| So, you've done your turn in the trenches. You've | | | | manager, but that's still the job you did, and the |
| been a busperson, head waiter, bartender, host, | | | | one you're seeking now! |
| and what-not. After ten to twenty years, many | | | | Bartenders are another catch-all position. The |
| hospitality workers, feeling burned-out at the late | | | | head office sees a bartender as somebody who |
| shifts and long hours, yearn to break into the | | | | washes glasses and pours. But the best of all |
| ranks of higher management. Yet they find | | | | outcomes is when your bar business expands so |
| themselves in a kind of 'glass ceiling' situation. | | | | that now you're booking entertainers, arranging |
| They can't get a recruiter to look twice at their | | | | bachelor parties, expanding to include a kitchen, |
| resume, even when the qualifications are more | | | | purchasing and warehousing the stock, hiring and |
| than a match for the job. | | | | firing help, placing advertisements, and generally |
| The place where hospitality is at a disadvantage is | | | | overseeing the day-to-day operations. You've |
| the job titles. The hospitality industry being as | | | | been promoted in everything but title! |
| pinched for profits as it is, someone hired as a | | | | How better to highlight some bullet points: |
| waiter or bartender will find themselves | | | | - Recruited and trained X-number servers and |
| performing management functions: balancing | | | | kitchen employees in full service dining. |
| books, being in charge of the staff, purchasing, | | | | - Assisted in the X-number% reduction of labor |
| ordering, overseeing the operation of the | | | | costs through better selection of staff. |
| establishment, and on and on. All of these skills | | | | - Reduced labor and cost of goods sold by |
| are transferable to higher-salary jobs, but because | | | | X-number%. |
| they were done under the job title of "hostess" | | | | - Carried out a demographic study that |
| or some such, they mean zip as far as an | | | | pin-pointed the establishment's market. |
| interviewer is concerned. | | | | - Developed and oversaw the new catering |
| This is a shame, as the person who knows the | | | | program. |
| business the best is the one who worked their | | | | - Analyzed and upgraded kitchen equipment to |
| way up through the ranks. The computer age has | | | | achieve greater efficiency. |
| also sealed the fate of many poorly-considered | | | | - Improved cost control by eliminating waste. |
| resumes, as human resource departments search | | | | - Consistently ran low-overhead costs throughout |
| resumes in electronic form, including and excluding | | | | seasonal highs and lows. |
| keywords and only pulling up those resumes that | | | | - Prepared the annual budget for the branch |
| meet the search criteria. | | | | location. |
| The recruiter's ultimate responsibility is to the | | | | - Directed the development of a new line of |
| restaurants, hotels, casinos, and clubs which they | | | | appetizers. |
| are hired to represent. This is not to say that | | | | To your ears, this may sound like "laying it on |
| they don't also have your best interests at heart; | | | | thick", and you may be right, but you have to |
| it just means that recruiters have to comply with | | | | understand that head-hunters think this way. To |
| the job description and qualifications set forth by | | | | them, there is no "we switched to a cheaper |
| their clients. So they are unable to present | | | | brand of vodka in our martinis". There is only |
| candidates that do not match those requirements | | | | "efficiently oversaw a new product strategy that |
| - no matter how much a candidate calls back. | | | | reduced price of goods sold". |
| So this should tell you something: there are good | | | | Chefs are another career category with a few |
| and bad keywords and phrases. Words like | | | | roadblocks in advancement. The publicity of the |
| "restaurant, hotel, hostess, waitress, bartender, | | | | Celebrity Chefs of the Food Network has helped |
| cook, chef" tend to get you stuck in a rotating | | | | the chef career gain new stamina in recent years, |
| cycle of those positions forever. What they fail to | | | | but maybe that casino manager with the |
| address is that you have done work far outside | | | | hospitality manager position doesn't watch the |
| the scope of your job title, and are ready for a | | | | Food Network. Many people think 'chef' and are |
| meatier career. A broad majority of hospitality | | | | unable to picture anything but a line cook in front |
| job seekers have job titles unrelated to their | | | | of a grill, flipping steaks. |
| current career goals. | | | | If you engaged in anything involving creativity, |
| You are much better off using skill headings | | | | such as pastry, planning a menu, designing a new |
| rather than job titles, if your goal is to land higher | | | | side dish, experimenting with a new recipe, or |
| salaries and increase your interview rates. For | | | | coming up with a new line of beverages, there's |
| example, if you were quite practiced in enhanced | | | | room in marketing and design arts for you. After |
| selling at your business, a handy leading line might | | | | all, if your endeavors were successful, then that |
| be: "A versatile and skilled sales and marketing | | | | shows that you know your target market and |
| professional with excellent hands-on experience in | | | | what they like. If your restaurant started hosting |
| developing and improving sales for wholesale and | | | | banquets and providing catering services, then |
| retail operations in the hospitality industry." You did | | | | your responsibilities grew with the business. |
| it, why not flaunt it? | | | | Whatever the situation, it's hard not to find |
| Or if you were eventually saddled with overseeing | | | | examples where you expanded your job |
| the restaurant staff when all you started out as | | | | experience to fulfill higher duties. The trick, then, is |
| is a line cook, it's high time you boasted: "An | | | | to focus on your newly gained skills, which, after |
| assertive manager with outstanding interpersonal | | | | all, you undertook in the first place hoping for |
| people management skills, experienced in | | | | advancement, did you not? By phrasing things in a |
| communications, negotiations, operations, and | | | | more general way, it makes it evident that your |
| scheduling." Again, your title may not have been | | | | skills are easy to transfer to a new job category. |