Hospitality Technology - Secret Career Opportunity for Students

 When I was a hospitality management student I could see my career go a number of ways. But one way I never saw it go was technology.

I’m not a programmer, I am not interested in creating apps and websites. I went into hospitality to work with people and not sit behind a desk. So technology was not anywhere close to my career vision.

Now, however, 5 years after graduation, I can see myself working on the technology side of hospitality. Why?

Because now I understand how jobs and careers look like in the hospitality industry and understand that a job in a technology company, doesn’t mean a job as a programmer.

The best way to find career opportunities it the world of hospitality technology is to follow the trends and understand its impact on the sector you’re in

And this week I am going to reveal to you just that. The jobs and career options you have never considered for your future, as a hospitality student, in the technology sector of the hospitality industry.

This is part of a series on hospitality industry careers, where I reveal “secret” careers and jobs that you didn’t know about in 11 hospitality industry sectors.

You can also consume this article in video format here:

The table of content is:

1. I am going to help you understand what kind of jobs there are in the hospitality technology sector

2. I am going to talk a bit about technology trends in the industry and how to see them as career opportunities

3. And I am going to look at some entry-level jobs in the field

Let’s start with the first one,

Kind of jobs there are in the hospitality technology sector

Let’s take a theoretical technology company in the hospitality sector. Think of companies that run the reservation system, meeting planner system, guest communication system, to give a few examples. This company would have the following departments regardless of what they do:

• Human Resources
  Recruitment
  Training
  Admin

• Legal

• Marketing
  Brand management
  Campaigns
  Partnerships & Loyalty

  • Sales

  • Product management
    Product development
    Project management

• IT
  Internal tech support
  Employee support

• Customer service
  Q&A
  External IT support

• Office manager

• And others (depending on the size)

Only some of these jobs are programmer jobs in product management and ofc legal team have their own requirements.

The other departments have jobs that you could have as a hospitality student and graduate. In HR, marketing, product management, and customer service.

STOP viewing your career post-graduation only as someone who is working in hotels, restaurants or events. THINK BIGGER, these technology companies in the hospitality industry are great employers and you must not overlook them.

How do you find technology companies to work for?

Well, you know TripAdvisor and booking.com right? Those are some big examples of this exact thing - they are technology companies in the hospitality industry.

They don’t have their own hotels and restaurants to operate, they enable people to visit hotels and restaurants through their technologies.

Just look at smaller companies like that and discover their jobs. (use LinkedIn to find them!)

Technology trends & how to see them as career opportunities

If you are anything like me, you joined the hospitality industry because you wanted to work with people and deliver fantastic service to people, as you are passionate about that, and not technology.

How can you use technology trends to find career options? Well, technology does not create itself, new keyless door technology does not install itself in a hotel and even robots need a human to take care of them when they break.

With hotels implementing more and more mobile applications, AI tools, and robots, there are people who create and develop the idea, test it, implement it, and constantly develop and improve it.

And you could be involved in that someday!

Creating Alibaba's a fully automated hotel in China that only requires your face to check-in and access all areas of the hotel, requires people to put in place and in some cases step it to fix issues. Machines and robots can only do so much.

The best way to find career opportunities it the world of hospitality technology is to follow the trends and understand its impact on the sector you’re in: hotels, restaurants or events.

Once you understand that, look at your own skills, expertise and interest.

Do you want to work for another company and change your lifestyle? If yes, seek for ways to apply your skillset there.

Think about all the departments I mentioned at the beginning and make sure to explore the people’s pages on LinkedIn to find cool opportunities.

And let’s wrap this up with a few entry-level jobs that you, as a hospitality student, can do while you study or after graduation.

Entry-level jobs in technology for hospitality students

Customer service agent

Yes ok, this is a typical one, but working in a tech company will require you to learn about the systems and you can progress to being an analyst or a team leader in the service centre.

In-house support

Knowing how tech systems work as a hobby, can also help you get a job in the in-house tech teams - helping employees set up their laptops and other systems. You do not need to be a tech nerd to do that and you can work on your service skills while you figure out your next steps.

Career progression

You can progress your career by growing the same team or be a team manager or moving laterally to another team as an analyst, someone that helps pull out useful data from reporting to make critical business decisions.

There are numerous analyst roles across the departments, just find one you like!

Don’t forget to think bigger.

Think about the context of the job you’re doing, what skills and interests you have and what you can do with them.

You are not “just” anything, you can do more.