Alternative Employment Opportunities After Hotel Management
By Kiran Kumar

It is now time for a new academic year to commence. The previous batches would have passed out and many without jobs. It is particularly for these students to start hunting for jobs without wasting time waiting for results or think about their performance at campus interviews.

Though, a decent job at a hotel is the main objective of all students, it is not quite possible for all to get through. Only few major hotel chain recruit through campus interviews; the rest advertise in newspapers or recruit through mediums of walk-in interviews or other modes. Recent passouts should make it a point at any cost, not to idle time. This can result in a career jolt, and affect the ladders to a smooth career. However, if one cannot make it through hotels, there are always other options available:

• Fast food chains like Domino’s, McDonalds, etc do give preference to hotel management students at their outlets. However, the recruitment procedure are normally walk-in interviews conducted continuously on specific days; without advertisement in the newspapers or magazines.
• Entertainment centres like bowling alleys, theme parks give preference to hotel management students in various positions like public relations, front office, F&B outlets and other areas of guest communication.
• Cellular operators, pager companies etc prefer hotel management graduates and diploma holders for all customer support posts. The payment and perks are quite attractive.
• Sales executive of hotel groups like Sarovar Park Plaza, Fariyas etc employ hotel management students for which fresh students are also preferred. Other resorts and club also recruits hotel school passouts.
• Major retail shops run by big names in major metros recruits hotel management students as public relations officer, floor managers or other similar customer contact posts. Such advertisements usually appear in major dailies.
• Major tour companies and travel agents also give weightage to hotel management students in positions like tour executives, tour managers etc. These require a high amount of travelling order pressure.
• Lately insurance companies and other finance-related companies and banks have realised the potential of good customer care and are giving way to many news posts like client service personnel for which due weightage is given to hotel management students and especially freshers. They are trained for a period of one to two years before the final placement.

These are other conventional sources of recruitment like hotels, airlines, industrial catering, railways, clubs, generally recruits freshers from hotel management institutes. So, there is always hope.

(The author is a faculty at the Munnar Catering College, Trivandrum Centre, Kerala)

NBA Certification - A Necessity?

Recently, as proposed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to grant NBA (National Board of Accreditation) certificates to all technology courses including hotel management is slowly being implemented. A few days ago AICTE has advertised in major dailies inviting proposals for above.

Being part of the hotel industry and moreover an upcoming hotel management college, I put forward some suggestions or rather observations.

All hotel management colleges in India are affiliated to various institutions, organisations and universities for example, an institution functioning under AH&LA will be completely different from one under the Bangalore University. The Bangalore University itself underlines various rules and policies regarding running the college and so does AH&LA has its own set of guidelines. Along with it, some institutions have the recognition of AICTE and Government of India or the concerned state.

During recruitment until a few years back, hotels were very particular about the college it was recruiting students from. But, recently all hotels are flexing rules to gain good students. Even hotels like the Oberoi, Taj etc are now regularly conducting and recruiting students from private colleges, which previously were dependent on government institutions.

Down south in Kerala with the boom of the hotel industry and dearth of hotel management institutes are resulting in hotels recruiting candidates from fly-by-night institutes also. Their moral “fill vacancy first,” rather than assessing the college. At such a time, the NBA certification - “will it fulfil its purpose” is for the AICTE and the industry to decide.