Episode 3: How to find the right graduate career

the hospitality industry is a thriving place for graduates in this podcast graduates in hospitality with hilton we invited graduates from across the region to share their experiences and advice all to help you get ready for your graduate career and to decide if hospitality is right for you in episode three nor and axa are at double tree by hilton dubai jumeirah beach they talk about how to find the right graduate career so let's get started how do you kickstart your career search my advice is to be calm relax it's a stressful it's a stressful time already uh seek uh out you know whatever you're interested in so it's more of a self-assessment kind of uh phase so you're gonna join uh your your the courses that you think that might interest you any workshops any trainings that you think that are might be interesting to you and then you will navigate your way through that so start somewhere this is my advice start somewhere and then you will find it naturally you will it's a journey you will find yourself going uh towards what you're interested most about and slowly by slowly that will change you as well i think you that that's how you can find your career once i graduated i joined an internship in a 3d manufacturing company and that was mostly my interest i never actually thought that i'd be working in hilton or in an industry of hospitality so no you don't necessarily have to get it right from the first time as i mentioned it's a journey you you're discovering yourself you're you're still a baby i mean you just graduated and it's the best time to find your passion find your interest at this time once you graduated and during university uh period you're most flexible like your career is flexible you're out there experiencing stuff this is the best time to find your real hobbies and interests and find the passion in your career our role model is also important you can be the one who is being a change and then others can follow you and you can be their role model so it's not important to have someone doing something and then you have to follow them you can have something of your own what you want to do and then others can follow you so in my point of view i think it's not very important to have a role model you can be the change and you can make others follow you on the other side i feel like sometimes having an example or having someone as a role model inspires me to be a role model i feel like sometimes having someone as a role model inspires you and really pushes you on that track so for me i had a physics teacher and i think she's the reason why i'm here in engineering actually she was very cool like she taught the subject with love and we really loved her uh we loved physics so this is the importance of you know having like being passionate about what you're doing so um yeah once i graduated i kept that in mind i really like physics and i i started in engineering and having this challenge being a woman in engineering really helped me push myself through it and seeing other women in engineering was very admirable so i think role models are important when especially when you're not that sure about what you're doing what your future will be having someone who has been through this kind of reassures you that you are able as well do you have to get your career right first time as i mentioned it's totally natural to be worried this is a new chapter of your life you have no idea about the future no one has but i would advise them to take it as an opportunity to learn experience is an experience even if it's a one-time thing that you did me for example i did not get it right the first time i joined the 3d manufacturing company but i took this as an experience and now i applied it in hilton so now i actually brought that technology here in the hotel and i have a 3d printer so what i need people to understand is that once you get an experience in something and you move to another thing it doesn't erase that history it just adds on to that exactly uh i would just like to add on that every failure comes with lessons and that lessons are the one which helps you in your career to understand what you want to do next so you just you should be scared of failing because that oh i'm a failure i cannot do anything else this is just a start once you fail you have learned so much you have experience now and you know what you want to do next so that will be a kick start for a person it should not always be something he should be sad or she should be sad about that oh i have been a failure this is something you are going to start a next chapter with we know that mentoring can be beneficial to the person who's receiving it as well as the person who's receiving it as well as the person who's receiving the mentoring but how can mentoring help your career moving forward when i reach to the position when i have to be the mentor for others i think i can do that because already being in engineering department as women and being in leadership and being a real man is something which is not common in the world at the moment and to make sure that other women sees it and learns from it and are happy and they're not confused to do it so i think yes i can be a mentor moving forward in the future when it is required from my end i agree and i think having a mentor was a crucial and important part of my learning process so as you know it's a beginning and beginnings are full of mistakes and only through mistakes we learn so having a mentor that can redirect you to the right path that can uh sometimes you know be the starting point for you and be there for you and support you is very important and i think this pace program is actually very helpful for us to become mentors training us in leadership and actually giving us the opportunity to lead our team in day-to-day operation what's your final piece of advice so this is something that i really wanted someone to tell me when i graduated is that this is completely normal it's normal to go through this process it's okay to feel like lost at the beginning but don't stop there keep trying keep learning and you will find your passion that is very true that when we started our careers there was no one telling us that this is what it is and it's okay to fail it's okay to make mistakes so i think the main takeaway will be for people that they need to have belief in themselves that one failure does not uh uh does not portray all of their mistakes so i think the main takeaway will be that they need to understand that yes once you have belief in yourself you can achieve whatever you want in your career thank you for listening to graduates in hospitality with hilton if you enjoyed the conversation we have more episodes for you you can also learn about graduate careers at hilton via the link in the episode description