Professional & Personal Development at Carlson Rezidor in Dubai

By Alexandra Apaclla Vizcardo, MBA in Hospitality Management, Peru, 2012-2014 2nd Year

Between the first and second year of my MBA in Hospitality Management I had the opportunity to do a 6 month internship at the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group in the Development Department of the Dubai regional office.

The experience as a whole was very rewarding in terms of personal and professional development. I not only had the opportunity to gain new professional insight working in the development department, I also discovered a completely new culture in Dubai. I was very lucky to have an excellent mentor who played an important role during my internship. I had the opportunity to work with him on all the new leads and current projects that Carlson Rezidor has in the Middle East. With many new projects to deal with, there was always something new for me to do and to learn, which helped me not only to develop solid strategic-analytical and critical thinking skills, but also offered me the opportunity to put into practice the theory I had learned thus far. In fact, the company gave me the tools to develop and expand my knowledge, which allowed me to fully take advantage of my internship. The work environment was also very friendly, which I think was one of the most reasons I enjoyed my time there.

I view this experience as a box full of surprises; during the 6 months I encountered challenges that I had to learn to overcome by myself in the very different cultural environment of the Middle East, where people’s ways of thinking and acting was very different from what I was used to. I realized that my past experience allowed me to integrate easily into Dubai’s multicultural environment (95% of the population are expats) and to discover different cultures from all around the world.

Finally, the internship helped orient me towards what I want to do in the future and to establish my short-term and long-term goals.