After about a year of failing at trying to make it on my own, I had to find another job. I already worked on the Las Vegas Strip once, so that wasn’t a priority. Thankfully, there was a nice resort right up the road from me. I applied for the banquet houseman position at The M Resort Spa Casino.
What Got Me the Job?
The interview process was like at the Cosmopolitan – we sat in the hallway for a little while prior to the group interview. I’m not 100% sure, but I bet they were watching us interact with each other.
We then filed into a meeting room. A panel asked us a couple questions. Since I was on one end, I was the first and last to answer. I don’t remember the first question and answer, but I do remember the advice I was once told – there isn’t a rush all the time in interviews. I took a moment before I answered because it wasn’t fair, ha!
The second question I had some time to answer. “Name a time when you went above and beyond for a customer.” I believe my answer to this question solidified my spot as banquet houseman. I’ve had a lot of customer service experience, but I used a time from when I tried to run my own business. I didn’t know it at the time, but the director of my department was on the panel. She was high up in the food chain at The M Resort.
Afterwards, we were suppose to go meet with our perspective managers. One guy came up to me and began to tell me to head somewhere, but the director was nearby and told him I had to go to HR for processing paperwork. The guy looked a little baffled, and I later found out he high up in the food chain as well, just not as high as the director.
In short, make eye contact, be confident, and smile. Also, don’t be like one dingbat and forget to turn off your phone! It went off in the group interview, and at least he was smart enough to walk out and never come back!
What I Did
It was fairly a simple job, but it was a lot of work. Conventions, groups, weddings, concerts and meetings were in and out of The M Resort. As a banquet houseman, I assisted in setting up and tearing down rooms of for up to 900 attendees.
This involved a lot of moving and setting up chairs, tables, stages, and dance floors! The majority of the time I worked in a team with other banquet housemen, a lead, and the banquet setup manager. It was rare, but there were a couple times I worked alone.
We kept track of inventory as well.
Unfortunately, due to the worldwide event of 2020, all the resorts in Nevada were shut down and I had to move out of Vegas before the resorts were allowed to reopen.
Overall Positive Takeaways of a Banquet Houseman
- It was an easy job for decent pay for how easy it was.
- I was only there for four months. Because I never missed a day of work, my leadership put me at the top of the list for the next team lead. There were banquet housemen that had been there for years that either didn’t want it or didn’t deserve it. Being recognized for my reliability, initiative, and effort felt awesome.
- Since it is a physical job, a gym membership wasn’t necessary!
- As with most Vegas resort jobs, a paid, hourly lunch break was nice.
Overall Negative Takeaways of a Banquet Houseman
- There was almost no quality of life. I would get a schedule with maybe 2 or 3 days of work, but I always worked at least five. The Banquet Manager called me in on the day of work most of the time. This was mostly also due to other employees not showing up to work.
- I worked with some lazy, selfish banquet housemen.
What If I Had become a Banquet Houseman Team Lead?
Initially, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take the banquet houseman team lead role. It was odd when the offer came since I had only been there for a few months. There were banquet housemen that had been in the role for 10+ years!
One hurdle I would’ve had to cross was the language barrier. My Spanish is OK, but I’m nowhere near fluent. Another hurdle would’ve been figuring out what to do with each lazy banquet houseman. Hours and hours of time we spent sitting around on the evening shift while there was work to be done. The reason was so that “morning shift had something to do.”
Near the end of February 2020, one of the team lead’s had enough of the laziness. One of the things I found most confusing was how most of the banquet housemen wouldn’t know what to do if there wasn’t a team lead. That’s where I stood out – I was trying to figure it out.
The team lead caused some waves when he started requiring those that had been there for years to lead set ups. This was really refreshing to see. We probably have Del Taco to thank about that. Prior to his position as the banquet houseman team lead, he rose the ranks to assistant manager at Del Taco. He spoke highly of Del Taco because of all the training he received as he moved up the ladder.
Needless to say, the lazy banquet housemen weren’t a fan of what he was doing. If I had become a team lead, it would’ve made my job much easier, which is how it should be. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have met the challenge – it was just nice to see a leader.
