Analyzing a job posting is a crucial step in the job search process. It helps you understand the position’s requirements and responsibilities, allowing you to tailor your application to match the employer’s needs. Due to the labor shortages in hotels, postings have become more and more inviting, using a mix of flowery language and scenic descriptions, and often need to be more specific.
Here are some steps to effectively analyze job postings and if the job is worth your time and effort to align and rework your resume with matching keywords, which requires considerable time. Some companies do an excellent job of being transparent and precise, following a traditional structure. Some new and more creative postings have emerged during the past ten years, just as they have been a massive style of resume “designs” hoping to make a better impression. The fact is, the traditional styles so far have prevailed. Here are the tips:
- Read the entire job posting carefully: Don’t just skim it; read it thoroughly to understand the position’s details, responsibilities, and requirements. Pay attention to keywords, qualifications, and any specific instructions.
- Identify the critical job requirements: Highlight the essential skills, qualifications, and experience the employer seeks. These could include education level, years of experience, technical skills, soft skills, certifications, and any specific industry knowledge.
- Understand the company culture and values: Look for hints about the company’s culture, mission, and values. This information will help you determine whether you align with the company’s goals and can contribute effectively.
- Analyze the responsibilities and tasks: Take note of the primary responsibilities and tasks associated with the role. Evaluate whether you have the necessary experience and skills to fulfill these responsibilities.
- Look for career growth opportunities: Check if the job posting mentions any potential career advancement or learning opportunities within the company. This information can help you assess the long-term benefits of the position.
- Determine the salary range: Some job postings may provide salary range or benefits information. Evaluate whether the salary aligns with your expectations and the industry standard.
- Research the company: Conduct additional research on the company beyond what’s provided in the job posting. Visit their website, read about their recent achievements, and try to gain insights into their overall performance and reputation. Please pay special attention to employee reviews about the company they have worked for or are working with. It will provide an inside view, but take it with a pinch of salt.
Following these steps, you can effectively analyze job postings and decide which positions best fit your skills and career goals. Let’s take a look at a prominent job posting. It is for the position of Food and Beverage Director and starts like this:
- Introduction of property:
Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts is a Hilton’s luxury brand of iconic hotels committed to personal service and culinary excellence in landmark locations worldwide. Each property delivers unforgettable experiences and offers a strong sense of arrival with impressive public spaces worthy of hosting history. Guests can expect True Waldorf Service from reserving their stay to leaving the property’s doorstep.
The property made a wow debut in 2019 and is already recognized as one of the finest resorts in the world. Sprawled across three islands, the Resort is one of the most sizable in the Maldives. It boasts the country’s largest spa and extensive recreation facilities, and it is the Maldives resort with the most culinary choices (an impressive 11 specialty cuisine dining options). Besides its 118 luxurious villas, the Resort is also home to an exclusive offering: a private island, the largest in the country, to be rented out.
Once you get a glimpse of this one of its kind resort, you know you arrived in a sun-soaked paradise. Luxurious villas are vast private indoor-outdoor playgrounds, each featuring a private pool. The azure water steals the show everywhere you look, from the standalone villa bathtub to the glass-bottomed floors in the spa treatment pavilions.
Are you ready to join our talented and dedicated team at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi and take your career to new heights?
My Analysis and Comments: Two hundred forty-five words will lure any traveler into booking a vacation in this unique and probably iconic hotel. Great, But is this information necessary for a candidate who is most likely a true professional and will do their research? From my perspective, the following would be sufficient to describe the Resort to a potential candidate just briefly, like:
“Join our talented and dedicated Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi team and advance your career in a sun-soaked paradise. We are a luxury brand committed to personal service and culinary excellence, located in landmark locations worldwide. Our Resort offers unforgettable experiences with impressive public spaces and the largest spa in the Maldives. Are you ready to be part of our exceptional team? Apply now!” This text is sufficient to get an interested candidate truly hooked, and while it sounds good, a mature professional will not be lured into the job with this extravagant description.
- What will I be doing?
The director of Food & Beverage for Waldorf Astoria Maldives will lead the functions as the Join our talented and dedicated team at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi and take your career to new heights in a sun-soaked paradise. We are a luxury brand committed to personal service and culinary excellence, located in landmark locations worldwide. Our Resort offers unforgettable experiences with impressive public spaces and the largest spa in the Maldives. Are you ready to be part of our exceptional team? Apply now! Business leader of the property’s food and beverage operations, including distinct dining experiences in 11 uniquely positioned restaurants and bars with a tailor-made bespoke menu.
The position oversees the development and implementation of departmental strategies and ensures the implementation of the brand service and initiatives. To ensure the food and beverage operation meets the customer needs, ensuring team member satisfaction and focusing on growing revenues and maximizing the department’s financial performance.
In addition, the following knowledge, skills, and abilities are required:
• Passionate people developer who coordinates the selection, training, development, and evaluation of employees and managers in the Food & Beverage Division through effective management and leadership to ensure that established cultural and core standards are met.
• The ability to coordinate the development, interpretation, and implementation of resort policies, operating procedures and training programs, manuals, directives, menus, work schedules, vacation planning, and general rules and regulations for the food and beverage Team members.
• The ability to coordinate the selection, purchasing, storage, inventorying, maintenance, and usage of all related food and beverage supplies and equipment.
• The ability to handle all guest experiences and interactions in the food and beverage area, is in charge of obtaining maximum results in the utilization and appearance of the food and beverage areas, the quality levels, performance, and standards of service, and develops new techniques of service towards maximum guest satisfaction at minimum operating costs.
• In addition, the Resort requires that you perform any task deemed necessary by the Hotel Manager to run the Food and Beverage Department precisely and efficiently and the Resort in general. 287
My Analysis and Comments: We find lengthy writing with unnecessary fillers like”Taking your career to new heights” or “We are a luxury brand committed to personal service and culinary excellence, located in landmarks worldwide. ” This has no place in a professionally crafted Job Posting. Otherwise, it provides the usual, generic job description of an F&B Director. My conclusion is: that the Resort has the challenge of finding a suitable individual for this position. One specific point makes me curious: They seek a “Passionate people developer who coordinates the selection, training, development, and evaluation of employees.” An indication of the composition of the employees, coming from different backgrounds and levels of education. Also, is this different from the responsibility of the Human Resources department? And the Maldives are in no way an accessible location, no matter how much beauty is there. Providing excellent services in this remote location requires a seasoned and innovative professional, which is challenging today.
What are we looking for?
The Director of Food & Beverage for Waldorf Astoria Maldives is always working towards achieving the hotel’s Food & Beverage performance objectives and maximizing profitability. To successfully fill this role, you should maintain the attitude, behaviors, skills, and values that follow:
• Passion for delivering exceptional levels of guest service.
• Solid Food & Beverage Experience within a luxury setting.
• Excellent communication, effective management, leadership, organizational and communications skills.
• Commercial F&B acumen skills & knowledge of new F&B trends.
• Ability for strategic and out-of-the-box thinking. 90
My Analysis and Comments: The five bullet point list would be sufficient. A seasoned potential candidate would react somewhat annoyed. Working in the 5-star hotel industry, candidates will have the right attitude. And this is what you can read between the lines: While the company requires an excellent professional, they do not want to appeal to a natural and seasoned F & B professional, but rather a younger person who gets a chance to prove themselves. The text supports this by using the word “Passion” for delivering service. Everyone can be passionate. However, I found this to be present more in Postings for the younger generation as for someone over 40 and for whom delivering excellent and passionate service has become a way of life and a routine, which is very good compared to people who are overly “passionate.” but still have to learn a lot. I am an older version of a good hotelier, so I know that passion will eventually give way to a more subtle mentality. But reading this correctly, again and again, reinforces my interpretation that this is not a job for someone above 40 to 45 years. Why do they not cut to the chase and point out an age range? I know they don’t do this because it could be considered discrimination.
WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE TO WORK FOR HILTON?
Hilton is the leading global hospitality company, spanning the lodging sector from luxurious full-service hotels and resorts to extended-stay suites and mid-priced hotels. For nearly a century, Hilton has offered business and leisure travelers the finest accommodations, services, amenities, and value. Hilton is dedicated to continuing its tradition of providing exceptional guest experiences across its global brands. Our vision to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality unites us as a team to create remarkable daily hospitality experiences. Moreover, our outstanding Team Members are at the heart of it all!
My Analysis and Comments: another 107 words to describe the company. I am a Hilton Fan, a former Hilton employee, and a Hilton shareholder; For a job posting is entirely unnecessary. But there may be a reason for this. The Posting may speak to someone who is not too familiar with Hilton, a younger person who could be groomed and trained into a good Food and Beverage Manager. Someone who is presently a strong Restaurant Manager or Banquet Manager. And let’s be honest. Who speaks like this?
” Our vision to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality unites us as a team to create remarkable daily hospitality experiences.” Who is trying to convince whom with words like this? All right then; let’s join hands and sing along to this harmonious melody of good intentions. Because, you know, putting the candidate into a pleasant, cozy sleeping mood is the best way to run a successful business. Who needs real-world action and tangible results when we can sprinkle some hospitality pixie dust and call it a day? If I wanted to apply for the job, my first question would be: what are the challenges? This is a Red Flag post.
ABOUT WALDORF ASTORIA MALDIVES ITHAAFUSHI
Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts is a Hilton’s luxury brand of iconic hotels committed to personal service and culinary excellence in landmark locations worldwide. Each property delivers unforgettable experiences and offers a strong sense of arrival with impressive public spaces worthy of hosting history. Guests can expect True Waldorf Service from reserving their stay to leaving the property’s doorstep.
Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi made a wow debut in 2019 and is already recognized as one of the finest resorts in the world. Sprawled across three islands, the Resort is one of the most sizable in the Maldives. It boasts the country’s largest spa and extensive recreation facilities, and it is the Maldives resort with the most culinary choices (an impressive 11 specialty cuisine dining options). Besides its 118 luxurious villas, the Resort is also home to an exclusive offering: a private island, the largest in the country, to be rented out.
Once you get a glimpse of this one of its kind resort, you know you arrived in a sun-soaked paradise. Luxurious villas are vast private indoor-outdoor playgrounds, each featuring a private pool. The azure water steals the show everywhere you look, from the standalone villa bathtub to the glass-bottomed floors in the spa treatment pavilions.
Are you ready to join our talented and dedicated team at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi and take your career to new heights?
My Analysis and Comments: 245 more words for the job seeker are unnecessary. I throw in the hat and step back in time for a moment. This kind of Posting would have excited me 30 years ago. No more today, too much fluff and fillers. Maybe passion, but as a job posting, it needs to be shorter and give candidates a clear message. It will do the job for a young and passionate person; however, it misses the boat for a more seasoned personality.
Conclusion:
The Posting is quite lengthy for this position in a small resort in the Maldives. Its overall language and wording are extensive and (for the company) rather costly regarding the time it took to generate.
Overemphasis on Brand and Location: While it’s important to highlight the brand and location of the organization, the Posting excessively focuses on this aspect, taking away valuable space that could be used to provide more relevant information about the job itself. Job seekers are primarily interested in understanding the role’s responsibilities, qualifications, and potential for growth.
Missing Key Information: The Posting needs to include important details that candidates typically seek, such as salary range, benefits, and potential career growth opportunities. These factors are significant in a job seeker’s decision-making process and should be included in a comprehensive job posting. This aspect is thin in the overall post, which focuses on what the company wants from a candidate rather than what it is willing to give and provide.
Excessive Descriptions: The Posting contains unnecessary embellishments and excessive use of flowery language. While it may initially capture attention, it fails to provide the concise and direct information that job seekers seek. These embellishments may distract from the essential details of the job and make it difficult for candidates to assess their fit for the position.
Vague Language: The job posting contains vague phrases like “unforgettable experiences” and “impressive public spaces” without providing specific examples or tangible information. This vagueness leaves job seekers wondering about the actual nature of the job and the expected outcomes.
From a shareholder’s point of view, I say this. Too long and also too costly. The company could save time and money with a more focused and shorter posting. From a prospective candidate’s view: It needs to provide more information about a longer-term career path, salary, and benefits, and if it is an open contract or temporary assignment. The company tells the candidate what they expect but little about compensation and benefits. While it looks good on paper, the candidate must research adequately.
I hope this has helped a bit how to approach job postings and how to de-mystify them. At the end of the day, you are the decision maker and in the driver’s seat. Just as my team and myself used to have “adhoc” morning meetings on JetSki. We called it the “Sharky Meeting” and had so much fun.
I wish every job seeker out there as much fun I had during my career. Choose the right posting and evaluate your options carefully and make the best out of your decision !
