Researching in Your Professional Context

Harrah’s New Orleans Guest Attendant
http://harrahs.hodesiq.com/harrahsiq/job_detail.asp?JobID=2516734

Responsible for providing friendly, courteous service to guests every time and cleaning 16 rooms up to Harrah’s standards within assigned shift.

-Must be able to get along well with co-workers and work well as a team member.
-Must possess excellent customer service and communication skills.
-Must be able to work any day of the week.  Must present a well-groomed appearance.

Hilton New Orleans Overnight House Person
https://careers.hilton.com/psc/hrprd/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_CE.GBL?JobOpeningId=68007&SiteId=&Page=HRS_CE_JOB_DTL

Cleans and maintains all hotel public areas (to meet established cleanliness and quality standards. Delivers items to room/suite attendants upon request and assists in cleaning guest rooms/suites as needed.

-Work Overnight Hours
-Work well with others
- Follow instructions well
- Service base attitude

Front Desk Supervisor Holiday Inn New Orleans
http://ihg.taleo.net/careersection/all/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=598307&src=JB-10920

Responsible for the successful daily operations of the Hotel Front Desk, Reservations, PBX, Bell, Valet and Transportation departments. Must strike a balance between guest satisfaction and effective business management. Must ensure each team member meets or exceeds guest service expectations and ensure team members work well together.

-High School diploma or equivalent
-one year front office/guest relations experience including some supervisory training/experience.
-Some college is preferred
-May be required to work nights, weekends, and/or holidays

Room Captain at Intercontinental New Orleans
http://ihg.taleo.net/careersection/all/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=586589&src=JB-10920

Deliver and serve food and beverages to hotel guest's room. Complete customer payment transactions as outlined in cash and charge procedures. Perform set-up and closing side-work; stock service station, make coffee, etc. Assist in the scheduling and training of room service staff. You may also answer room service phones and record orders; utilize up-selling techniques to increase sales and may assist with other duties as assigned.

-    Knowledge of Restaurant services
-    Customer service attitude
-    Friendly
-    Work oriented




    The Position that I am interested in is the Front Desk Supervisor at the Holiday Inn New Orleans. This is the position, that I became a tourism management major. It really seems like something that I would enjoy doing. To begin with, I have had two jobs dealing with customer service. My first job was a birthday party host. This was a very important job because if I did not meet the standards the customer was expecting, I could ruin the party and make a bad name for my employer. I was to make sure that whatever the customer expected, I went above and beyond. My second job is my current one that I have worked for two years. I am a front Desk assistant in the residence hall. Each week new camps come in, and I check them in, and ensure that everything goes just as they had expected. This is most like the position because it makes me think quick and on my feet. Our employer gives us the freedom to make things right if a guest is having a bad experience. He always harps on the guest having a great experience so that they come back. It is so true.

    I was a very involved student in High School, and continued this trend into college. However in college, I took part in less but invested more of myself into the organizations that I was involved with. I was a member of the SGA for two years acting as a member, which shows that I am able to work as team member and as a worker rather than a leader. I also am very involved in my fraternity. My junior year I ran and won a position on the Executive Cabinet for my fraternity of 80 men.  I then took it a step further and was voted the fraternity member of the year by my fraternity.  I believe this says that I am not only a leader, but a leader who works well with members and does not burn bridges.

    Another one of highlights is the Journey of Hope, which is a 3500-mile, 2 month long cycling trip across the country. This shows that I am dedicated and motivated because this was an incredible feat to accomplish. I had to raise $5,000 dollars, get into cycling shape, and stay involved in all my organizations, all while maintaining my 3.5 GPA. I believe this highlights not only my work ethic, but my multi tasking skills as well.

    My resume and cover letter would go as follows. It would start by saying my objective. It would then show my college degree, followed by my experience within the workforce. I would then put my extracurricular activities. I believe that will show all the qualifications needed to attain this position.

#4 Web evaluation

The website that I m critiquing is Supplement Warehouse. It can be found at Supplementwarehouse.com

Dear Webmaster,

    I have a few suggestion on how you can make your website better all around. The first move I believe will help is the alignment of the whole page. It is very messy upon first look. There is also so many different pictures on your home page that it can become overwhelming to a first time user. On the home page I noticed that it is the “clearance” portion of the website. It may be useful to remove the pictures and put them in a tab on the side. This will make the home page a lot less congested already. If you like having it on the home page, maybe display four or five items and then have a “click here for more deals” link that would lead the customer to the “clearance” area. There are so many clearance items; it takes a minute to scroll through all of them. Think about also maybe replacing that section with a small about me section. 

    The feeling (pathos) of the website is one of get in quick, save money, and get out. There is no comfortable feeling. I understand that you want people to get the items quickly and also save money, but there are ways you can change that while still representing the same meaning. On the first page you can explain your lowest price guarantee, so that people are not confused about what the box next to the item is that is asking for the competitors price. It is also very boxy. Maybe some soft round edges would change the feeling of intensity and make it more relaxing. There is also a lack of color on the background, adjusting this might add new feeling to the website as well.

    There is also a line of graphic adds on the right side. It might be good to have these in a rotating box maybe in the bottom of the scrolling area, that way all of the ads will get seen. I like what you have done with your logo. Giving away free shakers and pill cases, really imprints the orange and purple “SW.” This is a unique combination that really associates the colors with your website.

    A few pointers are that to just double check the pictures that are getting posted, they are sometimes stretched out and the wrong size. The “find products box” could be adjusted a bit. Its very boxy again and it is very long lists. It is overwhelming when you are looking for a type of product rather then a certain product. Maybe tabs on the  top leading you to the different types of products that are being sold would help someone who is not yet up with the vocabulary of a supplement company.

     The overall effectiveness of the website is descent. It provides supplements at a cheap price, that is what people want, it makes people more forgiving. I just feel like you lose business, because people judge the security of websites by how they look. If it looks as if someone through it together, then people often do not want to shop there.  As far as usability, I think it is definitely usable if you are familiar with the products, if you are not as familiar with the products it might be a little difficult. There are also so many products that it is overwhelming. I would definitely say that it is very persuasive. Before you check out, you go to a screen and it says “great deals. ” This is where it tells you that with your order you get a free shaker and vitamin holder and also gives a lot of other options. It has a lot of individual packet of things that are normally priced at 3 dollars, and it offers them at 50 cents or $1. When I checked out I actually added $5 dollars to my order, if every person does this, I am sure it will add up. 

Blog 3

    I am a Hospitality and Tourism Management major like I have stated in my previous blogs. I found a link; http://hospitality-1st.com/PressNews/Schools.html, that had a lot of the major universities direct links to the their Hospitality and Tourism Management programs. These are the some of the schools I looked at.

Southern Miss
Http://www.usm.edu/undergraduate/hotel-restaurant-and-tourism-management-bs

Purdue
http://www.cfs.purdue.edu/htm/

College of Charleston
http://sb.cofc.edu/academicdepartments/hospitalitytourism/index.php

Penn State
http://www.hhdev.psu.edu/shm/

South Carolina   
http://www.hrsm.sc.edu/hrtm/

    Each of these schools had good things about their website as well as bad. One of my favorite websites; besides Southern Miss of course, was Purdue University. They had so many neat aspects of their website including providing emails of some of the students actually enrolled in the program under a tab called, “Talk to Current Students.”  Other parts of their website that I liked were the rotating pictures of their students in different situations involved within the major. From first glance Purdue University’s program is a very hands on one. This would interest me immediately. There is also an scrolling news bar with the latest news from the major. This is very good item to have, if it is properly kept up with. If it says the latest news is from January 2011, it will lose the effect of having it. I also like the fact that after clicking undergraduate, you can locate a lost of all the classes that a required for the major. This is something that might be helpful to an interested student.

 

    I really did not like College of Charleston’s website. It did not look like someone had spent very much time. There was not very much color, and it was not at all inviting as a perspective student. It was very box like and did not provide much information on the home screen. It gives a generic definition of the hospitality program and then a few ways to contact people within the major. Unlike Purdue’s website that suggested emailing the students, this had the contact information for the office, and dean. It did not even imply that it was worthwhile emailing them it was just listed. It also did not have an individual header for the Tourism and Hospitality program, it had the same picture from the normal College of Charleston website. 

    I think the three things that are most important to designing a web page for my major would be the course requirements, pictures that show my program is interactive and career opportunities. I am writing to design website that will attract students to come to my school based on the Hospitality and Tourism Department. Hopefully the outcome will be that a student looking to get into the Hospitality field will want to participate in my program based on what they see on the website. My reader will desire a knowledge of the type of things my university does. My primary readers will be perspective students of my major. My readers relationship to me will not be personal, it will be informational. A number of people might read my website. Parents of the students would be the main one. The reader could be anywhere on the spectrum of familiarity with my subject. It can go anywhere from a student that has researched multiple universities or a student who knows nothing about the program.
My reader will probably prefer to have an Internet communication type such as email, in the event that they do not, I would provide a phone number as well as directions to the office for the Tourism department. I should take into account that my reader will be very judgmental of first appearance.

    I believe that because my readers might not all know college terminology or even hospitality terminology, I should take special care to explain exactly what everything is.  A key question that most readers will ask is what careers will Hospitality Management majors go into.  I believe that Southern Miss did an excellent job at this; on the home page it says “Career Interest” and lists some jobs that people often go into after graduation. My readers’ attitude would be one of interest. If they are looking at my web page, they would be wanting to learn about the hospitality program at my university. There are a few constraints. They would be to not have an information overload so that there is too much for a person to decipher.

    What I have learned from step one is that you can tell when someone has not put much effort into a website. I do not want to have the first impression of my website to be one of bad taste.

Blog 2: Rhetorical Analysis

Courtesy of www.chinahotelsreservation.com/hongkong_travel

    Do to the fact that I am a Tourism Management Major, I am assigned to read a lot of newspaper or online articles about the tourism industry. Within the last decade, the spike of international travel was ignited, therefore we study much more United States tourism, but we also do a bit of research on international tourism.

    In my Quality Service Management class we were assigned to read an article about the new system of tour guides that the Travel Council of Hong Kong was implementing. The name of the article is Hong Kong tourism cracks down on tour guides. The tour guides in Hong Kong had no special certifications or licenses so there was no way to police what type of service they were providing. Tour guides were bringing tourists to their own communities and harassing members of the group when they did not purchase jewelry and souvenirs from their community. The Travel Council has come up with guidelines and rules, this is a way of controlling how safe using a tour guide is and to guarantee quality service.  The system they will be executing is a demerit system and all tours guides must be licensed. When a tour guide has received 30 demerits his license will be suspended.  The punishments will be worse if the actions continue, ultimately with the revoking of licenses.

    I believe the reason for the piece is because so many people already have the negative image of traveling international travel. This is do in part to people making movies such as “Hostel” and “Taken” as well as people having bad experiences such as those spoken about in the article.  While I am not familiar with the author, it is a credible source. It is from a journal for the tourism industry called The Standard. They would not publish things that are not credible. The call to write is definitely workplace. This is so useful for members within the tourism industry. This will affect travel agents, to students, to employers. The new system will make it more inviting of tourist to visit Hong Kong. The writer definitely makes it clear that there was a problem and that the Travel Council is taking means to secure it. I am not sure if the writer is taking a position in the matter. They might be neutral. I really like the way the author presents the significance of the issue. It is very indirectly. He explains what is going on in Hong Kong; the harassing and scamming of tourists, and lets the reader realize that it is wrong and needs to be fixed. I believe the purpose of the article is to assure people that it will be a safer environment now in Hong Kong when it comes to tour guides. Like I stated earlier, I believe the author; Thomas Steinmintz, call to write was the workplace. This does not mean that the readers are only using this for work purposes. Many travelers will now feel safe traveling to Hong Kong knowing that there is one large city they will not be worried of getting scammed. The author really wants the reader to trust that he is providing them will real and reliable facts. I believe the language was very professional. This is an article in a tourism Journal, therefore it will be used academically on top of all those other reasons. The writer’s word usage promotes that the reader should have a little knowledge of tourism and traveling.

    I believe the author got his point across very well. I think something that would add to his article would be an interview from a member on the Travel Council on how these changes will affect the tourism in Hong Kong. This would be a reassuring factor for the people once again.

Introduction- Me and More About Me

My name is Tyler Peterson. I am a senior Hospitality and Tourism Management major from New Orleans Louisiana. I was able to become very involved on campus during my time at Southern Miss. My two major organizations are student government association and my fraternity. These organizations have given me the chance to expand my network further then I ever thought possible. My fraternity introduced me to which I am sure will be in my top ten accomplishments of my life. Last summer I cycled across the country from San Francisco to Washington D.C. raising money and awareness for people with disabilities. (See link: http://pushamerica.org/pushcontent.aspx?id=279)

Started on Golden Gate Bridge

Finished on Capital Lawn

     I am currently employed by Southern Miss Summer Conference. I am a front desk assistant dealing with summer camps and conferences that are staying in the dorms. I really like this job because it falls under my major of hospitality. I am dealing with customers and striving to provide the best customer service so that customers will return either as guest or students. During the fall I plan on working at a hotel in Hattiesburg to get even more experience within my field.


    With my summer job, we work in seven-hour shifts. We utilize writing to explain any event that may take place during our shift. This provides my colleagues with any info regarding an incident that has occurred or may reoccur. This requires the information to include specifics as to what happened and what things were said. This makes it easier for everyone that comes to work.


    My favorite type of writing goes back to when I was on the Journalism Team in high school for two years. We had ten people in the class and produced a newspaper every two weeks. I really enjoyed this type of writing because it gave me the opportunity to write on things that interested me as well as my fellow students. I covered mostly sports and off campus interest stories. I have encountered writing that I am not a huge fan of. This would be analyzing short stories and poems. Sometimes it is difficult for me to focus and write on something that does not interest me. 


    This may be a bit cliché, but I have had experiences where writing has “broke down” when I use text messages to talk to my girlfriend. The popular “sure whatever” text message has proved to be a tough one to decode. I never know if it is an angry “sure whatever” or a content “sure whatever.”  This usually results in a phone call for clarification. 

    I believe that writing is one of the most important aspects of schooling. I hope that this course will help me fix mistakes with writing the four areas in chapter 1; everyday life, workplace, public, and school. Writing is often your first impression of someone and I would like the first impression to be a positive one.  Email has become such an exercised tool; it is essential in business world to write thoroughly.