On the heels of the Wine & Food Internship Fair, we think it might be an opportune time to revisit a fall program: How to Find Jobs & Internships in Hospitality: Food, Wine, Hotels, & Travel. One of our intrepid student bloggers attended the event and offered the following report. Enjoy!

The field of hospitality – which includes work in food, wine, hotels and travel – offers exciting opportunities across the country and around the world. To be sure, however, the field is not for the faint of heart. Luckily, the Office of Career Services invited a panel of alumni, engaged in different professions under the banner of hospitality, to share their wisdom and experience.

The panel featured:

Robert Fitzsimmons ’10
Golden State Food Corporation (and former Food Literacy Project representative);

Blair Harshbarger ’10
Dairy Intern at Rainbeau Ridge Farm in Bedford Hills, NY;

Michael Meagher
Chairman of the Boston Sommelier Society;

Maggie Hsu ’08
Current HBS student and former employee at Hilton Worldwide and Moat Hennessy USA;

Peter Storer ’10
Avero LLC (food/beverage consulting and software company).

Each panelist took a different path into the field of hospitality. For example, enrollment in the Harvard bartending course led Michael Meagher to culinary school because he “liked that it was different.” While a consultant, Maggie Hsu realized she was “more interested in the hotels I was staying in” than the work for which she was traveling. And Peter Storer particularly enjoyed his work with the campus Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub as well as summer employment in Hawaii as a writer for “Let’s Go,” a travel publication.

Nevertheless, the alumni agreed on a handful of central tenets that define the field. Prospective employees need to find a way to break into the network, or what a panelist described as the “family of professions” where someone will show you the next step. This process will necessarily be one of “trial-and-error,” and that’s ok! Begin by exploring different opportunities, by “getting your feet wet” with diverse experiences. Of course, when reaching out to employers for these opportunities, be sure to understand who they are and what you can contribute. Ultimately, wherever you end up, show that you can “hack it” and aren’t just interested in the “celebrity” of the job.

A student interested in the restaurant business asked if it was wise to move somewhere and begin as a waiter. The panelists supported his idea, but with qualifications. “Once you learn how everything works, you become more valuable,” explained Meagher, emphasizing the importance of taking courses and buying books that will enrich your personal skill set. Citing the example of a friend who deferred law school admission, Hsu also encouraged consideration of a back-up plan, saying, “There are so many ways to do it if you’re creative.” Blair Harshbarger suggested work could begin on the side while you are employed in another job. And Robert Fitzsimmons emphasized how the field is “reputation driven,” echoing Meagher in his call for making yourself a “known quantity.” “Be obviously curious,” he implored. “Asking questions helps to make up for a lack of experience.”

Finally, another student asked about strategies for securing jobs in hospitality, noting that the panelists seemed to have found jobs largely through people they knew. “Express your passion for the industry,” Storer replied. “Let people know you’re interested, but lost.” Hsu recommended “cold-emailing” people, reassuring the audience that “you’ll get the meeting” if you explain yourself well. Meagher echoed his earlier call for knowledge enrichment, telling students, “Understanding the knowledge and key terms of the industry will put you over the top.” Finally, Fitzsimmons articulated the view of the entire panel in encouraging prospective employees to follow up with all conversations, through LinkedIn and other outlets, in order to “keep the connection alive.”

Rough and tumble though the field of hospitality may be, there awaits great reward and fulfillment for those brave enough – and savvy enough - to pursue it. Good luck!

—Nicandro Iannacci, ’13

On Wednesday, September 21, OCS sponsored an event entitled “The New Journalism” in which a panel of four individuals with careers in journalism discussed the future of the ever-evolving industry. Sitting on the panel were Maria Balinska, founder and editor of Latitude News (an online international news service); Joshua Benton, the director of the Neiman Journalism Lab (a research and reporting center about journalism); Terry Byrne, a correspondent for the Boston Globe; and Michael Fitzgerald, an independent journalist.

The program itself brought up the changing industry and the repercussions of the metamorphosis: in an age in which teenagers can author a post on Wikipedia and call themselves “journalists,” is the industry on its way to complete destruction?

Traditional journalism has, of course, been interrupted by the internet. But the explosion of online media has created more – yet very different – opportunities for writers. And according to the Census Bureau, the number of people who consider themselves writers or journalists has increased. However, this increase of online media shifts the playing field of the industry, and now the edge in the industry goes to more independent writers and entrepreneurs, rather than what we would consider traditional journalists, like writers for the New York Times.

Byrne, an art writer, acknowledged that the decline in traditional newspaper means a decline in those traditional jobs, and that online journalism is naturally less lucrative for writers. However, Byrne also called attention to the freedom now allotted to all writers. Historically, journalists have been bound to covering stories dictated by their superiors in the office, but now writers have the liberty to create their own blogs and website in which they can choose their own subject material. “If you can approach a blog or website with the same diligence as any reporter covering any beat, and make relationships with your followers on your beat, then it’s just as good as having followers of a newspaper,” Byrne said. She also praised the unique addition of video to news stories and reviews, saying that it had been a missing sector in traditional print that can now easily be included in online postings.

A few of the members of the panel acknowledged another way in which the view of the “typical journalist” has evolved. In this day and age, they said, there are many more careers where journalism is a part but not a whole job – the number of people who can have journalism as their sole profession has decreased over the past few years. Benton and Fitzgerald both agreed that blogs and websites over time will move away from having one person control all aspects of a given publication – because an individual is not necessarily going to be talented with writing, photography, and filming, so those different media tasks will likely be broken up between a team of people. Fitzgerald also mentioned that it is much easier to be an editor these days than to be a journalist: editors are paid much more, even though journalism may appear to be a more glamorous career.

In terms of preparing for the future, all panelists agreed upon the importance of honing internet skills, because everything is going to be related to content that is online. With this knowledge of the changing tides in mind, Fitzgerald implored his audience to take control of their futures: “if you have an entrepreneurial bone in your body,” he said, “you should build it up and run with it.” 

 —Julia Eger, ‘14

Hi, my name is Dan, I’m an ‘09 graduate, and I’m here to help you — seniors and otherwise — find something to do after graduation. I remember what it’s like to feel lost and bewildered and my job is to help you avoid all that stress.

Today’s panel was “Social Enterprise, CSR, and Non-Profit Consulting: Exploring Careers.” The four participants were Laura U. Moon, Director, HBS Social Enterprise Initiative; Tony Helies, Partner, Social Venture Partners; Laura Clancy, Managing Director, New Sector Alliance; and Marcy Murninghan, Senior Researcher, CSR Initiative, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School.

It was a very good panel — and not only for people interested in these career areas. The main takeaway was that social enterprise is a huge, complicated, and scattered field. In order to find a job, you’ll have to make opportunities for yourself. There are really four ways in: Get hired straight-out; Volunteer somewhere to get operational experience; Start your own company; or Switch fields from somewhere else.

No matter your path, you’ll need to have some universal skills. According to Laura Moon, you need to be a great communicator and be able to tell a clear, crisp story. During an interview, you don’t want to embark on 15-minute monologues — you want to get to the point and impress the interviewer with your in-depth knowledge of their company’s operations. Tony mentioned a great resource — a website called GuideStar (http://www2.guidestar.org/) — which gives access to information-rich 990 forms for any non-profit.

And how do you get that interview? Talk to people face-to-face or on the phone. According to Tony, blind-emailing a resume is a strategy destined to fail. (I can vouch for this from personal experience.) College kids nowadays text, email, Facebook, and Twitter, but don’t often call. It’s a valuable skill that is key to actually getting a job.

If interviews don’t work out, or you’re really passionate about something, why not start your own company? Marcy suggests finding ways to connect existing organizations, essentially acting as an intermediary networking agent. Tony recommends that above all, you surround yourself with smart people. He says that this is a great time in your life to take a risk — if it blows up, no big deal. Laura Clancy echoes this advice, saying “Life is short, and when you do things that are your second choice, it often shows in your performance.”

Laura Moon, in fact, said that when she was a student, “I wanted to do something I cared a lot about.” So when she graduated, she spent a year waitressing and traveling around Europe. “I learned who I was and what I cared about. It was a phenomenal shaping experience for me.”

And that idea of following your passion is precisely what all four panelists agreed on. There are no sure paths in any field — but if you do what you’re interested in, and you’re good at it, things will fall into place.

Next steps: Why not Google an interesting company tonight and set up an informational phone interview? Or, if you’re more entrepreneurially inclined, take 15 minutes and sketch out a business plan for a social enterprise company. The sooner you take concrete action to get the wheels turning, the less stressful the rest of your senior year will be.