From hotel, events and catering management to business development and marketing, a degree in hospitality management provides you with the skills and knowledge for a successful career in a range of fields

Job options

Jobs directly related to your degree include:

• Accommodation manager
• Catering manager
• Chef
• Conference centre manager
• Event manager
• Fast food restaurant manager
• Hotel manager
• Public house manager
• Restaurant manager

Jobs where your degree would be useful include:

• Air cabin crew
• Customer service manager
• Fire risk assessor
• Human resources officer
• Marketing executive
• Retail manager
• Tour manager
• Tourism officer

Work experience

It's essential you get relevant industry experience if you want to work in the hospitality sector. Many hospitality degree courses offer an industrial placement, enabling you to put your academic learning into practice. This experience provides employers with evidence of your skills and motivation, and helps you develop contacts within the sector. You also get a feel for which area of the sector you're particularly interested in.

If you already have a specialist area in mind, try to find experience in the closest matching environment you can find. For example, if you ultimately hope to work in a luxury hotel, apply to local hotels of a similar standard.

The hospitality sector offers good prospects for early responsibility, so if you show a willingness and ability to learn, you can gain experience of supervising and training new staff early on in your career.

Typical employers

Typical employers include:

• airlines
• bars and pubs
• conference and exhibition centres
• events venues
• hotel chains
• restaurants and fast-food outlets.

There are also relevant roles throughout the public sector in:

• universities
• hospitals
• local authorities
• the armed forces.

Some of the large chain hotels or restaurants offer graduate-management programmes, providing a fast-track to management positions and experience in a range of operations.

Skills for your CV

A hospitality management degree provides you with an in-depth understanding of the structure and operation of the hospitality sector and related industries.

You develop skills and knowledge in people management, service delivery, leadership, finance and marketing, as well as identifying, understanding and responding to the needs of clients. You can also choose modules that further your career interests in, for example, conferences and events.

You also develop a range of other skills that are valued by employers. These include:

• analytical, critical and problem-solving skills - developed through researching, evaluating and presenting arguments and data
• verbal communication skills - gained from group work and presentations
• written communication skills - gained from report and essay writing
• negotiation and team work skills - developed through working both independently and on group projects
• leadership and delegation skills - gained through group work
• IT skills - through the collection, analysis and presentation of information in the form of spreadsheets and databases
• the ability to network - developed through discussion and debate with student peers.