Making a career in the hospitality industry
The hospitality industry in India has been growing at a tremendous pace over the years. It has been contributing significantly to the growth of the service sector in the country and simultaneously making India a preferred destination of investment for foreign and national players. This industry offers an ocean of opportunities to India’s young and dynamic youth in terms of a career option.
Hospitality is a broad industry with many exciting avenues to pursue. Positive attitude, humility, hard work and compassion are some of the essential attributes to embark on a career in this industry. This coupled with rigorous skill-based and soft-skills training on the job is a sure-shot key to success for any employee. But what is most important to understand about a career in hospitality is that it is not a regular nine to five job with Sunday as one’s weekly day off. Working in this industry sometimes entails long and variable working hours, which includes working on festive days, but for the right candidate with a passion to provide efficient customer service this is never a deterrent.
While students from hotel management institutes are preferred in this line of work, the industry has ample career opportunities for non-hotel Management graduates in various operational fields such as Front Office, F&B Service and Housekeeping and non-operational fields such as HR, Finance and Sales & Marketing; history is witness to some of the latter ones (non-hotel management graduates) rising up from the ranks and making it to the boardrooms of hotel companies. Employees who have had exposure in this industry are looked out for by related industries since employees in this field are trained not j ust f o r a t a s k o r a j o b but groomed overall as a Service
THOSE IN THE INDUSTRY OFTEN PUT IN LONG AND VARIABLE WORKING HOURS INCLUDING WORK ON HOLIDAYS
professional in a multi-cultural environment. They are confident, customer centric, good at communication, decisive and equipped for handling any kind of situation.
Companies allot sizeable budgets for imparting trainings and providing local and international exposure to their employees.
Many hospitality management colleges in India offer diploma and degree courses in that field. This helps students acquire adequate knowledge, skills and outlook to efficiently start their career in the industry. Leadership Programmes/management Development Programmes run by hotel chains, which students can enrol in right after college, provide wings to the career of students who after successful completion of the programme begin their professional journey at an assistant manager level.
For others a lot of emphasis is laid on nurturing internal talent and giving them growth opportunities within the organization which could be vertical, lateral or for that matter cross-functional, based on the interest and aptitude of the employee.
A career in hospitality calls for a lot of hard work, constant learning, upskilling and multiskilling. Astute understanding of the overall industry, trends, challenges and current topics related to the industry are part of the learning experience.
A career in hospitality is not about doing a job; it is all about living your passion.
As the Indian economy is opening up its vistas, the future looks very promising for the hospitality sector and presents vast opportunities for people looking to build a career in this sector.