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.
