I passed my dealer audition

I passed my dealer audition today. The dealer school sent me to Club Fortune in Henderson. It is a nice little place. The instructor at the dealer school told me she sent me to audition because I have a cocky attitude, I am not sure what that was supposed to mean. Anyway the casino manager did the audition. I killed all my players unfortunately, but it was a $2 game and everyone was betting the minimum so I didn't feel too bad. I was nervous as I had never had a dealer audition before. The casino manager said we all did great and he took our names down and said to fill out the application online and HR would contact us to continue the process. If I had been rejected they would have told us to go back to school and practice some more. I also interviewed on Monday for a food and beverage supervisor position at the Stratosphere. This position is a salaried position ($35k/year) but required a 6 day 60 hour work week. It is a bit more work per week than I would like, but on 35k when my rent is $495 a month I will do okay. I am not sure which job I would take if I had the opportunity to chose from both. On one hand the Strat job would be more money right away, but I would work like crazy for what comes down to about $11 an hour compared to dealing which would be more enjoyable but would initially bring in a much lower paycheck until I work my self up to a better place or a higher position. The position at the Strat would probably be a 10 hour window anywhere from 4am-10pm and the dealer position is an initial on-call position so who knows when and how much I would work. Decisions, decisions.... Any advice would be helpful although I am leaning towards the strat position just for the financial security but I feel I would enjoy working as a dealer at Club Fortune much more.

Glad to hear you are upbeat.

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

Any advice would be helpful although I am leaning towards the strat position just for the financial security but I feel I would enjoy working as a dealer at Club Fortune much more.

Remember to look at the positions as how they will look on your resume' and how one might help or hurt moving into a better job in the future.

It might be worth it to put up with more negatives in a job if it will help you down the road.

Congrats on the audition.

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

She sent me to audition because I have a cocky attitude, I am not sure what that was supposed to mean.

Ask her.

She's not a potential employer where you want to keep your mouth shut to avoid screwing something up. She'd supposed to be helping you. Ask her what she meant. Also, ask her if she thought that was a good thing or not. Is an audition at Club Fortune a good thing? I mean, did she have the option of sending you somewhere else? Was the somewhere else a dump or nicer?


If you recall, that dealer we had at Terribles was a lot of fun. Even though she killed me and the Wiz, and Miplet won a grand total of one buck, we liked her because she was fun.

Then again, I think one key thing to being liked by a player is to have a personality - ANY personality. Some dealers are just cold, silent, robots, taking chips.

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

This position is a salaried position ($35k/year) but required a 6 day 60 hour work week.
...what comes down to about $11 an hour ...

Don't you mean $11.21 per hour? FYI: It actually calculates out at $9.61 per hour.

If you're comparing it to an hourly rate job, you have to factor in those 20 hours of O/T. 40 hours + 20 O/T = 70. Therefore 35000 / 52 / 70 = 9.61.

You gotta do what you gotta do, but that seems like a lot of hours for not a lot of money. It also leaves you with little time to look for something better.


Good luck!

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

a 6 day 60 hour work week.

Ouch!!...so much for having a life.

Congratulations! That was fast.

My advice is to go with the dealer job. The Stratosphere job will not leave enough time to have a life and I think you'll rise up faster with the dealing job.

I'd have some questions about the Strat job. You know what happens at these salaried positions-60 hours easily becomes 70 or more. Hey, Nick one more thing before you go. Hey Nick, Bob called in sick... Ask lots of questions. If this job was so great you never would have known about it.

See how Club Fortune works out. There will be other jobs like the one at the Strat out there if need be.

If you take the supervision job it might be difficult to go back down to dealing in the future. If you take the dealing job you can always move up to mgmt. and you will have the dealing experience under your belt.

If money and the schedule were not a concern, which would you take?

I assume the dealer job.

Therefore, take it, but also get some BS job with a flexible schedule just to supplement the cash.

I used to work as a driver for Dominos. Not the greatest job, but the schedule was VERY flexible. Just about the only time it wasn't, was for the dinner rush on Fridays. With tips I was averaging $10-11 per hour. And this was about 20 years ago.

Just something to think about.

Ain't no dealer job.
This was a group audition probably done in arrangement with the school.
Club Fortune is a smoke filled rinky dink place. IF they offer a job, ... it sure won't pay much.

Strat is 35K but its not dealing or casino mgmt.

Club Fortune has been remodeled I think, it was a decent place a lot better than I expected. I do know they arranged something with the dealer school... I will probably take who ever offers me the job first...

Congrats. You're like the Tom Cruise/Top Gun of dealing. Your instructor thought you were cocky so she sent you to an audition prematurely in hopes that failing would humble you or what? You showed her. I agree with the Wizard's advice on what you should do.

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

Club Fortune has been remodeled I think, it was a decent place a lot better than I expected.

I have only been in the place twice, both times on a visit to Las Vegas two years ago. It struck me as significantly better than I would have expected for that size place in a location so far from most of the other action. I remember the crap dealers when I was there as being reasonably pleasant.

What is their schedule for table games now? They did not open until 4:00 P.M. back when I visited (which was the reason for two visits -- to collect a souvenir chip while they were operating the games). If they still have limited hours, then that may give you some hint as to the work schedule -- less likely to be a straight day shift (probably not a likely thing for a dealer anyway), but also less likely to be jerking you all over the clock with your schedule.

FleaStiff might be right that they don't really have genuine openings for dealers and just have an arrangement with the school to provide "practice" auditions for students, no matter how the deal is presented to the students. I have no way of knowing. If they had a fill-in job as a dealer (limited hours), would you consider working additional hours in a different capacity at the same place? That kind of flexibility might make you more attractive to them as an initial hire, but I don't know how it would work out in the long term. My guess is that you wouldn't be spending a career at the Club Fortune anyway.

Give dealing a good try. That's the only way to find out if you're going to like it, and it's going to depend on how you are affected by the assholes and how often you are confronted with one. Dealing to reasonable people only would be a blast.

Hopefully you will end up in a casino where the floor people support the dealers and don't put up with the assholes.

Mark

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

The casino manager said we all did great and he took our names down and said to fill out the application online and HR would contact us to continue the process.

What does this mean? Do they actually have dealer
openings, or does your ap go to the bottom of a foot
high stack? Are they in cahoots with the dealer school
to do auditions, so the dealer school looks like its doing
its job for you? I'm just sayin... I've read about dealer
schools who promise auditions, and when nobody is
hiring, they give a casino a kickback to do 'auditions'
when they have no intention of hiring anybody.

I would say take the dealer job. So often those kind of "supervisor" jobs like F&B is offering you are a fancy title so they do not need to pay OT. Radio Shack was famous for that. Break-in at the dealer level and you should have more chance for lateral moves IMHO.

FWIW, there is another thing you can do. thedealernews.com used to have ads for dealer temp services. Kind of like being on the extra board all over town. List yourself there and you effectively have auditions on your nights off.

Quote: EvenBob

What does this mean? Do they actually have dealer
openings, or does your ap go to the bottom of a foot
high stack?

I am not this cynical. A gal I know, who you will be seeing more of soon, needed only two days of training to be a party pit dealer. This not even knowing the rules of blackjack going in. Then again, she has a couple nice attributes that Nick doesn't.

Employment agencies do the same thing. They guarantee
you interviews, so they have several companies on retainer
to do them. Nothing illegal, its just those companies don't
need anybody. But they might.

Quote: Wizard

... she has a couple nice attributes that Nick doesn't.

Hmmm, a couple as in a pair I presume. ;-)

Quote: Alan

Hmmm, a couple as in a pair I presume. ;-)

Might as well make em earn their keep..

Congrats on the audition.

I think you've got to do what you're happy doing. That being said, if you get into a job with minimal hours and low pay, you could end up regretting taking that job. Granted, dealing is different than sales (which I've had happen to me before), but I do kind of wonder about the legitimacy of the dealing job.

I would go with the salaried position and if you can manage nights, take dealing as a part-time job. Chances are it's going to be part-time anyways, and that would leave you without healthcare benefits. I'm not sure Nevada's domestic partner laws will transfer health care over if you get sick, so you may want to check into that too. You're going to be REQUIRED in the next two years to pick up health care, and it will be darn expensive if you don't get it through your employer.

At the 60 hours mentioned, I don't know how much part-time time would be left. I mentioned no life with those hours alone. Add dealing to it at whatever hours; would probably be not very healthy.

Quote: Wizard

I am not this cynical. A gal I know, who you will be seeing more of soon, needed only two days of training to be a party pit dealer. This not even knowing the rules of blackjack going in. Then again, she has a couple nice attributes that Nick doesn't.

Depends on who's doing the hiring. Perhaps Nick will have the edge.

Nick, never go off the clock. They tell you up front you'll work 60 hours per week?....that means 70 actually. For $35k/yr. Negotiate up front you want $15/hr and 40 hrs, but are more than willing to work the 60 if requested. OT baybee! And sell yourself that you're better than the flunkies they're hoping to hire for the $35k/60 hours.

I'm in the Strat poker room from time to time. I'll say Hi. Good luck.

Quote: Alan

Hmmm, a couple as in a pair I presume. ;-)

If she only has 2, then how does she..................never mind.

Quote: Wizard

A gal I know, who you will be seeing more of soon, needed only two days of training to be a party pit dealer.

You mean those photos accompanying the reviews were staged? The models didn't really know how to play Blackjack? Heck, most of the men at the Party Pit games don't seem to care about the dealing.

I've heard that temp agency pays real bad and kills your chances for a direct hire at the casino by demanding a fee if any of their employees get taken on the staff payroll.