For a long time now the variety and range of career prospects within the hospitality industry has become more and more apparent as the sector grows non-stop. The term hospitality has now expanded to include catering, so that many college and university courses may combine the two into one programme of study.
Hospitality and catering contain the widest range of jobs in any sector that requires customer service skills. You may naturally have some of the skills and knowledge necessary for this type of work, or gained them through work experience, part-time work, or study at college or university.
A Range of Jobs
For those wishing to enter the profession, there are plenty of jobs available for the newcomer. Most of these jobs involve food and beverages, including in restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, pubs and bars. You may be serving or working in the kitchen, depending on your training and experience. A large proportion of jobs lies within different types of accommodation, so there will be plenty of jobs in hotels, bed and breakfasts and youth hostels. Some hospitality and catering jobs will overlap with the travel and tourism and sports and leisure industries, covering tour operators, travel agencies, gyms and theme parks.
Senior Positions
If you have a degree or have done postgraduate study or completed professional management training qualifications then you could progress into hospitality and catering management. This would allow you access to more senior positions.
For example, a catering manager will plan and organise food and beverage for the business, as well as monitoring revenue targets and ensuring customer service expectations are met. A restaurant manager will be responsible for the efficient operation of the whole business, from financial performance to health and safety to food hygiene. Accommodation managers – who could be in either the public or private sectors – will ensure that whatever the type of accommodation, standards of maintenance, cleaning and service are executed to the highest possible standards. All of these posts will also include the management, training and scheduling of staff.
However, working at entry-level in hospitality and catering will mean surviving on a lower salary than would be the case in travel and tourism for example. And, you are likely to start on part-time hours because of the unpredictable and seasonal nature of the demand for services in this sector. There will almost certainly be an element of anti-social hours. There is also likely to be a high turnover of staff in this profession, as small restaurants and bars go out of business and others are created.
There is no doubt that for those in the hospitality industry every day will be different, challenging, exciting and energetic, as they put their creative talents and customer service skills to good use in a profession where promotion can be rapid.
As you can imagine, the work is fast-moving and unpredictable, so as well as using your customer service skills you will need to be able to react to change and solve problems quickly, always in the interest of the customer.