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'Tis The Season For Part-Time Employment
By Janet Perales, Special to the Miami Herald Miami Herald
This weekly column contains information and tips on the realities of today's job market and career-training opportunities in South Florida.
December 3, 2006
With the holiday season around the corner, shopping, family gatherings and office parties are on people's minds. However, for those interested in expanding their career horizons and earning a few extra dollars, the holidays are also a great opportunity to find temporary or part-time positions. This is also a chance to explore other fields and career opportunities.
The hospitality and retail industries are already gearing up for the season. They start looking for local candidates to fill their part-time positions at the beginning of the peak season. Here are tips on exploring employment opportunities during the season.
• Hospitality industry
The diverse range of activities offered by this industry provides good job opportunities for people with varied skills and educational backgrounds. Jobs will be plentiful for first-time job-seekers, senior citizens and those seeking part-time or alternative work schedules. Hospitality-related positions in demand during the holidays include food servers, combined food preparation and serving workers, waiters and waitresses and hotel and motel desk clerks.
Entry-level jobs in the industry are attractive because they can offer flexible hours -- two of every five workers in food services and drinking places are employed part time, more than twice the average across all industries -- and they often do not require prior experience. Training is generally brief in duration and no specific educational background is necessary.
Training for food service managers is available through industry-sponsored seminars, short-term subject-specific certificate programs or associate's and bachelor's degree programs in management.
• Retail industry
The retail industry offers substantial employment opportunities because part-time work is plentiful in a wide variety of formats ranging from small, independent retailers to national and multinational retail chains. Solid store experience can lead to an array of retail management and store support career ladders.
Although most of the part-time positions available during the holidays are retail and customer service positions, today's retail trade careers are more than just cashier and sales associate positions. They encompass information technology, marketing, communication, loss prevention, finance and merchandise sourcing.
If you are multicultural or speak more than one language, you may have an advantage when exploring opportunities in this industry. In an increasingly diverse society, multilingual employees are a plus. Retailers are customer service-driven and need workers to speak the languages of their customer base. Needless to say, English, Spanish and Creole-speaking employees offer a direct advantage to the retailers in South Florida. However, lack of English language skills will also negatively affect your chances of securing that position.
Contact the human resources department or managers of the retail store, restaurant or hotel of your choice to explore current part-time or seasonal openings. There are plenty of opportunities waiting for you.
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Janet Perales is the Community Relations Manager for Jobing.com, a local employment website. Send your feedback and questions to Janet.Perales@jobing.com. If you want to send a letter to the editor to be considered for publication, e-mail it to mhamaludin@MiamiHerald.com, fax it to 305-819-8286 or mail it to The Miami Herald Neighbors, 900 W. 49th St., Suite 500, Hialeah, FL 33012.
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