Needing to Find Work Experience in a Profession You Are Interested in but Know Little About
Main Trunk
Chapter xiii. Careers and Work Experience
Micki McCartney and Lynda Robinson
- Place and define the steps in career planning
- Place aspects of labour marketplace information
- Compare and describe types of work learning experiences
- Describe tools and strategies to successfully consummate piece of work experience
- Explore career management strategies for workplace success
- Review industry career profiles and professions for common themes
Overview
This chapter is divided into three parts. First, nosotros'll acquire the essential steps of career planning. And so we'll take a await at the types of piece of work experience you tin engage in while all the same at school. Finally, nosotros'll explore how y'all can integrate your planning with your teaching and experiences, and we'll hear from graduates who have been successful in their career choices.
Let's start with a review of the essential steps in the career planning procedure.
Career Planning
Shepard and Mani define career planning "every bit an ongoing process through which an private sets career goals and identifies the means to achieve them" (2013, p. 14). It is through career planning that a person evaluates abilities and interests, assesses values and personality, considers alternative career opportunities, establishes career goals, and plans applied developmental activities.
Career planning requires individuals to understand themselves and their values, interests, and skills. It is also an ongoing process, one that must exist repeated with changes in employment and life circumstances. As you proceeds more experience and noesis, the procedure will begin afresh.
This section reviews the five essential steps of career planning, which are based on our inquiry and input from manufacture experts:
- Comport a self-assessment
- Research the labour market
- Create your career search toolkit
- Put your career campaign into activeness
- Engage in networking
Allow's start at footstep one.
Step Ane: Behave a Self-Assessment
Self knowledge is the key to choosing a career. It tin be overwhelming to begin the process of self-assessment. Withal, if done well at the start, the likelihood of securing piece of work that has meaning, purpose, and fulfillment is far greater. Understanding your preferences, knowing your strengths, and honestly facing the areas you lot need to develop are the kickoff steps for constructive self-assessment.
Take a Closer Look: Tourism Careers from the CTHRC
The Canadian Tourism HR Council (CTHRC) has a website that tin help you explore career options. Start with its "tourism career quiz" to see where you might discover a fit, and browse the list of job boards and other resources. Check out these Tourism Career Resources: http://world wide web.cthrc.ca/en/resources/tourism_careers
Rosenberg McKay (2014) identifies self-cess as "the process of gathering data about you in order to brand a knowledgeable career decision" and adds that "a self-assessment should examine values, interests, personality, and skills" (¶ 1). Your values should guide your determination making to ensure a good fit for both you and your employer.
Take a Closer Look: Explore Careers by Skills and Knowledge
The Government of Canada Job Bank website allows you to peruse occupations and explore the skills and knowledge required to piece of work in these fields. Discover what jobs might be a good match for you at the Government of Canada Job Bank: http://www.jobbank.gc.ca/es_all-eng.do
Many people find that over the course of their post-secondary program they naturally become more cocky-aware. It'south recommended, nonetheless, that you lot accept time to practice the following in society to facilitate your agreement:
1. Think back to when you were a child. What hopes and dreams did you take for yourself? How accept these changed?
two. Develop a profile of your personality blazon. One helpful mode of classifying personalities was developed by Myers and Briggs. Y'all can learn more about their personality types by visiting their foundation at Myers and Briggs Personality Types: www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/.
3. Exercise an internet search for terms like personal value statement and discover examples that inspire y'all. These may include key words such as loyalty, accountability, determination, and passion. Now create your own unique argument that reflects where you are today.
four. Gain a better understanding of yourself by learning how others see you. Ask a close friend, family member, or trusted bookish contact to write down 10 key words that depict you. Notice where these are different or similar to the words you lot chose for your value statement.
5. Go back to the introductory chapter of this textbook and make note of the five key sectors of the tourism manufacture. With a highlighter or similar tool, cull the ii sectors that are the most highly-seasoned to you. Why are these of interest? What life experiences or work experience do you have that employ to these sectors? How do they align with your personality type and values?
With this foundation in place, yous're ready to face employment reality past gaining a greater understanding of the labour market place.
Pace 2: Research the Labour Market
Whether yous are career planning for the very first time or you lot are trying to modify careers, gathering labour market information is necessary to ensure your education and grooming are relevant. Go on in mind that a career is distinct from a chore. A task can be a part-time or brusk-term position, whereas a career is work you programme to explore for the length of your professional person life, with each employment opportunity building on the last.
Learning equally much equally you tin can almost careers within the tourism and hospitality industry volition allow you lot to brand skilful decisions near your futurity. Some of the activities you can practise to complete your inquiry include visiting job boards to place demand and following companies and sectors in the media. Let's look at these concepts in more detail.
Visit Tourism and Hospitality Job Boards to Identify Demand
It's not plenty for you to desire to work in a certain field — you have to know what types of jobs are currently being offered. By visiting chore boards yous tin can go a sense of which geographic areas have more than opportunities, how much different jobs pay, and what kind of experience is required.
Websites you tin use for this search include:
- The go2HR chore board for tourism and hospitality jobs in BC: www.go2hr.ca/jobboard
- Hospitality Works (H Careers): world wide web.hcareers.ca
- HotellerieJobs: www.hotelleriejobs.com/en
- Your local Craigslist classified listings: www.craigslist.org/nigh/sites
- Listings specific to resort communities (e.g., Whistler: Whistler Task Board: http://whistlerchamber.chambermaster.com/jobs)
- Career pages for companies like Fairmont Hotels Careers (www.fairmontcareers.com), and JOEY Restaurants Careers (http://joeyrestaurants.com/careers/)
Brand note of any interesting positions, and pay attending to gaps. Compare this to your self-assessment. Where are the opportunities lining up? What changes might you take to brand to advance your career? For case, if yous'd like to stay in the same city, but see no jobs posted that match your needs, it might be time to look elsewhere.
Follow Companies and Sectors in the Media
Make it a bespeak to follow companies and sectors of interest to you in the media. You tin can do this by using a search engine to set notifications (e.1000., Google Alerts) virtually sectors (due east.thou., restaurants, ski resorts), and following companies on social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram). You lot can as well monitor news from manufacture associations to read their commentary on issues and trends affecting specific sectors of the manufacture and/or geographic regions. This will aid you place growth patterns, sympathise job marketplace trends, and gain an edge should you have the opportunity to interview.
With this information in hand, y'all'll be ready to create a plan.
Spotlight On: The go2HR Job Board
The job board hosted by go2HR is your ane-stop shop for tourism and hospitality jobs and careers in BC. Search by geographic region, keyword, and more. For more information, visit the go2HR Job Board: https://world wide web.go2hr.ca/jobboard
Step Iii: Create Your Career Search Toolkit
You have completed your initial enquiry, and now you need to go down to business! This step involves getting fix to approach employers about specific opportunities.
Identify, and be prepared to provide evidence of, the attributes and skills you possess that would be attractive to an employer. It can be helpful to review these in three categories:
- Personal attributes: describe what you are like as a person/employee (eastward.g., your values, personality blazon, personal qualities, and characteristics)
- Technical skills: skills and knowledge required to perform specific work (e.yard., how to utilize restaurant Bespeak-of-Auction systems, hotel reservations systems, or other estimator software)
- Transferable skills: skills required to perform a diverseness of tasks that can exist transferred from 1 type of task to some other (e.one thousand., the power to read a residue canvas and gear up a budget)
Utilise the list of your skills and attributes when you draw yourself in your documents.
A standard set up of job search documents includes:
- Embrace letter: a long-form document of one page that tells a story, illustrating how your skills and experience make you an ideal candidate for the task.
- Resume (sometimes called a curriculum vitae or CV): a bespeak-form document, typically two pages, that includes your career objective, relevant feel, education, skills, and interests.
- Reference list: identifies three or four professional contacts who have worked with y'all, and tin vouch for the quality of your work.
Be sure to update these documents each fourth dimension you apply for a position and customize them to the opportunity at mitt.
You may too want to consider using social media tools and resources to promote yourself. This may include creating a LinkedIn profile, making a professional (rather than personal) Facebook page, and using Twitter and Instagram to communicate with companies. Some job seekers as well use a professional due east-portfolio to demonstrate their skills, cognition, and abilities. Showcasing your experiences with an due east-portfolio is i way to stand out from other applicants (Lorenzo & Ittleson, 2005).
Take a Closer Look: E-portfolio Tools
This listing, updated regularly, was created by EPAC, the Electronic Portfolio Action & Communication listserv. It provides access to a range of tools for creating e-portfolios with links to fundamental websites. Before using a specific tool, exist sure to check with an instructor to see whether your program has recommended due east-portfolio platforms at its disposal. To view the list, visit E-portfolio Tools: http://epac.pbworks.com/w/page/12559686/Evolving%20List%25C2%25A0of%25C2%25A0ePortfolio-related%25C2%25A0Tools
Step Iv: Put Your Career Campaign into Activity
At present it's time to brand a list of companies to target, and to approach them.
We've already addressed how yous tin can find opportunities past scanning postings on websites like the go2HR task lath. This is a great start, but most piece of work opportunities are found in the hidden job market, which consists of jobs that are not advertised or made public in traditional means. Many individuals find work in BC'south tourism and hospitality industry past being referred, getting hired past someone they already know, or starting at an entry-level position and waiting for futurity growth opportunities.
If you don't take whatever connections in tourism and hospitality, make them! List all the organizations you lot're interested in working for. At present detect some fundamental contacts to run across with. These might be:
- The person responsible for hiring inside the organization (as noted on its website or in its directory)
- An alumni from your program already working for the company (ask a kinesthesia member to connect you)
- The person who currently works in your ideal function within the company
- A personal contact (family unit fellow member, friend, or acquaintance) working at the company
Approach your potential contact to prepare an informational interview. This is a session where you lot make contact with individuals who can use their start-hand experience to educate you about a particular role or company.
Write a curt script that will help yous remain focused and appear professional person every bit you embark on your first call or transport an initial email. Hither's a sample:
I have five years' experience working in the tourism and/or hospitality field, mainly belongings forepart-end positions. I take increased render visitor numbers and received continuous feedback nearly my outstanding customer service focus. I am wondering if you have ten minutes to speak with me.
Your script will modify depending on who you are targeting. Prepare a list of questions you desire to ask. Remember, at this stage, y'all are not request for a job; you're asking for communication and gathering data. Don't ask obvious questions nearly information already available on the company's website or in its print material. Some questions might include:
- What are three words you would use to describe the civilization of this visitor?
- In the time that yous've worked here, would you say the company has grown? What has changed? What has stayed the same?
- What is a 24-hour interval-in-the-life of someone in (name a part) at this visitor?
- What salary range is bachelor for entry-level employees?
- What types of preparation and career path support is offered to employees?
- Are in that location any other people I should be talking to well-nigh this? If possible, could you give me their contact information or introduce me to them?
The conversation should be professional but breezy in nature, and many of your questions will be answered in the natural flow of the conversation. Take notes as you move through the interview, and have a minute after the interview to fill in details you may have missed while you were there.
After the session, always send a thank-you notation. Thank the person for his or her time, and add something specific you learned in the interview that you believe will be helpful as you lot navigate your career. Sending an email thank-you lot is fine, merely sending a written menu will help you stand up out.
If yous're given the name of someone else to contact, or you are asked to provide further information, be sure to follow through. This is your opportunity to make a good impression on your contact, and the organisation.
Footstep Five: Engage in Networking
Developing your professional network every bit an emerging professional person in tourism and hospitality is essential. Simply as you demand to continue to learn and develop your skill sets, you demand to develop and nurture your network; it'southward an investment in your future. Some ways to exercise this include:
- Conducting multiple informational interviews (covered in the previous step)
- Maintaining contact with academic classmates/faculty
- Attention and presenting at conferences
- Participating in case written report competitions and other academic contests
- Using social media networks and groups
- Maintaining good relationships with coworkers at your electric current job, and staying in touch with people when they leave
- Asking family and friends to innovate you to tourism and hospitality professionals in their network
Call up that networking is equally about who you know and who knows you; it works both means. Exist generous with your contacts, information, and resources. As a new professional, you may not have a developed network, only you can offering your great attitude and valuable ideas, and you will shortly proceeds a reputation as someone who contributes to the field.
Now that you have a sense of the steps needed to plan your tourism or hospitality career, let's have a look at an important tool: work feel, which you tin gain while however at school to propel you to your ideal career much faster.
Work Experience
Experiential learning is "based on students being directly involved in a learning experience rather than being recipients of ready-made content in the class of lectures" (ContactPoint, 2014a). Experiential learning is:
- Action-oriented
- Learner-centred
- Geared toward procedure, rather than outcomes
In this style, noesis is created as the learner moves through the experience.
Through your educational program, you may be able to participate in a multifariousness of different learning experiences in tourism and hospitality. Students who participate in a learning feel outside of the classroom are more likely to enter the field with both academic and applied workplace skills and noesis, and have more opportunities for career advancement.
Allow's have a look at some of the common types of work learning experiences:
- Co-op education
- Internship
- Practicum
- Service learning
- Volunteering
Each of these is divers below.
Co-op Didactics
Co-operative, or co-op education refers to "a structured programme that integrates piece of work feel in a student's field along with academic studies by alternate in-class learning with periods of actual work" (ContactPoint, 2014b, ¶ 1). The term reflects the co-operative relationship betwixt students, schools, and employers.
Internship
An internship is a temporary on-the-job experience that is "typically offered to students or inexperienced workers" (ContactPoint, 2014c, ¶ 1). It is generally project-oriented, and supervised.
The intern should have specific learning goals against which he or she tin apply feel about a particular manufacture or field of work. The term may be paid or unpaid, and may lead to permanent career opportunities with the organization (ContactPoint, 2014b).
Practicum
A practicum is "applied learning that provides students with practical experience and interaction with professionals from industry and the community outside of school" (Continued, 2011, p.3). The goal is to back up career readiness and help heighten:
- Higher-order thinking
- Bookish skills
- Technical skills
- Applied workplace skills
The experience may be paid or unpaid.
Service Learning
Service learning is defined as a course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students:
- Participate in an organized service activeness that meets identified community needs
- Reflect on the service action to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility (Bringle & Hatcher, 1995)
Volunteering
Volunteering involves performing a service without pay in social club to obtain work experience, learn new skills, meet people, contribute to community, and contribute to a crusade that's important to the volunteer (for example, helping animals, supporting elderly people, working for an environmental cause) (Pickerell, 2014).
Benefits of Piece of work Feel Programs
Students who have completed a formal work experience component benefit from a supportive partnership between the educational institution, the employer, and themselves. This partnership encourages customs stakeholder investment, educatee learning opportunities, professional networks, every bit well as opportunities for employers to participate as co-educators.
Some institutions may work with an experiential educational activity coordinator to ensure a particular position meets the schoolhouse's criteria. Depending on your program, remuneration for piece of work tin exist by the hour, by bacon, by a stipend, as in-kind contributions (experiences or services from the business organisation), or as a volunteer consignment. The educational institution may monitor your placement and inquire you to complete an assignment where y'all reflect on the work feel. Some programs may have an evaluation component and a supervisor who supports the pupil's learning. Students are also evaluated by the employer, and they volition take a supervisor whom they written report to directly.
Most often, for students to participate in a work experience plan, they are required to maintain a certain grade bespeak average (GPA) set by the school. Often students are too asked to establish learning goals prior to starting their work experience.
If your program doesn't offer a formal work experience plan such every bit a co-op, internship, or practicum, you lot can nevertheless gain valuable hands-on learning through part-time piece of work and volunteer opportunities. Considering tourism is the number-ane employer of youth in BC, you tin can detect a part-time task to develop your skills and proceeds an entry-level opportunity to join the manufacture.
Whatever experience you lot engage in, be information technology formal, or informal, information technology's important to:
- Explore your employer'south organizational civilisation and social norms
- Practise your best on the job
- Gain disharmonize management and resolution skills
These three keys come up directly from BC tourism and hospitality employers (LinkBC, 2014), and are explored in the adjacent department.
Integrating Planning with Instruction and Experience
The final career planning element we'll explore in this affiliate involves integrating your education and work experience. By applying classroom learning to the field, and then bringing lessons from your workplace back to the classroom, you tin see primal concepts in action.
Research Organizational Civilisation and Social Norms
Each organization has its own civilization and social norms. Organizational culture refers to "the customs, rituals, and values shared by the members of an organization that have to be accepted by new members" (Collins English Dictionary, 2012), and is expressed through its mission statement, vision, beliefs, language systems, and processes. Social norms refer to the style individuals in the organization collaborate, communicate, and generally comport with each other.
You volition want to sympathise the culture of an organisation before applying for a job there to ensure your values are congruent. Find out what's important to the organization by researching the business concern. How does it present its public face?
Asking questions of a potential employer about the organization's culture will help yous appraise whether it is a good fit for you. You lot tin can do this past asking employees in the arrangement during the informational interview; or alternatively, in a formal job interview.
Performance on the Job
This is your fourth dimension to smoothen — no matter what role you've been assigned. In add-on to respecting and working within a company'southward civilization, once you start your position, it's fourth dimension for you to testify initiative (Iannarino, due north.d.). Demonstrate an involvement in learning and contributing to the organization'southward goals and objectives and you will stand out from other employees.
Act without waiting to be told what to practice and persistently follow through on piece of work responsibilities, regardless of the obstacles. Think almost ways to improve operations, and come up with new ideas, while presenting these in a way that shows you respect management'southward expertise. It'due south up to you to signal to your employer that you're someone who can exist counted on and you have leadership potential. Some ways of showing initiative include:
- Asking to notice a meeting
- Asking to shadow a manager in some other department
- Reading through visitor policies and plans, and request questions about them
- Offering to bring your skills to the table to make a divergence, such as setting up a social media business relationship for the company or creating a training manual for hereafter students in your position
Ofttimes, you'll be able to accept advantage of project work at school to accomplish some of the in a higher place.
Practise Conflict Management and Resolution
The bulk of tourism and hospitality employers stress that conflict management is an essential skill in this customer-service driven industry (LinkBC, 2014). Information technology's up to you to exercise these skills at your workplace.
In virtually conflicts, the ultimate goal must be to find a resolution. Avoiding or ignoring conflict is not an effective strategy. While resolving conflict can be uncomfortable, unresolved conflict actually makes the situation worse. By and large, conflicts have more than one cause. How you lot choose to resolve conflicts will ultimately demonstrate your ability to exist professional person and move upward in your career.
Consider the following 3 steps to resolving conflicts both at work and in the classroom.
Listen
If at all possible, try non to take the state of affairs or comments personally. Practise not make assumptions near people's motivations. Jumping to conclusions adds to the disharmonize and creates more tension and issues to work though.
Consider that if there is a conflict, you might not have fully understood the issue or your part in it. While you may non like the style or approach of the person you're interacting with, set the goal of listening with acceptance with the intent to resolve the disharmonize. Convey that you are listening respectfully through your trunk linguistic communication and tone of voice, and don't interrupt. If there are several people involved, allow anybody take a chance to speak.
Reflect and Summarize
If you need to, silently count to 10 in your caput to give yourself the time to respond appropriately. Acknowledge your delivery to resolving the conflict, and clarify how the other person is feeling about it. When people experience listened to, they are ofttimes willing to have the first step toward trust, which then creates willingness to work through the outcome. Summarizing what the other person has said allows you to ensure that you've fully captured his or her position.
Focus on appreciating what the other person is proverb and thinking to empathise the source of disharmonize. Enquire what the other person believes would resolve the conflict. Focus the conversation on mutually resolving the consequence.
Respond
Permit each person the opportunity to explore solutions equally. Take a break from the process if you demand to, and come back to the disharmonize when you lot feel refreshed. Often the solution is through compromise, because no one is all wrong or all right in any given situation. Each fourth dimension you're given the chance to answer, do your best to continue language neutral.
By maturely moving through the process of listening, reflecting, summarizing, and responding (and sometimes going back to the outset once more), you'll non only demonstrate your workplace potential, merely gain valuable skills for your personal life.
While adapting to organizational culture, demonstrating strong on-the-job performance, and practising conflict resolution are important, there are many skills to be learned in the workplace. Others include the power to apply critical thinking, acting as a global citizen, and working as part of a team. With this in listen, let's take a look at success stories in our industry — graduates who possess these skills and attributes, and take used them to propel their careers forward.
Tourism and Hospitality Success Stories
Merely a few years ago the professionals highlighted in this department were students in the classroom. Hither, they tell usa showtime-hand what you need to know in guild to grow in BC's tourism and hospitality industry. These success stories span the post-obit sectors:
- Accommodation (account manager, rooms segmentation coordinator)
- Recreation and amusement (projection coordinator, conference services manager, entrepreneur and small business organisation owner)
- Travel services (long-range planner, travel designer, industry and communications services manager)
As yous read their stories, yous'll see that many of the themes explored in this affiliate are echoed in their advice. Please note that these profiles were current every bit of spring 2015 – some of these grads may already be on to the side by side large thing in their careers!
Adaptation
Brock Martin, Account Manager
Brock manages accounts for Canada Booking.com Online Reservations Inc. He graduated with a bachelor of hospitality management at Vancouver Community College in 2010. Brock says:
I oversee more than 300 accommodations on Vancouver Island and am their point of contact for day-to-day support and for profitable them in maximizing their listing'due south potential with Booking.com. When I moved to Vancouver in 2004, I started my commencement hotel job at the Westin Bayshore as a banquet server. I even so remember my get-go mean solar day; we had to serve a dinner for over 1,200 people, and I remember that despite how crazy it was I knew this was the industry for me!
From there, I moved to the Pacific Palisades Hotel in banquets, and and so I was given an opportunity to motility to the front desk-bound. I remember thinking at beginning that I didn't belong at the front desk every bit I had always just done food and beverage. I did non think I would fit the position. Well, I was incorrect! I immediately knew I loved the interactions with the guests.
I progressed with my career, moving from a front desk-bound agent to an assistant front office manager, where I stayed until the hotel unfortunately closed its doors in 2010. Following the Palisades, I held various front office management positions with Coast Hotels and Delta Hotels in Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Whistler. In 2013, I was presented with an opportunity to join Booking.com as an account manager, where I am shortly working.
Taking courses related to hospitality management and tourism will really aid in developing your career. Once in a workplace setting, continued education is fundamental. Look for opportunities for cross training and job shadowing, and ask Human Resources about internal training programs to further your agreement.
Students inbound this industry demand to accept a passion for guest services and for helping people. They need to exist able to think quickly and be a practiced trouble solver. This is a fast-paced, ever-evolving industry and doesn't fit someone who likes routine. No two days are ever the same, and that is what I love! Remain flexible and exercise non exist agape to try new things. Accept an open mind and challenge yourself to recollect outside of the box.
Specific things students can exercise to get ahead include networking, further preparation, and volunteering. Remember, the manufacture is very large, yet pocket-sized at the aforementioned fourth dimension. Take opportunities to volunteer as these are great networking opportunities equally well. I couldn't picture myself in whatever other industry. Information technology is challenging, nevertheless rewarding, and all-time of all, it is a lot of fun!
Katie Clarke, Marketing Coordinator
Katie works at the Parkside Hotel & Spa in Victoria, BC. She graduated with a diploma in hospitality management from Vancouver Island University in 2011. Katie says:
My initial hotel job was with the Fairmont Empress housekeeping department during my first co-op work term, a temporary two-month position later which I returned for my second year of schooling. After graduating from Vancouver Island Academy, I completed my concluding co-op semester by working at the Queen Victoria Hotel and Suites every bit a guest services amanuensis. My employment continued there after my co-op term was complete, and lasted until the hotel was sold in Oct 2012. I left with a wealth of knowledge in guest services.
I began working at the Parkside Hotel & Spa at the time it was purchased past a group of Vancouver Island local investors. I started in reservations, which was a new section in the early on stages of evolution, and my skills and qualifications played a big role in profitable with the department's foundations. I worked equally a reservations amanuensis for 7 months earlier I was promoted to the position of rooms partitioning coordinator. In this position, I assisted in supervising the department, as well as taking on some marketing responsibilities such as keeping the hotel website up-to-date, social media, print materials, and much, much more. The role became a jack-of-all-trades position and was a great experience! In fact, I used what I learned in that role to obtain my current position of marketing coordinator.
My communication for students is that any related didactics will always help go your foot in the door of a hotel. All applicative work feel, skills, and knowledge can also be an advantage. If you are a hard worker, a team player, and willing to help out when other departments need information technology, you will be successful in any job you do.
Students should understand that the hospitality field tin exist a career. Some people view a job in the hospitality industry as temporary or seasonal employment, but information technology tin be a career with many exciting opportunities if you stick with it. The great thing about working in a hotel is that there are so many different departments to explore. The options are endless.
Networking tin provide an advantage in this industry. If you contact your tourism agency, it can connect you to organizations to help you farther your manufacture network. Creating swell workplace relationships also fosters getting ahead in any industry. Be sure to keep upwardly with new grooming and volunteering, as that tin can exist a keen advantage, and near workplaces encourage it!
Though every job will come up with its tough days, push past them as there are then many better days alee! Work difficult and it will pay off!
Recreation and Entertainment
Ana Rowinska, Project Coordinator
Ana works for MCI Group Canada. She has multiple credentials including a hospitality restaurant management diploma from Douglas Higher (2005), an Effect Marketing Association certificate from BCIT (2008), and a bachelor of tourism management from Capilano University (2013). Ana says:
My love for travel and hospitality were key reasons I took the hospitality eating house management diploma program at Douglas Higher. After receiving my diploma, I decided to focus on consequence marketing and enrolled at BCIT for further training.
Students interested in getting into events and or event marketing need to be able to multi-chore, be organized, and have a difficult work ethic. Both education and experience are important to work as an event coordinator. Y'all need to know the ins and outs of the industry by working in events, and you also need to sympathise the back-end strategies of how to implement, organize, and plan events.
The events industry is non your typical nine-to-five job. Long workdays are common, and you tin wait to sometimes piece of work 16 or more than hours in one day to get the job washed. Events can happen whatsoever day of the week, at any time. Commitment and the ability to be flexible is key equally you are always the first one on scene and the last one to go out. You lot need to have patience, exist organized, and be able to deal with stress.
Many students look to exist hired at at a high level right after graduation, just in truth, almost will be inbound the workforce in their respective fields in an entry-level position. You'll need to be prepared to work toward gaining experience with your company before you tin movement into a supervisor or director position. My advice is to work hard, learn, and inquire questions, and you will succeed.
Volunteering or working part time with events is key every bit you will not only proceeds valuable manufacture experience, you lot will also be networking with your future peers. Experience is invaluable in our sector, so the more events yous work or volunteer in, the more opportunities you will have to expand your network and encounter central stakeholders in the effect industry.
To exist successful, you need to be organized, take excellent communication skills, and be able to handle stress and pressure. Don't go discouraged if things don't happen exactly like you planned; life throws you lot bend balls, and information technology'south how yous bargain with those curve balls that allows you to succeed in our industry.
Throughout my career, I have needed to brand decisions on what was adjacent for me. Yous never know which chore may lead you to where, so treat each job as a stepping stone to motility ahead in your career.
Christine McCann, Senior Briefing Services Manager
Christine is in senior direction at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. She graduated from the Douglas Higher programme in hotel and restaurant management in 2006. Christine says:
I started at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler every bit a SWEP (pupil work feel) student in the feast department. From there, I became very interested in the organization and execution of events, weddings, and conferences. During my time equally a banquet server, I was able to cross train with briefing services, allowing me to gain insights into the skills and knowledge required to exist a successful member of the that squad. When a position opened up for a conference services coordinator, I was charmed to receive a role as part of this fantastic team! 7 years have passed, and I am now in the position of senior conference services manager, taking intendance of many large groups throughout the twelvemonth.
Event and briefing planning is a very interesting blend of roles: being on the flooring with clients and groups but also completing many administrative tasks and paperwork to ensure plans are finer communicated. A positive mental attitude, passion for creating outstanding events, and an eye for detail are three key qualities needed. Members of my team have moved here from many other departments, including banquets, front role, sales, and nutrient and beverage; however, having a base of operations experience is the normal pathway to a position in conference services.
Existence successful in a conference services office takes passion and an understanding and appreciation for the guest experience. We are ambassadors for our brand to our guests — 100 to 1,000 guests at a time — and it is important that we ensure each i feels a special connexion to our venue and location.
A positive attitude, willingness to learn and passion for whatever function you choose will always help you on the road to success.
Volunteering is a fantastic manner to try out new roles and encounter great contacts. Hands-on experience tin can be invaluable in the future. Continuing to seek knowledge, through grooming, teaching, industry events — whatsoever method is interesting for you — will also exist beneficial.
Honey what you do, work hard, and listen!
David Woolridge, Entrepreneur and Small Business concern Possessor
David is the owner and founder of Ridge Wilderness Adventures Ltd. He graduated from the outdoor recreation management program at Capilano University in 2002. David says:
I love people and I love being outside, so I searched for positions that would fill that demand. I have worked at canoe rental companies, guiding outfits, first-aid schools, retail shops, construction, and anything else that I could become my hands on.
I recommend students go into the field by one of two means: enter a specific programme like the one at Capilano University, or contact a visitor that does the piece of work they would like to do and utilize. If applying direct doesn't piece of work, ask the company what information technology is looking for in a person to be employable.
This work is for those who don't like to take a fixed routine and who thrive on problem solving and like to practise different things all the time. If you adopt a set up schedule and prepare pay, it is probably not for you.
Information technology'south an amazing job where nosotros get to piece of work at what we love. To succeed in this line of piece of work, attitude and availability trump aptitude. If you would like to have a lucrative career in the outdoors, yous need to possess an outgoing, friendly, hardworking attitude. This style of work is non nine-to-five; in fact, it'south the reverse of that. Your ability to piece of work when the work is in that location is key to success. Plain, you need to have the ability to practice the work, but ix times out of x, if that'south all you lot have you will non succeed.
This industry is all well-nigh the people that y'all know. Get to every event and class you tin to meet people and get known. Virtually places volition give you the preparation; you need to do the work if your attitude is right, so sort out what you need before you starting time.
If you love the outdoors, love people, and want to have fun for work, this is what you lot should do.
Travel Services
Cleopatra Corbett, Long-Range Planner
Cleopatra works as a planner for the City of Vernon. She holds a bachelor of tourism management from Vancouver Isle Academy (2004) and completed the urban pattern certificate at Simon Fraser University in 2012. Cleopatra says:
My starting time experience in customs planning came during my 3rd-year co-op work term as a planning banana with the District of Ucluelet. I instantly fell in love with the profession: working with local residents, businesses, not-profits, and elected officials to realize a desired futurity for the community. Upon graduation, I continued to piece of work in Ucluelet, followed by Tofino, Aureate, and now Vernon, all in British Columbia.
In my field the desired skill ready includes planning, communication, collaboration, facilitation, public speaking, and written report writing. For noesis, you need planning history and theory, community development, environmental stewardship, marketing, and statistical and research methods. As for pedagogy, you want to study planning, geography, urban design, tourism, recreation, history, and law.
Customs planning is incredibly challenging and rewarding work. Put simply, your work can take a tremendous touch on on the environment and the quality of life for residents in your community. You help the community dream about a desired time to come and then develop policy to make it happen.
My advice would be to accept mentors you respect and admire, and to meet with them regularly to inquire questions and await for communication. E'er exercise your all-time, work hard with integrity, be kind, tell the truth, and practise what you love.
Get feel before graduating through volunteer work, internships, and/or co-op work terms. Also, effort to employ course projects in university to real-world projects for businesses, non-profits, or governments in order to gain meaningful applied experience. Interview people who are in positions that interest you; ask questions and don't exist afraid to ask for help.
If you are willing to move, you can get any blazon of job yous want. Being mobile enhances your opportunities. Practise life-long learning and strive for a healthy work-life remainder. Follow your bliss and make the world a ameliorate place.
Marie-Catherine Lapointe, Travel Designer Team Pb
Marie-Catherine is a travel designer with Discover Holidays Inc. She graduated from Capilano University with a diploma of tourism management in 2012. Marie-Catherine says:
When I graduated, I knew that I wanted to work in travel services as a central part of the industry with touch points in every other sector, and then when a posting to exist a travel designer for a receptive tour operator came up, I jumped at the take a chance. I was excited to be working to bring clients from all over the world to Canada, and I took in every opportunity to learn well-nigh the many aspects of the company, including production, marketing, and sales.
Students wanting to get into the tour operator sector demand to have a tourism education to really sympathise the intricacies of the sectors in the industry, as well as skills in customer service, sales, cultural practices (particularly dealing with international clients), marketing, and a real passion for the products they are selling. Teamwork is crucial on our pocket-size team, as is being intrinsically motivated to provide the best experience for clients.
First, receptive tour operators are non travel agents, nor do they operate the tours. Nosotros work with travel agents, wholesale agents, and occasionally with clients straight. However, it is mainly a B2B model. Receptive tour operators are in a dynamic workplace, with opportunities to learn and gain experience in other sectors and fields, too every bit hone customer service and sales skills.
My advice is to really have hold of every opportunity that is presented, and to never end learning nearly the industry. This is a very social industry and edifice a large solid network can aid with futurity opportunities. Build up your customer service experience, whether it'southward through front-line jobs or volunteering, and attend networking events. Schools often host or sponsor these, and students should be attending them all.
This is a really fun industry, and with so many sectors and positions bachelor, I actually believe that there is something for everyone in tourism.
Jody Young, Manufacture and Community Services Manager
Jody works for Tourism Vancouver Island. She holds a available of tourism management from Vancouver Island University (2008). Jody says:
After graduation, information technology took a year and a one-half earlier I got my big break into the industry. I'grand thankful for the time it took for my career to actually beginning equally information technology provided me the opportunity to travel around Southeast Asia. I started at Tourism Vancouver Isle in an entry-level position equally the distribution coordinator. Afterward only one year in the role I was promoted to industry services coordinator where I was coordinating the association'due south annual conference and AGM and conducting accommodation inspections. Later on another year and a half, I was promoted again to direction level within the arrangement to the function I am currently in. Every bit manufacture and community services director, I oversee many portfolios for the organisation such as community tourism development, event management, enquiry, and promotion of the value of tourism.
The tourism management degree program at Vancouver Isle University definitely ready me upward for success in this role. I highly recommend completing the four-year degree and getting as much hands-on, real-world experience that you can while completing your instruction. Employers volition exist looking for proven successes and workplace skills, non simply completion of courses.
Although the tourism manufacture is vast with many desirable, well-paying career opportunities, it is withal fairly new. The industry has room to grow on communicating that it is a fundamental economical and social correspondent to our province and country.
I would advise students to leap at an entry-level opportunity as it will be your door to advancing in your career in a particular organization. Once you lot've got your pes in the door, demonstrate your power and yous will soon discover bigger opportunities presented to you lot. If I didn't take the entry-level opportunity that was presented to me, I wouldn't be in the function I am in today.
Students can become ahead by taking advantage of student rates at industry events. Past attending these industry events you volition rub shoulders with the folks who are at the top of the game in this industry and meeting potential future employers. Look for opportunities for mentorship programs or internships to gain that workplace experience likewise.
Conclusion
As you can encounter, successful tourism and hospitality careers depend on reaching out and meeting people (networking), gaining practical feel, having a bully attitude and work ethic, and committing to ongoing learning about the world, the industry, and yourself.
With diligence and a sense of exploration, you can launch your dream career in tourism and hospitality, today. Retrieve that career planning is an ongoing process — the more you practise the steps in this chapter, the more probable your success.
Now that yous've explored the v sectors of tourism, special considerations, and your own place in the manufacture, it's time to deepen your understanding. Affiliate 14, on globalization and trends, will help y'all appreciate the big motion-picture show of tourism and hospitality.
- Career planning: a serial of deliberate steps with outcomes to help individuals accomplish their short- and long-term career goals
- Conflict management: the practise of being able to identify and handle conflicts sensibly, fairly, and efficiently
- Co-op education: a special programme offered by a college/academy in which students alternate work and report, normally spending a number of weeks in full-time report and a number in full-time employment away from the campus
- Experiential learning: learning that takes identify when a student straight participates in experiences designed for a learning purpose; takes place both inside and outside of the classroom, and involves reflection likewise every bit action
- Subconscious job marketplace: employment opportunities that aren't posted through traditional channels, just rather arise because of a person'due south connections and relationships
- Informational interview: a brusk appointment where yous acquire about an employer, or a specific role, from someone already established in the field
- Internship: short-term, supervised work feel in a student's field of interest for which the educatee may earn academic credit
- Networking: creating relationships within a sector for the purpose of enhancing and developing ane's professional identity
- Organizational civilization: ways of interim, values, and beliefs shared within an organization
- Personal attributes:draw what you are like as a person/employee, such as your mental attitude, personality type, and and so on
- Practicum:applied experiences outside the classroom supported by professionals in a workplace surround
- Cocky-assessment: informal and formal methods of gathering information virtually yourself to make career decisions
- Service learning: course-based, credit-bearing educational feel in which students participate in organized service that meets customs needs and reflect on the service
- Technical skills:skills and knowledge required to perform specific work
- Transferable skills: skills required to perform a multifariousness of tasks that can be transferred from one blazon of job to another
- Values: an individual'south ways of living and making decisions that are congruent with his or her beliefs and principles
- Volunteering:performing a service without pay in club to obtain work experience, learn new skills, meet people, contribute to community, and contribute to a cause
- Describe the steps of career planning.
- Identify your technical and transferable skills, and personal attributes.
- Share your typhoon resume and encompass letter with a trusted classmate, friend, or family member. What feedback do they have for yous? What did you do well, and what needs improving?
- The act of creating professional person relationships is referred to as_________________.
- Listing the ways job seekers connect to potential employment opportunities.
- Based on your career plan, identify additional training, development, and continued learning yous volition need for professional success.
- Define experiential learning. What are the common types of experiential learning options?
- Why is it important to sympathise an organization's culture and social norms?
- What are the steps in disharmonize management resolution? Retrieve back to a contempo dispute you have had. How might these steps have changed the outcome?
- Pick one success story that resonates with you. What are three key things you learned from the experience you have read about?
References
Bringle, R.One thousand., & Hatcher, J.A. (1995). A service-learning curriculum for kinesthesia. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, two, 112-122.
Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged tenth Edition. (2012). Organizational civilization. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/organizational culture
Continued. (2011). Career practicum: A work-based learning strategy. [PDF] The California Heart for College and Career. Retrieved from http://www.connectedcalifornia.org/direct/files/LLAWBLCareerPracticum_FINAL_10-5-11_noLLA%20logo.pdf
ContactPoint. (2014a). Experiential learning. Retrieved from http://contactpoint.ca/wikis/experiential-learning/
ContactPoint. (2014b). Co-operative instruction. Retrieved from http://contactpoint.ca/wikis/co-op-education/
ContactPoint. (2014c). Internship. Retrieved from http://contactpoint.ca/wikis/internship/
Iannarino, Anthony S. (n.d.). Initiative: The ability to take action proactively. Retrieved from
http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2010/01/30/initiative-the-ability-to-take-activeness-proactively/
LinkBC. (2014). LinkBC roundtable 2014: Dialogue cafe. [PDF] Retrieved from http://linkbc.ca/siteFiles/85/files/2014RoundtableDialogueCafeReport.pdf
Lorenzo, G., & Ittelson, J. (2005). An overview of e-portfolios. [PDF] Educause learning initiative, i, one-27. Retrieved from world wide web.instance.edu/artsci/cosi/cspl/documents/eportfolio-Educausedocument.pdf
Pickerell, D.A. (2014). Piece of work search strategies. In Blythe C. Shepard and Priya South. Mani (Eds.). Career development practice in Canada: Perspectives, principles and professionalism. Toronto, ON: Canadian Education and Research Establish for Counselling (CERIC), p. 215. Retrieved from http://contactpoint.ca/wikis/volunteering/
Rosenberg McKay, D. (2014). About careers: Self assessment. Retrieved from http://careerplanning.about.com/od/selfassessment/g/def_selfassess.htm
Shepard, B. & Mani, P. (2013).Career evolution practice in Canada: Perspectives, principles and professionalism. Toronto, ON: Canadian Pedagogy and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC).
Attributions
Figure thirteen.one VIU diploma winners by LinkBC is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.
Figure 13.2Green Resume CV & Business Bill of fare by buyalex is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.
Figure 13.three 006 LinkBC Educatee-Industry Rendezvous 2013 by LinkBC is used under a CC By 2.0 license.
Figure 13.iv W Declension Sightseeing's booth by LinkBC is used under a CC-Past-NC-SA ii.0 license.
Figure thirteen.5 Brock Martin past Melissa Phung for LinkBC is used under a CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Figure thirteen.6 Katelyn Clarke by Vivian Kereki for LinkBC is used nether a CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Effigy xiii.sevenAnna Rowinska by Karl Rowinski for LinkBC is used under a CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Figure 13.8 Christine McCann by Beth Pink for LinkBC is used under a CC-Past-NC-ND ii.0 license.
Effigy 13.9 Cleo Corbett by Digital Dean Photography for LinkBC is used under a CC-BY-NC-ND ii.0 license.
Effigy xiii.10Marie-Catherine Lapointe by Marie-Catherine Lapointe for LinkBC is used under a CC-By-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Effigy thirteen.xi Jody Immature by Landon Sveinson Photography for LinkBC is used under a CC-BY-NC-ND ii.0 license.
Source: https://opentextbc.ca/introtourism/chapter/chapter-13-careers-and-work-experience/