Jobs available for realistic expectations

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COCHRANE: Jobseekers with realistic expectations should find many opportunities in the region in the next few years.

The hotel industry may be facing world wide economic downturn, but there will still be many opportunities for job seekers at Middle East hotels, according to Mövenpick director of human resources Middle East and Africa Craig Cochrane.

"There might be an economic downturn in the United States and in Europe, but in terms of the Middle East it will probably affect top-line profit, but it won't affect hotels opening," he explained.

"There will be job opportunities in the Middle East for the next four to five years. Not just us but all of our competitors as well, the industry is absolutely booming. Everyone I seem to speak to is opening hotels."

Cochrane said the company was looking to recruit up to 5000 people in the next four to five years.

But entry level hoteliers, particularly those recently graduating from hotel school, needed to have realistic expectations about their suitability for particular roles, he added.

"We often get people from a hotel management school, with little or no experience, applying for a front office manager job - that generally doesn't work," Cochrane said.

Instead, graduates should focus on management trainee programmes to experience various departments and make informed career decisions.

"Many times I have come across graduates who have joined in a department and have thought ‘they are not suited to that department, even they are not happy' but it is something that their lecturers told them they should do, or their parents told them they should do," he said.

"A management trainee programme is a great way for them to enter into a company, make a name for themselves, but also take the time to find out what they want to do with the rest of their life, because that is an important decision. You get an opportunity to do the job, without actually having the job title, which means that you don't have it on your CV. Once you get a job title on your CV, it is quite difficult to change."

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