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February 2009 Archives
Q: I'm close to graduating with a degree in hotel and restaurant management, and my advisor suggested I should be looking at opportunities in Food and Beverage since I want to be a GM of a large scale property. Do you agree? A: Any large scale hotel GM generally has a background in foods as a part of their resume. With banquet facilities, convention space, and larger food service units, a strong F+B background is a must in larger hotel firms. When I was with Disney, I worked my way through two large food service operations in the parks before I moved on to hotels. It provided great experience in the areas of cost control, motivation, managing high volumes, and prepped me for working with conventions.
So yes, you definitely should consider shifting your work interests towards a food and beverage role to expose you to a different area.
Many of my students ask me if employers will hold it against you when you have breaks in employment.
Most employers will ask you if you have had a break in employment, and why. Having an answer that is believable, honest, and productive can be the difference between a job offer and a "sorry, we've picked someone else".
Here are some very valid reasons for gaps in employment. They aren't an exhaustive list, but can help those of you out of work with how to frame it in an interview.
- Care of a child/relative - Stay at home mom/dad for X years. - Return to school - Volunteered while looking for a new position after a layoff - Health issues that were resolved, allowing me to return to work - Relocated due to spouse's position being relocated, and had to leave my position until I found a new one in the new town
One student asked me today if this kind of information should be put onto a resume. Clearly, if the information is very personal to you, you can leave that off the resume, but put honest dates of employment.
If you have only very short breaks in employment, you can list on your resume the years you worked at a company, and leave out the months. Very often on the application itself, you will be asked for exact dates, but for the resume, I find it is fine to just list the years.
Lastly, don't feel bad if you've had gaps in employment (I've had a couple myself). One was related to leaving one position, and the start date of the new one being delayed. Another was about 3 weeks between leaving Florida and starting a new job in Boston. My final one was a month off I took between leaving retail and starting my business.
We all may have gaps; whenwe realize that, I think it makes it much more comfortable to explain to people what they are.
Q: When replying to a job posting online, would I use the message box for my cover letter and attach my resume? Or does something else go in the message box with the cover and resume as an attachment?
A: Depending on the job site, the message box may be for the cover letter, and a separate box may be available for your resume. If you want to be sure that your formatting stays intact, you may want to consider converting your resume to PDF or a Word doc and upload it as an attachment.
Q: I am pursuing a position that pays about $10,000 less than the position I am in now, but it is one more in line with my career aspirations. How do I diplomatically discuss salary and responsibilities?
A: In terms of approaching the potential employer about the pay differential, I suggest you look at the benefits of what this new position may offer, and how you may be able to supplement the loss in income through some projects or other work you can pick up.
Most importantly, be honest with them! Explain that you are very interested in the position, and what you are making now; if they want you enough, they may offer you some other financial incentive to join them.
We encountered a disease I called "lackitipitis" that often occurred on days when restaurant covers were going to be low or their were minimal check ins or checkouts. This disease afflicts tipped employees and results in understaffing and callouts on days when people feel they aren't going to make enough money.
Some of the methods we used to combat "lackitipitis"
--- purposely understaffed to begin with to allow maximum tips for those who were there
--- tracked trends for who would call out on these low turn days to identify a pattern
--- cross-trained staff from other departments to work front of the house or as a bellman/valet to combat days where there was a "lackitipitis" outbreak.
Do you have questions on Human Resources? Questions about your career? How to treat and keep your employees? Contact me at robert@galaconcierge.comor post your comments or questions on one of the postings Topics include Employee Relations Feedback Interviewing Job Search Orientations Resumes Time Management Training About Robert BraatheRobert Braathe is a management consultant working with businesses in
process improvement, human resources and innovation. He is the full-time instructor of Business and Technology at SUNY Delhi @ SCCC in Schenectady, NY. Robert teaches courses that include Individual Behavior in Organizations, Human Resources II, Strategic Management, and Organizational Communications. He also teaches Business Communications and Human Resources Management for Schenectady County Community College. Robert
has held leadership positions with Walt Disney World, Gap and Apple
Computers. He has worked on projects with other companies such as Club
Gateway Resort, Scholastic Library Publishing and North River
Ventures. As an undergraduate he participated in the Walt Disney
College program and Management Internship program. He was named
Distinguished Alumni at Western Connecticut State University, where he
received his Master's in Business Administration. He holds a B.S. in
Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration from the University of
Massachusetts. In 2004, the Robert Braathe Leader's Award scholarship
was named in his honor at University of Massachusetts. Robert is
pursuing his PhD in Management from North Central University. For more information, visit www.galaconcierge.com
Incentives don't have to cost you a lot of money. Genuine acts of appreciation can result in feelings of belonging and further motivation for people to get the job done.
Here are some incentives you can use that are low-cost, effective, and can result in improved morale and productivity
1. Hero water - keep a case of bottled water around the office, and reward those who do the little things right with water on the spot. A hidden benefit with this - your people don't have to leave the office or work location to get a drink.
2. Oxygen breaks - for those offices still allowing smoke breaks, give everyone the ability to take an "oxygen break" every 2 hours to get away from the desk or to get some fresh air.
3. Unpaid days/hours off - for those who don't have a lot of vacation time, a pre-approved unpaid day off can do wonders to allow people to catch up on matters in their personal life, whether it be a whole day of part of a day.
4. Access - whether it be access to resources such as books, dvds, discount memberships, access can be one of the least expensive and most effective incentives.
What incentives have you used or received like these?
Q: Do I need to list references on my resume? Or will "References Available Upon Request" suffice?
A: Opinions vary on this topic. If you have a reference at each position, what I recommend is that this be included within the description of each job, possibly under dates of employment. If you are going to put "References Available Upon Request", I personally find that that space is better suited with putting actual references.
Q: I'm unsure of whether to use Facebook, MySpace, or Linkedin for finding jobs. What do you recommend?
A: Linkedin.com is one of the most popular sites for what I like to call "grown-up social networking". Finding business leads, reconnecting with colleagues, and getting recommendations are just a few of the great features this site offers. If you are going to use any of these sites, it is important to maintain a professional presence. If you have pictures or comments you don't want others to see, either leave them off the sites to begin with, or use the robust privacy tools on each of these sites to block out what you don't want others to see and possibly hold against you.
Q: What is the most effective question you have asked or been asked in an interview?
A: There are too many to mention, but I'd say in terms of effectiveness, the open-ended question is the most effective question method one can use. By asking people hypotheticals (tell me about a time when..., how would you handle a situation where...), you can identify experience, character, and ability to think on one's feet.
A tip I shared with my students this past week can also be applied to keeping your people on track on their projects.
I suggested this week to my advisees that they meet with me each term by the third week to take a look at their coursework, reviewing any questions they may have about all the courses they are taking, and to set them on a course for success.
Some of the items I suggested discussing with them were
1. Problem solving skills - sharing best practices to simplify and solve without stress 2. Time management - sharing best practices on sequential tasking vs. multitasking 3. Suggestions on discussions with their teachers/classmates 4. Resource allocation (did you get all your books, supplies, etc) 5. Technology check-in (are your online classes making sense, do you have any questions on Office/web applications, etc) 6. Need for additional assistance - tutoring, etc 7. Any other issues brought up
In a work environment, it is important to keep these things in mind when delegating or taking on new responsibilities.
Nerves are a natural part of the interviewing process. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we can come across a lot differently in an interview than we actually do in any other setting.
It takes a savvy interview style to pull out the best in your candidates in the interview setting.
This reminds me of a time when I was interviewing a very shy candidate. Her resume was impressive; good schooling, good grades, relevant work experience; what was missing was that spark and that energy we were looking for.
I looked at the activities section on her resume, and noticed that she had put "flowers" as one of her interests. So I asked her "tell me what it is you enjoy about flowers?".
It was like a light switch went on. She went into a story about how she loved getting flowers, loved taking care of them, and loved working part-time delivering them to people.
The rest of the interview she showed a new life and interest in working with us; the greatest thing about it was that we were able to place her in a role where she would be able to work with flowers as well.
Lesson for the interviewee - have an interesting activity on your resume that can be brought up in the interview.
Lesson for the interviewer - look for something that brings out the "florist" in your applicant. You'll be surprised at what they have in them.
You may use a number of job sites for your searches.
How do you keep up with all the sites and all the searches?
One method that has worked for me over the years has been to email myself copies of jobs from the various sites.
I then sort them into folders such as "HR", "Education", "Web Projects", "Summer", etc to sort them into area of interest, lengths of employments, etc.
What I find happens with this organization is that I am able to refer to these folders weekly to find possible new leads on business, possible job opportunities for the future, or links I can share with my students as they come to me looking for jobs.
This passive search method always seems to lead to the best opportunities for me.
Even though I am happily employed and have a number of wonderful clients, I nonetheless still keep these folders and monitor them weekly to see if something may inspire me to reach out for a new lead or new opportunity.
What processes are keeping you from attracting and retaining talent?
Some things to consider when looking at the mission of your human resources functions
- Do we regularly engage in feedback with our associates (and not just the "scheduled" review time)?
Regular feedback can be most effective when it is unscheduled, succinct, and timely.
- How do we improve our onboard processes to ensure people stay with us after the probation period?
Many employers lose more employees in the first 90 days than in any other time period.
Developing an effective onboarding process to train, retain, and develop can be the answer.
- How are we developing individuals into more inclusive members of our community?
Design and implement activities that make people feel included from the get go. At Apple my first day at corporate headquarters included lunch at the company cafeteria and a standing ovation upon arrival to the beginning of orientation.
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