apply. moo. shuffle. smile. hope. repeat.
Here’s the thing about trying to get a service industry gig in LA: everybody else wants one too. Being a server, bartender — that’s where the cash is at. Tips. Untraceable, lovely tips. If you’re an Aspiring, the flexibility of having a gig that allows for daytime auditions is also an immeasurable plus. So the competition for these are hot, and a lot of times you’ll see Craigslist ads which ask for a headshot with your resume.
So an open call for a new(ish) luxury hotel in Venice? Yeah, that’s gonna be pretty full.
It’s a trick, you see. How to present yourself. While they’re always trying for 5-star, every hotel/restaurant, etc is also shooting to present itself as “hip” and “cool”. When it’s literally less than 500 feet from the ocean, they especially want to be seen as casual luxury. So the normal uniform of office casual won’t get you in the door – you’re not there to be seen, you’re there to be the help. You need to be cool enough to fit, but invisible enough to blend into the scenery when no one needs you to be around. Plus the hotel is going to dictate what you wear, so your own personal style isn’t something they particularly care about as long as you can show you’re fairly decent-looking and not blatantly a mutant.
Unfortunately, the standard of “fairly decent-looking” in L.A. means that while for this shindig good jeans, heeled boots & a nice sweater were fitting, I also had to do hair and makeup. :sigh:
(for those of you tuning in, while I can pass as a girl, I don’t like it as a recreational activity, so there’d damned well better either be a job or possible sex on the line. Before any of you pervs ask, sex as a job – not an option.)
It’s a cattle call. I got here at 10:15 for a 10am start. There were already about 20 people ahead of me, and I was told it’d be about a 45 minute, hour wait. (Hence the reason I went to the car & got my laptop so I could talk to you lot.)
I have two advantages here that make it worth my time – for the server position, I’m actually looking for daytime/lunch shifts, which most actors/musicians, etc are not. They want the day open to try to further their career & do auditions. For the valet gig, my advantage is that I not only am a girl & want the valet gig, but I also have experience doing it. As I learned years ago when I applied at Spiffy!Hotel, this is a new & novel thing in Los Angeles. I am hoping that either of these options will at least yield me an invite for a second interview.
I’m actually looking at two interviews like this today – after this I’m off to an open call at a restaurant in the UCLA district that’s opening, and most likely it will be the same – lots of people, fairly long wait, total cattle call. To do these two interviews means that the majority of my working day is shot, and I’ll be up again tonight trying to accomplish today’s list.
(one of their servers just walked in to bus the patio where they have everyone waiting. Since she’s dressed in jeans, black sneakers & a long sleeve black shirt, I feel much more secure in my choice of attire.)
I’m glad I at least had the computer – this way I can get some of my offline work done – fixing a picture, breaking some code back so that I streamline things to the css sheets, that sort of thing. Stuff that would normally take twice as long because I’d be distracted by the shiny, shiny joy of flickery things provided by the internet. Oh, you wacky series of tubes, you’re both my savior & my curse!
- Okay, the guy that just showed up with what looks like the sum total of his worldly possessions, including a bike helmet & yoga mat attached to his backpack? He’s my “I don’t give a sh*t, just give me the damn job” hero. As long as he doesn’t get hired instead of me, that is.
- I know I’ve said this before, but the interesting thing about something like this is that people can’t help but start talking to one another. Right now, several of the applicants are hypothetically planning the bar that we could all open if to employ ourselves if we pooled our money.
Overheard In Interview Wait:
“A resume on craigslist is like writing a letter to fucking Santa Claus – you send it in, & you actually think that guy’s gonna fucking write back to you.”
- I got here at… 10:15am, it’s 11:38. Still…waiting… In fact… crap, I need to go move my car so I don’t get dinged for a street cleaning ticket at noon. Okies, better go let them know so they don’t think I bailed.
12.13 – well, had my “pre-screening” interview with the front manager. Seems that they looked at my resume and thought I was there for a front desk/host position, which is kinda flattering. After talking to the guy, we’ve settled on that I’m not against that, I just didn’t know it was open to apply for, so I’ve been asked to wait for a second interview, since it would seem I made it through the initial process, and I’ll talk to the Food/Beverage people re: working as a server. It would appear that I’m one of a very small few applicants who actually has hotel experience, which is why they picked me out for possible front-desk-age.
It all seems very… positive, which is… not bad, just odd – I’m used to dealing with a Wall of Dismissiveness — where they pretend that you’re not an actual person in any shape or form because they know there’s ten more like you right around the corner.
Based on this, however, I don’t think I’ll be making it down to the second open call by UCLA. However if this pans out into a gig, I’m okay with that. Here’s hoping the next half hour passes quickly.
And it did… I met a nice fellow that heads the Food & Beverage division, & he seemed to like my use of the phrases, “looking for stability” and “I tend to stay at jobs for a while.” (part time jobs, anyway – this resume doesn’t include my full time work.)
Got out at 1pm. After 3 hours of alternately waiting & acting very cheerful, I made it through a second screening, & now have to wait for the end of the week to see if I get a callback for another interview, & if that works, I might start around mid-March.
Which means… leave that to work itself out, go to my Starbucks’ office to carry on with running my team and looking for a new gig before I go back to the boathouse to do my double day. Mine is an exciting life.
On a bright note, I got stuff done for one client while waiting, so I can send that out when I get back to the internet oasis that is Starbucks. After I do that, I’ll also apply to work there. Yay online applications!
Random observation: Why would you get takeout from CPK if you’re going to go eat it in the Starbucks across the parking lot from that CPK? Doesn’t it make more sense to just… stay at CPK? hrm.
Music: In the Morning – Norah Jones 
