Career Paths in the Hospitality Industry. Which one will be yours?
Whether you are just getting ready to graduate from high school, or you are looking at a career change, hospitality management may be a career path to consider. Especially taking into consideration that the hospitality industry is growing steadily, getting a college degree in hospitality management will give you the skills needed to prepare you for the vast and exciting hospitality industry.
Undoubtedly, hotels and resorts are the heart of hospitality, and they offer a dynamic range of career paths. If you hold a Bachelor or a Master’s degree from this field, you will be able to work in different and exciting positions within the industry.
Below you can see some of our graduates’ current positions in the worldwide Hospitality industry and read more about each placement's role:
Sales Coordinator in Conference and Banqueting
A hotel sales coordinator works as part of the company's marketing and sales staff. His typical role is to prospect and sell the hotel's facilities and rooms to groups and organizations looking to hold conferences or events. Working closely with the banqueting team, he is responsible for the execution and delivery of all events, maximizing revenue, utilization of meeting space and working to achieve or exceed the defined budgeted revenues for banquet department. Coordinating details of the event is also key to developing long-term relationships with clients.
Sales Executive
Sales executives sell company's products and services to individuals and businesses in the hospitality industry. Sales may be domestic, international, or a combination of both. Sales executives also strive to maintain good relationships with existing clients, gaining repeat business wherever possible. Sales executives should be able to evaluate and study the position of the identified prospects in the industry, research about different sales options and analyzing them, recommend solutions to any problems faced by the clients, provide proper information, guidance and support to the clients hence enhancing the relationships, and be able to work with a team and achieve the desired results.
Front Office Agent / Guest Relation Officer
A hotel's Front Office Agent represents the first point of contact with guests and handles all stages of a guest's stay. A typical day as a hotel front desk agent involves registering/booking guests in and out of their rooms while accommodating any special requests. On the other hand, the Guest Relations Officer provides high-quality service to the hotel customers, and he is the person who addresses complaints and goes the extra mile to make sure guests are satisfied. Both positions demand excellent communication skills, a positive attitude when facing difficult situations, as well as being reliable and customer-oriented. The goal is always to ensure that guests will enjoy themselves as much as possible.
Human Resource Manager
Human resource managers provide oversight to their own department but are primarily responsible for the acquisition and management of staff. A human resource manager has two basic functions: overseeing department functions and managing employees. That's why human resources managers must be well-versed in each of the human resources disciplines – compensation and benefits, training and development, employee relations, and recruitment and selection.
Revenue Analyst
A Revenue Analyst implements revenue management operations, procedures and best practices. Acts as the overall business development consultant for the hotel manager/owner and challenges as well as influences the hotel to improve service level and operational standards. An important aspect of this role is to be able to build and maintain strong working relationships with the staff and the customers of the hotel.
Cluster Administrative Assistant of Sales and Marketing
This position includes general office duties performance and supports the Sales & Marketing Team (e.g. filing, sending emails, typing, faxing, copying). A Cluster Administrative Assistant of Sales and Marketing assists with sales-related projects, such as the organization of sales events, client visits as well as monthly performance analysis and reporting. He needs to be able to keep track on financial expenses of the hotel and work closely with sales, technical and product teams to plan, execute product marketing programs/campaigns and conduct post-program evaluations and well as implement online marketing activities and more.
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