A career in hospitality can be rewarding—if it’s your calling. If you love working with people and you’re good at making sure everyone around you is having a good time, it may be a good career fit for you. Here are a few dos and don’ts from experts in the field:

Do: Expect to Work Long Hours

There is a joke in the hospitality industry about what chefs eat. The punchline is that they have a chocolate bar and a red bull for dinner because they don’t have the time to make anything else when they are working, and they need the energy. While this might not be true of every chef, every night it’s is a reasonably accurate representation of the dedication and commitment that those in the hospitality industry are required to make on a regular basis.

In fact, even if you are hoping to get into management in hospitality, you can expect unsocial hours and long shifts that combine both physical and emotional challenges. Something to bear in mind if this is a career you are considering.

Don’t: Forget the Value of Education

Next, when it comes to hospitality is essential to remember that while experience is crucial to success, so is formal education, especially if you want to reach the higher echelons.

In fact, by taking a specialized course like this hotel management degree, you can gain both. Something that can help to put you in a fantastic position when it comes to your career and moving through the ranks as quickly as possible.

Do: Play to Your Strengths

Also, when it comes to making a successful career for yourself in hospitality, it’s vital that you play to your passion and strengths. What we mean here is that you need to choose a position which allows you to use the skills in which you naturally excel at.

For example, folks that are amazing with people and interpersonal relationships can do very well in front of house positions and even in HR within the hospitality industry. However, those that tend towards the creative but are less at home in front of a crowd may wish to focus on roles such as being a chef, event management, or event facilities work.

Don’t: Aim for Perfection

Lastly, and perhaps contrary to what you hear a lot of people in the hospitality field say, is that you can’t aim for perfection and complete customer satisfaction every time, if you want to survive in the industry in the long term. Instead, you need to play the numbers game.

Of course, we don’t mean that you shouldn’t be focused on the customers’ needs and wants, after all, they are the ones that ultimately pay your wages. However, perfection can be detrimental in two ways. Firstly, it can get you too caught up in the details to make a useful difference for all of your many customers, and secondly, it can become an impossible goal to try to attain.

With this in mind, remember that success in the hospitality industry comes from providing excellent but not perfect service to the maximum number of people possible. A goal that may be challenging, but is definitely within your power to achieve.  

The world is changing in many ways, and one of the areas impacted by modern change is driving. In cities, roads are busier than ever before and there are new opportunities for drivers as well. Whether it’s in the trucking sector or ride hailing; what it means to be a professional driver in 2018 is different to what it was just a decade ago. So what is it like? That’s what we’re going to discuss right now, so read on now.

You’re Alone But Never Alone

When you’re driving as a trucker or a delivery person, you’re technically alone during that time, but there is always a point of contact. The same applies to taxi drivers too. Everyone is connected to someone back at the head office whose monitoring them and feeding orders. The ability to focus on driving and nothing else is therefore lost a little, which is a shame for many people who love that aspect of being on the road.

Strong Road Safety Standards

The safety standards are higher than ever, and the responsibility for upholding those standards is usually handed to drivers themselves. Long-haul drivers are only allowed to drive for limited amounts of time before taking breaks and sleeping. This is massively important because the risks associated with people falling asleep at the wheel are huge. Standards across the board are generally stronger too.

The Stress of the Road

Stress is a major problem for many professional drivers nowadays. With roads getting busier and more congested than ever before, it makes the job of the professional driver more difficult than ever before too. Many people find themselves having to get help with their stress. Being able to control emotions and stay in control even during the most stressful situations is essential.

Efficiency is Increasingly Important

Drivers are now also expected to get their jobs done in the most efficient ways. It’s about coming up with routes that maximize time and ensure that the client is kept happy. In a way, it puts more pressure on the driver. For delivery drivers, making the space they have available in their van more efficient via things like van shelving is very important as well. Efficiency is king.

Related:

• How to Make Big Bucks Driving for Uber
• Try a Career and Personality Test to Find Your Dream Job

Greater Emphasis on Freelance Work

It’s harder today to achieve permanent full-time employment as a driver. That’s not to say that those kinds of opportunities aren’t out there because they are. But there aren’t as many of them. Instead, we’re seeing a greater emphasis on freelance driving. And this stretches right across the spectrum from contractors who work for delivery companies to people who drive for companies like Uber and Lyft. That’s where the emphasis is right now.

Driving for a living is getting more difficult in certain ways, but the appeal remains for many people. And there is also more flexibility in this career than there ever was in the past. This comes with its costs and benefits, but many people still manage to have fulfilled careers as drivers.