From the other side.....

twistedhazel

Somewhat off topic but to continue the piercings theme.... I have a number of facial piercings and work as an Area Manager for a national chain of shops. It took some doing to convince those higher up the chain that the ONLY people who had a problem with the studs were them but we got there in the end. In over fifteen years in retail I have NEVER had a customer walk away from me or past me to another member of staff. These ideas are outdated and frankly discriminatory but I do think the times they are a changing.

leah123_2

Dark Lady yip that's right the job was NMW involving working Xmas day, New Years Eve & New Years Day sometimes until 1am but I suspect it could have been longer and I agreed to do this in the first interview being desperate for a job and because the job was in town I live about 15 minutes away and don't drive I would need to pay a taxi to go back home and at xmas day etc the taxi fare doubles therefore I would have probably been working for next to nothing lol.

And to add insult to injury they never gave me a second interview lol not good for the confidence :mad:

Person_one

dmg24 wrote: »

Or maybe those who choose to have facial piercings could think before making themselves so unpresentable? You cannot compare someone who piercings to someone with scarring - one is by choice, the other clearly is not.

Who decided it was unpresentable?

Norms of dress/styles are challenged and move on all the time. Women wearing trousers was once considered scandalous.

People with piercings aren't actually hurting or offending anybody, except perhaps themselves with each new hole!

kittykat100

Some really good responses...

So maybe I am 'oldschool' but to me if you are attending an interview you go suited and booted and remove piercings.... I haven't a problem with them personally but from an image point of view in a customer facing role I expect conformity.
Also for the poster who commented on English in a hotel.... I totally agree that there are too many hard to understand foreign people in the industry.. so shoot me. I do not have a problem with English as a second language as long as they have a good command of it.

Kittyx

Arbitrax

I find it amusing people deriding a receptionist job as easy to learn. A good receptionist is worth their weight in gold.

In any company, you will be hard pressed to find someone with a better breadth of knowledge about how the business runs, and if you are a graduate looking for that kind of experience the skills you pick up are well worth the low wages (Typical pay in Devon is NMW private sector, £6.50/hr public/third sector, a bit higher for medical/legal.)

I temped as a receptionist for a branch of Connexions when I left uni - and it gave me a great overall view of the benefits system, work and training opportunities and how other agencies like the social housing system and social services work. It also gave me valuable experience of talking to councillors, MPs and various other local high-ups.

This breadth of experience got me my next job - a project management role at a housing association. Part-time but heigh ho!

Oops, rambled on - the point is, look for the opportunity in a role, no matter how 'lowly' it may seem - you never know where it may lead!


And Kitty - While many graduates you hire may be looking for bigger and better things, many of us are searching for a career, and want to work our way up from the ground floor to get a good overall feel for the business.

Also, even if a graduate leaves after 12 months on the job, during that time they will have brought their energy and creativity to your hotel, and (hopefully) presented you with many good ideas for drumming up new business or finding more efficient ways of doing things.

Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes and an ambitious mind can see things that established staff are unable to see, as they might be used to their working pattern and feel like, "This is how it's always been done."

Any

Shoot me, I am also old school...
I don't mind a little stone in your eybrows or on the side of your nose or something, but I find spikes coming out of ones chin and massive ring in ones nose extremely unpleasant to look at and makes me questions ones sanity..

Just my personal opinion, someone finds it daring. And each to their own.

And daring is good for some professions!! But the positions I would be most likely to be recruiting for I don't need daring, I would need professional.
Person with FP over the top (anything above the things mentioned above) would be looked down upon as much as person turning up without a tie to an interview...

And guess what? I am the one offering the job, I would have to be the one to deal with this person every day and I would be the one that can get screwed if the job goes to the wrong person - extra work and all that. So it is understandable that I will do anything to pick the right person. And first impressions are very important in that.

bristol_pilot

Loads of facial furniture can be unpleasant to look at and the fact that someone has chosen to make themselves look that way shows a lack of care for the customer.