1. Employment Profile: What exactly does a Senior Auditor do? |
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 What field is your job in?
Hospitality - Hotels
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What is your job title?
Senior Auditor
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Please provide a brief description of the firm or organization that you currently work for
(size and general description of what type of organization it is)
We are a management company that owns a home office and 13 franchise hotels in 3 states and the District of Columbia. The hotels range from our smallest of 122 rooms to our largest of 327 rooms. General placement is either resort/tourist destinations (Washington DC/Atlantic Ocean Beaches) or college/university towns (Harrisonburg and Blacksburg, VA). We employ from 650-950 workers (it varies by season).
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How long have you been employed in this position?
9 years
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How many hours do you work a week on average?
45
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Please provide a BRIEF description of your duties and responsibilities. (job description)
I work in one of our resort hotels in Ocean City, MD (we have 2 there). I am responsible for collating and the accuracy of daily and weekly operational accounting for both locations, and for training the night auditors who work the overnight shifts and prepare the daily reports. As the only person with IT training in our area, I also serve as the system administrator and IT tech for the networks at both locations. This includes oversight, maintenance, and troubleshooting the IBM networks, as well as taking periodic classes and assisting outside vendors with installations and repairs. I am paid overtime rates for all associated duties related to IT (including classes) if they take place outside of my normal workload/hours. Classes that require travel are paid on a set schedule with all expenses paid by a company credit card plus a per diem for meals and "required expenses." All charges on the company card are subject to review by our company's CFO.
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What was your gross income last year? Please include any bonuses or incentives received.
67,000
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What is your expected gross income for this year? Please include any bonuses or incentives you expect to receive.
75000
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Please
list any benefits you have (Please include number of weeks vacation,
sick leave and type of health insurance, retirement plan 401k)
15 personal, 15 vacation, 10 medical leave days annually (use it or lose it), medical insurance (including vision and dental) via HMO, ability to keep all frequent flier/traveller miles, free stays at any of our company's hotels (and discounted stays at franchise hotels which we participate with) subject to availability.
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Do you feel you are under/well/over compensated at your current position?
With a raise and increase in benefits on 4/10/07 (my annual date), I feel well compensated.
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2. Work environment! |
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Does
your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this
something you like/dislike about your job? Explain
Yes, I have 3 full time auditors at each hotel and a part time person who can work either property (7 persons in total). I enjoy working with them because I have hired each one and all have been with us for at least 18 months. They are all good people, conscientious and reliable.
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Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes
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Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes
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Describe
your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what
you like/dislike about working in it
Each property involves an office located behind the front desk of the hotel. There is adequate space to work, and supplies are well stocked. Each has a dedicated desk for the auditors and my use, as well as dedicated paperwork boxes of the auditors and a mailbox for me. Both are comfortable office environments that I like. At the smaller property, the servers and associated hardware for the computer netwokr are also located in the office in one corner. However, the telephone and wireless DSL network for the guests are located in the elcetric room, 120 feet away from the office near the south exit. This is both inconvenient when we have problems with those systems (i have to run back and forth while working on/troubleshooting those systems), and the electric room is cramped and difficult to move around in. I don't like this very much, but deal with it. The larger property was renovated after hurricane damage in 19990 and has a dedicated IT room with cooling system (all network, DSL and telephony equipment and interfaces are located here. It is a very easy environment to work in, especially since we hooked up an old laptop as a dedicated terminal in the room.
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Please rank in order of importance from 1-8 (1- most important 8- least important) Assign each number once.
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1 Income
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5 Work Environment - co-workers
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4 Work Environment - supervisors
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2 Benefits
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7 Hours
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6 Level of responsibility
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3 The actual "work" you do at your job
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8 Job Title
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3. How should someone new to the workforce get a J-O-B like yours? |
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If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
Get as much IT training as possible. Be sure the training is diversified (not just PC/server certification, but learn networks, telecommunications devices/interfaces, and as much as you can about hardware). I was lucky to have some IT knowledge when no one else did, so I became very valuable to my company and as I now have specific knowledge of the company's systems and operations, I have value to them beyond what my qualifications might suggest. Being lucky as I was and getting in on the ground floor with a company is very, very useful.
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What
skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a
position like yours? Please be specific and explain why (e.g., social
skills, organization skills, technical skills)
On the technical side, solid mathmatics skills are a must. You don't necessarily need a college degree (I don't have one), but if you can't do basic math, you can't do this job. As described above, computer skills and IT knowledge/training are necessary. Knowledge of hotel PMS (Property management systems) is a plus, but can be taught/learned. On the organizational side, our company expects punctuality, dedicated work and meeting minimum performance standards (with quarterly reviews/critiques). Drug testing twice a year or with probable cause are required. Social skills for the Auditors are necessary (and part of the performance reviews) as they are required to perform the duties of front desk clerks and reservationists during the overnight hours, with all the customer interaction that entails. We are a service industry, and we must provide good service if we are to be successful.
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Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
At a minimum a high school degree with strengths in math and IT work. As in my case, you can learn/be trained for the job from there.
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What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Learn as much as you can about all the systems that you can. The more you can absorb, the more valuable you will become. Get your hands dirty. Reading books and doing simulations is one thing, but replacing server components without killing your system is a bit more nerve-wracking, and requires an element of confidence that can only be acquired through practical experience. Be prepared for the long haul, this is not something that you can learn overnight. It took me 5 years to reach the position I am in now (including 2 complete IT replacements, one at each hotel), and another year to earn the trust and confidence of the company's leadership structure.
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