What I Did with a B.S. In Hotel Administration

About twelve years ago, I was six months away from graduating with a degree in hotel administration when I started having doubts about my major. For three years, I had toiled at one of the most prestigious universities in the country, struggling to find interest in subjects like finance, food & beverage, and facilities management. To this day, I am hard pressed to be able to tell you what I learned in those classes even though I had excellent professors.

I could have changed majors, but I had transferred to this school from the University of the Philippines. I had already changed majors once, and my four year college journey was rapidly approaching the six year mark. Graduation was so close I could smell it. Then I read something in a textbook that sticks with me to this day: "The average American changes careers three times throughout the course of his or her life."

So I took the plunge and finished school, graduating with a B.S. in Hotel Administration, with a concentration in Training and Multicultural Communications. Figuring I would stay in the hotel industry until I decided what I really wanted to do in life, I moved to Las Vegas and started looking for work in the hospitality field.

My first job out of college was working as a Food & Beverage Supervisor at an amusement water park. Around the same time, I started working a second job in the retail industry as a catalog sales associate for an upscale home furnishing company. Like many Americans, I worked both jobs for three years before being offered a promotion at the home furnishing company. I bid the water park adieu and spent the next 10 years as a Customer Service Supervisor and Training Specialist specializing in sales, customer service, eCommerce, and quality assurance.

Last July, I found myself joining the ranks of unemployed Americans, casualties of the economy. To read more about the silver lining of that experience, check out this article. Since being laid off, I've spent the last eight months freelance writing and looking for work in the Training & Development field.

Now some people may think I've done very little with my college degree when in fact I've used it practically every day since graduation. The skills I learned in my human resources, business communications, and computer classes were transferable qualities that I used at the water park, the home furnishing company, and now as a freelance writer and trainer.

And those subjects where I can't remember what I learned? Well, I guess that's not entirely true. To this day, I know how to julienne, dice, and cut properly with a chef's knife. I still use CAYGO (Clean As You GO) when I cook to keep my kitchen clean. I know that changing a light bulb is an actual cost consideration for hotel maintenance budgets. And while I'm not the most money savvy person, I know how to read a financial report and balance sheet.

So I am using my degree, just not in the way I originally planned. My word of advice to college graduates is not to stress so much about choosing exactly the right major. Unless you choose a highly specialized field like medicine or engineering, repeatedly changing your major will only add to your student loan costs and delay putting valuable experience on your resume. And like me, chances are you will wind up in a completely different industry with a different career path. Life's funny like that.

Rest assured that regardless of the major you choose, you will still learn the necessary skills to succeed in work and in life. Go ahead and study what you're interested in. Then graduate. It's just the beginning of your journey. Regardless of your career path, you'll still use your degree, just maybe not the way you intended to.

Congratulations to all our graduates, and best wishes in all your future endeavors.

Sources:

Gwen Navarrete, Thankful to be Laid Off in 2009, Associated Content