Hotel schools, business schools and liberal arts programs produce thousands of graduates each year with all sorts of skillsets.

Hotel school students are taught from day one that their career will be to serve their guests, their employees, their employers, and their other stakeholders. Most business school graduates go into services such as banking, accounting, sales, marketing and law, but they are often not even aware that serving others is what their jobs are all about. Hotel school students do not reject service - they embrace it.

Question is whether you think that hospitality schools and universities still deliver talent with the sorts of competencies and skills you are looking for today, or whether graduates from generic business schools stand an equal chance during the hiring process.

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Ramón Aragonés
Ramón Aragonés
Chief Executive Officer at NH Hotel Group

We are always open to and excited about having students that come from hospitality or business schools join our company. The hotel industry has changed much during the last few years and the scope of skills of its employees has widened considerably. Nowadays, a hotel General Manager is prepared to lead, for example, a retail business for any well-known brand and the other way round too, a Manager of retail business could have an excellent fit in a managing role within the hotel industry.

 

Students coming from either of these two branches of studies, usually end their education well-rounded in many important business aspects. The knowledge and skills acquired through their studies stage are essential and useful for a variety of different professional careers. 

 

So when hiring, especially when valuating very young talent, a key factor for us in a successful application is finding an outgoing, enthusiastic and good thinker who also has the ability to work with teams and is passionate for people and service. And this is many times beyond classrooms.

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