Meet and greet
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anneed
Topic author - Second Officer
- Posts: 216
- Joined: February 2013
Meet and greet
With the current economic climate many people are worried about job security and I'm certainly one of them. One avenue I thought I would explore if the worst comes to the worst is doing meet and greet at the cruise terminals in Southampton. I wondered if anyone had any experience of this or knew people who have? I know it wouldn't pay enough to keep me cruising but might buy the odd tin of beans.
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Kendhni
- Ex Team Member
- Posts: 6520
- Joined: January 2013
Re: Meet and greet
A friend of ours was a tour guide and while she liked it she thought it was a lot of hassle for very little return. I would guess though the the meeting/greeting side is a very small part of a much bigger role ... possibly in customer sales, marketing, call centre etc.
As far as job security is concerned, that is a thing of the past, I still think there is more to come from this recession even as we ease out of it. I know exactly what it is like to be made redundant ... happened to me last year. It is worrying at the time. I was fortunate enough that within 2 weeks the company phoned me up to ask me to come back .. I hadn't even really started to look around. It is always important to keep your skills as up to date as possible.
However it was the sort of kick up the ass that made me start looking around for jobs that I wanted to do rather than doing a job to pay the bills. I was fortunate that several of my old project managers put my name forward for several roles and in the end I had a choice of roles open up to me. I chose the one that was basically my dream job (my favourite part of what I do), it included time off to allow me study for another degree and came with a very significant pay rise (and it also includes free pizzas every other week
).
So don't think of it as losing a job, think of it as an opportunity to find something new ... in fact I would suggest that anybody in employment should try to attend at 2-3 interviews a year, just to keep that skill up to date. In particular I noticed that the interview process has changed in many places ... they were not the usual concept of reading the CV (which is usually full of BS), asking some obvious unoriginal questions and getting a pack of made up answers and exaggerations ... some modern interviews throw the CV away at the earliest opportunity and make you prove that you can do the job being advertised in a role playing situation. That sort of interview sorts those relying on BS out form the real candidates very quickly (personally I find those ones easier, because I can just be myself ... I have never been good at telling people what I know they want to hear, I leave that behaviour to those were lying comes naturally).
As far as job security is concerned, that is a thing of the past, I still think there is more to come from this recession even as we ease out of it. I know exactly what it is like to be made redundant ... happened to me last year. It is worrying at the time. I was fortunate enough that within 2 weeks the company phoned me up to ask me to come back .. I hadn't even really started to look around. It is always important to keep your skills as up to date as possible.
However it was the sort of kick up the ass that made me start looking around for jobs that I wanted to do rather than doing a job to pay the bills. I was fortunate that several of my old project managers put my name forward for several roles and in the end I had a choice of roles open up to me. I chose the one that was basically my dream job (my favourite part of what I do), it included time off to allow me study for another degree and came with a very significant pay rise (and it also includes free pizzas every other week
). So don't think of it as losing a job, think of it as an opportunity to find something new ... in fact I would suggest that anybody in employment should try to attend at 2-3 interviews a year, just to keep that skill up to date. In particular I noticed that the interview process has changed in many places ... they were not the usual concept of reading the CV (which is usually full of BS), asking some obvious unoriginal questions and getting a pack of made up answers and exaggerations ... some modern interviews throw the CV away at the earliest opportunity and make you prove that you can do the job being advertised in a role playing situation. That sort of interview sorts those relying on BS out form the real candidates very quickly (personally I find those ones easier, because I can just be myself ... I have never been good at telling people what I know they want to hear, I leave that behaviour to those were lying comes naturally).
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Stephen
- Commodore
- Posts: 17762
- Joined: January 2013
- Location: Down South - The civilised end of the country :)
Re: Meet and greet
Should this thread be on the 'general cruise line chat' forum.
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Silver_Shiney
- Deputy Captain
- Posts: 6400
- Joined: January 2013
- Location: Bradley Stoke
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anneed
Topic author - Second Officer
- Posts: 216
- Joined: February 2013
Re: Meet and greet
Sounds like you were very lucky Ken. Your advice is very sound. I've been in my job for 36 years so it would take some adjusting to do something else but I know that's what so many have had to do. Nothing definite is known but there's something nasty lurking on the horizon...
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Kendhni
- Ex Team Member
- Posts: 6520
- Joined: January 2013
Re: Meet and greet
Anneed, I was 23 years with my last company and you do get set in a rut and I can assure you that is what companies like ... people become comfortable, reluctant to change and accept lower payrises (if any) and second rate treatment ... I remember watching new blood coming into the company on big pay but I still pick up the work that they couldn't do or considered beneath them .. I picked up the pieces of these career ladder climbers with exaggerated/imaginary skills for many years. Sometimes though it is nice to be one of those newbies and get the perks
BTW, should you ever have to go for interview do not under-estimate the value of saying you have been in your old role for 36 years ... it shows someone who is committed to the company and less likely to jump ship in another few months (whether or not you do is a different matter though)
What you also find is that once you have bitten that bullet and moved on you are more likely to be willing to jump at the next opportunity. I very nearly changed last month when I was head hunted, it would have been slightly over 10% more in the pay packet but what put me off was that the new role came with a lot of the baggage and rubbish I do not enjoy (whereas at the minute I spend all day focusing purely on what I love doing) and, of all the silly reasons, parking would not have been as handy (and no free pizzas).
BTW, should you ever have to go for interview do not under-estimate the value of saying you have been in your old role for 36 years ... it shows someone who is committed to the company and less likely to jump ship in another few months (whether or not you do is a different matter though)
What you also find is that once you have bitten that bullet and moved on you are more likely to be willing to jump at the next opportunity. I very nearly changed last month when I was head hunted, it would have been slightly over 10% more in the pay packet but what put me off was that the new role came with a lot of the baggage and rubbish I do not enjoy (whereas at the minute I spend all day focusing purely on what I love doing) and, of all the silly reasons, parking would not have been as handy (and no free pizzas).
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Kendhni
- Ex Team Member
- Posts: 6520
- Joined: January 2013
Re: Meet and greet
I said that to my new boss a couple of months ago and he said one of the nicest things I have ever heard from a manager ... he replied "No, you weren't lucky, we were the ones that were lucky finding you" .... I just hope that comment is reflected in any payriseanneed wrote:Sounds like you were very lucky Ken.