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Speaker 1 0:00
So on today's episode, we have our guest. You mind introducing yourself for everybody? My name is Jaden. I am the lead event concierge at the Student Union Event Services, and I have been in that position for about three, close to four years now.
Unknown Speaker 0:18
And what's your major?
Unknown Speaker 0:21
My major is hospitality management. I don't have a specific concentration, though. Okay, you said you were lead event concierge. I'm assuming taking to lead, you know, took time. So when you first applied, did you apply as just like a regular concierge? Yes, I did. I found the job on Handshake actually while I was searching for a job to fulfill my hospitality 1000-hour work requirement, and I stumbled upon upon it, and I just applied, and I did first get the role as just a regular event concierge.
Unknown Speaker 0:58
Okay, and was it your first job that you've ever had, or your first like paid job?
Unknown Speaker 1:03
This was my second job, or is my second job.
Unknown Speaker 1:08
I
Unknown Speaker 1:10
got a job straight out of high school for the summer. It was just a seasonal position working for a summer school, but this is my first long term job. When you were looking for for jobs, were you looking for anything specifically on campus, and this is what you stumbled toward, or were you just looking for any job, just in that general vicinity? I was looking for something on campus just because when I first got here, I didn't have a car. I still don't have a car, so transportation is kind of rough. I thought it would be a lot easier if I could just get a job on campus, so I could just walk or use a scooter.
Unknown Speaker 1:46
So going back to
Unknown Speaker 1:48
the job and what you do, what does a typical shift look like for you? A typical shift is mostly me sitting at a desk. If you have been to the second floor of the student union before we have a desk that sits almost like directly in the center of one of the hallways we have.
Unknown Speaker 2:08
I mostly sit there on my laptop. I will
Unknown Speaker 2:13
first I do is I will check rooms. So all of the reserved rooms we have
Unknown Speaker 2:19
on my computer, I can see all of the equipment they're supposed to have, the times that they're supposed to come in, the times that they're supposed to leave by. So I will go through walking down the hallway and check all of those rooms first. After that, it's mostly me sitting at the desk
Unknown Speaker 2:35
for clients to come up to me. When they do, then it would be me greeting them. You know, the whole pleasantries like, oh hi, how are you? Room are you in? What time is your event? And then from there, I would go help them unlock their room, help them get set up with the projectors. If they do need any extra equipment or anything like that, or help with any audiovisual equipment, then I would relay that information to the respective teams. And like all this information, I'm assuming it's all like in one spot, like on an app or you know something along those lines. Yeah, we have.
Unknown Speaker 3:15
Well, we do have a couple of different
Unknown Speaker 3:17
programs, I guess you would say, that we use. There is an online one called Seven Point Ops. We have 25 live social tables, and then there's a like downloadable software that's called EMS, which shows basically everything that we would need to know. So, given your time, what surprised you the most about the job?
Unknown Speaker 3:41
I think what surprised me the most was how easy it
Unknown Speaker 3:45
is having so much responsibility as a concierge, where I have to make sure the rooms are set properly. I have to greet the guests, all of our clients, and things like that. Direct them. I thought I would get a lot more social anxiety than I actually do, so I think that might have been what surprised me the most. Okay, and during your your time there, what was your favorite part of working there? My favorite part would have to be the people. The job itself isn't a difficult one at all, or at least mine wasn't. But the thing that I found like what brought me there every single day would be the people.
Unknown Speaker 4:22
I think I made a lot of close friendships there. People that I think I will still be talking to, hopefully, for the rest of my life, for at least a few years after I graduate. No,
Unknown Speaker 4:34
that's not. During your time there, what was the most difficult aspect of doing your job, the most difficult aspect, especially since everyone is like call it, we're all college students, right? Everyone is in like their own academic like area.
Unknown Speaker 4:53
I think because of that, though, it made it really difficult to communicate with other people
Unknown Speaker 4:59
because we're all.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
College students, you know, we have like guidelines and we have rules and things like that, where it's like you are supposed to be carrying
Unknown Speaker 5:07
a a phone on you or radio that's like issued from our job. But college students, you know, we're all kind of all over the place, so not everyone would always hold on to them. So that made it really difficult when I needed something, or a client needed something, or somebody needed me, and nobody had their radio on them to contact each other.
Unknown Speaker 5:31
Gotcha. And if they if they didn't have the radio, was there any alternatives to to use to contact them, or were they kind of just like literally radio silent, like you couldn't get to them at all. We did have a couple of other options or other options, but that also depended on how close we were. If it's someone that I was personally close to, I would end up just calling them on their actual phones, message them on Instagram, like on Discord. We do have a work Discord. It's not technically allowed, but that's just what we all found easiest to communicate with each other.
Unknown Speaker 6:07
But even then, sending messages on there, it didn't always work out. Some people have Discord muted or have their phones like on Do Not Disturb, so it wasn't always a guaranteed if you contacted them through personal means, that they would still respond. Alrighty.
Unknown Speaker 6:27
So moving on from that, let's focus on you know your academics while you were working at this job. How does your work schedule? How does it? How did it affect your classes? Given that you know we're in summer break and everything. I would say that my work schedule was pretty flexible, all things considered. Especially since it, you know, it is an on-campus job.
Unknown Speaker 6:52
We have very flexible schedules. The max amount of hours we can work is technically like 20 to 25 absolute max during the school year itself. Because of that, I think I had plenty of time to get all of my academics done and all my schoolwork, homework, projects, things like that. You know, it didn't affect me, or hasn't at least yet affected me too badly. There have been days where
Unknown Speaker 7:20
it's stressful because I typically work a night shift, which would be from four to 9p.m. and I'm also a late riser,
Unknown Speaker 7:29
so
Unknown Speaker 7:31
I I kind of don't work up until like 12 p.m. ish sometimes. So I only have about like a
Unknown Speaker 7:38
maybe like four hours absolute max time period, the day to get homework done on time. Has working on campus made managing school easier or more difficult for you? I think it has made it so much easier for me. I think about people I know, like my classmates, who have full time jobs. Like they're working in hotels on the Strip. I compare their jobs to mine, and it is so much easier and a lot less
Unknown Speaker 8:08
demanding from me. Again, because I only work 20 hours a week.
Unknown Speaker 8:13
At your job, have you developed any skills that have helped you academically? Academically, I think this job has helped me a bit with my procrastination levels. I do like to wait until the very last minute to complete assignments, but you know, with the times that I do work, it's harder to procrastinate and get everything done on time and still get my full points. So that's something that's kind of helped me out. Okay,
Unknown Speaker 8:41
your your bosses that you have. I know you said earlier that you know you have a pretty flexible schedule, but do supervisors at the job do they understand the realities of what like a student schedule looks like? I would say at least my boss does, like my direct manager does. I know when he was a college student at UNLV, he also worked this job, a different department, but he still, you know, did the 20 hours every week while completing schoolwork. And even now, I believe he's in grad school,
Unknown Speaker 9:15
so he completely understands the stresses of balancing work and school at the same time. Okay, so for you, have there been times when work and academics like outright conflicted? I would say more often than not, it's more so academics affecting my work schedule. So I
Unknown Speaker 9:37
can get my 20 hours a week, but there have been many times, especially finals week, I
Unknown Speaker 9:44
backed off my schedule a lot and my availability just so I had more time to study, you know, complete all my projects and things like that. I think that's the biggest way that work has affected my academics, or vice versa. All right, so during your time.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
If you had to choose, would you say that the job supported your academic success, hurt it, or did it do a little bit of both, and and why? I would say it it does a little bit of both. I think that because of how
Unknown Speaker 10:18
relaxes
Unknown Speaker 10:19
and how much time I can have in a day,
Unknown Speaker 10:23
it can help me complete a lot of my work. But at the same time, sometimes it's also harder to complete my work with all the downtime that I could have on my shift. And because we're all like college students, you know, I've built quite a number of friendships. So every time I work, I have at least one person there that I can enjoy talking to, and we can talk like the entire shift instead of like you know me doing my job or like me doing homework instead during that downtime.
Unknown Speaker 10:54
So since your job is so kind of involved with students at the university, given you know you're at the student union and everything. Has working on campus changed how connected you feel to the university? To the university specifically, I would say
Unknown Speaker 11:12
mostly no.
Unknown Speaker 11:13
I don't think my job has anything to do necessarily with like community. I mean, I get to meet all the people from all the different RSOs, but I only ever really see them in passing. Haven't really had many in-depth conversations with them, so
Unknown Speaker 11:31
no.
Unknown Speaker 11:32
And RSOs are just for people who don't know; those are registered student organizations. So just all the clubs on campus. Okay, have you made any friendships or professional connections through your job? I would say 1,000% I have made a ton of friendships in my job. Oh, that's nice. Like I said before, we have three different departments where I work specifically. So it's the concierges. There are about 10 of us, and then there are the AV staff, so audiovisual staff, and then the operations team, which handles
Unknown Speaker 12:11
all of the physical, like manual labor of moving all the tables and chairs and things like that. I have friends, I would say, in every single different department, and I am friends with the majority of them. Even if we don't necessarily get along too well, and we're not like super close, I think we're still cordial enough for me to consider them friends. Professional wise, though, I don't think I have made too many connections. The most professional connections I believe I have made would be with my bosses, and that's kind of
Unknown Speaker 12:43
it. Professionally, I think they have helped me a bit too with like applications for full-time positions after graduation and things like that. But other than that, that's the extent of professional connections. Okay, and has those friendships that you've made through the job has any of it like helped you out academically too, or is it all just like you know just buddy buddy, just friends, you know just people who work together? Yes and no.
Unknown Speaker 13:14
I think it's a little bit of both. It really just depends on what friends I have and who I've made like who I've become friends with. I know I mentioned earlier on that I am a hospitality major
Unknown Speaker 13:26
because we all need 1000-hour credits in order to graduate. Like you cannot graduate without 1000 hours of work experience. I, a lot of people have been applying to this job,
Unknown Speaker 13:41
trying to fulfill their requirements in order to graduate, and those people,
Unknown Speaker 13:48
I've become friends with a lot of them. Majority of them, I would say, and we're all a bit like different years, different paths in our college journey.
Unknown Speaker 13:58
But I think that because of work, right? I have made friends in my classes now. I'll see them in my classes after they've applied to the job for the new hires, and you know we build that connection there, that friendship there, and we end up helping each other out. I did make a few friends like earlier on in my career, or like yeah, earlier on working at the student union, and we started to become classmates after that. When enrollment period would roll around, we always try to make sure we're applying to the same classes if we
Unknown Speaker 14:33
can. Okay, gotcha. Do you feel more involved in the campus life? You know, in the events happening around there, because of your position at the student union, only a little when I agree to that. I think I'm more involved because of the job. I
Unknown Speaker 14:56
can see all of the reservations that we have, right? So anything that happens in.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
Of the student inside of the student union in our ballroom for the bigger events like Rebel
Unknown Speaker 15:06
Preview or
Unknown Speaker 15:08
the I think it's like the talent show contest or something that happens at the beginning of the school year. I know about those events and the ones that happen outside in the
Unknown Speaker 15:18
courtyard or in
Unknown Speaker 15:21
Paida or anything on academic lawn, I have access to that information, so I'll see it there.
Unknown Speaker 15:27
And you know, if my friends and I want to go, we'll go. But not too big
Unknown Speaker 15:34
into being that involved on campus. But I think I am more involved than I would have been if I didn't have this job, okay. And for like all those events, like taking place outdoors, like those events would be like for for example, like homecoming, Rebel Ready Week, late night breakfast, like those late night breakfast. Okay. Yeah. And I know for some members that I've interviewed before. I know they get access to like actually be able to enjoy these events. I don't know if you get that same privilege, given that you know you sit at the desk. Do you get that same privilege? I do actually, yeah. So most of the times when I do actually attend these events, it's when I'm on shift. We do get special access because we, you know, our side of things help to set everything up. Yeah, so yeah, we get access to that, and I kind of get to go down there, and I don't have to wait in that really long line that is usually there for late night breakfast and preview and all those things. Okay, so this will be like my one of my last questions for you know the the campus involvement. Do you think you would have had a different college experience if you had worked off campus instead? Oh, I definitely would have. I would not have the friends that I have currently. I would not get to experience anything that happens on campus really. Like you know, we just talked about it. I can see all the events that are happening, and that's how I have all that information. Plus, I get the access to it on shifts that I am working.
Unknown Speaker 17:09
I don't. If I worked anywhere else, there is no way I would have wanted to stand in those long lines waiting for, like, waiting to get into the event just to grab a plate of food and leave.
Unknown Speaker 17:21
Like I see no benefit in doing that, and I think also if I worked off campus, I would have to add in all the additional like things, right? So me getting food off campus somewhere too, probably so I can eat dinner before or after my shifts, whatever things like that, and then the just the time it would take to commute from like point A to point B.
Unknown Speaker 17:45
I'm pretty sure after all of that, there's no way I would want to actually enjoy any of those like late night breakfast events that we have. I would rather probably sleep at that point. That's that's fair. Okay. So moving on from you know your connection to to the campus. What skills have you gained from this job specifically that still matters to you? I think
Unknown Speaker 18:12
all in all, communication would be the biggest skill that I've gained,
Unknown Speaker 18:18
or at least improved on from this job. My
Unknown Speaker 18:21
job specifically is very front-facing, so all of the clients talk to us. All of the other staff members, the full-time staff, I'm in constant communication with all of them. So I think that is one skill that I've definitely improved on, and something that will always stick with me.
Unknown Speaker 18:40
Okay, during your time at this job, has this job influenced your career goals whatsoever? Have you ever thought about changing your major or you know concentration, or has just reinforced what you what you already chose? I would say it has. Originally, I
Unknown Speaker 18:59
mentioned that I followed my sister up here to UNLV. I didn't have a specific goal, like or career path, in mind when I initially came here. Honestly, I just wanted to, you know, get a degree, go back home, move on with life.
Unknown Speaker 19:15
I had settled with the idea of just doing, you know, something in a hotel because
Unknown Speaker 19:21
I I'm from Hawaii, there is no lack of hotels here or hotel related jobs in Hawaii.
Unknown Speaker 19:29
But you know I've been there for almost four years. I think that I have gained more of an interest in the events industry specifically,
Unknown Speaker 19:40
and I can see myself eventually one day
Unknown Speaker 19:43
continuing on like my career path within some aspects of events, whether
Unknown Speaker 19:49
it is you know like music festivals, any conventions, or even smaller things like weddings. Okay, is there a moment from the job that staff?
Unknown Speaker 20:00
Out as particularly meaningful to you. I honestly have to say no.
Unknown Speaker 20:07
I don't think there's anything that I can think of that's like truly meaningful
Unknown Speaker 20:12
from the job, other than like you know the connections that I've built, all the friends that I've made. Like I think maybe that's the closest I could get to an answer. Oh, but there's nothing like at the job specifically, though, that was meaningful from the work experience. From the work experience, yeah, no work experience. Okay, it's like the same events every single year. So, all right, you know what? That's fair. That's fair. Okay, so moving on from that, going about how your your job like runs itself, at least as far as how your supervisors run the place. What is one thing your department or the student union does really well, in your opinion? I think the
Unknown Speaker 20:55
best part of my job is the flexibility that I get. Like I know I keep mentioning it, but I think that is truly the one thing that they do have right.
Unknown Speaker 21:05
We have so many different student employees. All of us have different class schedules too, but we all still manage to make it work, and our bosses are still able to, you know, kind of help us out if we have anything big going on in our lives, whether it be for academic-related things like any, like property tours or any projects, any final exams that we have going on. They're pretty lenient about allowing us the time off to prepare for those things. And what is one thing that you would improve at the job, if anything.
Unknown Speaker 21:43
Just one thing.
Unknown Speaker 21:45
You can name multiple. I would improve.
Unknown Speaker 21:49
I would first of all improve the communication. Right now, I believe that there is a major lack in communication. We
Unknown Speaker 21:57
have, I think, multiple different platforms that they can communicate with us through whether it be like the full time staff to the student employees, vice versa, or if it's just from student employee to another student employee, the communication is really rough. You know, like it's hard to get a hold of people on time, especially when things are needed like in that moment, like they're needed ASAP, and we can't contact people. Something definitely needs to be fixed about that. And the second thing I would hope improves in the future is the pay that we get. You know, I understand that it's a college job and everything like that, but it's
Unknown Speaker 22:38
hard to continue living in Las Vegas, or even just like on campus, I dorm, so I have to pay it for everything in the beginning of the school year. But having to pay back any loans that I take out, this job doesn't pay enough to help financially support me.
Unknown Speaker 22:56
And I guess that kind of goes to my next question: Do you think students, student employees as a whole receive enough support
Unknown Speaker 23:05
at the student union, and that could be obviously financially, but that could also be if there's incidents between students. How good are they at deescalating things like that?
Unknown Speaker 23:17
For financially, like I said, I don't think this job can financially support anyone. Like with just this job alone, it is way too impossible. The pay the pay is way too low. It's good for smaller things like just buying snacks and like small food items. But if I wanted to, you know, cook for myself and do all those things, or if I had a car and I had to pay for insurance and gas, I don't think I would be able to
Unknown Speaker 23:45
like continue on living in Las Vegas like that.
Unknown Speaker 23:48
Other ways of support, though, I depending on what boss specifically we're talking about,
Unknown Speaker 23:56
I think my direct boss is pretty good about supporting us, whether it's professionally, you know, or if there are conflicts, he's been fairly good about that so far. I do know that there are some full-time staff though that aren't the most useful or helpful when there have been conflicts within their department specifically.
Unknown Speaker 24:17
I can think of a time when two of my coworkers
Unknown Speaker 24:21
were having, you know, conflict of some sort, and it was affecting our work.
Unknown Speaker 24:29
Like we have, they are two of the best employees that we have, but they can't really work together anymore because of the conflict that they have, and they have tried using third-party resources, which would be like their boss, but he hasn't done much to help them out, at least from what I know,
Unknown Speaker 24:48
and just hasn't really been supportive. I think almost of either side too. Very a lot of animosity from that department, and then even going higher up.
Unknown Speaker 25:00
Above that, I don't think they help at all with anything, whether it be financial, or maybe emotional, or academic, professional, anything like that. Okay, and just for just for reference, because I don't think not everyone knows, how much do you get paid at the job?
Unknown Speaker 25:18
Because I am a lead, I get paid, I believe,
Unknown Speaker 25:22
1350 something like that. I believe that regular concierges get paid 1275 an hour. Mind you, that is also with a 20 hour cap a week. Okay, gotcha. All right. Well, we're narrowing our time, so I have one last question I ask you, and then we can wrap things up. My last question is: If you were in charge of campus jobs for one day, what would be the first thing you'd change? Like I mentioned before, the one thing I would want to change would be the communication. Something about it needs to change. I think
Unknown Speaker 26:00
I'm not sure exactly how thinking of it right now. I would change it, but that is for sure the one thing I would work on. I would also consider trying to fix the pay and like give students a pay raise, but I don't know how any of the budgeting works and if that is even something I could accomplish in like one day.
Unknown Speaker 26:20
That's it. I have no more questions for you. That is pretty much the the end of what I have planned. Yeah. Thank you for having me.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai