RORY'S INTERNSHIP AT ANNA'S HOUSE
My interview with our General Manager, Bill Hogan (06/29, 3:30, Bill's Office)
1. What has been the manager’s career path to their current position?
Bill Hogan graduated from UNH Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economic with a Bachelors in Hospitality Management in 1983. During his time in college, he would work in restaurants during the summer, where he would serve tables, act as a desk clerk, wash dishes and short order cook.
2. What companies have they worked for and what have their responsibilities been?
After college, he focused on his career in management with restaurants, with his first job being an assistant manager at "Red Lobster" in Connecticut. He was later asked to open new locations for the franchise in D.C., Vermont, Maryland and Kentucky as general manager. He would later leave the company after six years, to manage "Italia", part of the Capen Corporation in New Hampshire. After spending much of his career in the New England area, he would join the management team at "Lonestar Steakhouse" and open and manage new locations in Waterloo and Cedar Rapids in Iowa and Detroit Grand Rapids in Michigan. In 1998, Bill left the Lonestar company and continued his general management career at Applebee's in Grand Rapids until 2014. During this time, he would also become an adjunct professor at Grand Rapids Community College for the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education. In November of 2014, while remaining an adjunct professor, Bill left Applebee's and became the general manager at Anna's House on the East Beltline.
3. If they could change anything about their career to date, what would it be? What would they do differently?
With hindsight in mind, Bill wishes there were better ways to do research for companies he wanted to work for after college. He states that had he had more insight into the companies he would work for, he would most likely stay in the New England area.
4. What do they enjoy most about and least about their current position and the responsibilities of the position?
Bill enjoys the staff here at Anna's House and enjoys serving the guests that stop in. Because of his desire to get to know and talk to his staff and guests, he does not feel burned out within the industry.
Bill least enjoys the administration aspects of the job and does not like to be micro managed by other people.
5. What do they see as the most challenging aspect of their position? How are they working to overcome these challenges?
In his eyes, the most challenging aspect of Bill's position is not being able to have a carbon copy of assistant managers because they all do things differently. While diversity of thought can be challenging, Bill welcomes it and sees it as an opportunity to doing things differently and possibly better at Anna's House.
6. What trends will have an impact on their business in the next 2-5 years?
Bill sees the trend of the vegan diet as something that will greatly impact the restaurant industry as a whole. He also believes that Allergens will also become more common in the future. Other trends such as sustainability, technology, finance and labor will always grow and need to be adapted to as well.
7. What do they see as the most critical challenges ahead for their particular segment of the business environment?
Currently, the most critical challenge for Bill and Anna's House as a corporation is getting more current staff to potentially move up to management.
8. What advice would they offer someone entering the business environment today?
Bill's advice for people entering our business environment today is to always think in terms of leadership. He believes that strong leadership is important and you should focus on thinking and acting as a leader.
My interview with our Assistant General Manager, Sharlet Wicht
(07/7, 10:15am, Anna's House, Grandville)
1. What has been the manager’s career path to their current position?
During her time at Davenport University, Sharlet wanted to pursue a career as an attorney and eventually decided to become a para legal. She believes she has always had organizational skills and states that college helped to her path within the job market. A saying that she tells herself is "If you work hard, your path will show itself.". She eventually had to make a tough decision to leave college and work full time as a server to support her parents. Sharlet intends to go back to Davenport to pursue a degree in business.
2. What companies have they worked for and what have their responsibilities been?
Sharlet has worked at Comerica Bank as a keyholder and security. She would often deal with purchasing security equipment and wire transmitters. She was also a supervisor at Booking.com, where she most notably coordinated for hurricane Sandy. She also dealt with coaching her staff and philanthropy. Eventually, Sharlet would continue her career at Applebee's, where she was the training manager, Bar manager and regional training manager. She also focused on inventory, development training, menus, accounting and discipline. In late April of 2022, Sharlet would leave Applebee's and enter Anna's House East Beltline as our assistant manager, where she handles payroll, tip share, training and other administrative tasks.
3. If they could change anything about their career to date, what would it be? What would they do differently?
Sharlet wishes she had gotten to know Bill better during her interview in terms of what his teaching style is. She is working on learning his teaching style and how he learns new information as well.
4. What do they enjoy most about and least about their current position and the responsibilities of the position?
Sharlet enjoys getting to know our staff and leading the team. She also enjoys getting to know the restaurant and wants to be involved with decision making because she want to be helpful to everyone.
She dislikes that some staff members don't see her as a manager and she does not like that she needs to establish her position and respect among certain people.
5. What do they see as the most challenging aspect of their position? How are they working to overcome these challenges?
The most challenging aspect of Sharlet's position is learning all of the different personalities at work. She is working to overcome this challenge by learning Spanish as well as learning about emotional intelligence and coaching. She is reading books, listening to podcasts and plans to take classes at Davenport with these subjects in mind.
6. What trends will have an impact on their business in the next 2-5 years?
Sharlet believes Inflation has a great impact on the business and will continue to have such impact within the next 2-5 years. She states that it is difficult to develop menus, plan out pricing and grow as a business when inflation is affecting the market.
7. What do they see as the most critical challenges ahead for their particular segment of the business environment?
Sharlet sees that filling in leadership roles and creating a stronger team to help other Anna's House locations is one of our most critical challenges for our business environment. She is also a great proponent of giving back to the community with philanthropy and feels that it is important to any business.
8. What advice would they offer someone entering the business environment today?
Sharlet's advice for someone entering the business environment today is learn to be flexible while working fast paced. Also being able to take constructive criticism is important because while feedback can hurt, it helps improvement. She also says that you should be able to accept the gray areas of our industry, adapt and always have a smile on our face.
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