Progress report
The hospitality industry can seem confusing, offering a multitude of career paths and opportunities in an enormous variety of companies. So it's important to think hard about where your strengths lie, what qualifications and experience you can offer and what you want from your career. All of these are factors in helping you make the right career moves, whether at entry level or further up the ladder. But the hospitality industry is such that, with a bit of time, focus, and determination, you should find a route to suit you.
The following are just some of the positions you might consider at various stages in your career. The gross annual salaries quoted are supplied by recruitment consultants the Berkeley Scott Group and are for guidance only. They don't include any of the benefits offered by some companies, such as pension, life assurance and private health schemes, or in-house discounts and bonuses.
"Help, I've got no practical experience."
Don't panic. There are plenty of employers looking for enthusiastic young people eager to learn skills on the job.
As a waiter or waitress, you could earn £11,000, rising to £12,000 when you have six months' to a year's experience. It goes without saying that an outgoing personality and aptitude for dealing with the public are essential. At entry level, you'll probably need a hospitality-related qualification to become a receptionist, but not necessarily any experience. Bucket-loads of personality, politeness and an ability to be unfazed by tricky customers are the crucial skills.
Look out for management trainee programmes, run by many larger companies. This is a good way of finding out which aspect of the industry really appeals as you'll get experience in a variety of roles and, in some cases, come away with a recognised qualification to boot. Expect to start your traineeship on about £12,000.
"OK, I've done the course and I've got some experience - now what?" With an NVQ Level 1, you could start up the kitchen ladder as a commis chef and earn £8,000-£10,000, depending on location. You'll be doing mise en place and preparing basic dishes as well as learning from the more experienced chefs around you. After a couple of years' cooking - and an NVQ Level 2 under your belt - you could expect promotion to demi chef on a salary of £12,000-£13,000. Again, salary depends on location, but a London demi chef with three years' kitchen experience could earn about £15,500.
Careers in conference and banqueting are popular. If you already have some customer-related experience, look out for conference and banqueting co-ordinator positions and earn about £14,000 rising to £17,000 after a year. You'll be part of a team and be involved in taking bookings, managing the diary, making catering arrangements and generally ensuring that functions run smoothly, so you'll need to show an ability to deal confidently with clients.
"I've now got several years' experience and I'm looking for the next step up." Once you've clocked up about four years in the kitchen, you could become a chef de partie, honing specialist culinary skills and earning anything from £14,000 out of London to £21,000 in the capital if you can show five years' experience in quality establishments. The next step is to become a sous chef where you'll not only have to show good craft skills but also management skills as you'll be standing in for the head chef when necessary. Salaries vary enormously: a London sous chef with seven years' experience in good restaurants earns about £25,000, but this could rise to £35,000 with 10 years' experience in restaurants with at least two AA rosettes. Outside London you're looking at £22,000-£28,000.
If hotel management is your thing, look out for positions as front of house manager and earn anything from £20,000 to £30,000, depending on the property. You'll need to be financially astute and able to work confidently with budgets as well as demonstrate excellent customer service skills. There are similar general manager roles and broadly similar salaries in the restaurant sector as well.
"I've now worked up through the ranks and I'm looking for the top job. What can I expect at this level?" As a head chef, you could command anything from £27,000 outside London if you've got 10 years' experience to £65,000 in London with 12 years' experience in top places. You'll need more than first-rate cooking skills, as employers want to see proof of supervisory and cost control experience. One step up from head chef - and with an even greater emphasis on supervisory skills - is the executive chef. Again, salaries vary hugely but can be as much as £100,000.
At management level, the top positions promise similar pay: the hotel general manager of a top-class hotel with more than 100 rooms outside London could earn around £80,000, rising to £100,000-plus for the equivalent in the capital.
Take two careers
General Manager
CHRIS BLACKarea general manager, Moto Chieveley Service Area, Berkshire
Often seen as the less glamorous side of hospitality, the contract catering sector can offer a fast-paced career and significant responsibility early on, not to mention more sociable hours than some other sectors.
Chris Black, aged 29 and a 2002 Acorn Award winner, has risen through the ranks at Moto, the motorway service division of Compass, to become area general manager at the busy Chieveley site in Berkshire. He is responsible for a £20m turnover from the site's restaurants and shop and, while his role has now become strategic, he hasn't lost sight of the customer service role that drew him to the industry in the first place. "I love working with people, so hospitality was a natural choice for me when I was looking at careers. I think people underestimate just how challenging it is to meet and exceed customer expectations all the time and, at the same time, manage your own people."
Chris joined Moto's graduate trainee scheme in January 1998 and, after just four weeks of basic training, was assistant restaurant manager of Fresh Express at the Reading westbound service area. After the six-month traineeship, which included off-the-job training and lots of mentoring, he became restaurant manager in charge of three assistant managers, 52 members of staff and a turnover of more than £2m.
By December 1999, he was operations manager of the Chieveley service area, in charge of the day-to-day running of the whole site and was promoted to his current position in May 2001, less than two-and-a-half years after joining the company. He already has his eye on the next step - to run one of Moto's largest sites - and his tips for people coming into the industry are clear: "Don't be afraid to make mistakes, because that's how you learn. And look after people because then they'll look after you."
Area Manager
SCOTT STRAKERarea manager, Greene King Pub Company
Pubs were part of Scott Straker's life from an early age so it is perhaps not surprising that he carved out a career for himself in that sector, starting off as a 17-year-old helping his mother in the pub she ran in Reading before beginning full-time bar work as soon as he turned 18.
Eight months later, he moved to another Reading pub, the Warwick Arms, where he stayed for four years, learning the job of assistant manager. These skills led him to a variety of relief manager positions before he returned to the Warwick Arms for two years as manager.
A change in direction then took Scott to the Tandem pub in Kennington, Oxfordshire, a Greene King property and part of the group's Friends and Family concept where he managed 14 people and a weekly turnover of £12,000-£15,000. Eighteen months later, he moved to another Greene King concept, Hungry Horse, at the Ladygrove pub in Didcot, Oxfordshire, where he won both the Hungry Horse pub of the year and the Greene King pub of the year awards.
Scott, 30, has just become an area manager in charge of nine pubs around High Wycombe, Aylesbury and the A1 corridor up to Stevenage. "I'm dealing with sales, environmental and development issues, return on investment, and cost control. I really enjoy working with such a variety of pubs, giving the managers direction and, of course, getting results. I'd like to win the company's area manager of the year award at some point."
His tips? "Set your mind to doing something and go for it."
