How To Find Your Career In Hotel Industry?

How To Find Your Career In Hotel Industry?

The hotel industry is part of the hospitality industry along with the Travel and Tourism Industry. Hotel jobs range from housekeeping, Food and beverage service to Front office and Food production department. Beside it, there are other huge job vacancies in functional departments like Accounting and Finance department, Human resources department, sales and Marketing e.t.c.

Finding the best employers in the hotel industry may change your life forever. It may provide, both, an attractive salary and good career growth by ensuring your work-life balance! But, it's really hard to find the best employers as the majority of the hotel industry will be exploiting your labour, which is a very common practice in the hotel industry of developing countries where you will be confined to work for 12-18 hours a day without a week off at a penny salary!

Your preference should always be to work at places which value you, your work, Your working hours and more importantly your passion. Though there is some tough competition to get recruited in the renowned hotels, the process is not challenging when you have a positive attitude and passion to learn new things.

First of all, Start as an apprentice. One of the best way is to just apply for an opening and learn on the job. The advantage with this is that you can save years that would have been spent going for a degree to study. However this will hamper your career in the long run as new opportunities and career growth will stop after a certain time. I will recommend this to you, If you are a good learner, low in budget and are seriously considering a career in the industry it is well worth it. Or else, you can get a Diploma or degree in hotel management and apply for an apprenticeship. There are many nationally and internationally recognised courses that you can do that are relevant to the hotel industry. More specifically there are colleges that specialise in hospitality courses and even offer placements after the training. This is very useful as it can save you the time and effort needed in looking for a job.

You just need to submit an application after your degree. There are many best hotels across the globe and many new ones coming up every year. If you want a hotel job it is good to send your Resume/Curriculum Vitae to the different hotels available in your country and let friends and family working in hotels know that you are looking for a hotel job. And it will be even much easier for you to find a hotel job if you have already worked in some area of the hotel industry and have qualifications or competencies. After that you need to answer few basic queries in interview. Don't worry for interview as they will ask you some basic knowledge about the department you want to work for.

They may ask you mainly about the department you are looking to work for, your job duties and responsibilities, basic introduction, experience and reason for leaving the previous job, work place hazards, How to make it successful department. They will check your positivity, attitude, willingness to learn and more importantly try to see respect for your job. Believe me, those interviewers are professional expert who had been hiring People since decades so, they can judge you, recognise your skill and talents in one look!

But remember, only a resume can't get you a job. Like I told you earlier, you need a lot of passion. A lot of your colleagues will be trying to pull your leg and Kick behind your Ass. You will see it very often if you work for a hotel management college or hotel industry. There you will see people around you who are just jealous of you because of your degree and because you are better than them!! Even I have faced this in my career when working and Teaching for reputed hotels and hotel management colleges ( I will not name them ). you need to have passion to handle all criticism and should take it as a compliment without losing your focus.

Before working for the hotel industry, I recommend you to Make lists with things you enjoy in life, your interests, your hobbies, your passions. Do they match with your job? Then ask your friends or family. What do they think about you doing it? Your success, career? Very often, we do not have a very clear idea of what we like in life, as we are very much "into it". Our closest people, though, can help us by identifying areas, hang-ups or paths we ignore or are unable to see. Just give it a go, play around, ask people and move on. 

By the end of your research, you will know, for example, that if  you are the person who enjoys working on your own, prefers an unstructured lifestyle, loves travelling and dealing with new people, loves to see a cosmopolitan, is hardworking, has patience and passion, works well at night, is creative and innovative, has great hospitality skills etc.Then, a career in the Hotel industry might not sound like a bad idea.

The biggest mistake we do is, very often, we think we like everything. We like movies, books, Aeroplanes, hotels, schools and restaurants. We want to join the industry what we like. This does not imply that we would work in any job which we like. Enjoying a nice meal at your local restaurant does not necessarily make you a successful cook. Your love for children does not make you a happy and wise teacher, either. Finding the industry of your choice will require constant research and clear mind otherwise it may end up constantly winding your career and never finding your destination/your purpose of life. 

Last but not least the most important element is to find out who you are, not just what you want to do. Just recognize your uniqueness and authenticity, and move on. Finding the hotel job you want is the first step, Then doing this job for a whole life, It is important too!!