The only thing that is constant is change. - Heraclitus
Making a linear, unflexible career plan, in the hospitality industry, is the recipe for failure and disappointment. You should be making flexible career plans.
In this blog post, I will tell you how to make flexible career plans in the hospitality industry.
But first, let’s understand a few things about the hospitality industry, career, and plans in general.
Career planning in hospitality and tourism
Hospitality industry careers in the industry are not linear as doctors’ and lawyers’ career are.
Hospitality industry careers and jobs are always evolving alongside the industry and the changing demands of the people - that’s the thrill of this industry.
To plan or figure out your future career in the hospitality industry you need to first and foremost get comfortable with the hard fact of life: all things change and will change.
This makes it hard to plan, or does it?
Developing a flexible mindset
Change is hard, it’s scary and stressful. It often happens to us when we least expect it. When change is initiated by us, change is exciting and fun.
Would you rather feel stressed about change or be excited about new things?
I would rather be excited, so I choose to welcome change with excitement and curiosity of what’s next, even when it happens to me and is not initiated by me.
This is easy for me because that’s how I am wired, I am very adaptable to new circumstances. I know not everyone is like that and it is much harder for other people to deal with change.
What to do to easier deal with stress (in your career)
Make more plans.
Yes, it sounds crazy that a solution to the stress of your plans not going according to plan is more plans, but it is.
Imagine this, you had a plan you were going to run errands today and made a plan to do them in this order:
Go to the bank ->
See a friend for coffee ->
Buy your mum a gift at that shop she likes ->
Pick up a parcel ->
Buy some groceries ->
Exercise at homeThat’s a reasonable plan and I am sure you’ve done that before in a similar order.
But what happens if you are delayed getting into town and skip going to the bank because your friend is already there waiting for you? What happens when your coffee overruns because you are having so much fun? What if the post office is closed when you get there because you forgot they’re closed on Sundays?
You will probably feel stressed about not completing all tasks you set out yourself to do that day and you may feel unproductive. You had a plan, you’d think, and it was very straightforward, so why was it so hard to stick to it?
The straightforward and linear plans are hard to stick to because they do not account for things that are not included in the plan.
You cannot know that your commute will be delayed or that your friend will be early, and out of these two you can only really anticipate one (the damn commute ofc…).
It’s the same with your career plans, if you plan for your future to follow a linear and straightforward plan, you are going to run into the same issues. As you try to follow the plan, you will meet obstacles and wonder why they are there, you had a great plan after all.
If you spend a bit more time at the start making several plans, you will be able to pick the one that is closest to the reality and feel excited about the things that are coming your way.
This is why I think career plans should be flexible by default.
And why making more plans is the solution to not feeling anxious and stressed about plans not working out.
This is how you start making a flexible career plan (in the hospitality industry)
To make a career plan, a flexible career plan, you have to be prepared to spend some time on it because research is key here.
The more you learn about the people and jobs in the hospitality industry, the more information you will have to take advantage of when making your career decision.