There are many choices for a ten-week course related to hospitality management, but not one offers what the Distinguished Lecture Series course has offered. Over such a short time, the class was fortunate to have eight guest speakers who are all senior executives from successful firms in the industry, and each guest speaker gave many insights about career choices and developments in the hospitality industry. As a graduating senior, I walked into this course’s classroom with confusion and fear of uncertainties about my future at the beginning of this quarter. Now, after hearing from these leaders in the industry, I understand the critical competencies one must master to increase the likelihood of career success, have a set of …show more content…
Learning Relative to Course Objectives
2.1. Critical Competencies
While almost every guest speaker for Distinguished Lecture Series mentioned some core competencies as important keys to success in the industry, I summarized a list of critical competencies that could help me to differentiate and increase my likelihood of career success.
The one competency that almost every guest speaker mentioned is the ability to adapt and learn. Because hospitality is a people industry with rapid growth, it is critical for a leader or a future leader to be able to work with different personalities and be open to new technologies and challenges. As Ms. Liz Hunt, the vice president of operations at Unbridled Solutions, talked about her experience working at Maritz Travel, the job in its nature required her to travel from program to program working with different project teams, and her ability to adapt to different personalities and even different cultures was what made her successful as a travel …show more content…
Employer of Choice and Person-Organization Fit Besides critical competencies and career strategies, the guest speakers also demonstrated what kind of company would be “employer of choice”, and what it means to have “person-organization fit”. While it is easy to want to work for the company that offers the highest salary in a satisfying location, there are more to think about when finding an employer, and that choice can significantly impact career success. When you find the right company to work for, the level of person=organization fit plays a huge role in overall job satisfaction and rapid career progression. As Dr. Corsun talked about his experience managing his restaurant in New York, the best way to manage is to “value what they [employees] value.” That is true when we learned about different companies that the guest speakers work for, and how they would be employers of choice. For smaller companies, Ms. Hunt introduced Unbridled Solutions along with the company’s value-driven culture, which could be an important feature of an employer-of-choice company as the culture focuses on the big picture instead of just profit. And on a larger scale, Ms. Kam shared her experience with Marriott and how Marriott won her over the years with its distinct culture. Besides the ability to grow and transparent vision that Marriott shares with its employees, Ms. Kam mentioned that Mr. Marriott would visit different offices and properties and greet every employee, and that the company’s