What Can You Do with a Hospitality Degree?

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 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.

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 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.

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.