It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day routine of your job and lose sight of the way your hospitality career is benefiting your personal and professional growth. Whether working in hospitality is your passion, or simply a stepping stone in your career path, your experience will give you a wealth of transferrable skills that you’ll use in your everyday life - as well as other potential careers in the future!
Being aware of the skills that your hospitality job is helping you build is valuable, because by identifying these you will be able to build them further, as well as communicate the range of abilities you have when approaching future job prospects.
This article will identify three key skills that your hospitality career is giving you – so if they aren’t on your CV already, go and update it!
1.Customer Service
Delivering a high level of customer service is a skill, and one that you shouldn’t underestimate or undervalue – even if you are looking for careers in non-customer facing roles in the future. The customer service skills that you develop in hospitality come hand in hand with patience, politeness, and communication skills. All these skills are exceptionally valuable in your day to day life and in numerous other career paths, even those without a customer facing element.
2. Crisis Management
This is a crucial skill within hospitality careers, as well as being a very transferable skill outside of hospitality as well. You may not even recognise this as a personal skill, because crisis management is quite simply ‘part of the job’ in hospitality. Being a faced paced industry, crisis (or mistakes, or unforeseen events) are things you can’t avoid. Being able to think on your feet, take swift action and continue to stay motivated after crisis are exceptionally valuable skills – and ones that will be appreciated by future employers.
3. Multi-tasking
Yet again, multi-tasking is something you will be doing every single day in your hospitality career, and it is certainly something you shouldn’t undervalue. Running plates, taking orders, being attentive to customers and clearing tables – all simultaneously – may make you want to rip your hair out on occasion. However, by doing this you are developing the ability to divide your attention, to prioritise tasks and to manage stress. The more practice you gain in multi-tasking, the calmer you will find you can remain in busy, high stress, situations.
To summarise, regardless of whether you wish to develop your career in hospitality or not, the skills you are gaining are incredibly valuable and they deserve recognition. Bring these up in your appraisals, add them to your CV, and be proud of the development you are achieving – maybe without even realising it.
