Saturday's Passage of the Week

In my upcoming book, Service IS The Business (working title) I share a behind-the-desk perspective of what it is like to work at a real San Francisco hotel concierge desk.

Enjoy this brief segment from the third chapter.

Before I could make a final decision, however, in the summer of 1996 I got a call from Ken Wilbur. He was a location manager I had worked with who had just started a new position as the media services director for the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

He had a child on the way and had left film business for more steady work. He remembered that I had a film and a hospitality background and offered me a job as his assistant.

Officially I would be the media services coordinator, responsible for checking various types of media equipment to students. I would also do other jobs, like videotaping lectures, hooking up computers for various classes, and assisting him on documentary projects.

I reminded Ken that I was not very technically adept; I wasn’t sure I was the right person for the job. But he said in a reassuring tone, “I’ve seen you in action dealing with all kinds of problems on the set and on location. I can hire students to do this, but I can’t trust them to handle a difficult situation. I can’t teach them how to talk to people. But I can teach you the technical aspects of the job.”

As I thought about it, it was a good opportunity encompassing both film and hospitality, with a steady paycheck from a large university. This would also look good on a resume in whatever field I would choose to pursue afterwards. So I accepted the position and became the media services coordinator for the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

You wouldn’t think there would be a concierge aspect to my new job, but it was rather like having hotel guests come to your desk for assistance. The difference was that they checked out every four months instead of every four days. In fact, as I look back on my days working for the Haas School of Business, I realized that it was a good proving ground for concierge work.