The hospitality industry is defined as including any business that provides places for people to eat, drink or sleep. Within that, there is great variation; hospitality businesses can include anything from fast food restaurants to Michelin starred establishments; small village pubs to large city clubs; camp-sites to luxury hotels. This variety and flexibility can make the hospitality industry a vibrant place to work, although hours can be long and unsocial. However, for those who enjoy working with people and want the chance to be self-employed, it can be very satisfying. In the UK, 1.7 million people are employed in hospitality.
Eating
There are many different ways to provide people with food, some of which need qualifications and some of which don’t. A traditional route into catering is to attend a catering college and train as a chef, then potentially working up from small pub kitchens to high end restaurants. Any establishment serving food will also have opportunities for serving and management staff. Alternatively, you could buy a restaurant, or even start a mobile catering business, such as a workplace sandwich delivery firm, or event catering company.
Drinking
Drinking in bars and clubs is a key leisure activity in the UK. Even small villages tend to have one pub (which often also serves food), and large cities have whole areas packed with huge bars and clubs. Which kind of establishment you’d like to work in depends on your interests and the kind of job you’d like to do. Managing or working in a local pub, or even taking the big step of buying a pub, allows you to get to know regular customers and be part of a community. In a large club or bar, you’ll be serving hundreds of people every weekend, and possibly be part of the local music scene, booking DJs and bands to play at your venue.
Sleeping
It is in this area that you have the opportunity to be more innovative than any other at one end of the market, or part of a huge global brand at the other. National and international hotel chains operate throughout the UK and the world, and working for one of them could provide you with countless opportunities for global travel and promotion. Working in a hotel with its own bar and restaurant also provides a great opportunity to work across the hospitality sector. If you’d rather go it alone, then you have the chance to create a business that is really your own by buying a hotel. You could open a themed hotel, or develop a boutique ‘glampsite’ with tipis, yurts or gypsy caravans.
The hospitality industry is unusual in that it allows you to enter it in multiple ways: college or other training, self-employment or taking an entry level job and working up. Private sector training companies, in-house training schemes and public sector courses are all valid routes in, depending on the career you want to follow. Once you have a little experience under your belt, you’ll be able to work anywhere you want, all over the world. There can be few careers that offer so many opportunities.
Rachel is a freelance blogger on a wide range of topics including hospitality and buying and selling a business. Image by UniqueCookie
