Savvy Hotelier

  Do you ever think this about your work experience? “I must get the relevant internship during my hospitality degree so that I can then get the right job after graduation” “If I want to work in hotels, all other experience is irrelevant, so I will only do internships in hotels” “I cannot learn things I need to know in my future hospitality career if I do an internship in another industry or field” Well, you’re not alone. Most hospitality management students think that there is “more relevant” and “irrelevant” experience. It’s ok if you do too, it’s not your fault, you only think so because you have been told so. Your professors are telling you that. Your career counsellors are telling you that. But they are all wrong. Why? Because they are far too removed from the day to day real world of the industry. Because they have been professors for the last 10, 15, or 20 years and things have changed in the hiring and employment processes since then. They just didn’t get the memo. Let me e...

  While you are studying and have not yet started your professional hospitality career, you need to take advantage of the university environment and support system to learn as many transferable skills as possible. Best way to learn anything is to practise doing it. As I share with you the 4 Essential Business Skills you need, I will give you examples of things you can do right now, at university, to learn and develop those skills. 4 Essential business skills you need to have Writing emails Creating and delivering presentations Organising meetings Project management But before we dive into them, let’s step back and look at the big picture. At the bottom of it all lies communication. It’s all about getting the right message across to the right people, at the right time. What is communication? According to Dictionary.com, communication is: “ the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or sign s”. It is the process of passing information from ...