A New Job and Happy Chinese New Year!

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Wang Zhen

Hi my friends. How was your holiday and how was your first week that you have already finished on both campuses? I want to join you so much. But my time is gone. Glion is yours now. I hope everything is fine, especially my new friends. It’s always difficult at the beginning. But everything is going to be better soon. I’m sure you will enjoy the time in Glion.

I also have good news to tell today, I got a phone call yesterday about my job from Raffles Dubai. And it was a YES. They will offer me a job in Front Office. I am still feeling happy about that. It’s been almost three months since I started sending my CVs to hotels and other organizations, I’ll say it’s not easy to get one for me. I say that it’s difficult for me for two reasons: nationality and personal preference. I say that because personally, I want find a job outside of China, but on the other hand, for Chinese citizens we have limited countries where it is easy to get a work visa. So, in these months, I learned all kinds of words which have the same meaning,“NO”. To be honest, after I got the postgraduate diploma from Glion, it’s really hard to accept these rejection letters again and again. But I did not give up. I didn’t believe these political issues, I trust myself, and after one year of study and five months internship with Glion, I knew I would find a good place in the end….and I was right!

Now, I’m just waiting for the contract they are going send to me, and then I’ll be on my way. This is just the beginning of my career, I have no idea what is going on in the future, but I will believe in myself.

At the end, I want to say Happy New Year to the Chinese students. The Spring Festival is coming. In our culture, Spring Festival is our “Christmas day”, it’s the most important day throughout the whole year. This year, I’m lucky that I can stay at home to celebrate with all my families. But it’s not like that for the students who are on campus, so I wish all the best for you, Happy Chinese New Year!

Daniel

Slàn agus go raibh maith agat!

Posted on January 12, 2012 by lea

(Goodbye and thank you! (hopefully translated correctly, if not, I apologize))

Hello everyone!! Can you believe it? A year ago I was still nervously awaiting the beginning of my journey into the hospitality industry and now I have finished the first two semesters. I can honestly not explain how happy and incredibly in awe I am, as to what I have seen and experienced throughout the past year. I met the most fascinating people and got to know oh so many different personalities. I took my first steps in the hospitality industry during a very interesting, all be it not always easy, internship in a lovely hotel in a country I had never been to before. Of course, through all of this and with the help of the courses in the first semester, I have already accumulated a whole lot of knowledge and have learned more about my own preferences in the industry.

In my last blog, I left off with the start of my night shift, so I thought I would tell you a bit about those interesting nights. Honestly, I have to say that the beginning of the night shifts was quite difficult seeing as you rarely see other people and simply due to the fact that your daily routine is somewhat turned upside down. However, after a few nights I had gotten more used to this spooky shift and was not as tired, as in the beginning.

Overall, I was able to perform a large part of the night audit during these shifts, which was definitely more than I had expected and gave me a good insight into the nightly tasks. My dancing and singing manager also helped a lot in making the night a lot more entertaining. Yes, you read correctly, my manager was actually always very upbeat and decided to keep himself awake by singing. I honestly do have to say that I admire the people who constantly work overnight, such as the overnight housekeepers and overnight managers, as well as those who always have to change their shifts, constantly shifting from early morning to night shifts, such as the security people, as it is a very hard job to do in my opinion, and these people’s lives are obviously a lot different from others. All in all, I feel that my night shifts were a very valuable experience, but definitely did not turn into my favourite shifts overall.

After my night shifts were over (all in all I was on night shifts for about three weeks), I was introduced back into ‘normal’ life, which actually included the occasional rays of sun. Not too many of course, it was Ireland after all (no, the rain is neither a prejudice against the country, nor a myth!), but now and then the sun did decide to say a short hello. The day shifts were all very regular and those where I was allowed to work at the desk by myself were especially exciting. Then, at the beginning of December, the hotel started to fill up. Those busy days, where we had people queuing up at reception were definitely the most fun, but also the most nerve-wracking, all while being very good days to get used to quite stressful situations. Then as the gorgeous Christmas trees and the lovely holiday decorations were put up and the Christmas music finally started playing (personally, I would have started playing the music at the beginning of November, but for some mysterious reason my colleagues were not that enthusiastic about my genius idea), I realized that my internship at the Ritz-Carlton was coming to an end and that I would actually get to go back home.

A few weeks later that is what I did. After a tearful goodbye from my lovely colleagues and friends, I packed my bags, which were of course overweight due to the unwillingness of the scale at the intern house to cooperate and therefore caused a bit of trouble at the airport, and after all this finally headed back home to Germany and later on to South Africa, which is where I am now.

All in all I have to say that the internship at the Ritz-Carlton honestly helped me to learn a lot about hospitality and gave me a very good insight into Rooms Division, while my friends and colleagues made my time there all the more special, which I can not thank them for enough.

With this I wish all of you a wonderful New Year filled with joy, good health and success and I will write my final blog, once I am back in Switzerland.

Have a lovely week!

Lea

Goodbye Glion, Goodbye Switzerland

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Wang Zhen

Hello everyone. How are you guys? I hope everything is fine. I have some good news and some sad news to share with you this time.

I prefer to start from the good news: I got my certificate of employment for my internship. This means that I’ve officially finished my internship. It was such a good experience for me.

As a cost controller in the F&B department on campus, my main responsibilities were:

Control the deliveries, storage and stock of non-perishable food items and beverages
Participate in the laying out of the main cellar-inventory-purchasing-cost control
Control of order forms, transfer forms from the different outlets
Elaborate and analyze the monthly closings of our f&b outlets
Assist in the organization of special student events, and participate actively in functions within the community.

During my work in this position, I learned a lot from my chef Mr. Charles and all my other colleagues. They taught me how to work in a team as a team player and how to work effectively, which are very important qualities in the hotel industry.

Actually. If you have already read my previous blog, then maybe you will find out some clues about the sad news that I want share with you. Yes, as soon as I finish my internship, I have to leave Glion, leave Switzerland. After these days of studying in Glion, I have already fallen in love with this place. The fascinating nature views, lovely people from all over the world, the professional teachers, the tasty food…. It is really hard to say goodbye. But this is life, I have to move on. So, Goodbye Glion…. I will miss all my presentations, reports, exams… even though I was suffering a little bit when I was doing that, but now everything seems so precious. And Goodbye my friends… I will miss all the good times that we had together. Obviously we know how to work hard and play even harder.

Now, I am back in China, waiting for my job offer. I hope I will get it before my next blog, so I can tell you guys, but no matter where I will go or what I will do one thing is for sure: I will spread the Glion sprit to other people and inspire them.

For the last time, I say goodbye to Switzerland and everyone that I loved! I will come back soon.

Happy New Year!!!

Zhen

Life and Work at Ritz Carlton part 2

Posted on November 1, 2011 by lea

Hello everyone!

About a month has passed since my last blog post, so I thought it would be about time to get you updated on my experiences at the front desk.

The past few weeks have been full of new challenges and it was again essential, as it is so often in this industry, to be able to catch on quickly, to deal with stressful situations and to persevere during the hotel’s busy days.

My working space

After a few days of training and shadowing at the front desk, I was let loose on the guests myself, having to try to deal with complaints, queries, check-ins, check-outs and other day to day tasks of the front office. At the beginning, it did take quite an effort to even answer the phone in a calm manner, as I felt that I was just thrown into cold water, not knowing what to expect.

The beautiful lobby

It amazes me how quickly this task became a normal routine for someone like me, who always takes a while to get their constant nervousness and rising panic under control. Now and then, you do get a few calls which are a little awkward or which you might not be able to answer directly, but just as often you get simple ones, of which you definitely do not have to be afraid. The point I am trying to make is that even though you might be a rather timid person and are afraid that front office is not the place for you, this can change, if you just give yourself a little push. If you are ready to try this, working in this department can really give you very good people skills and increased confidence.

I personally really enjoy working in the front office, as it gives you the opportunity to communicate with your guests in person. This way you are made aware of certain aspects of the hotel, which might need some improvement, as well as being the recipient of all the joy and excitement sent out by the guests, when they are anticipating their stay or when they have thoroughly enjoyed it. Furthermore, you can deal with certain requests directly and make sure that they really get the most out of their experience at your property. From time to time, you have guests who just brighten up your day, simply by being the nice people that they are. This is one of the best parts about this industry in my opinion: making sure you create an unforgettable experience for your guests and brightening their life up a little by doing so. Of course, all the departments in the hotel work toward achieving this goal, but in front office you actually get to see the happy faces of your customers or the beaming eyes of their children, which really motivates you to continue working.

Now of course, the work is not fun all of the time, especially if you do not have a lot to do on quiet days, but I suppose that is just a normal part of the work. Another factor that is truly nice about working in this department is the colleagues. Some of my front office colleagues are amazing people who really try to help you and assist you when there is a problem. I already know that the things I will miss most about this internship are the amazing people, amongst the interns as well as among the employees who I’ve met at this hotel.

Welcoming the guest

The work might not always be very easy, but the people just make it all worthwhile.

Now the next step of my journey will take me to the world of night shifts, something I am very curious about, as I can’t imagine what it is like, when your night turns into day time. I certainly hope that the hotel is not haunted….what with Ireland being such a mystical place and all.

On that note I wish everyone a wonderful November and I will inform you about my newest adventures, hopefully without ghostly encounters, in a month’s time.

Lea

Pictures taken from: http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Powerscourt/Default.htm

What to expect on internship

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Alessandro

Hello everyone!

Right now, lots of you are looking for your first internship, aren’t you? Well, I hope the search is going well so far. As promised, in my last post, I would like to share with you some more information about my experience in the One & Only Reethi Rah of the Maldives. For most of you, this is your first experience in a real working environment; there’s nothing to be afraid of, trust me. It might seem a bit scary at the beginning since you don’t know what to expect, but you will be fine.

My internship started in the fine dining Japanese restaurant, where I began learning all the basic procedures of the restaurant. Even if I was taught during CBL how to operate in a restaurant and so on, once in the real work space, everything is completely different. During my first night I was completely lost. I didn’t know what to do, where to stand, how the restaurant was run and I had the feeling of being useless. Pretty normal I guess, but then I got used to it.

After a month in the Japanese restaurant, I moved to the main restaurant, which operates during the breakfast, lunch and dinner times. It felt like everything was normal again. Since the restaurant procedures were much more similar to those we learned during CBL. Compared to the experience of the previous month in the Japanese restaurant, it was much easier to adapt to.

Just remember not to be afraid of making mistakes, we all go through our first experience. The learning process never ends. So if you have any doubts simply ask one of your colleagues or supervisors, they are there, ready to help you. You probably remember your first day during service at Hotel des Alpes? Were you scared of the other students? Did you feel nervous? Well, during your internship, don’t be. Although I am aware that is easier said than done! There is no reason to be afraid of the guests because they understand you. You will realize that you will feel more confident being in contact with a lot of different people everyday.

During my F&B experience I had the chance to move to the bar as well. Sometimes it was very stressful but I had a lot of fun. I learned to prepare several cocktails (which of course I had to taste) and other drinks. It happened once or twice that I was left alone behind the bar, with big responsibilities, but luckily everything went smoothly and I managed to have a nice time, especially interacting with the guests.

Did you enjoy or are you enjoying the Wine class? At One&Only I worked as a sommelier for a whole month. Of course there was a lot to learn about grapes, wines and I did lots of wine tasting as well. In my opinion, it has been very useful not only for my job at the time, but as well for my own knowledge about wines. It has been one of the best departments I’ve worked in.

Then, I moved to room service, which is probably one of the toughest departments in the hotel. This is where the most absurd requests and embarrassing moments take place on a daily basis. Guests opening the door half naked, those that shout at you because you woke them up having forgotten that they had called room service, guests ordering bottles of vodka at 9 am and so on. Room service in my hotel was completely different from what one expects: picnics on deserted islands, barbecues on the beach,…It was quite funny at times. To deliver the order, I had to use a golf-cart, as the hotel is an all-villa resort. Sometimes, I took the opportunity of driving around the island. Naturally, I only did that when we weren’t too busy!

Have a nice week and I wish you the best of luck for the upcoming interviews.
Enjoy your midterm break!

There’s something you expect from a luxury resort

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Alessandro

Normally, there’s something you expect from a luxury resort; beautiful pools, crystal
clear lagoons, white sandy beaches, a choice of fine dining and exquisite detail… Isn’t
that right?

Well everyone, how would you feel living and working in one of the world’s most
beautiful and luxurious tropical island resort? How would you like being in the lap of
luxury when you’re thousands of miles away from anywhere else? Have you thought
about it?

I’ve decided to take my first internship in the best hotel in the Maldives, One &Only Reethi Rah. An all-villa resort located in the North Male Atoll, just one hour by yacht
from the airport. For those of you who have never heard about One &Only, it is a luxury
brand which owns 7 exclusive resorts among the most beautiful destinations in the world such as Mexico, Bahamas, Maldives, Mauritius, Dubai and South Africa.

When I was in the plane, on the way to the Maldives, I was quite nervous about what was waiting for me in my new working environment, as well as curious to discover more
about it since I had been offered the job. I arrived in Male, December 19th early in the
morning, where the beautiful sun and an absolutely pleasant 28°C temperature gave me a warm welcome.

After being pick up by the hotel representative and boarded the guests’ yacht for the
hotel, I still couldn’t believe I was not there on holiday, but to work, for the next 6
months of my life. Upon arrival at the resort, together with the guests, we were welcomed by some of the executive managers. Then I met Gianni, the F&B assistant director, who made me feel at home from the very beginning. After a short tour I was shown to my room to get some rest.

The following day, after a very short orientation and some paperwork, I was introduced
to the One &Only principles, and the concept of blowing away the customers. Throughout my working experience I personally learned that a One &Only experience is
made of moments, which may relate to a time, a place, or a person. Some of these
moments make your day, others may change your life, some you’ll forget…while
others… you will remember and treasure forever.

I hope I gave you a nice and accurate idea of where I’ve been working for the last 6
months. I truly hope I can give you a good impression of my actual work experience in
my future posts.

Have a wonderful week!

Greetings from Ireland

Posted on July 25, 2011 by lea

Dia duit from Ireland!

I hope everyone who was so lucky as to have a summer vacation or holiday, had a great and relaxing one!

Personally, I only had five days at home (not to complain, as five days are by far better than no time at all) before I embarked on the plane and then on to the next step of my journey to Ireland.

Sitting in the plane, I wondered about what awaited me in the green country and which challenges I would encounter in this new environment, which I had been looking forward to seeing ever since I signed my contract a few months back.

Upon arrival at the airport in Dublin, I already met two of my very friendly, soon-to-be colleagues and housemates and we made our way to Bray, one of the larger towns in Ireland, where we were to be picked up by the guest service manager of the hotel.

After a warm welcome, we were dropped off at our home. More precisely, we were deposited in one of the four intern houses, where we had some time to settle in. As it turned out, one of the girls I had already met at the airport, Ornella, was in fact my new roommate; a surprise that I was very happy about, as she is an immensely kind person. I guess I am always really lucky with my roommates! Altogether there are seven people living in the house, which honestly does take some getting used to, but is a good and interesting experience, once you get adjusted to things. If you are in need of some solitude once in a while though, you can just take a stroll along the beautiful Irish Sea, which is definitely one of the advantages of living here.

The next day we discovered our place of work for the next six months: the absolutely gorgeous and idyllic Ritz Carlton Powerscourt near the charming village of Enniskerry.

After a short orientation and “meet and greet” with all of the other interns, we followed a more thorough orientation, where everyone was introduced to the Ritz Carlton principles and the different staff members. Then, we were immediately introduced to our departments.

I found out that I would start in housekeeping and move on to front office roughly three months later. I was also very excited to find out that even within the housekeeping department I would get the opportunity to work in different areas, starting in public ones and then moving on to working as housekeeping coordinator.

The first week consisted of a cross training and introduction to all the different housekeeping fields, such as the afore mentioned public areas, the housemen and the room attendants, which was quite varied and a good way of getting a quick overview of everything. I was also amazed by the kindness of everyone working in this department, as I was treated in a very friendly manner and welcomed into the team openly and immediately.

The second week then consisted of a cross training in front office, once again just to get a first impression of things, after which I then moved back to working in public areas in housekeeping, as well as learning to work as a room attendant, which I honestly have to admit really is an extremely exhausting and challenging job. My next stop will now be the laundry, after which I will then be trained as a supervisor, so I definitely can´t complain about monotony.

I hope you got a good first impression about my internship and I will keep you posted on my experiences here.

I also want to wish all new students, which will be starting their life in Glion very soon, the best of luck and a great start!

Lea

Part One: the End of Classes

Posted on May 9, 2011 by lea

Hello everyone and I hope you all had a nice week!

I cannot believe that three quarters of the first semester are already over, as it seems, despite everything that has happened in these past months, that it was just yesterday that I was composing my first student blog thinking and dreaming about Glion and the time to come. Time is really passing rapidly and my feelings about this are actually quite diverse and mixed.

On the one hand I am eternally grateful that I have actually found an industry and a place I really love and am very passionate about, as well as being indescribably happy about having met such wonderful people here, having subjects that really interest me and living in such a great place in general.

On the other hand, I feel a bit sad that the first semester is coming to an end. Now, I will not be able to see my new friends for six months at least and I will probably not even see some of them for a year, as the programs vary and have different structures. I know that this must not seem as bad to someone looking at it ‘from afar’, but I just feel that I am really leaving my second family behind, a family I have gotten unexpectedly and immensely close to over the past months. So if you are still worried about finding friendly and warm people here, if you are joining Glion soon, I can guarantee you that you will find many of them on campus, so do not fear. If you are nice and open to people, it will definitely be easy to make contacts and I can guarantee you that you will not be by yourself for long.

Another thing I am very anxious and nervous about, as well as obviously tremendously excited about, is my impending internship. We just received another briefing from the Internship Department on Friday, which again informed us about the appropriate ‘codes of conduct’, which we should follow at the hotel, as well as giving us information about certain procedures, which need to be fulfilled before, during and after our internship. Listening to all of this just made it even clearer, how soon we will actually be embarking on this new journey. This is momentarily a bit daunting, if I am completely honest.

Do not get me wrong though, I really want to go on my internship and gain as much experience as possible, but as I do not have any prior experience of working in a hotel, I am still a little scared. It seems as though we have all just settled in at Glion and are now sent off into the world again, which all in all is a good aspect of the program. Working in the hospitality industry, I am sure it is helpful to learn to become flexible and adaptable to change very quickly. This is, after all, a major characteristic, which you need to have for a job in this field. So again I do believe that the internship is going to give us a good first insight into the industry and overall I really love that we have the opportunity to do it, despite of being a bit emotional at the moment.

And now since I have drifted a bit off my original subject, I would like to tell you something about the end of our classes, and what I think about this in the next blog post.

To be continued…

Lea

Life on campus

Posted on March 15, 2011 by lea

Before I tell you about the events of the past two weeks, I would like to take some time to express my deepest sympathy to all those affected by the catastrophic events in Japan. The magnitude of what has happened and of what is still going on is simply unbelievable and I urge everyone to help in any way they can.

Getting back to more positive occurrences, I have a lot to report about the last two weeks.
Regarding my academic life, the past weeks have been quite busy. We had our first exams in IT and in F&B, as well as a few presentations and generally a full schedule. This week is also going to be rather hectic, because we have our final exam in IT coming up and we have a language exam, which in my case is in Spanish, on Thursday. In regards to the languages, you are either placed in Advanced, Extension or Academic English, but you also have the possibility of getting exempted after a test essay, which luckily was the case for me. Although all of this work is a little tiring, it teaches you the basics of good time management and introduces you to having a busy schedule.

Apart from classes and school work, the lively and exciting search for internships is still taking place, although a large amount of students have already decided where they will be moving to in June. I have had a few interviews as well and they are always thrilling and at the same time, at least in my case, somewhat agitating events. No matter how prepared you are for an interview, there are always some questions, which you do not expect, such as “What is the most complex problem you have ever solved?” or “What is the best advice you have given recently?”. Although these questions might seem rather simple, you can believe me when I say that it is rather difficult to think about good and sensible answers on the spot. Nevertheless, the internship search is one of the most exciting aspects of life here and I am very happy to say that I have already found an amazing job for mine.

Although some of the time during the weekends is spent working on assignments, you usually have time to explore your surroundings a bit. Last weekend, my lovely family visited me and I got to show them around my new home. We visited the Chateau de Chillon, which is a famous castle located along the lake, we explored the streets of Vevey, which is an idyllic little city not far from Montreux and we took a walk along the beautiful lake, which is my personal favorite concerning the natural surroundings of the area.

This weekend we had the Open Day at Glion, where I volunteered as a ‘tour guide’ for a very nice German family. You show these families around the campus and talk about the experiences you have had so far, it is a very fun activity I can really recommend.

Apart from the Open Day, there are a lot of other possibilities to volunteer around campus. In my case, this means being part of the Fire Officer program, which means that I am (most of the time along with other Fire Officers) responsible for the correct evacuation of our floor in case of fire. I’m also a part of the Inclusion and Diversity Committee, which has just been launched and tries to promote the intercultural relationships between students, because it is important to benefit as much as possible from being surrounded by so many different nationalities.

That is all for my quick recap of the past two weeks and I will tell you a bit about a day in my life here at Glion in more detail next time.

Wishing you all a great week!

Lea