Is there a career in hospitality?
Hospitality isn’t just a home for gig workers. It’s an industry full of opportunities for career growth and development. Here are all the reasons to give hospo life a second glance.
It’s known as one of the globe’s biggest industries. It’s responsible for the employment of roughly one in ten people worldwide. And it’s widely recognised as a lively, fun and ever-changing sector that places people at its heart and offers some significant perks. Yet hospitality and tourism has long been overlooked as a career path.
While the resumes of countless Aussies feature stints in hospo, most stick around for a good time not a long time, turning to restaurant and hotel work as a stopgap solution, or a part-time gig while studying. As such, turnover rates for entry-level jobs are some of the highest of any industry out there.
But with a wide number of structured graduate programs available, plenty of opportunity for lateral career moves, a culture of promoting from within, solid earning potential for leadership roles and an increasingly flexible approach to work hours, have we been unfairly dismissing the hospo industry as a long-term prospect all this time?
Career opportunities in hospitality
Nicole Downs, group director of people and performance at Ovolo Hotels, is a hospitality veteran who ‘fell’ into the industry.
Like many Aussies before her, she worked in hotels after high school to help fund travels abroad. But unlike the norm, she decided to stick around. A poster child for career pivots, and a case in point for how flexible hotel workplaces can be, she’s tried her hand at almost every hotel role conceivable over the last 20-plus years, from chef to bartender, front office staff member and reservations agent.
Eventually she found her “true calling” in human resources, where she started out as an HR coordinator. “It took me 10 years to figure out that I’m not going to be a chef or front-of-house,” she says. “But it allowed me to travel the world.”
Despite her accidental pathway into hospitality, developing a career in the industry was entirely intentional.
[It’s] the excitement of knowing that no two days are the same and that we get to do what we love every day, enriching people’s lives, encounters and connections,” she says of her reasons for staying in the business.
The array of senior jobs available in any one hotel alone is vast, but there are plenty of other sectors beyond hotels and resorts where hospitality management grads flourish: think airlines, cruise lines, theme parks, tour operators, tourism boards, festivals, wineries, restaurants, galleries, cultural institutes, wellness venues, music venues and more.
Is hospitality a career path?
The hospitality industry has long suffered from a bit of an image problem. It’s typically written off because of the stereotypes of low pay and inflexible hours.
But things are changing, and post-Covid there are signs of an industry reckoning, with the shortage of workers and increased demand helping to drive up wages and improve working conditions.
Even industry big dogs such as Accor have implemented structural changes to attract new employees: the hotel group’s ‘Work Your Way’ program cements its commitment to flexible working, whatever your role.
Not only is the sector adapting to accommodate the needs of a diverse workforce, welcoming those who might’ve previously been put off, but it’s also a surprisingly progressive place in other ways.
Studies have shown that hospitality has one of the highest rates of women in leadership positions and the second lowest gender pay gap out of 19 industries surveyed, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s 2020-21 employer census. Women account for 53% of employees in accommodation and food services, and occupy 45% of managerial roles, a figure reflected similarly by some of the globe’s biggest hotel brands.
In 2022, 40% of Marriott’s global company-managed hotel general managers were women, and 42% of Hilton Hotels & Resorts’ leadership team was female.
Having climbed the corporate hospitality ladder herself, Nicole waxes lyrical about the potential for professional development, whatever your aspirations.
There is ample room for progression and career development in the hospitality industry,” she says. “It offers a wide range of opportunities for advancement and growth.”
Almost any hotel chain or restaurant group worth its salt has an established program for nurturing new talent. At Ovolo that looks like year-long management traineeships and graduate placements. At homegrown hotel and entertainment company EVT, there’s the Elevate Leadership Accelerator program, which launched in early 2022 and offers participants on-the-job experience across all departments to prepare them for a general manager position.
And most international hotel chains offer structured graduate programs devoted to growing future hospo leaders.
Marriott International, for example, has Voyage. A 12–18-month global leadership development program that operates across Marriott’s hotel brands, Voyage offers training and development that covers many disciplines (accounting and finance, culinary, engineering, event management, revenue management, and more), as well as departmental rotations and the opportunity to learn from the company’s senior leaders.
While at IHG employees at any level can make use of IHG University, which delivers training across four different ‘schools’, including the School of Business Performance and the School of Hotel Management, and promises to support your career development.
Is hospitality a field of study?
Entry-level front-of-house hospitality roles require little in the way of formal education. But having a qualification can put you ahead of the competition when it comes to leadership roles, which require an altogether different set of skills, such as financial and team management; subjects which are covered extensively in many of the hospitality management courses offered through Open Universities Australia.
“The hardest thing you have to learn is managing people and managing teams,” says Nicole.
She’s quick not to devalue the power of soft skills—and flags the importance of practical experience, networking, and ongoing learning, all of which the right course can offer—but says that further education also offers other valuable benefits, so long as you’re clear on where you want to be.
“The qualification [can] set [you] up. It’s a really beneficial foundation. But the value of a diploma or degree ultimately depends on your goals and how effectively you leverage the education and connections it offers. It’s a decision that should be made based on careful consideration of your aspirations and the potential benefits of formal education in your desired career path.”
Want to chat about the right course for your career? Get in touch with a friendly Open Universities Australia student advisor. Or browse online hospitality management courses available with leading universities.
