By Marty Tarabar

Well, it’s the start of the new year, and you just found out you missed your year end bonus because

1. you had a really bad guest comment sent in to your guest service hot line
2. you missed sales by just under $2,000 which you would have hit if it wasn’t for that snow storm

OR

1. your Ecosure inspection was a high yellow because your kitchen manager forgot to do line temps that day

None of these are reasons to start looking for a new position, but, you should always keep your eyes and ears open for new opportunities. There is so much going on in the industry with companies being bought and sold by capital investment groups, corporations selling off restaurants to franchisees, and major brands shuttering restaurants around the country to try to stay afloat.

Even as some companies are closing restaurants and downsizing there are others who are taking advantage of some great real estate deals and opening new locations. Quick service restaurants are blossoming due to the weakened economy. You can look at the expansion of HuHot Mongolian Grill, Pita Pit, Panera Bread and Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill just to name a few.

On the other end of the scale, there are national companies expanding high end fine dining properties as well. Regional chains are taking advantage of their stake in their markets and are doing better than their national counterparts.

Before you decide to look for a new job, figure out why you are looking and what you are looking for. If it is growth opportunities, look for a company with slow measure expansion, who are in it for the long run. Companies with overly aggressive expansion plans tend to hire more managers than they have locations for and you could end up in a circling pattern waiting for your opportunity.

Do you want a better quality of life (don’t we all)? Make sure companies you are looking at have 3 or 4 person salaried management teams. A restaurant with two managers and 3 or 4 shift managers makes it more difficult for you to have the family time you need.

Job stability? How financially set is the company? Some companies entering into bankruptcy cut managers left and right, close restaurants and reduce corporate staff. Restaurants coming out of bankruptcy usually are much better off and can offer some great possibilities.

Better pay or bonus opportunities? Be careful of the fine print and remember the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Recruiters can tell you about the amazing bonuses you will be able to make and quote the highest possible bonus. But, there are other things to consider; how much will insurance cost and how good is the coverage, how many weeks of vacation do I get?

So what do you do? How do you find out the best opportunities and when should you start looking?

It is easier to get a new position when you are working. When I present unemployed candidates to corporate recruiters, the first thing they ask is “why aren’t they working? Or What happened at their last job? Even when managers lose their position because of  a store closing, corporate recruiters are leery about someone who has been out of work longer than a week or two. “After all, if they are so good they should have been able to find a job by now.”

The best way to find the information you are looking for is check with the people who know. The partners at Gecko Hospitality talk with corporate recruiters, district managers, directors of operations and company execs everyday.  Give us a call, we are happy to spend time with you, get to know you, and give advice on new opportunities.

Susan Adams,

If you’re a single parent with five kids, or caring for a gravely ill relative, or dealing with a serious medical condition–what do you say and when?

You’re interviewing for a job and you know you may need time away from the office to care for your children, or for your terminally ill mother, or for your own serious medical condition. What and when do you tell your potential boss? Vicki Brackett, who runs Make It Happen for Women, a firm in Denver that professes to do “job search makeovers,” takes a hard-line stance. “You never tell an employer,” she says emphatically. “Never. Not until you’ve been there a while.”

Especially in this job market, she adds. The competition for jobs is so fierce that employers will always go for the candidate they believe can work the longest and hardest. “What employer wants to hire someone who’s not going to be there?” she asks.

What To Reveal During Your Job Search

Many job seekers, especially women, want to find a job that fits their life, rather than the other way around, Brackett says: “What women want most is a culture that works for them. They make the mistake of thinking that other women are going to understand, or that employers will care. It could be that the woman who’s interviewing you barely got to work in the morning because of problems at home. She doesn’t want to hire someone who has problems at home too.”

Brackett advises that as a job candidate you focus on proving your value to an employer, not only throughout the job search but even in the first months on the job. Some companies don’t firm up their hires until an initial trial period of 90 days has come to a close. Only then should the employee consider asking for flextime. Frame the request by describing how it will benefit the company. “You should say, ‘It’s something that can help me be more effective,’” Brackett advises. “Every discussion should be about the company.”

Stay away from chatter about your personal life, including seemingly harmless topics, she also advises. Even if you just returned from a fabulous two-week honeymoon in Italy, keep that to yourself. “The boss may think, here’s someone who takes long, expensive vacations. She’s going to want a lot of time off.”

Though it may seem a smart move to form a personal bond with an interviewer, avoid the temptation, Brackett says. A harried employer can view even do-gooding work outside the office as a liability these days, she adds. “If you say you’ve been out banging nails for Habitat for Humanity, the employer might think, she’s going to want time off to do that.” Only bring up non-work subjects if you’ve done your homework and you know, for instance, that the company encourages employees to do volunteer jobs.

Keep in mind that employers are forbidden by law to ask most personal questions. Kathleen McKenna, a partner in the labor practice at the law firm Proskauer Rose, says that both federal and local statutes forbid job interviewers from asking about marital or family status, or about medical conditions. The only exception comes when a medical condition may directly affect the candidate’s ability to do the job. “If someone comes in in a wheelchair and you’re hiring for a pole-vaulting position, then you can ask, ‘Exactly how do you see this working for you?’” McKenna says.

Not all career coaches agree with Brackett’s zero-disclosure policy. Win Sheffield, a coach in New York City, says, “The way I look at the job interview process, it’s about three things: Can you do the job, is it a job you want, and will you fit at the company.” If you realize during the search process that a special medical condition or family circumstance will make for a bad fit, then speak up, Sheffield says, or at least be honest with yourself. If you don’t, you may wind up feeling you betrayed yourself–or your employer may feel you betrayed her.

Anita Attridge, a New Jersey career coach, says she has counseled candidates with special circumstances about grappling with whether they may in fact need a part-time, rather than full-time, position. Nowadays full-time really means full-time, she points out. “The expectation is that you come in and you’re immediately ready to go,” she says. “Everyone has really tightened down their head counts. They don’t have the option to accommodate people’s special needs.”