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The Hospitality Management Students’ Guide to Summer 2020 | 8 Things To Do This Summer

 Lost your hospitality summer internship? Not sure what to do to gain that valuable experience? Let me help you with that.

You are going to have the best answer to the inevitable question: What did you do in the summer of 2020? #wdydsummer2020

It will be fine in the end, you are not alone in this

Firstly, do not stress that your whole career is now over and you will not get that essential experience that your internship was supposed to give you.

Loosing your potential source of income sucks. Many people all over the world have lost their jobs and no one knows when or if they’ll get them back.

In perspective, everyone in the world is in this messed-up situation so having “a gap” on you CV will not make it look like you are lazy and not proactive about your career, it will likely be a gap on many CVs.

So take a deep breath and think about all the things you could do instead!

(This article is not going to be suitable if you need to find an income to sustain your life. This is for you that are able to support yourselves financially this summer despite not having a job or internship.)

Develop your career and education in hospitality and tourism management

When it comes to doing things that are professionally or educationally related to your future career in the hospitality industry (hotel/tourism/restaurants/airlines/etc) there is a lot you can do, let’s look into the alternatives to an internship.

A good place to start would be with an exercise to review your skills, what you like doing, and where it the whole hospitality industry you could apply those skills. 

This is not a list of all the free online courses under the sun. This is hospitality industry-specific things that hospitality and tourism management students or professionals early in their careers can do.

If you do one or two of these things and add them to your CV, they will complement your education and make you a more interesting candidate when you apply for a job later on.

Being proactive and interested in your chosen field is a huge bonus to have when the competition is tough!

4 things to do summer 2020 to enhance your hospitality management degree and add awesome experience to your resume

  1. Industry case study: Follow hospitality industry companies and leaders in the current market environment and analyse what they are doing, how they are doing it, and what people say about them. Create yourself an assignment and do a case study, publish a report on your findings and future hypothesis. You can select one hotel company and/or a city to narrow the criteria. Share on LinkedIn to show your future employers! It is valuable insight and shows incredible proactiveness, it seems that it is unlikely to be our last pandemic.

  2. Do professional informational interviews with people that do the job you are curious about or might want to do! Ask three professors and three current professional connections to introduce you to two people outside your circle to connect with on LinkedIn. Ask for 20-30 min of their time to learn about their trade and make sure to do your research on the topic beforehand!

  3. Do one or two online courses in specific areas of your interest. The amount of free information available online is incredible, so use it! If you have an interest in marketing, be proactive in and do some extra learning. If you are a passionate restaurateur, do a course in sales or psychology. Learning new things outside the scope of what is “on the curriculum” is a great way to grow as an individual and a professional. See a list of places where you can find many online courses, either free or for a low price, at the end of the article.

  4. Read a few industry books or research papers that are not in your curriculum – be curious. If you are pursuing a career in the hospitality industry, even if you want to specialise in one hospitality sector, you’ve gotta understand how it works. They don’t teach you everything at university. See a list of places where you can find research and books at the end of the article.

Doing just one of these four things will expand your knowledge and be a huge advantage on your CV. It shows that you are in charge of your own career.

It is also important to do things that are of personal interest for you and that make you happy.

4 relaxing things to do in summer 2020:

  1. Any hobby that you love doing: play guitar, exercise, bake, read, paint, organise your closet, make videos, write stories, you name it.

  2. Continue to stay connected with friends and family: keep connected and make sure to check-in with your friends and family when the self-isolation ends.

  3. Do the thing that you “never had time to do” because you were “too busy”. You now have no excuse - do the thing! Learn a new skill or a new language or do some exercise. Start building new habits now and maintain them easier later on.

  4. Enjoy the free time to do what you like: catch up on your TV shows, binge on them all you like, while you can.

I highly encourage you to enjoy it in its full glory. You have all the time for yourself to do the things you want to do. If you want to just relax and enjoy my time off. I’m jealous! It might be your last one ;)

When “adulting” happens after graduation and we join the “real” world, we no longer have such privilege.

So when asked the question, “What did you do last summer?” You will be able to have a smashing answer! #wdydsummer2020

Places to find courses:

Places to find hospitality research and insights:

Hospitality books to learn more:

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