One Day, One Job » hospitality management

Blue Entertainment Sports Television

Willy Franzen — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:36:53 +0000

Be sure to check out our new contest, Maghound Your Way to a New Job. We’re giving away two one-year subscriptions to an awesome new magazine subscription service that can help you find a job.

In continuing with my obsession over jobs at Inc. 5000 companies (which fits in perfectly with our latest giveaway), we’re going to take a look at Blue Entertainment Sports Television today. They’re a Louisville, KY based “full-service sports and entertainment management, event and production company.” They’ve taken the unified agency approach that you often see in Marketing and Advertising, and have applied it to sports. That means that their areas of work include representation, marketing, promotion, hospitality and events. Their strategy seems to be pretty solid considering that their revenue has grown 4,685.3% over the past three years to $22.9 million.

Are You the BEST?

Blue Entertainment Sports Television is fortuitously named, as their acronym is BEST. I guess you’re well on way to living up to that name when your clients include Magic Johnson, Reggie Bush, Victoria Azarenka, Shawn Marion, Bryan Brothers, and Caroline Wozniacki. Blue Entertainment Sports Television is actually a relatively new brand that came from the combination of preexisting brands SFX Tennis, SFX Events, SFX Media, Game-Seven Sports Marketing, Team Championships International, Blackwave Sports, Humarks, and Worldwide Football and Management Group. There’s actually a case study on the rebranding, and it seems to be correlated with huge revenue growth.

Although BEST doesn’t get specific about what kind of jobs they offer, they do make a call for résumés on their Contact page. To get a feel for what kind of jobs they might offer new college grads, you should browse through their LinkedIn Company Profile and take a look at what types of positions their current employees have. You can apply for a job at BEST by sending a cover letter and résumé to careers@experienceBEST.com. You should also note that they have quite a few offices beyond their headquarters in Lousiville, KY including domestic offices in Denver, CO; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; and Washington, DC and international offices in Australia, Austria, Canada, Argentina, and Poland.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about BEST?

AirBnB

Willy Franzen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:36:48 +0000

Good startups create tools that people use. Great startups change the way people do things. Take eBay for example. Yes, people have always bought and sold junk, but eBay enabled people to buy and sell junk all across the world. By expanding the market for your junk, eBay made it worthwhile to sell stuff that would otherwise be collecting dust. San Francisco’s AirBnB hopes to be the eBay for space. Now, they’re not talking about outer space. They mean that spare bedroom that you never use. They want you to rent out your extra space, and they will help you find someone to rent it (read their FAQ for how it works). It could completely change the way that people on a budget travel… or it could be a total flop, but you have to love the idea.

Office Space Available in San Francisco

So far, rooms are available via AirBnB in 870 cities and 73 countries. That’s pretty impressive, although I’m still not sure about staying with someone I don’t know. What I am sure about is that if AirBnB offers you some office space in San Francisco, you should take it. About a month ago they posted on their blog that they were looking for a Really Smart Software Engineer to be Employee #1 (excluding the founders of course). It’s hard to say whether this job has been filled yet, but it’s still posted on AirBnB’s Jobs page. Considering the fact that AirBnb is already “pizza profitable,” even if the spot of Employee #1 is taken, I’m sure that AirBnB will be hiring again in the near future. You can apply for a job with them by reaching out to them at jobs@airbnb.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you going to give AirBnB a try?

Charlie Trotter’s

Willy Franzen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:56:16 +0000

When I moved to Chicago last year, just days before my 24th birthday, my parents decided that they wanted to treat me to a truly amazing Chicago experience to start off my life in the city right. They took me and my girlfriend to a dinner at Charlie Trotter’s, one of the finest restaurants in Chicago and the world. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the name, Trotter’s is usually found somewhere on Restaurant Magazine’s list of the Top 50 Restaurants in the World (although they seem to have dropped off the list this year).

When I dined at Charlie Trotter’s I chose the Grand Menu, which is an 8-course tasting menu. Although the menu is constantly changing, I had the pleasure of enjoying: Prince Edward Island Oysters with Sea Water & Pickled Daikon; Chilled Snow Lake Trout with Roe, Watercress & California Crayfish; Four Story Hill Farm Quail with Spring Onions, Chanterelle Mushrooms & Chorizo; Grilled Nantucket Bay Scallop with Boudin, Pig’s Tail & Fennel; Forty Eight Hour Braised Short Rib with Lobster Mushrooms & Fermented Black Garlic; Concord Grape Sorbet with Grape Leaf & Parsnip; Honey Crisp Apples with Cider Granite & Ginger Jelly; and Black Mission Figs with Shaved Fruit Cake, Marcona Almonds & Pedro Ximenez. It was an amazing meal that took food to a level that I didn’t know it could reach.

Trot Out Your Best

Yes, Charlie Trotter’s is obscenely expensive if you look at it as just a dinner, but there’s so much more to the experience than just eating. What you have to understand about Charlie Trotter’s is that everything is perfect. Your food will never be cooked improperly. If you tell them that you don’t like cheese, they will prepare you something without cheese. Your water glass will never be empty. You are experiencing something at its highest level. It’s like Albert Pujols’ swing, Yo-Yo Ma’s music, or my fly fishing (just kidding)—Charlie Trotter is one of the best at what he does. And that’s why you should consider a job with him. If you are able to land a job at Charlie Trotter’s—and it won’t be easy—you will be a part of something that is pure excellence. Even if your future isn’t in hospitality, you will gain an appreciation for performing to the highest expectations. That will translate to any job, just like working at the best consulting firm, investment bank, or ad agency. And if you want to stay in the culinary field, then there’s obviously no better place to start than Charlie Trotter’s.

Just ask Grant Achatz, the chef at 10th ranked Alinea (also in Chicago). He got his butt kicked during his try-out at Charlie Trotter’s, but he’s clearly better for it. This isn’t some company that you can just send your résumé to and hope that they take you, but if you meet the below criteria, you should give it a shot:

No matter what level of education or job experience you may have, we are always seeking to meet individuals who have a great attitude, are willing to commit themselves to learning, are passionate about food and wine and have a great work ethic. All of these attributes are of equal importance to us during the application process at Charlie Trotter’s.

You can submit your résumé to Matt Merges at Matthias@charlietrotters.com for culinary positions and to Christian Giles at Christian@charlietrotters.com for service positions. Just make sure that you bring “your A game.”

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever dined at Charlie Trotter’s?

Priceline.com

Willy Franzen — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:39:36 +0000

My first introduction to William Shatner was watching Rescue 911. Little did I know that his body of work extended far beyond narrating a show about real life heroes. I imagine today’s children will have an equally narrow view of William Shatner’s career, as they’ll know him as “Priceline Negotiator.” (Can you read those words without hearing the corresponding tune? I can’t.) Anyway, the whole idea behind William Shatner’s newest role – besides his doing the commercials in return for stock – is that Priceline.com will negotiate the best deals on travel-related items like hotels, car rentals, and airline tickets. They also have a “name your own price” model that used to be the core of their business, but now Priceline has widened its focus to discount travel in general.

Entry Level Job Negotiator

Don’t you wish you had someone like William Shatner to negotiate your entry level job for you too? Ok, that’d be a little weird. Sometimes learning negotiating skills is better than having someone do the dirty work for you. I think that I’m glad that the way we find jobs online is different from the way that we find travel deals online. With that said, you can go to the same place for both if you’re interested in a job in travel or e-commerce. Priceline.com has a number of jobs that seem like they might be well suited to new or recent college grads. In their Grand Rapids, MI office there are jobs for a Japanese Translator and Customer Service Executives, while at their Norwalk, CT headquarters they’re looking for an Associate Regional Revenue Manager – Hotels. You can figure out how to apply from the job descriptions that I’ve just linked to. Priceline.com doesn’t have an About page, so there’s not a ton of information about who they are and what they’re about as a company, so you might want to do a little Googling to get more info.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you use Priceline.com to book your travel?

Starwood

Willy Franzen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:42:12 +0000

Having a girlfriend who is a consultant, I’m often subjected to hours of consultant-speak. It’s not really English, as it consists mostly of acronyms. One thing consultants seem to talk about a lot, even though they don’t have an acronym for it, is the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card. It’s apparently by far the best credit card for the consulting lifestyle (especially when you work for a firm that almost exclusively puts you up in Starwood hotels). Since I’ve been hearing the Starwood name a lot, and I’ve had a few people recommend their Jobs to me, I thought it was time to take a look at what kind of entry level jobs are available with one of the world’s largest hotel and leisure companies. In case you’re not familiar with the Starwood brand, they’re the company behind Sheraton, Four Points, aloft, W Hotels, Le Meridien, The Luxury Collection, Element, Westin, and St. Regis. All of them are nice places to stay, and a few of them are about as trendy as you can get when it comes to hotels – check out aloft.

Be a Star at Starwood

Starwood gets hospitality. They also get entry level recruiting. They make it dead simple for college students and new grads to figure out how to land a job with them. They have a College Recruiting page that outlines the 4 ways of getting a job with Starwood. You can go through Campus Recruiting or apply online, and you can apply for their Management Training Program or opt for Direct Placement. The Management Training Program seems to be geared towards students who are graduating from hospitality programs, but that’s not explicitly stated as far as I can tell. The program lasts 6-18 months and concludes with placement as an Assistant Manager or Manager in the hotel where the trainee trained. Applications for the Management Training Program haven’t been opened yet, but they say that you will be able to apply online in early 2009. If you go to one of the schools on this list, you’re better off talking to your Career Services office about when Starwood will be on campus than waiting for the online application to be posted.

If the Management Training Program isn’t for you, there’s another option. You can check out Starwood’s Career Paths and apply for Direct Placement. You have to go through a general job search function where you can narrow down from the 1,650 jobs posted by location, hotel, or job title. This is the one area where Starwood’s Careers site stumbles a bit. The job search function isn’t very good. Unless you enter specific criteria, you’re going to be inundated with results that are going to be hard to scan. Still, if you want a job in a posh hotel in an exotic location, that’s the best way to find one.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you stayed at any Starwood Hotels?

Levy Restaurants

Willy Franzen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:50:27 +0000

Yesterday I told you how my move to Chicago has extended my baseball watching season, but I’m not sure that I mentioned that I have tickets to today’s Cubs game! I’m pretty excited about it, although I’m not excited about the fact that it might get into the 40s tonight during the game. October baseball is not for fair weather fans – the types who might prefer a catered event at the stadium to a real baseball game. Whether you’re a fair weather fan, an insanely devoted fan who just wants to be as close to your team’s stadium as possible at all time, or even if you just enjoy fine dining, a job with Levy Restaurants might be something worth thinking about. They’re a company that is all about hospitality and dining experience, and they happen to do catering/events at some pretty amazing venues – Wrigley and U.S. Cellular Field included.

The Levy Difference

A caterer doesn’t get the right to cater at top flight sports venues with out offering a fantastic experience. Levy Restaurants attributes their success to what they call “The Levy Difference.” There happens to be a video on their website with the same name, so we’re going to recommend that you watch that before you dig deeper into internships with Levy Restaurants.

Now that you’ve watched the movie, let’s take a look at Levy Restaurants’ entry level job offerings. Their job descriptions don’t offer a lot of detail, but we’re pretty sure that a number of their jobs can be considered entry level. If you look at all of their current job openings, you’ll see quite a few Assistant Director of Operations positions (Conseco Field House – Indianapolis, IN; Live Nokia Theater – Los Angeles, CA; Qwest Field – Seattle, WA; Sprint Center – Kansas City, MO; and STAPLES Center – Los Angeles, CA). Any job title that includes “assistant” has a pretty good chance of being a well suited to new college grads. There are also an Accounting position at Lambeau Field (Green Bay, WI) and a Marketing Coordinator position at Chase Field (Phonenix, AZ) that may be worth looking at. Finally, there are a number of jobs as Sous Chef (many locations). These require significant culinary knowledge, but may be considered entry level for you if you just graduated from culinary school. Levy Restaurants is based out of Chicago, IL, but has locations all across the country, so be sure to check out their list of venues to see where they might be hiring in the future. They don’t provide an HR contact or an e-mail address, so the only way to find out more information about jobs with Levy Restaurants is to apply online directly from the job descriptions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever experienced the Levy Difference? What’s it like?

hip consulting group

Willy Franzen — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:43:01 +0000

The idea for today’s post came straight from a reader and friend. She graduated a few months ago and has been looking for entry-level jobs in event planning since. She told us about one company that she was really excited about, but asked us not to post about it until she was either working for them or had landed another job. She recently landed a job doing exactly what she wants to do (big congratulations to her), so we’re free to tell you about hip consulting group, a boutique event management firm. They definitely offer internships, and they seem amenable to hiring new grads, so they’re definitely worth a look for anyone who has an interest in event planning.

Get Hip

hip consulting does everything when it comes to events. Whether it’s a corporate meeting, a customer appreciation event, or an employee incentive program, they’ll take care of it. They help clients select a site, register attendees, produce creatives and A/V, brainstorm ideas, and much, much more. The key to their success is attention to detail, so you can be sure that they’ll be willing to do what it takes to make sure an event happens without a hitch. They must be doing things right considering they were named one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Hot 500 Fastest Growing Businesses in America. They started with an initial investment of $50,000 in 2000, and did $6.5 million in sales in 2006. That’s some serious growth. With that growth has come hiring – from 2006 to 2007 they grew their numbers by 50% to 30 employees. Hopefully, they’ll continue that pace, and you’ll be part of the plan.

Our one issue with hip consulting is their website. It looks great, but it’s all in Flash. That means that we can’t link to specific pages, and we can’t search the content of their site in Google. Their Careers page says that they’re always looking for new team members, and that’s about it. From what we can gather about them, the jobs that they offer are most likely to be in the areas of marketing, hospitality management, video production, and graphic design. There may be other opportunities, but it’s hard to discern when they don’t post specific job openings. They offer internships, which is always a good indicator that they hire at the entry-level as well (we also did some LinkedIn research and saw that they’ve taken interns on full time after graduation). If you’re a new college grad who wants to get into event planning and wants to work for a CEO who loves fly fishing (I had to throw that in!), then hip consulting looks like a great place to look into. They’re located in Centennial, CO, and they invite you to send a resume and cover letter to careers@gethip.biz.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Know of a cool company that you want to share with us after you ensure that you’ve landed a job? Just e-mail us at info@onedayonejob.com.

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises

Willy Franzen — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:18:30 +0000

Waiting tables isn’t what most new college grads want to do with the degree they (or their parents) just spent 5 to 6 figures on. In most cases that makes sense, but with the Chicago based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises even jobs waiting tables can lead towards a career in restaurant management. LEYE is a restaurant empire – they have over 70 restaurants and somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 employees. Restaurant management is tough when you have one location to watch over, but somehow founder and CEO Richard Melman has been able to repeatedly launch and then manage successful restaurants.

I’m Uncoordinated and Would Drop the Food

It’s ok if waiting tables isn’t something that you can or want to do, Lettuce Entertain You has other job opportunities for new grads too. LEYE has jobs in Management, Corporate, and, of course, in their restaurants. Despite your lack of coordination, let’s look at the restaurant jobs first. LEYE’s restaurants include Antico Posto, Hub 51, Reel Club, Ben Pao, Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, R.J. Grunts, Big Bowl, L2O, Scoozi!, Brasserie Jo, L. Woods, Shaw’s Crab House, Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!, Maggiano’s, stripburger at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!, Chi. Flat Sammies, The Magic Pan Crepe Stand, Tru, Di Pescara, Mity Nice Grill, Tucci Benucch, Don & Charlie’s, Mon Ami Gabi, Twin City Grill, Eiffel Tower, Nacional 27, Vong’s Thai Kitchen, Everest, Osteria Via Stato, Wildfire, foodlife, Petterino’s, Wow Bao, Frankie’s 5th Floor Pizzeria, and Pizzeria via Stato. They all offer hourly positions, which you can search by job title on their website. These jobs include just about anything that you could do in a restaurant.

LEYE also has a fantastic internship program. They hire a significant number of their new managers through this program, so it seems possible that a new college grad from a hospitality management program (and who interned at another restaurant) could also have a shot at being a manager in a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant. Finally, LEYE also has corporate positions. Right now they have jobs in HR and Graphic Design that require some experience, but nothing that goes beyond what you would expect for an entry-level hire. Usually companies with strong internship programs do significant entry-level hiring, so it should be possible for you to find a great first job with Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you dined at an LEYE restaurant? What’d you think?

Clear

Willy Franzen — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:25:56 +0000

It seems like security lines at airports are either hit or miss. You’re through in a few minutes, or you’re waiting somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour to be x-rayed, questioned, prodded, and possibly poked. There’s probably a middle ground too, but you never seem to remember those experiences. You’ll often hear people say that they’d pay a lot of money to not have to wait in security lines. Well you can buy a private jet and avoid security completely, or you can invest $100 a year in a Clear Card. It won’t actually allow you to skip the security line, but it will definitely speed up the process. Someone should invent a “Clear Resume” that gets you an interview without all the hassles of cover letters, job applications, and screening phone calls.

Jobs in the Clear

The whole idea behind the Clear Card is pretty simple. We found out about it from Guy Kawasaki who is recommending it as a great Father’s Day gift and has a code that will allow you to get a free month added to your membership when you sign up. You allow them to collect some biometric data to verify your identity and submit an application to the TSA (don’t worry about Big Brother getting your fingerprints and iris scans, Clear has a stellar privacy policy). You get your card and get expedited through security. That’s all.

Clear is actually a part of a company called Verified Identity Pass, Inc., but they seem to be using the Clear brand quite a bit. For instance, the Verified Identity Pass Careers link redirects to the Clear Careers page, where you will find a few entry-level job opportunities. Clear is looking for Assistant Operations Managers in Atlanta and San Francisco. These jobs are geared towards people who have a background in hospitality management, and require a couple years of management experience in a customer service setting. Usually we wouldn’t consider that to be entry-level, but we know of plenty of students who have that kind of experience from campus jobs, internships, or volunteer work. Clear asks applicants to send a resume, cover letter, and salary requirements to careers@verifiedidpass.com with the job title in the subject line.

Clear is based in Palm Coast, FL, but doesn’t have any entry-level opportunities there at the moment. Keep an eye out, though. Clear appears to be growing quickly, as you’d expect for a company that offers such a useful service. We hope that more entry-level hiring is part of their growth plan.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have an airport security line nightmare story? Share it in the comments.

Mina Group

Willy Franzen — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:33:20 +0000

Most CEOs have resumes that include business school, many of years of experience, and boring lists of financial accomplishments. How would you like to work for a company where the CEO’s proudest accomplishments are his being named Bon Appetit Chef of the Year and International Food and Beverage Forum Restauranteur of the Year? Michael Mina of the Mina Group is just that CEO – Chef Executive Officer (sorry, that is a horrible pun). Making deals, like any CEO should, Mina formed a partnership with Andre Agassi, the tennis star, in 2002 that has resulted in the launch of a line of high end concept restaurants.

Say Goodbye to Ramen (at Least Cooking It)

The Mina Group manages restaurants in California, Nevada, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, and Arizona. Here’s a full list of the restaurants with menus, photo galleries, chef profiles, and reservation information. We do know that they participate in on-campus recruiting at at least one school with a Hospitality Management program. Beyond that, their About page says that they are always looking to hire restaurant managers, chefs, line-cooks, sommeliers, servers, bartenders, hosts, and any other people who are seeking employment in a restaurant related position.

Individual positions are not listed on the Mina Group website, or anywhere else on the web (there’s one or two exceptions), so the best way to go about finding a job is to ask for one. Send an e-mail to hr@minagroup.net with a cover letter describing your qualifications and what type of position you’re looking for and a resume.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you know what positions are best for new college grads who want to work at the Mina Group? Leave a comment and let us know.

Orvis

Willy Franzen — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:00:56 +0000

If you consider going fishing after work and being in bed by 10 a night well spent, then working at Orvis will be perfect for you. Ditto if you enjoy helping your co-workers train their dogs on your lunch break. How do I know? I spent the summers after my sophomore and junior years as an intern in the Human Resources Department. Why did I pick Orvis? Because I am a life long fly fisherman and I love their products.

Distinctive Country Living

Orvis has been around since 1856, which apparently makes them the oldest continuously operating catalog company in the country. They have an extremely rich history, which is still a significant factor in the way the company operates today. You should be familiar with this history because it will help you write an impressive cover letter and interview well. The single best resource on Orvis’ history is The Orvis Story, but that costs money, and if you get an internship, then you can use Orvis’ generous 50% employee discount to buy it. So what about web resources on Orvis’ history? There’s this page on the history of Orvis, a timeline of Orvis’ accomplishment, and a very detailed Wikipedia entry on Orvis.

Orvis’ storied history is based on sporting traditions (mostly hunting and fishing), and with that has come their modern focus on distinctive country living. As much as they are known for their fly fishing equipment, Orvis is not just a sporting company; however, their product selection is targeted at people who enjoy the sporting life. Orvis also puts a huge emphasis on environmental conservation, so they are constantly involved with projects that protect the resources, like cold water fisheries, that drive their business.

Drop Them a Line

Orvis doesn’t have an entry-level hiring program by any means, but they are certainly an employer that is friendly to young people (as long as those young people enjoy the outdoors). A few positions that we identified as being well suited for a new college grad are: Web Liquidations Merchandise Specialist, Application Developer / Analyst Merchandising Systems, and Web Developer. It appears that Orvis would prefer candidates with experience for these positions, but there’s no reason that you can’t impress them enough to get hired.

Beyond their regular job listings, Orvis also lists positions at Orvis Endorsed Operations on their Job Openings Page. These aren’t actually Orvis jobs, but they do offer the opportunity to work for an amazing resort at a big name destination. A lot of these jobs are as fishing guides, but a few are in hospitality management as well.

What Vermont Has to Offer

Orvis’ corporate office is in Sunderland, VT on the edge of a 377-acre natural black bear habitat. The office is absolutely beautiful and fits perfectly with both the surroundings and Orvis’ mission. There’s a small gym on-site, hiking trails, a casting pond, and a cafe with great food. With that said, it’s in the middle of nowhere – the Orvis office doesn’t even have a zip code. The Manchester area of Vermont is not the most happening place. Yes, they have outlet shopping, but beyond that it’s all about the outdoors. Restaurants are closed by 9, and gas stations close by 10. So if you’re out fishing after that, you’re not going to find anything to eat except what’s in the refrigerator.

Orvis also has a service center in Roanoke, VA and retail locations across the United States; however, the jobs that best suite new college grads will be mostly located in Vermont. Like I’ve said, Orvis isn’t for the city slickers, but for the right people it’s a dream come true. If you’d like to know more about working at Orvis, feel free to contact me by leaving a comment. I’ll be more than happy to answer any of your questions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Looking for an internship at Orvis?

OpenTable

Willy Franzen — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:00:18 +0000

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and you told your sweetheart that you’d make a reservation and take care of the dinner plans. You forgot/procrastinated. You’re one of those people who is petrified by phone interactions. For some reason the simple task of picking up a phone and dialing a restaurant to make a reservation intimidates you to no end. Shoot, you stared at the phone for 3 hours before you built up the courage to call your date to ask him or her out in the first place. Why can’t you just make a reservation online?

If you’re going to be an effective job searcher, you should probably try to get over this phobia before your first phone interview. Calling around for reservations might be good practice, but we understand that Valentine’s Day can be stressful enough. We’ll let you off the hook just this once. You can use OpenTable.com, a site that lets you make reservations at some of the best restaurants in the country with the click of the mouse. All you need to do is enter your location and the date and time you’d like to book, and they’ll show you what’s still available in your area. It might even save you from completely blowing Valentine’s Day.

OpenTable is a dot-com veteran that has survived conditions that put most Internet companies out of business. The New York Times describes OpenTable’s ups and downs quite well in an article from last Summer:

It took three years for OpenTable to seat its one-millionth diner. But now, the company seats two million diners every month. And Zagat, the restaurant rating service, has adopted OpenTable for reservations made through its site, zagat.com.

OpenTable survived because of a very smart business model. You may only recognize them as an online restaurant reservation service, but their real business driver is the software that they sell restaurants to manage reservations. This software interacts directly with OpenTable.com and provides a full reservation management solution, whether the reservations are made in person, over the phone, or online. In case you missed it, the key point is that OpenTable has built a brand with loyal consumers who now demand that restaurants offer OpenTable.com service. For a restaurant to provide this service, they have to buy in to OpenTable’s reservation management software. It’s brilliant – using customer brand recognition to drive the sale of B2B software.

OpenTable currently has only one position that requires minimal previous work experience. This job is as a Field Operations Specialist. The good news is that there are quite a few openings in a variety of locations: Frankfurt, Germany; Miami, FL; Madrid, Spain; Vancouver, British Columbia; Paris, France; San Diego, CA; Las Vegas, NV; St. Louis, MO; and Charlotte, NC. This job is heavy on travel and requires some technical know-how, as you’ll be troubleshooting OpenTable systems in restaurants. You’ll also need to be a customer service star, since you will be the face of the company at the customer sites. There are also some administrative and sales positions available at OpenTable, but they require more experience than the Field Operations Specialist Job. These jobs could be worth a look for a college grad with exceptional hospitality management or outside sales experience.

Now go save Valentine’s Day by making a reservation on OpenTable.com.

Note: On April 24th we revisited entry-level jobs at OpenTable.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

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Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Willy Franzen — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:00:10 +0000

At this point in December, we hope most of you are done with exams and home for Winter Break. This is a great time for you to relax, subscribe to One Day, One Job, and start looking for great job ideas. Your Mom will probably want you to figure out what you want to do after college by spending 8 hour days cruising job boards, working on your resume, and calling her friends so that you can “network.” We think you should go on vacation – even if it’s just a day trip somewhere. Expose yourself (not that way, perv) to complete strangers in places you’ve never been before. Strike up random conversations. See a cultural attraction that fascinates you. Eat a new type of ethnic cuisine. Observe everything that you experience in the context of your job search.

Now that you’re going on vacation (come on, do it!), one job idea should smack you in the face immediately. The hospitality industry intrigues many college students because it represents an adventure. Even though the thought is completely unrealistic, how can you not like the idea of being on a permanent vacation? Don’t get us wrong – working in a hotel or resort is not a vacation, but the same things that make vacations appealing (new places, new people, and friendliness) will make a job in hospitality management exciting every day. It truly is a career path that can take you anywhere in the world, even if where you want to go lacks the economic development needed to support most other industries.

If you’re going to work in a hotel or resort, it might as well be top notch. Why not the Four Seasons? They offer a wide range of opportunities for new college graduates. Most jobs at hotels, resorts, and in hospitality in general don’t require very much experience or education to get started. You can pretty much pick an area of interest from Four Seasons’ hotel divisions and a location and begin an adventure. Even if your goal is to eventually own or manage a hotel, starting at the bottom will give you the hands on experience with customers and guests that you’ll need to be successful. We’re not big on paying dues, but in hospitality management it’s truly an essential part of the experience. There is one exception – if you have spent the past four years in a hospitality management program or have work/internship experience in the hospitality industry, you can probably jump ahead (since you’ve already started paying your dues) by applying for Four Seasons’ Corporate Management Training Program. We’re not sure how strict they are about it, but it appears to be limited to students from University of Denver, N.S.M.H. – Seattle, Niagara University, Cornell University, UNLV, the Culinary Institute of America, Ryerson University, International University of Bad Honnef, Oxford Brookes University, and Emirates Academy of Hotel Management.

If you attend one of those schools, you should be able to get more informations on career opportunities at Four Seasons from your Career Services office. For the rest of you, the best way to get a job is to contact the Four Seasons location that you’re interested in directly. Their Employment page does have a job search function, but it only returns position titles and locations with no other details. It looks like Four Seasons recruiters are willing to talk with you about your career plans, so why not take them up on the opportunity?

Four Seasons has 74 properties in 31 countries. So, whether you’re looking for an adventure after college or a career in hospitality management, they offer great entry-level opportunities. And just in case you were worried about what it’s like working for them, Four Seasons has been named one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For 8 years straight (most recently they were ranked #53 in 2007 and #27 in 2006).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you going somewhere fun or interesting over your Winter Break? Tell us about it.