Hospitality careers are more varied now than they were 20 years ago, as Michael Devereux of Starwood Hotels & Resorts discusses in this TV show.

Hospitality careers now include design, technology and PR

The industry has become a lot more evolved as far as being a hotelier is concerned. You know in the days of being a hotelier where you become either a chef or a front office manager or a food and beverage manager, those were the three key fundamental sort of ladder positions that you could climb in the industry. Looking at the global market now there are jobs within the industry that are so exciting from a marketing perspective, PR, feasibility for instance. I mean you have universities in the world that are training guys in feasibility aspects to become real business leaders from a financial point of view in the industry and not just your chef and your front office type of manager. So it was either a rooms division path that you followed or you followed a food and beverage path. Nowadays there are so many more aspects to where you can get involved, technology is a huge part. Design, you know, there’s universities in America that are teaching youngsters how to design hotels. So it’s not just the operational, it’s how to set a, asset management is another one. It’s one thing opening a hotel but to manage that asset for the benefit of either the owner or the operator, that makes it cost effective, that’s a huge task. And they’re teaching youngsters in the world now how to do that. The Hospitality Channel will continue to follow discussions about the joys and challenges of hospitality careers.  

Hospitality careers are hard work but as Mohammed Al Nashwan discusses in this TV show, they are worth pursuing.

Hospitality career is worthwhile

Working in hospitality is not a job, I’ve learned that early, it’s a lifestyle. You need to be positive, you need to feel good about meeting new people. And you need to be open, to understand other cultures. What means positive in certain culture could be offending to other people, so you need to be open. At the same time it’s a very presence career, I always say we are only second to the movie industry, because in the movie you meet celebrities but in the hospitality you also meet lots of people, you get to travel, you are a global citizen, you travel anywhere and you meet people and it’s about being mobile. Because in hospitality if you stay at one property for over five years then you are limiting your chances. So this is something, if you have the stamina to travel, meet people, and always put an authentic and genuine smile, no matter how things are at home or you know. I think this career could be very, very rewarding. The beginnings are hard in hospitality, it’s not easy, it’s rough to start, but once you are in management the rewards are really worth it, worthwhile the effort you put at your 20 years old. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Hospitality Channel will have videos about all aspects of the industry including more about hospitality careers.