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HIRING: PACIFIC NORTHWEST

July 30, 2015 by PCHblog

The Pacific Northwest… the only place in America where you can blaze the trail to natural hot springs in the morning, Instagram a pic of the mountains during lunch and hit one of the world’s coolest cities by afternoon to sample a few local brewed beers and dine at the finest of establishments into dawn.

The Pacific Northwest is a region of offbeat charm and character. Its quirky sense of style and belonging make it a place that’s hard to say goodbye to.

Portland and Seattle are just two of the Northwest cities we’re most fond of and currently hiring talented candidates for open hospitality positions:

Call it what you want – PDX, P-Town, Puddletown, Stumptown, City of Roses, Bridge City, River City or Beervana – Portland doesn’t disappoint. And Seattle, it might have got a name as the home of Starbucks and it certainly shares in the bad rap for rain and grey skies along with Portland… but there’s more! Much more to both these Northwest cities when you become a local.

The locals don’t let the rain get them down, umbrellas are for the visitors – locals don’t mind the weather and never let it get in the way of having a good time. With Pike Place Market home to more than 200 vendors, farmers, and specialty shops, it’ Seattle’s No. 1 tourist destination.

Portland continually keeps things a little more green with a strong reputation for being a republic of tree huggers, and understandably so. One of the best and most convenient places to enjoy them is the aptly named Forest Park, a bosky Eden where natives like to take their morning run, bike, dog walk or enjoy the day.

When you’re headed to a local game in the Northwest, you can’t be a fair weather fan. And may we not forget the grub – with everything from specified menus created by world renowned chefs to longstanding home style establishments, your pallet won’t go dull.

Whether looking for a career advancement or uproot from your current location, maybe the Northwest lifestyle is right for you? Apply today.

JOIN THE RESORT LIFE: JOBS IN WASHINGTON AND MONTANA

April 7, 2015 by PCHblog

The destination is where the journey begins. Working at a resort will give you the chance to see the world, meet people from all over, live in a spectacular setting, and learn new skills.

Resort tourism is a driving force in the western United States economy. With a combination of matchless beaches, national parks and waterfront properties all hosting an exquisite selection of top restaurants and hospitality establishments within the nations top resorts, hospitality careers are a supreme. Inside this industry, vacation and relaxation lifestyles influence most all aspects of business operations, and for most positions in the resort industry experience is a must.

While most of your time will be spent working, you will have opportunities to enjoy your surroundings. Better yet, most employers allow employees free use of resort facilities while on their time off.

Hiring for resort positions can be very selective – here with Pacific Coast Hospitality, we have the inside track for jumpstarting your hospitality career. Along with all the relaxed lifestyle, secluded in exceptional resorts, you will have opportunities for career development within today’s most dominate industry leading establishments, from the point of hire throughout an extensive career.

Whether looking for a career advancement or uproot from your current location, maybe the resort life is right for you? Apply today.

10 ESSENTIAL STEPS TO LANDING AND ACING A RESTAURANT JOB INTERVIEW

January 14, 2015 by PCHblog

In today’s extremely competitive job market, we need all the help we can get to land a job anywhere, and that includes the restaurant industry. You can apply to hundreds of different restaurants, bars, and burger joints without so much as cursory call back for an interview. What you need is a plan of action that will separate you from the pack. The following path from pre-application to post-interview will give you a step-by-step guide on how to maximize your efforts while looking for a position in a restaurant you’d love to work in and give you a major leg up on your competition.

Landing the Interview

Step 1: Do some research! What kind of establishment is this restaurant? What is it they serve? What is their theme or niche? What image are they trying to present to their customers? What kind of value do they try to bring to their patrons outside of just giving them food? Do you think you could fit in with their image? These are all important questions that need to be answered in order to maximize the effects of your efforts in applying.

Step 2: Scout out the look of those who are in the position you’re applying for. What is their level of dress? What attitudes are they bringing to the table? How do the groom themselves? How do they fit with the rest of the restaurant? If you want their position, you need to know how to act the part.

Step 3: Once you have applied, follow up! Keep on Calling and dropping by to speak to the supervisor-don’t let them forget your face or how interested you are in the position. The number one mistake people make when job hunting is not following up and just expecting the managers to do all the work in hunting them down.

Keep up these efforts and landing an interview is all but inevitable!

The Interview

Step 4: Remember the level of dress the people in your position were wearing? Rule of thumb is to go one level of formality in dress above them. Are they wearing business casual? Dress business formal. Are they wearing khakis and polo shirts? Wear a nice dress shirt and pants. Remember, you’re presenting your best self in this interview process. Under dressing is the worst error you can make right off the bat.

Step 5: BE HONEST. Lying during an interview will ALWAYS come back to haunt you. You WILL slip up in the lie, or forget a detail, and somebody will invariably notice. Once caught in a lie, you will never regain that credibility even if you don’t lose your job.

Step 6: Be confident and proactive! No interviewer likes asking questions and getting a flat sentence or two in reply. Relay anecdotes and stories from previous job or life experiences that pain you in a positive light. Ask them questions, build rapport so it’s easier for them to remember you when sifting through applicants later on.

Step 7: If the job provided a description of the positive traits they’re looking for in a candidate, include those words verbatim as you present yourself to your prospective employer.

Step 8: Mind your body language! Present a confident, open self with your body language by uncrossing your legs or arms, laying your hands flat on a surface (if applicable) and relaxing your shoulders. Interviewers canfeel the tension you create by presenting closed off body language and it gives them a more negative impression when they’re looking back on your file.

After the Interview

Step 9: Last verse same as the first! Be active, don’t force them to do all the work in remembering you. Call them and drop by to speak to the person who interviewed you. Keep your face and name on their mind as they go through more applicants

Step 10: Always be cordial, even if they decide to go with another applicant. Who knows, maybe that person won’t work out or another spot will open up and your name is next on the hiring list!

Top Ten Of the Highly Successful

August 21, 2014 by PCHblog

You want to hire only the best right? Exactly. That’s why we’ve outlined the top ten characteristics of the best of the best. If you really want to bring success into your restaurant establishment or into your own life, here’s what the most successful ones around the world are believing and practicing.

Self Will Power – Starting and doing the task on your own responsibility is hard. It’s not usually fun to get up and be the one to end the rest and get to work. Being a self-starter drives to results and success.
Emotional Stability – When things go whack, how is the reaction? The best of the best are emotionally stable in all circumstances staying far away from gossip and drama.
Loyalty – Honesty is the best policy, or so you may have heard. But really, the top employees are the loyal ones to not only their company of employment, but to co-workers and customers.
Optimism – Fight depression, bad attitudes and misery with optimism. Attitudes are contagious; an attitude can either really be great and lift the mood of an evening in the BOH or tank it.
Continual Communication – When communication is present, customers and co-workers alike learn to trust and respect what’s happening around them. Communicating is the key to success.
Flexibility – When things don’t go as planned, the top hires do not fret but do whatever possible to change the circumstances and adapt for success regardless.
Self Confidence – Not overly confident, but knowing the fine line of when self-confidence is needed, you’ll find the most successful people around the world are confident in their skills, knowledge and abilities.
Well Networked – The best of the best know who to contact when help is needed. Being well networked with those inside and out of the hospitality industry leads to greater knowledge and success.
Reader – The reader is the leader. The more known, the greater the ability to lead well, try new things and respond to circumstances appropriately.
Compassionate – The highly successful ones in the world have and show great compassion to others around them when facing struggles in and out of the workplace.

PREP YOUR RESUME WITH THE HELP OF PCH

June 16, 2014 by PCHblog

Resumes are difficult. And each of us has felt this anxiety: “How do I create the perfect resume?” When you’re looking for a new position, the state of your resume can keep you up at night.

Is my resume ready for prime time? Is it good enough to get me an interview?

We’ll whip your resume into shape.

We’ve recruited for the restaurant industry for years. We’ve hired a small army of good managers for every imaginable position in every conceivable setting.

We speak and understand the language. We know what words to use and what kinds of skill sets hiring managers are looking for. We know what a good hospitality industry resume looks like. Which means we know how to help you describe your education and your skills to meet expectations and get interviews.

If you hire us to help with your resume, here’s what we’ll do.

Prepare your resume for digital and hard copy submission.
Arrange your information to showcase your strengths.
Describe your work experience and your education for best advantage.
Assess your history to determine the best type of resume to submit.
Place your contact information where recruiters like to see it.

3 Reasons It May Just Be Harder Than Ever to Hire

May 7, 2014 by PCHblog

Staffing and keeping a restaurant staffed is possibly the most difficult task managers and owners constantly face. Turnover is nearly what the hospitality industry is known for. Regardless whether hiring back- or front-of-the-house positions, it may be harder than ever to staff restaurants.

Here’s three reasons why some hospitality industry experts believe it’s harder than ever to staff:

More people are looking for jobs because of the status of the economy, but means there’s less people with experience to hire. The ex-sales manager, teacher, lawyer, etc. are looking for any position, even if a complete career changes. Less experience doesn’t always count as a disadvantage, but sure can lead to longer trainings and more direct management needed until they have significant industry experience. Weigh out the pros and cons of hiring and applicant with no hospitality industry experience.

Chefs are always looking for good cooks, but with more applicants who have completed culinary school, their demand for higher pay is greater than ever. With a demand for higher pay, their skills should match, but that’s not always fact. Regardless of schooling, experience is the best style of learning. Finding a balance to pay what’s appropriate for keeping each employee happy with what’s possible financially can be a great challenge.

Employees formerly accepted one job and kept it for years, even decades – a sense of pride developed over time about the company they worked for and how they advanced. Today, more than ever employees are exercising their rights and embracing their inner adventure spirit and moving from job to job. The average time a candidate spends at one job in the hospitality industry is six months or less.

Perhaps that bottom line is, most people don’t want to work. In today’s world less is more – and work ethic seems to follow that directly. Employees can be extremely unreliable and have no sense of drive to accomplish and carry your business forward.

Hiring is a beast for most. Finding dedicated job applicants that have experience and work ethic as parallels is no easy task. What do you think, is it harder than ever to hire?

HIRING THE BEST TO RECRUIT YOUR BEST HIRES:

April 10, 2014 by PCHblog

It’s simple, we recruit the best, most qualified leadership talent for top hospitality organizations across the western U.S. and British Columbia. But to do that, we’ve worked hard for years to be accomplished, polished, trained and equipped to spot the right candidates.

It’s important for you to know who we’re recognized by, a little credentials goes a long ways when it’s your time and company depending on top talent to be found. We’re not the usual restaurant recruitment firm. We find people not typically found through traditional channels because we’ve been trained to do that.

Hiring the best staffing service will make a huge impact on your company and lead to you feeling confident with each new hire. Be sure and not wait until your staffing needs are urgent to research and find the right recruiters/ staffing service for you. Give yourself time and know who you’re calling to recruit when it’s time to hire.

Here’s Pacific Coast Hospitalities Affiliates:

Franchise v. Independent Restaurants

February 3, 2014 by PCHblog

Which is best for you?

If you are a candidate looking to be hired by a top hospitality organization you can go one of two routes: seek a job that is at an established restaurant chain or seek a job at a one-of-a-kind restaurant. These two major categories, franchise and independent, offer a potential employee unique benefits. But also have their flaws. Check out the pros and cons of each establishment as we look below the surface.

Franchised Restaurant

Known as chain restaurants, these well established facilities have stood the test of time. Through the ups and downs of the economy, chain restaurants, still draw customers. Being employed by an established restaurant will give you a sense of job security. However, these facilities can come with less than desirable working conditions; low wages, few job benefits, to mention a few. There are exceptions which set these franchises apart from the competition. It is important to remember, working for a franchise is a job. It will provide a paycheck, but does not offer opportunities to be creative or seek employees input. As a culinary graduate, you may be over qualified and often will not find the job satisfaction you seek. Franchise restaurants are designed for individuals who want to own a restaurant but do not have a lot of experience operating a commercial kitchen. Those with little food service knowledge are ideal for this system as this allows the franchise to be molded to fit the brand perfectly. Though management experience is always sought after in this type of restaurant.

Independent Restaurant

Being employed by an independent restaurant has it’s perk. Working for an entrepreneur can be inspiring. Rather than buying into a franchise, an independent owner uses their creativity to design, develop, and execute a concept. Often going against the mold. These people are hard workers and hire people that desire to see their dream be successful. They are competitive and usually have a strong personality. This is an excellent opportunity for an employee to learn and try new menu ideas. To be successful this type of facility has to go beyond expectations. The owner will be willing to listen to new ideas and implement suggestions as this is what make their business thrive. In this type of business work hours are available but be aware that there is a high failure rate for startups. There is no proven marketing strategy so get used to change. Products and services will continually be changing, evolving, to learn what works for the specific concept.

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If you are looking to be hired by a restaurant, either franchised or independent, take time to do your homework. Ask around, interview management and food servers, talk to the owner. Find out what appeals to you and go for it! Working in the food industry is always interesting, always changing. Get your foot in the door and check out how you can make connections, know the market, and be successful with Pacific Coast Hospitality.