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Spice Up Your Resume So You Can Spice Up in the Kitchen

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resume
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It’s a first impression – your resume is who you are without ever meeting the recruiter looking to place candidates.  So it’s essential whether you’re writing your first resume or revising it for a mid- career job search that you avoid the most common pitfalls.

  1. Typos and grammatical errors

    2. Your resume should be grammatically perfect. Employers will instantly see the mistakes and read between the lines to assume your lack of detail or level of commitment to excellence. Alter your resume to be perfect – spelling, punctuation and formatting.

  2. Highlighting duties, rather than accomplishments

    3. It’s easy to comply list the start and end dates of each job you’ve held- but employers don’t care so much about what you’ve done, but rather what activities/ projects you’ve accomplished.

    Outline big projects of events you’ve worked to accomplish. Include details on the scope of work and skills required to complete those. What makes what you did above the rest of those applying? Tell that.

  3. Don’t miss the specifics

    4. Employers need to understand what you’ve accomplished and how you’re experienced. For example:

    • Worked with employees in a restaurant.
    • Recruited, hired, trained and supervised more than 50 employees in a restaurant with $1 million is annual sales.

    Both of these tell the same person, yet one states details, and details matter.

  4. Choose verb actions with care

    5. Avoid using the phrases “responsible for”, instead, use action verbs like “resolved”, “developed”, “managed”, etc.

  5. Include all information

    6. It may seem logical to eliminate odd jobs held while in school or in-between jobs. But those are important too – they show a variety of skills you hold and may directly relate to the position you’ve applied for. Don’t be afraid to list the odd ends of your career path-  in come cases, variety is attractive to hiring companies.

  6. Get your contact information correct

    7. What would be the point of submitting a resume if your contact info was incorrect? Your resume may be incredibly strong, but if you can’t be easily contacted, you chances of getting an interview decrease.

Evaluating Your Seasonal Staff: Who Should Stay & Who Should Go?

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Like most hospitality organizations, you hired seasonal staff for the holiday seasons or will hire additional summer staff to help with the busy times of business.  Having friendly staff serving guest on your restaurant’s patio is always a great time of the year- but what happens when the winter comes and the patio closes? Those hires must move on, or be hired permanently.  Quickly after temps are hired, it’s easy to evaluate the newest hires performance levels and who you’d want to keep around.

Hiring from temp to permanent is a great way to “test the waters” – see how each hire works, responds to circumstances and accepts positive criticism.  Are they the kind of employee you want others to model after? If so, it might be time to make a long-term commitment to a few of those season hires.

According to the annual Snagajob.com hiring forecast, major U.S. retailers and hospitality groups could keep as many as fifty percent of their seasonal employees after the winter holidays, turning them into permanent hires.  Seasonal employment offers companies a chance to evaluate a worker’s efforts before making a long-term commitment.

Here are some tips for choosing whether or not to change the seasonal hires to permanent hires:

 

1. Find out the level of interest of seasonal hires and their long-term plans. Hold conversations to gage their intentions and if hired on post season, they will be around and worth your investment.

 

2. Look at an employee’s productivity and examine the numbers as well as their work ethic – punctuality, attitude with fellow employees, etc. Choose the seasonal hires that are the whole package and will produce the best results for what your goals are.

 

3. Take time and talk with your recruiter – as experienced staffing professionals, Pacific Coast Hospitality, we have recruited and placed hospitality professionals for years and can help to gage what temp hires would be the best converts to permanent staff that would help fit your company’s strategic staffing goals.

 

 

Evaluating Your Seasonal Staff: Who Should Stay & Who Should Go?

by

Like most hospitality organizations, you hired seasonal staff for the holiday seasons or will hire additional summer staff to help with the busy times of business.  Having friendly staff serving guest on your restaurant’s patio is always a great time of the year- but what happens when the winter comes and the patio closes? Those hires must move on, or be hired permanently.  Quickly after temps are hired, it’s easy to evaluate the newest hires performance levels and who you’d want to keep around.
Hiring from temp to permanent is a great way to “test the waters” – see how each hire works, responds to circumstances and accepts positive criticism.  Are they the kind of employee you want others to model after? If so, it might be time to make a long-term commitment to a few of those season hires.
According to the annual Snagajob.com hiring forecast, major U.S. retailers and hospitality groups could keep as many as fifty percent of their seasonal employees after the winter holidays, turning them into permanent hires.  Seasonal employment offers companies a chance to evaluate a worker’s efforts before making a long-term commitment.
Here are some tips for choosing whether or not to change the seasonal hires to permanent hires:
 
1. Find out the level of interest of seasonal hires and their long-term plans. Hold conversations to gage their intentions and if hired on post season, they will be around and worth your investment.
 
2. Look at an employee’s productivity and examine the numbers as well as their work ethic – punctuality, attitude with fellow employees, etc. Choose the seasonal hires that are the whole package and will produce the best results for what your goals are.
 
3. Take time and talk with your recruiter – as experienced staffing professionals, Pacific Coast Hospitality, we have recruited and placed hospitality professionals for years and can help to gage what temp hires would be the best converts to permanent staff that would help fit your company’s strategic staffing goals.
 
 

Dressing For An Interview

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No matter the industry you are interviewing for, dressing professional tops any list of important interview tips.  If you are interviewing for a restaurant manager or chef position, it’s important to remember that these positions hold the primary day-to-day responsibilities of a business.  Interview candidates who look the part will be treated as such, as a professional.  It is important that you look the part.  Show that you have experience, education, and knowledge through your dress.  You must remember, looks are important.  An employer will be more likely to believe that you are ready and capable to execute excellent work if you appear in professional attire.

Here’s a few of our Do’s and Don’ts for interview dressing:

DO dress for success!

DO wear dark pants/skirt.

DO wear a tie (red is an excellent choice).

DON’T wear a short skirt.

DO shave facial hair.

DO pull back long hair.

DON’T over apply make up.

DON’T wear heavy perfume/cologne.

DO limit jewelry.

DON’T drink or smoke before the interview.

DO dress to cover your tattoos.

DON’T wear cooking attire.

 

You only have one chance to make a first impression.  Make it the best you can!

RESUME TIPS: What to Keep and What to Not

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One of the first steps in applying for a job is creating a resume of all previous work information, contact information, skills, etc. First impressions through a resume are a large determining factor for whether an employer will reach you to set up an interview or not.  Creating a resume is a process and its entirety should be planned out as well as edited frequently to ensure it’s continually up to date.

We’ve outlined a few things we frequently see on resumes from candidates, that should always be avoided:

Too big of an objective:

What’s the objective of your resume? Keep it simple- list your contact info, previous work info, personal skills and a few references.  Simplicity is key here in all descriptions of previous jobs and projects completed- get to the point quickly and leave small details for further conversation during an interview.

 

Irrelevant Job Experience:

Once your resume is created, it will need editing to cater to each of the job positions you are applying for. Highlight any previous work experience that is directly related to the desired position.  Avoid listing jobs on your resume which were extremely short-lived or negative.

 

Physical characteristics:

During an interview an employer will see your psychical appearance, there is no need to include personal details of hair color, height, weight, etc. on your resume.

 

Strange hobbies:

It’s ok to have outside extracurricular activities- but keep them outside your work life.  As exciting as some may be to you, an employer does not need to know about your full Star Wars collection or Michael Jackson music obsession.  You resume is to be about work related content.

 

Private matters:

Private matters can include, but are not limited to; personal life, relationships, hiring and firing of other positions, marital status, finances, social security numbers, living situation, etc. Keep the personal matters for another conversation when appropriate- it’s never a good idea to share your personal life before an interview.

 

Bad grammar and obscure words:

Along with keeping your resume simple, avoid big or unneeded wording.  Likewise, use spell check and have someone look over your resume before submissions to ensure no grammatical errors are present.

 

Unprofessional contact info:

You might have had an email years ago like “starballplayer@gmail.com” or “Lovergirl89@yahoo.com “….. These are unprofessional and it’s time to create a new email contact with just your name or possibly your name and a few numbers.  Similar, make sure your voicemail greeting  is professional and up to date.

 

 

 

GET IN TOUCH WITH PACIFIC COAST HOSPITALITY FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE STAFFING NEEDS:
write to us: askus@pacificcoasthospitality.com
give us a call: 503-720-5174