Chicago Recruiter Links Hospitality With Business Degrees
Over three billion passengers flew somewhere for either leisure or business travel in 2012. And as with any traveler, there had to be a place to eat, sleep and relax. This is one of many reasons that the hotel industry continues to boom with profits as high as $18 billion. But how often do business students think of working in the hospitality industry?
Angela Isaacson, Creative Recruiter for Digital People, started her career in the catering and hotel industry after earning a Hospitality Management degree from Western Illinois University in 1994.
After five years spent as a catering manager, in addition to working in kitchens, restaurants and room service, she used her business experience to help another group: job seekers.
Because business degrees tend to be universal, both an aspiring entrepreneur or someone who wants to work under the corporate umbrella can find the advantages of the degree. And sometimes it's the classes that business degree students may not think of taking that are the most useful regardless of the industry they end up working in.
"I didn't [initially] think economics would ever be relative to my degree," said Isaacson. "Understanding the highs and lows of trade, like the stock market, affects jobs. Are they hiring? Not hiring? A lot of those things come into play in my industry now."
With Isaacson regularly helping with people's job search, her psychology course also comes in handy when working with both clients and applicants.
"We go out to our clients and meet everybody. See the environment. Make sure it is a good fit with [applicants]. We never want to put a corporate person, who is really buttoned up, in a creative type of job. It might not work out."
Isaacson encourages people to think outside of the box when looking for that dream job and trying to make money at the same time.
"Some of the newbies may be fresh out of [college] and want to be paid a really high salary like a mid- to senior-level job," said Isaacson. "I would say get into a position where you can gain some experience. Get your foot in the door, and hopefully stay and move up the ladder."
Shamontiel L. Vaughn is a professional journalist who has work featured in AXS, Yahoo!, Chicago Defender and Chicago Tribune. She's been an Examiner since 2009 and currently writes about 10 categories on Examiner.com.
