Your career journey may start on Valentine's
February brings in one of the most anticipated "holidays" of the year - Valentine's Day. While it is not an official celebration where employees get to take a day off from work, it is certainly a day so many people look forward to. Depending which side of the romance spectrum people are on, some get permission to fill their lives (or at least, their day) with all thekiligthey could muster, while some insist on congregating with like-minded and unattached singles while convincing themselves that it is okay to not have a love life in what is supposed to be the most love-filled day of the year.
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In celebration of V-Day, we take a look at some industries that capitalize on the love month. During this time, the life of employers in these industries get exciting. What are these three industries? Let's take a look.
(1) Retail
In this time of the year, love-filled citizens spare nothing in expense to buy things that supposedly show their love and affection. From flowers to chocolates, personalized couple shirts to stuffed toys and jewelry, sales of just about everything are expected to increase. With more customers waiting to purchase and regular staff also wanting to take the day off to spend V-Day with their special someones, seasonal staff for stores selling these hot items is a must.
If you are considering to earn a few bucks and possibly start a career in retail during this season, make sure you show more than enough patience and you might just bag the job. Grinches and jaded people who "don't believe in the magic of love" are not needed here. You don't need to be overly "sales-y" as people are in the mood to spend, so all you need to show is a readiness to help. Be amiable and courteous, and most of all, never let the three most bitter words, "Maghihiwalay din kayo!" escape your tongue. Never!
(2) Customer Service
The BPO industry, primarily call centers, have Valentines' Day as one of their red-letter days of the year. For these businesses, it's time to "ramp up" - hire more personnel to answer calls of clients who are mostly involved in flower and gift delivery and restaurant reservation.
For aspirants to these positions, an extra serving of "soft" customer service skills is required. This means attentive listening skills, empathy, and a lot of patience is required. There is a tendency for people on the phone to shop for the best flower arrangement or the most hug-able stuffed toy with a customer service representative on the phone the entire time, not to mention they will also give you all the details of the delivery, including credit card information. If you roll your eyes because a customer is still undecided what to give his girlfriend after 30 minutes of patiently assisting him, then consider yourself unfit for this job. Sighs, eye rolls, and other manifestations of impatience, no matter how discreet they are, can be heard on the phone.
(3) Hospitality
Restaurants, motels, hotels, and entertainment centers will be packed during the Valentine's Day week. As February 14 this year will be a Tuesday, expect couples to trickle into these establishments as early as the weekend of February 11 and 12. Staff who will patiently cater to these antsy, excited, and sometimes anxious customers are required.
Someone solutions oriented will be a commodity for these vacancies. More often than not, the concern for customers of these establishments during this season will be unavailability of rooms, fully booked scenarios, and worst cancelled or unregistered reservations. When you are a customer who has reserved a special table in a restaurant for more than a month only to be informed that's there's no reservation for you, you will be furious! More than having empathy for these inconvenienced customers, there is a need for someone who's up on his toes and quick in whipping up fixes and solutions for them.
Who would think that Valentine's Day is not just for those in love, but for job hunters as well? For those thinking of taking advantage of these opportunities, here's a quick piece of advice: Be a breakout performer. In most cases, employees who worked outstandingly during critical dates such as Valentine's Day are absorbed by the company for regular employment. If you found something you're good at in these seasonal jobs, go out of your way and give it your best shot - you might just get yourself a long-term career.
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JobStreet.com and jobsDB are part of SEEK Asia, which is the leading online employment market place in Asia. SEEK Asia covers 7 countries namely Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
SEEK Asia is the extension of the Australian Securities Exchange listed company called SEEK. The company's purpose is to help improve people's lives through a better career. SEEK Asia's database consist of over 500,000 corporate hirers and over 24 million candidates.
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