The Journey to a job

A full time, 9-5 that is.

 

It doesn’t suit everyone, and to be honest,I’m not really sure it suits me…unless I’m doing something I enjoy.  I’m going to document my search for a job…warts and all as it were.  The way I like it.

Recently I applied for a Marketing position with Paddy Power.  I’m going to outline my application to you and let you decide for yourself how I may struggle to get a job anywhere!!

First off, I have my own marketing company with several satisfied clients.  It’s not superb though, the money is not up to much and I’m the only one at my Christmas Party.  PLUS…every Thursday when I check my account to see if my wages have arrived…well…there’s nothing there.

Time for change?  You bet.  (excuse the Pun)

So, marketing company – 10 years experience – CHECK

Paddy Power is a betting company…hmm have you any experience with sports betting or anything like that?  Well…I write articles for Betfair every month (Can be viewed here)

I also own this website – www.letsbet.ie

Knowledge of the industry?  CHECK

I also thought it might be an idea to design a little advertising campaign for them…you know…show them that I understood their company and how they operated, and also a little about what I could do.

I designed another one that’s on another computer at the moment so I can’t upload it.  It’s two women playing Handball but from the picture it’s not too easy to see what the sport is.  The caption reads  ”We’re not too sure what sport this is…but we’ll take your bets on it”

Anyway, I thought I had some kind of hope…I dunno…maybe one in five?  To me anyway it was the job I was best equipped for.

Anyway…yesterday this mail popped into my inbox:

Dear Darren,

Thank you for your interest in the position Online Marketing Executive at Paddy Power.

Having reviewed your application in more detail, we regret to inform you that you have not been short listed to the next stage of the selection process.

If you see another suitable opportunity posted on www.workwithpaddy.com we would encourage you to apply.

 

Now…there’s every chance that I shot to high or too wide with my application i.e. the job was beyond my pay grade.  Nevertheless, I wonder if they actually looked past the first page of my CV, i.e. the place where the lack of Marketing Degree is revealed.

Emailing them doesn’t really help because the emails seem to be dealt with by different people who are generally not sure what they are talking about.

A great company though and possibly the only one that would encourage me to leave Waterford.

The journey to a job for me involves me meeting and speaking to a lot of like minded people.  I enjoy that…everyone seems to be frustrated with the world and happy to talk about it.  Most are happy to do something about it as well but I think there are to many cliques about with all the power.  Power that they seem to be doing nothing with.

Anyway, to the one or two people that will read this…the blog is back.  Long live the blog.

 

D

Students – Are they worth it?

Every August, pubs and clubs around Waterford fire up their think tanks, get their designers and printers on standby, and brace themselves for battle.  They’re fighting for the love of the students, but, should they bother?  Is a student’s love worth all the effort?

Back in the late 90s and early 00s if you had students packing into your bar, you had a licence to print money.  They would pack into the bar from 7pm and stay out til 2 and 3 am.  They drank like fishes and shagged like rabbits.  But, unfortunately, times changed..radically.

I don’t really need to go into all the factors that led to where we are today, we all know that by now, but it might be worth talking about how dramatically those times changed.

It actually baffles me as to why some bars and night clubs feel the need to pursue the student trade so aggressively.  They drink their cheap tesco offers in someone’s house til about 12am where they spill out onto the streets and into town.  You could walk around town at 11pm and wonder why there’s nobody on the streets, and then an hour or so later get trampled on.  So, at most, the clubs are looking at 2 hours of trade.

I worked in student venues for the last 10 years and last year was the absolute worst of them all.  You can no longer have a door charge because students just won’t pay it anymore.  If you had a “door tax” then at least you were guaranteed to get that much of the students.  With no door charge, many students arrive into town with anything from 10 euro down to absolutely nothing.  They’re already drunk and now all they want to do is dance and have a good time.  The club is now providing students with a free venue to enjoy.  What makes this worse is that because the majority of these students are already drunk, then they’re going to get sick all over the place and a minority will also think  nothing of causing physical damage to the premises.

I’ve seen it happen with my own eyes, so I won’t tolerate people telling me that I’m being harsh on the poor students.  A multitude of them arrive in waterford like a school of louts arrive in Tenerife.  We don’t live here, this is not our home, so we’ll trash it without conscience.

And yet, the pubs and clubs still spend a fortune to lure them in.  Let’s look at what some local venues have done this year.

Revolution and Kazbar – Did nothing.  Learned their lesson from previous years.

Harveys – €2 entry and all drinks €2.  If you do some very quick maths you will see that after paying entertainment, staff, rates, fees etc…even with a club that’s full to the max…you’re not making much money.  Busy fools I believe the popular phrase is.

The Foundry – Same as harveys.  They may as well just hand out €2o notes to the students when they arrive into town.

Masons – DJ upstairs and premium band downstairs.  Cost of entertainment between 700 and 1000.  They dominated the student market last year and were strongly tipped to do the same this year.  Students have no loyalty though and most deserted them for the foundry and harveys.  Masons didn’t go €2 drinks, instead opting for 3 drinks for a tenner.  Making more money on the other two on drink and still very busy on mondays and wednesdays.

Shortts and Crystal – The new kids on the block.  With a huge night club, there was reason to think that maybe the students would take to it like they did when it was “Ten”.  However, they were the last club to release their marketing materials and also didn’t set up a facebook page for students, instead opting to use their existing facebook page.  As a result, all their advertising was being aimed at locals/non-students.  They went for the students very aggressively…Aslan (2.5k) and 3 DJs , with no door charge and €3 drinks.  After a short period it became clear that they were going to be the big losers in the student game, so they cancelled all the bands that they booked and put it down to experience.  At least they can say the tried.

It takes a brave club to say, “No thanks – I’d rather leave my club closed then open it up to students.”

At the end of the night, when you’re counting your measly takings, picking up nagins of vodka, cleaning sick off the floor and breaking up fights on the street…then it really isn’t a crazy notion to consider not opening the next night.

The students are good for the town.  Well good for Tesco and Landlords anyway…

I’m aware that this blog post has mainly been anti-student, so feel free to reply to the contrary in the comments below…

Til next time…

Waterford

A quick appraisal of my home town…

See the way i said town, and not city.  I’d rather be a great town than a crap city.

Waterford has, arguably, been the worst hit county in Ireland of this shitty recession.  Waterford Crystal and Talk Talk have been the two high profile job losses – two instances where in one foul swoop, hundreds of jobs were obliterated.  But that doesn’t tell the full story.  Countless pubs and restaurants, as well as smaller businesses have had to close down or tighten up their staff by 50% or more.

If you walk through the city centre after 6pm it’s like a ghost town.  The bars and restaurants are empty, the shops are closed for the day, no doubt by a depressed retailer who only took in a couple of hundred euro that day.  Taxis are lined up in queues longer than a jedward concert.  Men sitting in a car for 9 hours straight clock out after making the sum total of €46 euro.

Competition in the hospitality industry has become fierce.  Restaurants, bars and nightclubs are doing things to entice customers that were almost unthinkable just a year or so ago.  Let me give you a couple of examples:

There is a nightclub in Waterford called The Foundry.  They are originally based in Carlow but came to Waterford after The Rubys and Muldoons complex became available at a knock down price.  The Foundry has a great name in the Nightlife industry.  They pack thousands into their venue in Carlow, all lining up with €10 in their pocket, just to gain entry.  When the Foundry opened up down here their intention was to do what, they felt, nobody in Waterford had done before -offer the people a genuine, proper, night club experience.  They planned to open 7 nights a week and have a door charge on each of those nights.  It wouldn’t matter though, because surely people would pay for a superior product.  What they didn’t know however, or what I presume they chose to ignore, was that the ship carrying the door charge in waterford had sailed a year or so before and had no intention of coming home.

Everyone could see it coming like a rabbit in the headlights.  This thread  on boards.ie was a chilling, nah that’s too strong a word, but it was a ghastly prediction of things to come for the foundry.  They battled on regardless.  By the way, in addition to their plans to open 7 nights a week, they also planned to build a new live music complex across the road, with their profits from the Foundry.

Now, before I go on, let me say that all this was, on the face of it, great for waterford.  A nightclub operation, of some standing and respect, opening their doors to the people of waterford.  However, it was almost going to be as ill advised as Rangers FC opening up a club shop in Lisduggan…

It didn’t take long for the Foundry to see that things were not as they thought they would be in Waterford.  When they saw that their competition, Masons, were selling drink for 2.50 on tuesdays they decided they could not compete with that, so they closed on tuesdays.  They released a quote on their facebook page at this time telling people that they would never sell discounted drink, “Our drinks are premium superior products and we would never sell watered down, or cheaper, inferior products”.  this may have been an indirect dig, or accusation at their rivals across the road.  Masons didn’t particularly care either way, after a short time, it became obvious that they were winning the battle for customers.  The Foundry, no doubt shook, eventually closed their doors for the whole of the midweek, only opening for what would surely be the busy weekends.  Uh oh…that didn’t happen either.

So, let’s press forward to the present day.  The foundry now charge €5 on a friday and saturday night and sell ALL DRINKS for €2.50.  A publican that I know from Clonmel couldn’t believe this was happening until he came down last Friday to see for himself.  My personal opinion of this is somewhat in shackles, not because I work in the industry – I openly speak about waterford’s nightlife no matter who or where I work for.  No, I’m in shackles because I can’t see their books.  Yes I can presume that after paying all the overheads etc they surely can’t be making money but I don’t really know for sure, so I won’t dwell on it.  But, the main issue here is Look what they have to do to get customers in the door in Waterford.  They DO NOT have this problem in Carlow.  Indeed, there’s a whole other chapter that I won’t get into now…(maybe this afternoon!) STUDENTS.  The foundry charge 2 on the door and all drinks €2 for the students.  Imagine how the carlow students must feel paying full whack on the door and full whack for the drinks?

So, not to get too obsessed with the foundry…all venues in waterford have had to do things they once thought unthinkable, just to generate some kind of turnover.

It’s not only the job losses though.  Waterford’s urban sprawl has had a serious impact also.  A large population of the town has moved out near the hospital and these people, if you took a poll, would tell you that they almost never come into town anymore.  (except for special occasions).

Waterford is the first town in Ireland, I believe, that need to throw away the traditional books on Marketing.  Every town and city must step it up a notch, but we’re forced to be the first.  To be continued…

Facebook no nos…

Soon, Facebook will take over the world.  ”That’s surely already happened!” I hear you shout.  Well yeah…kinda…but with a few recent implementations they have probably put a lot of web designers out of business.  iframes have almost made websites redundant…so more and more clubs, bars, cafes and restaurants will be using facebook exclusively.

To that end…lets talk about the good, and bad ways that these businesses use Twitter.  (The good and bad ways that people use facebook is a story for another day…don’t get me started…)  This isn’t an official analysis by the way, just personal opinion.

1.  Do post relatively often.

I say relatively because, you know, there’s a line.  A post every day, even a couple of times some days, is acceptable if what you’re posting is interesting and relevant.  Too much posting and you’ll lose those precious fans.  People don’t want to read the same thing over and over again, and if that same thing is just promo nonsense, then the chance are people will switch off in their droves.  If you don’t post at all…well that’s an obvious one.

2.  Do not use block capitals and excessive exclamation points.

I of course mean, do not use only block capitals.  E.g.  SUMMER MADNESS!!!!!!  ALL DRINKS €3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS GOING TO BE THE NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE!!!!  THIS THURSDAY!!!!! PRIZES AND PROMOS ON THE NIGHT!!!!

I have so many problems with the above post.  First off, if you’re posting in only capitals I’m going to assume that you’re 12 years of age and I’m going to mostly ignore what you have to say.  The added exclamation points are extremely counter productive.  And finally…I really hate the line “Prizes and promos on the night”.  This means nothing.  If they had any prizes, you’d be damn sure they’d be telling you about them.

3.  Do not rehash the same info all the time.

I see this on a daily basis.  Clubs copy and paste what they posted yesterday, and the day before..just changing the band or DJ name.  Monday has landed!!!  Tuesday has landed!!! etc.  Be original.

4.  Do be original and treat your fans like human beings, not pound signs.

Interact with your fans.  I know the famous line from Glengarry Glenn Ross is “Always be Selling”, but that’s not always the case.  As well as promoting your bar or restaurant or whatever, don’t be afraid to talk to your fans about issues that are relevant in your area…sports events etc.  Don’t do this too much because people will probably get tired of you on your soap box…but they will get tired faster if all you do is try and sell to them.

5.  Give away free stuff!!

It’s hard enough to increase fans on a page so more often than not you may have to entice people with competitions.  Whatever reason you have for giving away vouchers or prizes, it’s a great policy and will assure your fans are happy and always awaiting your next update.

Now all that sounded like a tutorial for people setting up a new facebook page…and so be it!

I can’t bitch and moan in every blog now can I…

 

Dar

The Crossroads

So yes, that crossroads that I spoke of earlier.

There’s every chance that I may disclose too much on this blog, but hopefully I won’t get myself into too much trouble.  (Probably difficult with a handful of subscribers, but I suppose I could be surprised)…  I recently did some work with a bar and night club called Shortts and Crystal.  The venue is run by a superb woman called Valerie – a straight down the line lady who judges everyone on their own merits.  From the start I advised them to not open during the day (they don’t do food, would be a waste of time), don’t do live music (6 venues within spitting distance of them do live music, and most of them would do as much business, if not more without it), and finally to rename the bar “Shortts, cocktail and retro bar”.

In fairness to them, they listened, and as well as implementing some good quality service, and a nice cosmetic job on the venue itself, Waterford had a new night spot where the over 21s could go for an enjoyable night.  We played 70s, 80s and 90s music and it went down very well.  We launched a facebook and twitter and promos like “If you hear this song later, come up to the DJ and he’ll buy ya a drink”  and “mention us on twitter and we’ll get ya a drink”.  The DJ had a computer and smartphone (very often myself) and all the promotions were live and worked very well.  The crowd were excellent and plentiful.  But something changed.  There were 2 main owners of the bar and 2 smaller players…after a quick walk about town they decided that they could be doing better, and playing chart music would do that.  They then decided that they wanted to go, aggressively, after the students.  I urged them not to…many bars and clubs before had tried and had their hearts broken by students.  They’re not loyal, and even if you fill your venue with them, most have no money and you don’t see them til about 1am.  They then proceed, some of them, to treat your venue with utter contempt and disrespect.  It will soon cost you money opening the doors to students.  Shortts and Crystal hired to PR people to help them with their student campaign, and I moved on.

I have a fundamental rule when it comes to running a bar in waterford.  Continuity and Consistency.  If your customers don’t know what’s going on in your premises day to day and week to week..then you can’t expect them to stay loyal to you.  Look at the bars in waterford that can be called success stories (past and present)  Geoffs, Kazbar, Ruby Lounge, Muldoons, Front Lounge, and the bars in ballybricken.  What do these venues have in common?  They set out their stall from the beginning, made moderate changes and additions along the way, but kept their soul and target audience intact.  And they do(did) very well as a result.

Anyway, I’m moving off track a little.  I moved on from Shortts and Crystal out of principle but there was no ill will and no bridges burnt.  As i said, they are some great people, and I wish them every success in the future.

I have started work on a new premises in the city, but I’m not quite ready to talk about that yet.  There is no deal in place and it go either way really.

The reason I’m at a cross roads is because there’s no regular wage coming in.  I can design, I can promote and I can market…but I haven’t found my home yet.  In the meantime though i am doing some volunteer work for The Imagine Arts Festival and radio station Zenith.  More info about this in future blogs.

 

The Begininng

Not quite sure why it’s taken this long to start a blog. I’m sure I won’t have many readers, but sure it’ll get me writing on a daily basis and that can’t be a bad thing.

I’m going to start with a horrible cliché. Right now, I’m at a crossroads in my life. I’ve spent a lot of time working with bars and nightclubs in Waterford but that has become increasingly difficult in recent times due to the down turn. Urban Sprawl keeps a lot of people away from the city centre and those that do come in, do so on a barely monthly basis. As a result, clubs have found themselves in the middle of a price war with some clubs going as low as €2 for all their drinks. How they’re making money is anyone’s guess…we’ll get to that in a later blog though.

In the work that I do for Waterford Restaurant Espresso, I have found that people will come out if you help them out of their chairs. This may sound obvious…give them a reason to come into your bar – economics 1.01 eh? Well it is obvious of course, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t do it. I started a campaign called Special Wednesdays…a treat for people who were a bit down about the situation we all find ourselves in. The idea is that everyone tries to do something special for someone else, and we would do something special for them. We gave them a half price early bird menu. That’s a 3 course meal for 9.95. We made it exclusive for facebook fans and we sold out in an hour. We don’t make as much money, but marketing 1.01, the restaurant is full, the kudos is plenty, and the customers do return.

We learned a lot from Special Wednesdays and that’s if you put the thought into it and try and stand out from the crowd, then you will get noticed. The service and product quality has to be up to scratch, but that’s not my department as such. (I do have a lot of opinions about service etc…but maybe that’s a future blog too.)

So, this mentality of “helping people out of their chairs”, is the way forward in my opinion. Throwing up a poster on facebook aint gonna do it anymore.

Ok, gonna make this first blog a short one, just so I can check out the lay out etc. But I shall return…