What Can You Do with a Hospitality Degree?

The hospitality industry is based around providing excellent customer service to give customers the best possible experience in your establishment – therefore, to succeed in the hospitality industry, you will need to have excellent communication skills.

 A hospitality degree will not only help you develop these communication skills, but will also help you develop excellent problem-solving skills, a strong knowledge of the hospitality industry, interpersonal skills and organizational skills – all qualities that are highly sought after in hospitality jobs.

Careers in hospitality offer responsibility very early on, have lots of opportunity for career development and a high salary potential. Hospitality jobs also have many travel opportunities with roles available all over the world. Careers in hospitality are often extremely fast paced, so if you’re someone who likes to keep busy, these roles are perfect for you!

Read on to discover some of the exciting jobs you could get with a hospitality degree…

Common careers you can get with a hospitality degree

Hotel manager

Hotel managers are in change of monitoring the hotel’s quality standards, making sure staff maintain excellent customer service at all times, hiring new staff members and answering any queries from customers. Hotel managers also manage budgets, make financial plans and plan maintenance work, events and room bookings. The role comes with a lot of responsibility and takes a lot of hard work, but can be very rewarding, especially when your hotel receives top reviews, as a direct response to the work of yourself and your team.

Depending on the size of the hotel you are managing, hotel managers either may be based in an office or in a more hands-on role, working directly with customers. Experience working in hospitality will give you a strong advantage in this field, particularly if this is within a hotel environment. Hotel managers also need to be resilient and have excellent stamina, as well as exceptional interpersonal and customer service skills. Proficiently in another language may also be a useful skill, as you will likely encounter guests from all around the world!

Restaurant manager

Like all managers, restaurant managers recruit, train and supervise staff; setting targets, and handling customer queries. Restaurant managers also plan and agree menus, managing the budgets for the restaurant and overseeing stock levels, whilst trying to maximize profitability. 

A hospitality degree will really help you stand out and get to management positions faster, but work experience in the field is also invaluable – try working in waiter/waitressing positions whilst at uni to build up your customer service skills. Practice and business acumen is also essential!

Restaurant managers are required to have good commercial awareness, flexibility (due to shift work), teamwork skills and problem-solving skills.

Catering manager

Catering managers plan menus, recruit and train staff and meet with suppliers and customers to negotiate prices, timings and to discuss requirements. They also plan and control budgets, manage stock control and organize shifts and rotas for staff, at all times complying with health and safety, nutritional and food hygiene requirements.

Experience in catering is a must, so try and get some work experience as a catering assistant in the holidays, or part-time alongside your degree. You should also be very organized, and good at problem solving so you can sort out any problems that may arise.

Conference manager

Conference managers are responsible for ensuring the smooth running and effective management of events, making sure that all the clients’ requests are taken care of. You will be in charge of recruiting, training, monitoring and organization of staff, as well as negotiating with suppliers and clients. It is also the job of the conference manager to take responsibility of the sales and networking of the conference center, including branding, promotions, and pricing.

As with many hospitality jobs, you will most likely work in shifts, meaning that you will be required to be flexible in your approach, especially since you will be expected to travel within a working day and occasionally stay overnight.

To become a conference manager, you will need to be able to think quickly on your feet, be decisive, pay good attention to detail and manage a team, while staying calm under pressure. As with most careers in hospitality, work experience will help you stand out when applying. Consider working part time during your degree or doing a placement year to gain some experience.

Less common jobs you can get with a hospitality degree

Exhibition designer

Exhibition designers are responsible for the layout and design of exhibitions and shows for museums, galleries, private businesses, conferences and commercial public events. Exhibition designers consult clients about their design requirements, collecting appropriate information and clarifying any issues. They then produce sketches and 3D computer generated images while staying within the agreed budget. Exhibition designers negotiate with suppliers, contractors and specialists to create the exhibition, then deliver it to clients for review.

This role may require you to work long hours, and you will have to be organized in order to reach tight deadlines. You will need to have exceptional communication skills in order to negotiate effectively with clients and suppliers, as well as being creative to come up with some exciting new ideas for exhibitions.

Volunteer work in local museums and libraries will help you gain valuable experience for this role. Alternatively, try and get some work experience shadowing an exhibition designer.

Travel agent

Travel agents plan trips for their clients, researching information to make sure the trip goes as smoothly as possible, sorting transport, accommodation and excursions, and advising on weather conditions, travel advisories and required documents for their destination.

Travel agents must be extremely commercially aware with excellent verbal communication skills and good organizational skills. Several companies, such as Thomas Cook and Thompson offer head office graduate training schemes in the UK, for which graduates of all disciplines are eligible.

Sales executive

A hospitality degree will be perfect for a degree in sales, due to the communication skills you pick up. Sales executives sell products and/or services for a company either domestically or internationally, building strong working relationships with customers (B2C) or other businesses (B2B).

To be a successful sales executive you will need excellent customer service skills, good communication skills and exceptional negotiation skills.