The Job Forum

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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5.

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Welcome to the Job Forum. My name is Mana Azizoltani and I am a PhD student at Sahara College of Hospitality here at UNLV. On this show we discuss the journey through college and into the workforce with recent graduates of different disciplines. Welcome to the job. All right, guys, let's get this party started. So today I'm here with Emily Thompson, who is an events manager at the Westin here in Las Vegas. She's come by to talk a little bit about her educational experience here at UNLV and what it was like getting into the workforce. Emily, do you want to give a little introduction? Hello. Yes. Nice to be here. I did move out here from Chicago to go to UNLV and I studied hospitality while I was here. I concentrated in events management and yeah, now like you said, now I'm an events manager at the West in Las Vegas. Look at you, you made it through, got a job. Surprisingly enough, I did. You know what's funny is Emily was actually in my dad's class. Yes. Do you want to say how that was? Don't say anything bad.

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No, I loved your dad. I think I knew him before I knew you.

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Probably.

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His class was great, honestly, nothing bad to say. He was a great guy. He was a really good professor.

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That's where I get it from, you know.

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Yeah. Nothing bad. His class was enjoyable.

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I'm glad to hear it. I'm glad to hear it. But of course, you wouldn't say anything bad about him to me. I'll just go and tell him.

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No, never. And never behind his back either. Of course, that's right.

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So, do you want to talk about sort of maybe your experience during college? Like, what are some of the things that you did, classes that you took, professors that you had maybe?

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Yeah, so I took mainly event management classes for any of the extra...

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Electives.

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Elective classes, yeah. I was in a sorority while I was going to school here as well. And I think that helped me get a lot of experience with different leadership opportunities of planning events for the sorority and stuff as well. So I think both of that and the classes combined helped kind of push me through college and get me to where I am today.

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Sounds good. So let's, we'll break those down both. So let's start with maybe your classes. What are some of the classes that UNLV offered you that, you know, maybe prepared you or taught you or? Yeah, I would say a lot of the elective classes that are like event planning

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I can't remember the exact names of them But a lot of them you get to like make up your own Events and pretend to plan them. I remember one of them. We were in a group project and we got to plan I think we each picked a different category of an event. So some people did weddings, my group we did a fundraiser event. So we planned like a made up golf tournament for a whole fundraiser. We made up our own philanthropy type thing to fundraise for. And so we just kind of put like this whole event together. We had a whole binder and just presented it at the end of the class and that was kind of our final project. So we worked on that the entire semester and I think that was probably one of my favorite classes to do because we got to be creative with what we were doing and it was more so concentrated in what I personally wanted to do rather than some other classes are focused on like the nitty gritty of hospitality and it can kind of get a little boring sometimes but that class was fun to just be creative and work together.

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It's cool you get to be exposed to a real-world kind of project, right?

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Exactly, yeah.

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I think those simulations are really important, especially in hospitality, because it's such a sort of hands-on kind of discipline, right?

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Yeah, exactly. And same thing with the final capstone when you do the restaurant. I mean, not everyone concentrates in restaurant management, but it's still nice to get that experience of running your own restaurant, having people come and cook the food and everything.

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And at the end of the day, it's an event that you have to manage, right? Exactly. Yeah. Shout out to my dad. That's his class. I'm just going to put it out

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there. I did not take it with him. I had a different class with him. Yeah. Did you do the night one? No, I had it with, I can't remember the professor's name, but I, I think it happened during COVID. So it was like online and stuff anyways. So I honestly didn't get the full experience, but it's okay.

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What about outside of extracurricular activities? Did you get to do any of that stuff through hospitality? Because I know they do an internship or hours or something like that.

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Yeah, you have to do an internship. So I interned with the Westin back in Chicago, actually. Wait, really?

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Yes.

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Oh, wow.

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Really weird, right?

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Yeah, well, for the record, did you mention at the beginning that you're from Chicago?

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Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's how I got the internship because I was going home for the summer. So I knew I wanted to intern in Chicago so I could be home. So yeah, I interned at the Westin River North in Chicago. I was a food and beverage intern, but then you have your rotations through different departments. So how was that experience? It was really cool. I personally wanted to do like more events focused, but I obviously got to rotate through

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the events and sales department. Well, that has value in itself, right? Because you get to see what you like, what you don't like, and that kind of stuff.

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Yeah, and I think like during the time, I was kind of bummed, but looking back, it helped me a lot, because in the events industry, you do need to know a lot about the food and service and all of that, and especially now working in a hotel on the events side, it's important to know like how the food and beverage department runs as well. I think it helps you a lot.

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So what kind of skills helped you through college? Or did you learn in college?

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organization, for sure. And holding yourself accountable. I think like in college, you're thrown into this world where you can do whatever you want, especially me, I moved away from home, I had no one here watching me. And you have to hold yourself accountable. And I think that helps, though, especially in events, you are in charge of making sure a whole event goes correctly. And so you just have to stay on top of yourself, stay on top of the event, and make sure the whole planning process goes correctly. And you have to communicate with all these other people and hope that these other people help make your event successful. So like food and beverage, any decorations, and AV set up and all that, like you need to make sure you're communicating. Yeah, exactly.

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Wow, you know, that's funny. I've had what 13 people on this podcast already and nobody has mentioned organization or holding yourself accountable

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Really? Yeah, that is so weird. I feel like I Don't mean this in like a negative way to the hospitality program But I feel like you learn a lot more of like in-person experiences for hospitality I think the classes are important to kind of like familiar familiarize yourself with with lingo that everyone uses. Principles of business.

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Yeah.

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In the special industry.

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Yeah, but I think you also have to learn how to be organized in those classes, too. Like, they give you a whole bunch of projects so you can learn how to organize and, like, multitask and do different things all at the same time, because when you're in the industry, you're not focusing on one single thing at one time. Right.

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Wow.

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Yeah, that's really interesting. And so, now let's kind of segue to your sorority, right? So you said you got experience doing events there. Do you want to talk about that?

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Yeah. So I went into the sorority my freshman year and was like gung-ho sorority girl, loving life. So I wanted to be super involved.

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Oh my gosh.

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In case you didn't know, but yeah, I was super into Greek life.

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I used to call Emily the srat Queen for me Emily was like the like bow down to the sorority girl, you know, yeah, I was the embodiment of Greek life And she was the one that exposed me to I'm gonna say exposed me to call her daddy. Oh my god

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Did not think you were gonna say that oh

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That's embarrassing. Yes. I did. I did do that to you. I'm so sorry. That's okay. I just want to put you on the spot. Call her daddy is really good now though. Okay. So not to get off topic. All right. Shout out. Call her daddy. Yeah. She's made a turn. She's not the same as she was. Um, anyways, going back to sorority life, um, right when I went in, I wanted to get involved. So I got a position under the chapter life chair and it was formal and date night chair. So do you want to, what is that exactly? So yeah, for that it was planning our formal and date night for the semester.

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So those are two events.

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Yeah, two different events. So our date night is kind of like an informal thing where you get to just like pick a date and we go do an activity. And then our formal is a more formal event. So we, yeah, we pick a venue. That year we actually went food tasting with our venue. So that was kind of fun and like different for us.

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And that was for the?

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For the formal.

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For the formal?

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Mm-hmm, because we get food for it. So the venue let us come and taste test food, which was fun and different. Most venues just like pick your food and you're done. But then you get to pick, we got to pick the theme. We had the chapter vote on it, but we'd put like together different themes to have, and so we set up decor and all that.

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You say we were working with a team? Yeah, the Chapter Life team.

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But I was-

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Yes.

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Yeah. So there was like a team of us that would collaborate, but I was the formal and date

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night chair.

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And how long did that, how long did that.

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So each, yeah, each position that you have lasts for just one school year or no, it's one fiscal year. So we would have it from like the beginning of 2018 to the end of 2018.

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And then we have a whole new rotation of positions that come in every single year.

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And we, we have a lot of different positions that we have.

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So we have like a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

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a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,

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a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, end of 2018. And then we have a whole new rotation of positions that come in every single year and we just kind of rotate through. So after I did that I moved over to our philanthropy team, which sounds a little different but it's a lot more fun because you can plan all of our philanthropy events. So we have booths like if you're ever on campus and you're walking down Free Speech you always see like Greek life booths. Free Speech is the main road, just for the record. Yes, sorry. I'm acting like everyone knows what I'm talking about. But you'll always see Greek life or different organizations out there.

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The tables and having fun.

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Yeah, trying to promote whatever they want. So we would do some of those that are based around our philanthropy, and we would stand out there and promote what we do, try to raise money. We would do bake sales and stuff like that. And then we get to plan our bigger philanthropy events. So our big one was called Football Frenzy, and it was a flag football tournament. So we would get different Greek life organizations to participate, and then we would have to run the field, set up the whole field, make a different, like a bracket of all the teams participating, and just kind of like run the entire day. So that would be, our whole philanthropy would be like all hands on deck.

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Wow.

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For that event, but yeah.

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What exactly were, what exactly are the skills that you used to, like I want to focus on like the skills, right? Yeah. What exactly were the skills that, I mean, I couldn't imagine, I mean, I'm going to say this and it will get some backlash, but I couldn't imagine trying to organize an event with like a bunch of like, like 30, like 20 something year old girls.

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Like I just feel like it'd be like nuts. It's chaotic. Yeah, for sure I think it definitely comes like I said communication, right? Because you have to one be able to communicate with the entire chapter because the whole chapter is There that day you have to be able to communicate with everyone that's participating and making sure everyone knows When they're supposed to be there what event is happening when and all that stuff So communication is like number one in events industry, I would say, your main focus. You always have to like over communicate no matter what you're doing.

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What about with like drama? Like how did you deal with like drama happening?

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I like, I don't know. I don't think we really dealt with, I feel like the biggest drama with our football frenzy event was, I might get canceled for this. Fraternity guys, thinking they knew every single rule of a flag football game, and they would end up yelling at our...

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Like referees or whatever?

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Yeah, and it was always our sorority sisters that would be refs, because we were hosting the event, so we did it all. So they'd start yelling at our sorority girls, and then they'd start crying, because they...

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So how do you, as the person in charge of this, deal with all this?

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Kick them out of the game.

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Oh, well, that's a simple fix, right?

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Yeah. I'm like, you're not going to yell at a 20-something-year-old girl because she's calling the wrong... It's a philanthropy event. It's to raise money. It's not to actually win a trophy. I don't know. When you're in college, though, you're like gung-ho, like, I'm going to win this.

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And you're trying to impress the girls, probably.

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Maybe.

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I don't know.

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I don't know what it is, but...

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So you did talk about fundraising, then. You had experience doing fundraising, how was that?

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Yes, actually. So one of the years I was on the philanthropy team was the first year we did a walk on campus. And so every year our sorority was given a goal of how much we had to fundraise for. And so with that year, adding on the walk, we were able to fundraise so much more. We met our goal and surpassed, I think our goal was 7,000 for the school year and we reached 10,000.

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Wow, that's a big pat on the back.

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Yeah, it was the first three months of the year.

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Wow.

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So. That just goes to show, you know, when you put Emily in charge, she knows what she's doing, right?

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Yeah. No, I definitely say we got lucky with the walk, but yeah, it was kind of cool that our whole team came together and that was a really big success for us.

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What are some of the skills and things you did in college that helped you get your job?

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I actually got my job through my boss DMing me on LinkedIn. Wait, what? Yes. So LinkedIn, show off for LinkedIn. No, I love LinkedIn. Because I was at a wedding venue before I was at my current job and I was doing like day of coordination for weddings. That must have been hectic. Yeah, it was really crazy. That's a whole other story. But I was actively looking for a new job because it just like- Was too much. Yeah, it was a lot. And I hadn't even seen a job posting for the job I have now, but this guy DMed me on LinkedIn, and he was like, hey, I'm going to have this job open as an event management position, would you be interested in hopping on a Teams call and just kind of talking about it, seeing if you're interested?" And I was like, okay. So we had a whole conversation before the job was even posted, and then like a few weeks later it was posted and I like DM'd him. I was like, hey, just saw that it was posted, I applied to it, let me know if you need anything else. And ended up doing the whole interview process and got hired.

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Wow. Yeah. So did you know this guy before?

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No, he is also a UNLV alum, but he's a few years older than me, so I didn't know him.

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You guys were in a similar network, I'm sure.

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Yeah, and he's a really big LinkedIn user, so he finds a lot of employees through LinkedIn.

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So how was the interview process then to get your events job?

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I would say my interview process for this job was kind of intense.

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Really?

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Yeah.

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So I had my team's call and then once I applied and everything, he called me in for an in-person interview and it was an interview with him and one other girl and the interview was probably like an hour long.

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And this other girl was another candidate?

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No, she already worked there, sorry, another employee. She was also on the team, so she would also be working with me. But their first interview process is... First the Zoom, the first Teams meeting, right? Yeah. Oh, that was before. Yeah, I'm not counting that as an interview, it was just a conversation, I don't know. But that interview, I can't remember the name that we call it, but it's literally a packet of questions. They start by going back to like high school and so they ask you about high school and then they ask you about college, they ask you about all your jobs, and then they have like... It's like a medical exam. It's insane. And then they have a list of 50 questions and they they don't ask you all of them but they'll like pick out like different ones based on like your answers during the interview. So that was my first interview. So you're supposed to study

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this booklet they gave you, right?

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No, you have no idea. I had no idea that they were doing this type of interview when I went in.

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Oh, wow. Okay.

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Yeah, like I sat down and they were like, okay, we're doing... I should know what type of interview it is because I still work for them, so I should know. But they were like, we're doing this interview, have you ever done one of these? And I was like, no. And they were like, okay, and they kind of like explained it to you.

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Walk you through it, yeah.

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And then they just kind of like get into it. But it is like very long because it's everything about you. For me, it wasn't hard because I am pretty young and I was fresh out of college basically. So I was like, okay, I can talk about high school, but I've been with them to interview other people who are older than me and more experienced in the industry. And you ask them about high school and they're like, oh my God. So, I mean, it's a hit or miss depending on the type of person you're interviewing.

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So these questions they asked you, what were they about? Were they like personal questions? Were they like sort of those, you know, the interview type questions?

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Yeah, it's definitely more interview type questions. It's about like your experience, kind of who you were as a person in high school. Were you involved? Like, what were you doing? I think it's just kind of like to gauge your character type thing, like, are you a hands-on person? Are you involved or you're not, right? Yeah. And then obviously they get into the standard questions about your past jobs and all that. One interesting question that they ask is you to rate your past leaders or past managers on a scale of 1 to 10. And then if they were to rate you on a scale of 1 to 10, what you think they would give you. And I think that's... 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10. Yeah, but it's an interesting question. Yeah, yeah, because it makes you have to think about

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and reflect.

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Yeah, you're like, how well did I do in the job? And obviously you're not gonna sit there and be like, oh, they gave me a two, but it makes you think about it and your work performance. And even to be able to rate your past manager, I feel like that's nothing you ever think about. You're always like, oh, they're my manager, whatever.

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So was it a single interview then?

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No.

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Oh, so you had another interview after that.

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Yes. So then after that, I had to interview with our area director, which that was a really quick interview. It was like 10 minutes. She sat down and talked to me. You're probably on the short list already.

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They probably already wanted you, I'm guessing,

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at that point.

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I don't know. I couldn't figure it out.

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Maybe I should ask, but at this point, I don't care. I already have the job. But I think for her,

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it was just kind of like she wants to meet you and know your personality because she's like higher up too.

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But her questions were just like kind of seeing my passion and she was trying to gauge if I had like a passion for the industry because she was like I can teach you anything, but if you don't have a passion to learn it, then there's no point. Yeah, mostly like that you have the right attitude. Exactly. Yeah. So if you're into hospitality, if you're into events, like all of that. Organization, holding yourself accountable, teamwork. Exactly, and if you have the skills to learn too. Are you teachable, are you stuck in your ways type thing. So that one was my second interview.

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I would imagine that, well, I guess, I'll let you finish, go ahead. So then you had a third interview?

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Yeah.

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Oh wow. Then I had a third interview with the hotel GM, which was actually really cool. He asked me about a five year and 10 year plan that I saw myself going towards, which personally I hate that question, but I never know. But at the time I was able to kind of like manipulate it and I was like, oh, like if you asked me this two years ago, my answer would have been very different, but then COVID hit and I've learned to kind of be flexible and see where life takes me. And I think he liked the answer because I ended up with the job and I would imagine that

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Well, I kind of want to want to segue into like again now like your current job And you know kind of what you do and your skills, but I would imagine that Being in events is you have it's very important to be adaptive and being able to like change on the like, you know, it's dynamic Yeah, exactly. You have to be able to go with the flow things go wrong

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so you have to just kind of take it as it comes and problem solve and figure it out and go with a different route if you really need to. So maybe that question helped me, I don't know. But I got the job, so. And that was my last interview, so.

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So, all right, three interviews, not bad. So what exactly do you do now, like day to day? I'm sure it's different, obviously, you're doing different events, but what does your average week look like, or your average day, or you know?

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Yeah, so, my average day, it's a little chaotic. A lot of it is just like follow up with clients and groups.

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Oh, like you said, communication.

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Yeah, figuring out details of groups. My emails are always blowing up of just groups asking me questions about the hotel, me trying to get their menu selections, me trying to figure out what they need from me as well.

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So do you oversee all the facets of an event or are you for a certain part of it?

0:21:16
No, yeah, all facets. So as soon as a group signs their contract and the contract goes definite, it gets put into my hands or our other event manager's hands. So we split it evenly. And as soon as that happens, I oversee all of it.

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Get in touch with the catering and maybe decorations and all that stuff, right?

0:21:33
Yeah, yeah, we do food and beverage. We have someone outsourced for AV, but I get them in touch with them and I stay in the loop of all of it, so I know what's going on, especially for setup. You have to account for AV going in different parts of the room. If they have a room block, so if they have sleeping rooms at the hotel, I make sure I'm on top of that as well and making sure their arrivals go. So you work with all the different parts of the hotel. I work with every single department, yeah. That's really cool.

0:21:58
So I would imagine that collaboration, teamwork is extremely important in your job.

0:22:03
Yes, exactly. Which is why I think I say communication is so important because I talk with every single department for every single group. So even for parking, like we talk to our valet director for every group.

0:22:13
So that's cool. So what are some of the things that you think students should focus on learning or where they could maybe find it at UNLV? Like, you know, we mentioned teamwork. We mentioned even like LinkedIn, right? Yeah. Networking, something like, where do these students get these skills? Because they might not be learning in the classroom.

0:22:32
Yeah, I definitely say LinkedIn for sure, to just kind of build those connections and see who's out there and who you can connect with.

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And start early.

0:22:40
Yeah, start early. But also, I don't know, I know that they have different programs, especially in hospitality that I don't think I utilize as much, but you can get a mentor, which I think would help so much to be able to either one shadow them at work for a day or.

0:22:57
I have a mentor. He's awesome. Really?

0:23:00
Yeah. I recommend. I wish I did that because I think that would have given me a lot more experience. Taking on the internships and even if you do more than the one that's required, I think internships help a lot because you're seeing the different departments and you're basically working.

0:23:16
And then also, you're in a sorority, so obviously it'd be good to get involved in maybe clubs and stuff because you have to put on events eventually.

0:23:22
Exactly, yeah, getting involved in clubs too. I think anywhere you can get hands-on experience, I would recommend doing that. And then obviously you need your job hours, so getting a job in the industry helps too. There's a reason the curriculum makes you have a job and do an internship before you can graduate, and it's because there's only so much you can learn in the classroom, but once you're in the environment and you're put to the test, then you learn a lot more about yourself and how you can work in the industry.

0:23:53
So I want to ask a couple questions about the industry. Oh, God, okay. So first off, I mean, is it as demanding as people think, as my conception of it is, like is it that demanding?

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What is your conception?

0:24:04
I don't know, that you're like always full go 24-7, like go, go, go.

0:24:08
Yes and no. Clock in to work, full sprint, clock out,

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walk out kind of thing. It's hit or miss, it depends on like the season, yeah.

0:24:15
And it depends on the hotel and like your clientele. For us, we're also complex with the Renaissance, which is right next to the Convention Center. So convention season hits us really hard. I'm sure, yeah. So we just got out of CES, World of Concrete, the kitchen bath. So it's a little bit more tranquil now. Yeah, right now we're in like a lull, but then March hits and we have basketball teams and it's, March is chaotic as well. Oh, I'm sure. I can only imagine. So it's hit or miss depending on the time of the year.

0:24:50
So again, you know, something that maybe you wish you would have known in college or something that the industry demands that maybe it would be cool for like if you were going to be hiring a student, like what would you want them to know? Or if you maybe like in your experience now what your job is, what do you wish you would have learned in college?

0:25:11
One thing that we are kind of taught in the hospitality program, but I don't think a lot of us take seriously is the accounting classes. Really? Yes. I think we all just kind of like breeze through it, but especially in events. Pay attention. Money is very, very important to every single person, and if you charge them one cent over than what they're spending so much for one specific event. They don't want to be putting money somewhere that they don't know where it's going. So I think paying attention to that, especially in hotels, I assume like, oh, the accounting department has all control of it, but you are just as responsible for their money as well because you have to pay attention to what they're spending on food, what they're spending on AV, and make sure that they are staying in their budget if they're giving you one, and also where you can splurge or not, depending on the group.

0:26:12
Wow. You know, it's funny that a lot of the hospitality kids, I talk to them in the hallway, and I tell them, you know, talk about math, and say, oh, you did a degree in stats, and I think, dude, you're crazy. These numbers classes, like you said, they kind of just do them because they have to, they don't really pay attention, and they breeze through them so they don't have to worry about it

0:26:28
again but the truth is I hated accounting when I was in hospitality and now I'm really regretting it I'm like oh my god I wish you would learn more yeah exactly granted it's not as like in-depth I think that the accounting classes go into but definitely paying attention to money I think it slips my mind a lot and it's not something you need to be forgetting about.

0:26:50
So I wanna ask you that earlier you mentioned like two years ago, your five year or 10 year plan would have been completely different. If you could go back and talk to like Emily just starting out in college, kind of like getting your feet wet and kind of navigating through, what advice would you give her?

0:27:08
I think I would tell her to one, take things as they come because like I said, I did have my mind made up, I think, of what I wanted to do, and it changed like 20 times while I was in college. And also, just to like, get as involved as you can. I do think I was involved, but I definitely wish sometimes I did more things outside of Greek life and got involved in different ways in UNLV, because I think that would have given me a lot more experience as well. It makes it more dynamic with different crowds too, right?

0:27:40
Like I'm sure if you got involved in something through the hospitality college, it's a completely different vibe than if you were through the sorority, right?

0:27:46
Exactly. I was very sucked into Greek life, which isn't a bad thing, but I was just so into that where I wish sometimes I went to a different club or something like that and could get to know different people outside of my social circle.

0:27:59
You know, it's funny you say that because the first time I was at UNLV I was an undergrad and you know I was really focused on just finishing my degree. All I did for three years was I busted my butt, I went to my classes, I got my good grades, and I got out. Yeah. But now I'm back as a PhD student and I'm doing everything differently because I want to get involved and I want to be part of more things and I just I can see the value in that so I can I can be like

0:28:24
a testament to that. Yeah I feel like it's really weird when you're like 18 going into college, you like have your mind made up and you think you're right, and then you leave college and you're like, did I do that right? It's so weird because you just, you were so young and you basically were like a high schooler making up your next four years.

0:28:42
Yeah, yeah.

0:28:43
So, all right, we're running out of time here. Sorry. But I just want to, no, you're fine. I just want to ask you one last, like if we could sum up all the advice and all the stuff that you've said like What would we go through first? Maybe like get involved? second maybe LinkedIn maybe LinkedIn

0:28:59
Yeah, and definitely getting experience outside of you and I'll be Yeah, and focus on accounting don't just push by it Yeah, do focus on your math classes. Unfortunately, I was not one of them, but it's okay.

0:29:17
We're a bunch of math nerds, you know, I'm not.

0:29:20
All right, Emily.

0:29:20
Well, thank you so much for coming out.

0:29:22
I really appreciate your time and, um, yeah, thanks. Yeah. Thank you for having me. This was fun.

0:29:27
Thanks so much for listening to the job forum. You want any more details or have any questions?

0:29:31
Visit my website at mana aziz.com. Visit my website at mana aziz.com.

0:29:42
Welcome to the job forum.

Transcribed with Cockatoo