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Career in Hotel Management


Let’s look into another people intensive career of Hospitality. I had the opportunity to interact with a Hospitality professional with extensive experience of 20 years working in Hotels and currently operations manager in Customer Service at Amazon. 

Brief outline of his career, with hotel management degree from National Council of Hotel Management, Bhopal, he started with Taj group. Rising from trainee supervisor to General manager in a span of 15 years, across 7-8 cities, he joined Amazon in a challenging role.

He noted that he took up hospitality since it was glamorous when he passed 12th and also hotels mostly preferred people with army background, for a disciplined environment. There were 10-12 colleges which offered hotel management course.

Hotel Management – NCHM, Bhopal

  • Entrance exam – NCHM, Aptitude test followed by Interview
  • Top colleges nationally - IIHM (Private)
  • Duration of course - 3 years – some 4 years, 3 years diploma
  • 4 depts core courses
  • Curriculum was easy, subjects covered are accounts, French etc.
  • 50% weightage on practicals
  • Not many extra-curricular activities
  • Internship to taken up in 2nd year for 6 month (22 weeks) – Industrial exposure training (1993 – Taj- Goa)
  • College rank depending on Quality of professors, content, infrastructure
  • Only 5% of students are taken as direct management trainee
  • Campus provided placements, economy was opening up at that time. 50% average placement
  • 50% join hotels, 50% retail, BPOs, QSR, tourism
  • Top companies - Leela group, Marriott, Starwood
  • Starting salary has not gone up since then owing to intense competition. Management Trainee program of renowned chains take for 18 months fast track program.

First Job Experience:

He joined Taj group in 1995 as Trainee Supervisor, growing to Supervisor, then Asst manager, Restaurant Manager to Asst head, Head, DGM and then GM in span of 15 years till 2008. He was part of managing the service, menu planning and various hotel processes. He has moved from Calcutta to Indore to Nasik to Bombay to Delhi to Goa to Jodhpur to Bangalore. He states that when you move, you grow. Since the course was practical oriented, the shift to work life was not a quantum leap.

A work day:

Following activities to be taken care of

  • Metrics for yesterday
  • One on one meetings with subordinates/bosses
  • Planning for next week
  • Calls on process changes
  • Recruitment

Operations Manager in Customer Service looks after Customer feedback, Teams responding to customer feedback (200 associates), CS Managers and Supervisors. The major metric tracked is "Negative response rate".

Sweet Spots:

The work rarely gets monotonous unless stuck in a single role. It's very dynamic, meeting different people.

Hardships:

The workload in hotels is tremendous and very strenuous. Long hours are required with a few off per month. In the case of operations manager, it is more structured.

Pay Grades:

The pay starts very low in case of starting jobs in hotels. Only after 8-10 years of experience, an individual reaches an average pay grade of the industry.

Opportunities & Career Growth:

Professionals move every 3 years as they have a disadvantage if they stay in a particular role for long. People moving towards culinary start their own restaurants and the career path changes. Other opportunities are as restaurant managers with standalone restaurants.

Final Words: 

“Hospitality is for people who have the drive and passion for quality. If you are creative and have a passion to meet new people, you will succeed in this field.”

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