumni Relations and Special Projects at the University Career Center, which hosted the event. “Whatever you’re doing can be measured as what kind of person you will be in the workplace.”

The event began in 2004 as a workshop before the etiquette dinner was added, and the original goal was to assist ethnic and multicultural students fighting to enter the workplace. The program expanded as popularity increased for the event and diversity increased on campus, LeNoir said.

An applicant’s table mannerisms are more indicative than students realize, LeNoir added.

“Salting food immediately not only offends the chef, it indicates you jump to conclusions,” she said. “Always try the food once before adding salt or pepper.”

Carol Haislip, director of the International School of Protocol in Hunt Valley, had similar advice for students. As participants struggled to use their utensils correctly — rice is piled on the outside side of the fork, for example — Haislip listed menu choices that would be ill-suited for first impressions and important meetings. Spaghetti, thick sandwiches, finger food, chicken noodle soup and the cheese on French onion soup are all of limits on a job interview, Haislip said.

“It’s not about the food, it’s about the interview,” she said. “Eat before [the interview] so the focus becomes selling yourself rather than eating the meal.”

LeNoir recounted interviewing an applicant for a university job at Adele’s some years back.

“He ordered a Caesar salad,” she said. “And when it came out, [he] just sat there staring because at that time Adele served Caesar salads as wedges. It was his first job and first job interview … midway through [the meal my colleague and I] realized he wasn’t eating. He was talking but wasn’t eating.”

Ryan Dardick, a 2012 alumnus, attended the etiquette course last year and he said he benefited from the experience.

“I attended it as a senior because it sounded interesting and it seemed like a good opportunity to learn how to act in a formal business setting, which I seemed to be in dire need of,” the 23-year-old alum said. “It makes me feel more confident about going out with my bosses and coworkers … On business trips, I’m regularly expected to dine with my bosses and coworkers. Helps to soothe the nerves, knowing what I’m doing.”

Many students also took part in Tuesday’s dinner to learn the skills they need to put their best foot forward in the working world.

“I’ve always wanted to go to an etiquette dinner,” junior economics major Tobi Adewale said. “These skills are valuable because you won’t always be in an office setting. You’re going to be in settings where you have to know how to carry yourself … [when] going to a luncheon or dinner I can definitely use those skills.”

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