Pointers to Consider Before Taking Hospitality Courses

Whether you are trying to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life or aiming for career advancement and better opportunities, you can never go wrong by choosing Hospitality courses such as Bar service, Cooking and Catering, Food & Beverage Management, and Hotel Management, among others. Having this for a background will open doors for you to have a place in the multi-billion dollar hospitality industry or the line focused on offering lodging, food, beverage, and recreational services to clients and patrons.

Taking Hospitality courses will enable you to advance or be part of an industry that is going nowhere but up as it is considered to be one of the top three industries that will dominate the 21^st century. Graduates can work in various settings such as hotels, restaurants, retailing, transportation, travel agencies, tourist attractions, tour companies, leisure, recreation and sport, and cultural industries. However, before you seriously consider this path you need to ensure that you have the basic qualities to flourish in this industry such as the following:

• Outgoing – you need to love working with, for, and around people. If you are more of an introvert and enjoy solitary activities then you may have a hard time coping since most of the job requirements entail being with people most, if not all the time.


• Hard working – being in a service industry that aims primarily to please and make people happy is not easy, to be recognized in the field you have to be willing to put in extra effort just to meet the demands of your clients.


• Strong communication skills – since the industry deals with people you need to be able to communicate well to get your message across and at the same time understand the needs and wants of the clients.


• Pleasant and professional demeanor – since you will be dealing with people of various backgrounds you should be able to maintain a pleasant outlook and exude positive energy.


• Good common sense – this is the ability to anticipate and prepare for things and actions that will please your clients even without them having to explicitly say so. You need to be responsive to their needs even if they haven’t said anything.

If you have the above mentioned qualities then you are almost ready to start your journey. The last thing that you just need to do is decide on your specialization, here are some pointers to consider as you try to figure out this crucial decision:

• Be aware of the specific kind of work setting you prefer. Since the hospitality industry encompasses a number of fields, you should focus on the environment that you are most interested and comfortable in (e.g. hotel, cruise ship, restaurant, etc.)


• Consider your personality and wants so that before applying you already have an idea what kind of position you would like to end up in. For example if you are an extrovert and draw energy from people then you may want to work in a hotel as their events manager but if you are more comfortable with desk jobs and working behind the scenes then there are opportunities for you too. Nevertheless, you need to think about this at the initial stage before you have already invested in the wrong major.


• Determine your career path so that it would be easier for you to attain your end goal rather than focusing on diverse things that will just keep you from reaching the destination you have in mind.

If you are all set then you can start applying through distance education so that you have the opportunity to achieve all the wonderful benefits that the hospitality industry offers at the same time manage your other responsibilities and priorities; as most of the distance learners say, it is like having the best of both worlds.