Leading Towards A Successful Career

When graduation is around the corner, students ask a range of questions with regard to career options and choices. Allan D’Souza offers some advice to provide some clarity and focus for that ‘perfect career’...

We learn through our mistakes. However mistakes in career terms are costly and often irreversible. It therefore becomes vital to learn from others experiences. We prepare months in advance for a 10-day annual vacation, which is fair, but how much thought do we give to a 40-year journey called ‘our career’?

Indian hospitality has opened up like never before. The options to work with world class organisations with world-class systems, procedures and equipment are enviable. On the other hand, owing to the increased number of hospitality institutes, recruiting companies too have increased options to choose employees from. Graduating students at the beginning of their careers are aware of the many avenues and opportunities that exist in today’s business world. However, a little bit of advice early in one’s career can provide that much needed clarity and focus required for the ‘perfect career’.

Based on my interaction with students over the years, here are a few tips on how a graduating hospitality student can get it right the first time.

• Understand the difference between a career and a job

A career is a series of jobs that one holds over a period of time. A career is a long-term plan in which each job is a step towards goal achievement. Thus, it is vital that each step is planned and thought out before it is executed. Sometimes it becomes necessary to sacrifice in the short-term for the sake of the bigger picture.

• Use your time in college wisely

The prospective employer would like to know how good you have been in whatever you were doing in the recent past. Look for avenues and opportunities that exist in your institute to invest and display your talent and skills.

• Make sure you have written goals and targets

What is written is tangible, verifiable and therefore makes one accountable. Account for each day’s

progression towards your ultimate goal. Set priorities and remind yourself of them every day. Don’t just drift from one job to another, every step should be part of the plan.

• Get into the habit of learning for life

Students are entitled to the luxury of learning on a semester to semester basis. What gets tested in one semester is assumed learnt in the next and therefore not tested. In the real world every bit of skill and every piece of knowledge that you possess is on call every single day. Therefore, in addition to utilising what you know, learning on a day-to-day basis is mandatory. There is no need to take a break from your career to learn any more - a distance learning programme is at your doorstep.

• Higher studies immediately after graduation v/s gaining work experience

A classic hospitality graduation question. Hospitality students often expect supervisory and managerial positions immediately after graduation. However, all hospitality supervision and management is based on hardcore hospitality operations.

Unless you are a pro at the job yourself, being able to lead a team becomes rather difficult. Work experience provides real life insights into business - something that education can’t do. A short period of work experience followed by post-graduation studies results in the student being able to understand and extract more out of the post-graduate programme.

• Determine skill sets and competencies required for the job you desire

Skill sets required for the food production department are very different from those required by front of the house areas. Entry level positions in food production demand good technical skills, whereas front of the house areas necessitate good interpersonal skills in addition to basic technical skills.

* Make mistakes early in your career

You are entitled to make mistakes, but you are allowed to make a particular mistake once only. A transition from food production to a front of the house area may not be that easy four years into your career so think clearly before determining the department of your choice. Speak to people already in the business as to what exactly it takes to be successful in that particular sphere and then decide whether you are willing to pay the price to be successful in that area. The price that you could have to pay includes hard work, absolute single-mindedness, etc.

* Use industrial training to determine your strengths and weaknesses

Your experiences of a particular hotel department are restricted to what you see, hear and do while in college. That’s the impression of the department that you carry with you. It is not uncommon for students to like or dislike a subject in college because of the faculty teaching it. However, the reality of the department in the hotel might be quite different. So use your training experience to determine which department is best for you in terms of your personality, your goals and your chosen career path. Ask as many questions as you can.

* Choose the department you wish to work in, let it not happen by default

If you choose to make your career in food production, it should be because production is your forte. You should be passionate about types of raw materials, cuisines, cooking methods, culinary heritage, presentation and making people happy through the medium of food. Remember you will have to deal with this area for the rest of your life. Don’t choose food production because your communication skills are not as good as you would like them to be. Instead, if you enjoy meeting people and would prefer a front of the house area, a better course of action would be to improve your communication skills.

* Steward in a five-star hotel or management trainee in a quick service restaurant?

The answer to this question lies entirely on your goals. If superior food and beverage technical skills are what you consider important for your career, a position as a steward in a five-star hotel will be beneficial. A management-training programme in a quick service restaurant (QSR) will have limited food and beverage technical input, however the emphasis will be on running a profitable business.

Handling finances, staff, schedules, suppliers and customers will be the skills you will learn in a management training programme in a QSR. Also remember that working in a QSR makes your career that much more niche and therefore moving into an F&B area in a hotel later in your career becomes that much more difficult.

* Take a job because you need it and because it fits into your career plan, rather than because it happened to be offered to you

A career is rather like a game of chess; all your moves should be oriented towards being successful at the higher, if not so visible level. It is important that even if no one understands what you are up to, you are clear on what you would like to achieve. Every job should be a step in the learning curve of your career.

* Major league or minor league?

Whatever your career goals, it makes more sense to start your career in a larger organisation and move to a smaller organisation if and when you want to. Hold this important career option with you. Starting your career in a large organisation widens your perspective, exposes you to processes, equipment and clientele that you might not encounter in a smaller organisation. A transition the other way round is that much more difficult. If your career goal is to start off something on your own, learn at someone else’s expense. Remember, well begun is half done.

* Remember you (and no one else) are responsible for your career

Everyone talks about a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis, but at a personal level very few individuals actually perform this exercise. Experts today encourage us not to bother too much about our weaknesses but to concentrate on fully exploiting our strengths. Think about the things that you do well, things that satisfy you and construct your career around these. You can hardly go wrong.

* Appreciate the power of networking

Once you graduate, you will get very busy with the everyday business of life. College friends and college memories will seem a world away. However, your batch mates in different hospitality organisations around the globe are best placed to provide you with that one vital break that your are looking for. Strange things are known to happen with keeping in touch.

* Get advice, but be selective with the advice you take

Listen to as many points of view as possible, the more divergent the better. Alternative points of view will offer you options that you hadn’t thought of in your wildest dreams. All the advice that you take must assist you in making decisions that will do great things for your career. It’s okay to agree to disagree.

* Be patient, the grass is always greener on the other side

Young hospitality professionals are prone to leave jobs for a five hundred-rupee hike in salary. Money is obviously important, but at this stage of your career learning and exposure are worth their weight in gold. Give or take a few qualities, organisations in a certain category are by and large the same.

If asked to put a time frame to the amount of time a hospitality graduate should at his first job, I would say a minimum of two years at the least. Give yourself time to do something for the organisation and give the organisation time to do something for you.

* Waiting for the perfect break

Once you have decided on the area of your career and you receive a reasonable job offer, just do it! In life, there is no such thing as the perfect break. Waiting for the perfect break results in self doubt creeping into your personality and dents to your morale. Conversely getting on with it results in you having a daily schedule, your mind being occupied, you meeting people, a bank balance (however small) and family satisfaction. Get into a virtuous cycle as quickly as possible and stay in it.

* Dealing with moving on

Ideally speaking, you should move on from one organisation to another only when all the learning that the organisation can offer you at a certain level is over. Practically speaking, it makes sense to leave only after you reach a level higher than when you joined the organisation. Putting in time and energy at a certain position and not obtaining its consequent benefit doesn’t make career sense.

* Remember your hospitality qualification prepares you for a variety of service careers

Take advantage of this fact and spread your net as wide as possible. Take off your blinkers and keep an open mind. Front of the house skills are transferable over a wide range of service industries and they are in demand.

* Finally, remember confusion is quite universal

For most people the transition from college life to a workplace scenario is one of the biggest leaps that they will take in life. Questions abound and doubts creep in. But if the foundations of your career are solid, logical and sensible, success is bound to beat a path right up to your door.

Here’s a wishing you all the success in whatever you choose to do in life.

(The author is assistant professor-hotel operations, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s IHMCT, Pune)