Simply Hired Blog

Bartender – Is It A Real Job?

By Martin Yate CPC

"I'm looking for a bartender job. I know some people don't think that it's a real job but it's all I want to do right now and the competition is fierce in this economy." Karla. LA

There is honor in all work so don't let the ill-informed judgments of others diminish your self-respect Paula. By far the toughest job I ever had was tending bar, and everything I learned as a bartender has paid off in every job I've held since:

You gain exposure to a wide range of professional jobs
You are in Sales and constantly fielding an enormous range of product requests that you then have to manufacture and deliver to your customers, so you also work in Quality Control as well as Production.

The Public Relations aspect of the job means you are a consistent ambassador of goodwill, to an ever-changing landscape of personalities and attitudes, some of them mindlessly belligerent.

You work in Customer Service, solving problems and misconceptions and with responsibility for up-selling your customer base; while simultaneously you are also in Plant and Equipment Maintenance as you maintain a clean workplace and happy social environment for everyone of your guests.

Accounts Receivable and reconciliation are daily responsibilities that sometimes have to be executed in scenes that can only be described as Armageddon, and even then the day isn't done until you put on your Supply Chain hat and order stock for the next shift.

You become a more knowledgeable team player
This wide variety of work you do as a bartender gives you a working frame of reference for working in any of these departments in a subsequent career; this can help you in career choice and during interviews. The respect for other people’s work that you develop as a bartender, will also help you make the jobs you land in subsequent professions more secure because you will be a more knowledgeable, respectful and supportive of the work of others. This makes you a better team player and wins you allies in many other departments.  

You develop invaluable transferable skills. As a bartender you develop the transferable skills that are common to successful people in all professions; and these are skills you can take with you from one job to another and from one profession to the next.

There are seven commonly acknowledged transferable skills and a bartender develops all of them: the work demands excellent listening and verbal skills, good social graces and professional presence. Problem solving and conflict resolution skills are a given with a job that also demands superior time management, creativity, teamwork and leadership skills. 

Bartender – Is It A Real Job? Anyone who says tending bar isn’t much of a job should try to survive a week in the profession. Use the experience well and looking back in will have been the boot-camp for subsequent professional success.

 

Martin Yate CPC, is the NY Times bestselling author of Knock em Dead The Ultimate Job Search Guide, and Secrets & Strategies For Success. As Dun & Bradstreet says, "He's really just about the best in the business." www.knockemdead.com

The New Talent Economy

By Andrew S. Rosen

Over the last century, our country's traditional, world-class universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Berkeley have played an essential role in vaulting the United States into worldwide economic, military, and sociopolitical primacy, and they are indispensable to maintaining that position. But our obsessive focus on and considerable investment in these exclusive institutions, and the many others that emulate them, sometimes lead us to pay too little attention to the more inclusive schools that serve far more students, in far less glamorous surroundings. As taxpayers, we're helping to fund an increasingly lavish college experience at institutions that cater to the few. The competition for the best students has led universities to turn themselves into full-fledged resorts; they've spent billions building climbing walls, French bistros and 20-person hot-tubs to entice students to their campuses. Meanwhile, low-income students can't find a spot in their local community colleges for lack of funding.

We're living in a time of profound economic challenges, and unlike in the Gold Rush era during which the land-grant colleges like Berkeley were founded, the country's greatest resource today isn't in the ground; it's in the skills of our citizens, who urgently need education to develop their competencies. For some, an elite education is a wonderful way to develop their talents. Indeed, if we could afford it, it would be a tremendous boon to countless others. But for many, many more, there are legitimate alternatives that will give them the tools they need for advancement: to help the kid sweeping the drugstore learn to work the register or manage the shop; to help the register clerk become a technician or a pharmacist; to help the pharmacist become the store owner or even own a chain of stores. Our country doesn't have a person to waste.

Between 1973 and 2008, the percentage of jobs in the U.S. economy that required postsecondary education more than doubled, rising from 28 percent to 59 percent.

When it comes to producing these educated workers, America has become a notable laggard. In 1995 the United States was a world leader among the most developed countries when it came to the percentage of twenty-five to thirty-four-year-old population with postsecondary credentials. By 2009, we had dropped to sixteenth place, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. One of the few postsecondary stats in which the United States leads is the rate at which its students drop out of college.

It's downright embarrassing -- something President Obama acknowledged in an address to Congress soon after taking office in 2009. Referring directly to the college dropout rate, he said, "This is a prescription for economic decline, because we know that countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow." In the same speech, Obama laid out an audacious goal: "By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world." Like many grand political plans, however, this one will require major changes to our higher ed system, something that won't be accomplished without challenging some sacred cows.

America has faced pressures like this before, particularly after World War II, when our nation decided to send millions of returning GIs to college. During those periods, the U.S. government had a ready tool to address this kind of problem: it could throw money at it. That won't work in these times, given the dismal fiscal condition of the federal and state governments. States are slashing budgets to keep pace with falling tax dollars; instead of seeking to add seats to classrooms in state universities, legislators in many states are being forced to make sharp cuts in student enrollment to try to bring budgets closer to balance.

At a time when we desperately need more students to gain access to a high-quality college education, more spending won't be available to smooth the way. Instead, America needs to make the dollars it spends on higher education work more efficiently. Ultimately, we'll have to make choices between providing immersive, amenity-rich and socially focused residential college experiences for a select few, or expanding access and offering less elaborate but more focused high-quality education for a vastly larger group of Americans. This may challenge the typical American view of "college", but our higher ed system needs to evolve to meet the demands of the 21st century economy.

© 2011 Andrew S. Rosen, author of Change.edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy

 

Andrew S. Rosen, author of Change.edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy, is chairman and CEO of Kaplan, Inc. Rosen is an outspoken advocate for adult learners, and a frequent speaker on the challenges facing higher education in a knowledge economy.

Connect with the author on Twitter.

How to Get a Real Estate Job via Social Media

By EK Scarfone

Are you having trouble finding a job in the real estate industry? As it's always been, the jobs are out there if you know where to look. Companies in the real estate industry like Cole Capital, as well as other major players in the real estate industry, are always on the lookout for enterprising new employees. The key to finding any dream job is networking, and real estate is no exception. As the saying goes, it's not about what you know; it's about who you know. Fortunately, the world of networking has expanded dramatically thanks to the internet. In fact, social networking has made it accessible to everybody. If you're not using social media to find your real estate job, you're not really looking. Here are some great ways to get a real estate job via social media.

1. LinkedIn
If you don't have a LinkedIn account, you need to get one now. For those of you who don't know, LinkedIn is the leading social network for business and it's really easy to get on board. Just sign up, fill out your profile, and you’re ready to go. Start by seeing who you know who’s already on LinkedIn and ask them to be your connection. You can then use your connections to get introduced to people that they know in the real estate industry. More importantly, you can use LinkedIn features like "groups" and "jobs" to see what's out there and what people are talking about in the real estate industry.

2. Facebook
You already know about Facebook and you probably already have a Facebook account, but are you using it to its fullest potential? You should be aware that there are many pages on Facebook that you can "Like." The "Like" feature gives you access to updated information that you can use for your job hunt across many real estate industry websites. You also shouldn't hesitate to let all your friends on Facebook know you're in the market for a real estate job. You never know who can help.

3. Twitter
While on Twitter, be sure to search for popular real estate related tweets. These can give you clues on who to follow and where to go to look for real estate opportunities. Another trick you can do is post lots of real estate related tweets yourself. Be sure to use hashtags for particularly important terms (that means putting the "#" sign in front of key terms, e.g. The "Ohio #realestate market seems to be looking up"). Finally, look for Twitter accounts that post jobs, especially real estate jobs, and follow them.

4. Blogs
Blogs can be a great way to use social media to get the attention of real estate employers. Posting about real estate, sharing real estate links, and developing a following demonstrates to potential employers that you're dedicated, enthusiastic, and good at generating interest in a product.

5. Forums and Bulletin Boards
Posting real estate related comments and questions on appropriate forums and bulletin boards can also get you some attention. It can also help you become part of a community of like-minded people who may be inclined to share real estate job opportunities with you.

Social media can be intimidating but once you get started you'll realize that it's a lot easier than pounding pavement or cold calling. Explore these social media opportunities and others to get the real estate job you want now.

 

EK Scarfone is a 12-year dot-com veteran who provides integrated digital media strategies for all types of industries, ranging from start-ups to established brands in financial services and real estate like Cole Capital.

Hot Job of the Week: Interpreter

By Annie Favreau

Looking for a job with a future? This series profiles in-demand careers and expanding professional fields. Here’s our latest pick:

Interpreter

What’s involved:
Whether specializing in Espagnol, Afrikaans, or American Sign Language, interpreters play a key role in cross-linguistic communication. 

There are two types of interpreters: simultaneous (who translation while a person speaks) and consecutive (who translate only after a person has completed one or more sentences). Regardless of the mode, your basic task is to convert a spoken phrase from one language to another. However, it’s more than a direct word-for-word swap. Interpreters must also express each sentence’s full meaning, explaining cultural references, slang, and other expressions can’t be translated literally.

Interpreters work in a wide variety of fields—including the medical, legal, political, scientific, and entertainment industries. You could assist patients as a healthcare interpreter, fly around the globe to facilitate multi-lingual business meetings, sign the lines of a play for deaf audiences, or translate between government officials of different countries.

Why the job outlook is good:
The job prospects for interpreters are expected to increase by 22 percent through 2018—a rate that is far faster than average. This jump in demand is mainly due to the growth of global business partnerships and the increase of US citizens who speak English as a second language.

What training you need:
For this job, you need to be fluent in both English and another language. A Bachelor’s degree is often a requirement, and some organizations expect a Master’s degree in interpretation or translation studies. However, if you have the right language skills, many organizations will provide on-the-job training.

Show me the money!
The US Bureau Labor of Statistics puts the average salary of an interpreter between $29,000 and $52,000.

 

Annie Favreau works for Inside Jobs, a career exploration site that helps people discover and pursue a career that excites them. Check out the website for more information about interpreters or join in the conversation on Twitter.

How To Turn Job Interviews Into Job Offers

By Martin Yate CPC

"I can do the job, so why don't I get the job offer?" Being confident in your professional skills and being able to transfer that confidence in your competence to recruiters and hiring managers are two very different but equally important skills. 

Who gets the job offers? The people who turn job interviews into job offers with the greatest ease are the people who are able to identify and discuss the recurrent problems that lurk at the heart of their work, these people are seen to "get" the job in ways that other candidates don't.

Take the problems that plague every Accounts Receivable job: if the ongoing challenges associated with getting customers to pay their bills aren't addressed effectively, then ultimately the employer isn’t able to make payroll and everyone gets laid off. Consequently, an Accounts Receivable professional (or anyone else) who talks about and asks questions about the problems that are at the everyday heart of his or her job, will always be seen as superior to other candidates.

Everyone gets hires to do the same job. Essentially, you are hired for your perceived ability to prevent problems arising within your area of expertise, and to solve problems expeditiously when they do arise. When you cut right to the heart of any job, we are all hired to be problem identifiers, problem preventers and problem solvers, within our specific areas of "technical" expertise.

To turn your job interviews into job offers, if think of your job in terms of the problems you are there to solve and the problems you are there to prevent, you have isolated the areas of concern that every interviewer really wants to talk about.

Interviewers hate to interview. Hiring managers hate to interview, they invariably see conducting job interviews as a distraction from their real work, this is something that can be used to your advantage. Whenever you walk into a job interview, that interviewer is secretly hoping that you are the one. All you have to do is make it easy for them, by showing that you "get" the job and that you relish dealing with the issues (problems and challenges) that lie at that job's heart.

Use questions to sell your capabilities. You transfer confidence in your competence to recruiters and hiring managers as much by the questions you ask, as the answers you give. Because when you ask questions that go to the very essence of your work, you demonstrate a degree of understanding most other candidates will never approach.

When you show yourself to be someone who "gets" the very core of that job and someone who recognizes and can handle the problems that it serves up everyday, you are much closer to turning job that interview into a job offer.

Good luck…btw, it’s something that happens when preparation meets opportunity

 

Martin Yate CPC, is the NY Times bestselling author of Knock em Dead The Ultimate Job Search Guide, and Secrets & Strategies For Success. As Dun & Bradstreet says, "He's really just about the best in the business." www.knockemdead.com