Tips on keeping careers on track
At these challenging times for all of us in hospitality I wanted offer some more tips on keeping our careers on track. So today I want to tell you how you get a job you love, the absolute best way to do it!
Before I get into it, disclaimer alert! This is a long game strategy. I know many of you are thinking “but I need a job now”, and I have other emails and courses to help with that but in this email I want to tell you about the long game.
So the absolute best way to get a job you love is you make the employer come to you. I’m talking about setting yourself up in a way that when a position opens, the hiring manager for that department or the CEO or whoever thinks of you.
Here’s how you do it…
Choose that thing that you want to get hired for. Is it a Restaurant Manager in a certain restaurant group? Is it to be the best pastry chef in a certain style? Go all in and get focused on what it is you want to be awesome at (our career development course will help with that if you’re not sure where you should go next in your career).
You need to make sure you are really really good at that job that you want. So focus in on the key two to three skills for that job. If you need to do some extra work to gain skills make sure you do that, and if needed take a class or two to build up the proficiency in those areas.
Then (and this is often overlooked) is to be awesome at the job you have now! Your work in your current job is going to speak for what you do in the future, even if it’s a major career pivot. Please remember your boss and co-workers are your references, so be awesome at what you do whether it is in the field or out of the field of where you want to go next in your career.
Next, meet the key players where you want to be. So that means to meet the head of the department. For example if you want to work in upper level management in a certain company, that means get to know Operations Director or the COO, it doesn’t matter who specifically, you want people in the company knowing you and this is where it’s a long-term play.
I’m not saying connect on LinkedIn, I’m not saying like a post on social media, I’m saying develop the relationship to the point where you are sending them a birthday card or where you guys have gone to coffee, where they know about you and when they see you at an event you both go “Oh, it’s so great to see you!” and you chat a bit more. You need to be in with them so that they really know who you are.
Next they need to know what you do and that you want to do it for them. Sounds so simple doesn’t it? But it’s shocking how many times we think people should just intuitively know what we want. So don’t assume this person knows you want to work for them (don’t beg for a job either).
We don’t do this right away, but once you’ve built that relationship, then fluidly in conversation make sure you drop it to them, something along the lines of “you know, if anything ever opens up at your company I would love to work in your “XYZ” department”, or make up your own job, for example say “If you ever want somebody to do “ABC” for you. I would love to be that person”, just drop it in there, it doesn’t mean something’s available right now, but now they’re going to click and go “Okay, that’s really good to know”.
Then something can happen down the road and they will come to you and say, “Hey, guess what, we thought about it and we’d really love you to come in and do blah blah blah” or “Hey, guess what, this position just opened and we were talking and we thought we should invite you for a chat about it”.
That sort of thing happens all the time. So make sure you’re taking these steps, play the long game to get to the job and make that employer come to you.
That’s it for today. If you are enjoying these career tips we have just launched our “How To Ace The Interview Course”, it’s all this type of information and more, in much more detail. To enroll just click the button below and we will be happy to get you started.
Stay safe healthy and strong!
Nathan.