If you still think people in hotels have lower salary and education, you are totally out of date. As for general Z, we stay in a booming time. With the fast development of Artificial Intelligence, it is obvious the first and second industry are being replaced gradually by it. Therefore, hospitality, that is about personal service, is becoming more and more popular around the world. I am going to share you how cool is it while more and more general Z join in.
Studying hospitality in Switzerland is cool
Deciding to study hospitality is one of the coolest things I did. Thanks to the globalization, when we consider what we like to be in the future, we can open our eyes to all over the world. In my father’s opinion being a teacher or a bank officer are steady jobs for a girl. No, it is not cool at all. I want to do a job I can meet different people every day, have chances to travel around the world, to have more time exploring nature. That is the reason I came to Switzerland to study it. To be honest, I really enjoy my study and also feel I am unique here. A simple example, now I am writing this blog to share what I think about general Z for my digital marketing course on the train. It can really put myself in this internet environment to create my ‘business’.
In addition, this hospitality school really helps me to adapt to my future work. I had the chance to learn fine dining service and we created a banquet all by ourselves to know how to manage each department. There are a lot of teachers who helped me with different suggestions once I met the problem or got confused. They also try their best to corporate with different companies, workshops to give us more options.
Furthermore, there are a lot of activities hold by school with a low price. For example, we have a one-day tour to go to Roma to relax. Also, during our cultural night at school, students from different countries have different booths to show their culture. It is helpful to know more about other culture to study or work in the international environment. The institute tries its best to let us know the local culture and stay in an international environment. We also have mid-term break and term-break, it can be four days or two weeks. Students always use this time to travel around Europe even around the world to experience the different culture, open their eyes on different natural sceneries and local tradition. It not only to experience the service, but the lifestyle. There is a Chinese proverb, read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles. As the first step into society, the hospitality institute helps a lot.
My first internship was cool
For the first internship, we have several options, and my choice was The Ritz Carlton, one of the typical luxury hotel in mainland China. If you ask me if it was hard, definitely yes, it was a hard time. It was a real job, with pressure from managers and customers but it was cool. I was in the guest recognition department, we were 6 trainees at that time, of course, we were all from generation Z. Our department is quite special. The crucial part is trainees, We need to connect with different department to provide a comfortable stay for customers and earn a great reputation from that. However, we have empowerment, this is the first cool thing I must to share with you, it means the hotel can give us more space to create for customers also for ourselves. The Ritz Carlton was the first hotel who did that, though there are a lot of hotels that begin to follow this trend. Empowerment means each employee have 2000 dollars every day to make your guests say wow and create a relationship for the hotel for life. I do have an example during my first internship.
One day, I got a call from Mr. Q. He went to Oriental pearl tower with his son, when they came back to the hotel, his son felt bad with his ears. They had to go back to Mexico the following day and he worried about that problem was not good for a long flight. After having a discussion with my manager, we decided that I took them to the hospital. Due to the insurance issue, foreigners have access to special clinic. However, the situation was an emergency, so I negotiated with doctors and solve this problem. Mr. Q was so impressed about what I did for him and said he felt at his friends’ home. I was also proud of what I did and the support from the hotel. I think this is why it is the best hotel in mainland China. I met lots of lovely guests and had a memorable experience there. Some of them said they appreciated what I did and gave their contact number to me for further meetings. When I work for the reputation of the hotel, it is also the best time to improve myself.
Meeting friends from different colleges are so cool! The trainees in our hotels study all over the world. During the work, we can combine different culture diversity and find kinds of ways to treat customers from all over the world. The hotel is quite big, almost every week I can know a new person from other departments. When I talked with them, it was also proper for me to know the operation of the hotel and the knowledge from different aspects. After work, we had the generation Z parties. We introduce our friends to each other to expand this group. Maybe, it was just a meal after a long day work, we share stories about customers we meet and the study life in our schools. Sometimes, they also share with me their internships before, in order to give me more choice to consider in the future. Last Christmas, I also got many delicate gifts from them. I always think it is so lucky I still have relationships with them. Therefore, even now we all come back to school, we usually have some chats online. This is not just the network, also valuable friendships for me.
Diversity future plan is cool
If you think the hospitality students can only work in hotels, I think you need to update your mind. In fact, the schools will offer different specialisation when we are familiar with hospitality. It includes human resource, luxury & sales management and financial, it means we have more options when we are going to work not only stay in hotels. In addition, in order to help more students who want to make their own business, we also have different masterclasses and workshops, there will be the successful businessmen in their industries to share their opinions and experience. The students who come here, they all say that they have a more specific plan for their future. That is a really nice beginning, isn’t it?
Moreover, we can also get information from the students who graduated. There are plenty of examples I can share with you. Because of the banquet course, we can have a job for event planning for any big companies. Also, the first year we learned about the food & beverage experience can help us join in the high-quality restaurants or open our own restaurants. what else? I also see a blog about a girl shares her work experience in Switzerland embassy graduated from hospitality school.
The reasons are her hospitality experience and the languages which she learned in school. There are a lot of choices for students who want a bright future plan. Our school is more like a big family. We also have many teachers who are always available to give you some suggestions of their own. We also have career development office, with dedicated persons who are concentrated on our future plan. They will always listen to you first and give you some recommends base on your plan. It seems that they are the people you need when you get lost.
I think whenever people ask me about the hospitality experience, I will be proud and I appreciated the growth process with all the people during this period of time. Sometimes, I think maybe I am the lucky one to have all of these things. Then I tell myself, I should work harder to live up to these experiences. All the things I tell you do not only persuade you to fall in love with hospitality but let you try to find your goal and future plan. The hospitality experience is cool, it also means the process you try to find yourself is cool. That is the way the general Z should do.
If you want to investigate more about Gen Z, look at this article. “Generation Z from Hotel Institute Montreux Is Proactive and Ready to Work "Moreover, if you have any questions or suggestions with my opinion about this topic, please kindly leave me a comment or share with your friends!
Author: Miss Sunny Song, Hospitality Bachelor Student at Hotel Institute Montreux (HIM), from China.