How to make the most of your internship

By Daniel Portoraro, MBA in Hospitality Management, Canada/Italy, 2014-2016 2nd Year

An internship is a variety of things, but chief amongst them, it is a stepping stone to achieving one’s professional objectives, much in the same way that an MBA from IMHI-ESSEC is. 

A core part of the two-year curriculum, the IMHI six month internship allows one not only to apply classroom material to real world working environments, but also provides individuals with the reassurance that their roadmap is the correct. Furthermore, an internship can also be viewed as an extended interview between yourself and a potential employer.

Personally, I was fortunate enough to intern at the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group as a Summer Analyst for their Dubai office in the United Arab Emirates. There, as a member of the Business Development team, I was exposed to sourcing leads, pitching to clients, doing financial projections, writing business development proposals for the Executive Committee in Brussels, deal structuring, as well as gaining invaluable insight into the Middle East as a market for hotels. The knowledge I gained was not only a result of the work entrusted to me, but also a result of those who were entrusting it to me. That is, my bosses who acted more as mentors than direct superiors.

Needless to say, my internship was an excellent experience (and no, Carlson Rezidor’s public relations department is not dictating this to me over the phone.) But you probably don’t want to hear about what I had; you want to hear about how I got it.

Well, the first thing I did was talk to people: Classmates with more experience in the hotel industry than me, professors, career advisors, and alumni. After all these conversations (and a few with myself in the mirror), I was reassured of what it was that I wanted: Business Development. Since I knew what my goals were, I could then focus my time on honing the skills necessary to achieve them.

For example, if my objective was to work in a field which was heavily involved in hotel management contracts, I would require to become well-versed in them. As such, I enrolled a year ahead of schedule into Real Estate Principles. If in hotel development, you’re constantly dealing with owners for whom hotels are first and foremost income-generating assets, then you had better be fluent in finance; so I made that another focal point of my academic attention (much to the detriment of what little social life I had left by that point.)

You see, for me, what was important was making it clear to my employers that I didn’t view this internship just as opportunity to learn from them; I was there to offer something in return. Basically, I wanted to be as useful to the firm as possible. After all, an internship – or any work for that matter – is an exchange of professional knowledge between yourself and your employer; if you walk into an interview expecting to be the only one who gains from the arrangement, you’ll leave with nothing.

While this may sound like the beating of my own chest, that is not my intention. Rather, my goal here is to lay out the idea that an internship, if such a valuable opportunity, should be meditated upon from day one, worked towards from the moment you arrive at IMHI-ESSEC, and treated as seriously as any other job as it may very well have significant implications on your life after graduation.

This involves speaking with your existing network, and taking advantage of the new one the school offers you; reflecting on one’s own objectives; tuning and augmenting your skillset to be as valuable as possible to the firm that – hopefully – hires you; interviewing, and making your case for why you’re the best person the job.

And finally, after all that, that’s when the real work begins. 

The Peninsula Paris: a great challenge!

By Justine Solignac, MBA in Hospitality Management (IMHI), France, 2013-2015 2nd Year

The Peninsula Paris has been under renovation since 2009 and re-opened its doors on August 1st, 2014. It is the 10th hotel of the brand and the first in Europe.

It all started at the end of March, when I finally succeeded in getting an internship as a sales coordinator at the Peninsula Paris. I was really thrilled to take part in such a long-awaited project on the Parisian hospitality market. The pre-opening office of the Peninsula Paris was really impressive, with all the departments gathered together in the same open-space.

During my first two weeks, I observed and learned a lot about the brand, its values, and its positioning. At the end of these two weeks, I participated in the first big event of the Peninsula Paris: the “Mass Recruitment,” which consists of selecting and recruiting half of the work force for the operational departments. It was really enriching to take part in such an event, during which we received 500 candidates, half of whom were selected. During this event, I helped organize interviews and inform candidates about the hotel, which also gave me the opportunity to learn about the brand and put our sales pitch into practice. Candidates were our first customers!

After this first important event, all the departments moved into the Peninsula Paris’ office, which was still under construction. I visited the hotel for the first time: 200 rooms, 6 restaurants, gigantic gilded spaces… It was amazing to work in such a beautiful place! From then on, everything went really quickly; we organized the press event, the embassy event, and finally opening day! I participated in the organization of these important events: invitations, follow ups, sales kits, press kits, orders with suppliers… But I also worked as a Page Girl (the Peninsula’s groom) during the events. It was really exciting to be a part of it!

As a sales coordinator, I also had many responsibilities. I organized two European roadshows for the General Manager and the director of marketing. I also supported the sales managers in their different tasks, including sales trips, reports, and planning, starting from scratch. I learned a lot about the sales department strategy and how to attract the maximum of customers to the hotel. I was also in charge of the RFP (requests for pricing) through the Lanyon System.

I also got a chance to work with the Events Department to create proposals and contracts. This gave me the opportunity to work closely with the RM and reservation department in order to set the right prices. I also worked with the marketing coordinator for the different photo and video shoots we had at the hotel.

Working at The Peninsula Paris was a great challenge and fascinating experience. It also gave me professional experience in an executive department. The Peninsula Paris has also introduced me to new ways of thinking, which has allowed me to reinvent myself, both personally and professionally. It gave me new ideas about my future career and also what classes were essential for me to take at IMHI. This is why I chose two concentrations: luxury and e-commerce. Further, I learned that I really like to be challenged professionally and I really enjoyed participating in the development of such a hotel. While I don’t have my exact career path planned out after graduation, this internship opened me to new possibilities for my career.

It all started at IMHI...

By Marion Neveu, MBA in Hospitality Management, France, 2013-2015 2nd Year

In September 2013, I entered the MBA in Hospitality Management program at Essec. As my professional experiences were mainly related to Operations and Food & Beverage, my personal goal was to find the right opportunity for a change. During the first year at IMHI, I discovered new interests and my ambition changed. I discovered that being a General Manager or a Hotel Department Manager are only a few examples of the top-level management jobs available in the hotel industry. Even if I am passionate about the hospitality industry, I realized that working in a hotel might not be the right “fit” for me.

A few months later, I found an internship at HTI Consulting in Cape Town, South Africa. HTI is a consulting firm specialized in Hospitality and Tourism that operates across Africa and the Middle East. As I accepted the offer, Alban George, another IMHI student, told me that he was also going to be working for HTI Consulting.

At the end of March 2014 I took a flight to South Africa… the adventure had begun! When I first arrived in Cape Town and joined Alban we spend a week on vacation to settle in and discover our new hometown.

Living in Cape Town was an amazing experience. The Mother City is located on the Western Cape peninsula, between Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean. It is an ideal mix of urban area and nature and it is very easy to get away from the city and visit the surrounding areas.

During my internship, my missions were mainly related to feasibility studies, the core business of the company. I assisted my superior on three different assignments: feasibility studies in Swaziland, Togo, and Kenya. I also helped on various other contracts (such as in Mauritius or Congo).

The projects are conducted using the same method, but the reports are custom-made for the client, so the workload and structure can be quite different.

At the beginning of a study, an employee travels to the destination to study the market and meet the local actors (NGO’s, hotels, governmental bodies and main companies). As an intern, I remained at the office to collect the data and start the report. I produced graphs to highlight the data, summary tables, and wrote part of the reports. When I started out, I was in charge of the first two parts of the report – the economic overview and the tourism overview – and a few months later I was assigned to different challenging tasks. I also created excel templates designed to properly collect data at the beginning of the studies. Since the projects sometimes last more than three months, it’s easier to have the data (as well as sources) in the same file.

During my internship, I was working on behalf of Magdaline, a senior analyst for the company. We got along well and I greatly appreciated her knowledge and experience. The CEO of the company, Wayne Troughton, is very knowledgeable on the African market and his analyses were very helpful. The whole team was very nice and the atmosphere was pleasant, despite busy periods and stressful deadlines.

This experience was very positive, professionally as well as personally. I made a lot of friends from everywhere, as Cape Town is a dynamic city. After graduation, I am planning to look for a post in consulting and development, and going back to Cape Town or the African continent could be the right place to start, since the markets are not yet mature.

As the 1st year at IMHI was a chance to find what I wanted to do, I now expect to take classes relating to that field and to be able to go further with additional courses that could strengthen my competencies.

Back to School

By Gabriella de la Torre, MBA in Hospitality Management, Mexico & USA, 2012-2014 2nd Year

“The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning.”

-          John Dewey

It’s almost been a month since la rentrée and we haven’t stopped for a second amidst all the group projects, accounting quizzes and weekly Industry Leaders conferences. We go on learning. Coming back to ESSEC after my six-month internship has been quite a change, but I’ve succeeded in getting back into school mode. As deadlines approach for group presentations and term papers, I take a moment to reflect on my internship experience this past summer.

***

In April of this year, I had the opportunity to travel to Dubai for the six-month internship required as part of ESSEC’s MBA in Hospitality Management. With the bulk of my professional experience strictly in hotel operations, I was a bit nervous arriving to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) to work as an assistant analyst in their Strategic Consulting team. Nevertheless, I was quickly welcomed with open arms by a number of IMHI alumni who work with the company and who were tremendously helpful throughout my time in Dubai.

Looking back on my experience at JLL, I have a true sense of satisfaction with what I was able to accomplish, the friendships and contacts I developed and the many things I learned about myself from both a professional and a personal standpoint. I was truly fortunate to have had great leaders within the company who helped me to learn not only about real estate development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region but who also taught me about leadership and bringing out the best qualities in fellow team members. The great amount of autonomy and responsibility they allowed me ultimately provided a truly hands-on experience that made me feel like an active part of the greater JLL team.

Living in Dubai was also a very positive experience, as I had the opportunity to interact on a daily basis with people from all over the world who had moved to the city to take part in the tremendous amount of growth in the region. I was amazed by the number of IMHI alumni in Dubai, all of who were quick to offer help and advice for my professional future.

This internship experience has proven to be quite complementary to the studies I am currently undertaking. Through working in strategic consulting, I gained a great deal of exposure to different markets and real estate developments in the MENA region. Doing market research, writing reports and preparing presentations has expanded my knowledge and skills, resulting in a perspective that works hand-in-hand with what I have learned and will continue to learn at ESSEC.

Thanks to the IMHI network, I have been able to live an exceptionally rewarding and unique six-month work experience that has impacted my future career plans and helped me better understand what it takes to be a true industry leader.

A Truly International Analyst Internship at HTI Consulting

By Pierre-Alexandre Kaouza, MBA in Hospitality Management, France, 2012-2014 2nd Year

I entered the MBA in Hospitality Management program having mainly worked in operations and, more specifically, in Food & Beverage.  I learned about development during my first months at ESSEC and chose do to an internship in this field.  I managed to find an analyst position at HTI Consulting, a consulting company specialized in Hospitality and Tourism based in Cape Town, South Africa, and operating all across Africa and the Middle East.  I joined this company with another IMHI student, Pierre-Antoine Erny.

HTI’s core business is feasibility studies.  The company has a tailor-made approach to a project and therefore every report is different.  For most projects, an HTI employee travelled to the destination for a week or more.  His or her tasks were to understand the market, and its supply and demand, by meeting with hotel companies (both local and international), NGOs, governments, and tour operators.

As interns, we remained at the office in charge of completing the first two sections of the report with an overview of the country’s social, economic, and political context, as well as a tourism overview.  I worked on two feasibility studies from Day 1 till their submission to the client, one in the Seychelles and one in The Gambia.  In both cases, Dario, the company’s vice president and an IMHI alumnus, travelled there.  Since it was such a small company, only six people including the two of us, he did most of travelling and I collected the data from him after, which was not always easy since he was based in Barcelona.  Once we received the data, we needed to review it, identify the gaps, and complete the information with additional research or phone calls.  When we had all the information, I produced relevant graphs and summary tables with the critical goal of identifying correlation between events and facts, which I highlighted in the graph, bearing in mind the message we wanted to deliver.  We then had to work on a supply and demand model and financial models.  Our role was to play with the data and send what we thought were the best projections created by the existing models.  In addition to these feasibility studies, I restructured an existing database and helped create a new one, made a report on the 3 and 4 star market in Cape Town, created, with Dario, a model to compare whether a management contract, a development lease, or a land lease was the best option for a client, and provided support for some parts of other projects.

This internship was really interesting for me.  It was my first experience behind a desk and I was able to work on different tasks in completely different situations.  It helped me understand how the hotel business differs from one country to another, depending on the local context, and that deep analysis is necessary before taking any action in Africa, as companies there cannot simply apply the international standards.  The markets are not very well structured, so getting reliable data is a very tough task.

One challenging aspect of this internship was learning to work in a small and very busy company, where our managers did not always have the time to give lots of feedback.  However, working on projects in many different contexts was very interesting.  The experience helped me to understand that I want to work in development, which will definitely influence my choices when selecting courses in order to strengthen my skills in this area.

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.

Internship at Le Meurice: Unlocking the power of data analysis in the luxury hotel sector

By Clément Deplanche, MBA in Hospitality Management, France, 2012-2014 2nd Year 

Six months after starting my internship between the first and second year of my MBA, I’m pleased when I reflect on the numerous skills that I had the opportunity to improve. My internship took place at Le Meurice, the oldest Parisian Palace, which opened in 1835. The hotel is part of the Dorchester Collection, a hotel group managing a portfolio of 10 hotels across the United States and Europe. The motto of Le Meurice is “The French genius for the art of living,” which wholly represents what the hotel stands for: the ultimate experience for the guest, delivering a truly Parisian experience in all aspects.

I arrived at Le Meurice mainly with operational experience in food and beverage. Therefore, I was really excited to explore other departments, such as sales and marketing. I also arrived with a great deal of uncertainty, however, about how my internship would go and what I would learn, since I was told at the beginning that my internship experience would depend on me demonstrating my capabilities. Nevertheless, I was excited to take up the challenge.

I began by assisting the sales team with their daily tasks in order to gain the knowledge necessary to move on to more of a business analyst job. I had the opportunity to develop my knowledge in sales, of course, but even more in revenue management and market analysis. In fact, I had the opportunity to implement a brand new monthly statistics report, which fit the new segmentation of the Dorchester collection. This report was used by all the sales managers, as well as by the top management. I worked a lot on the implementation of new analysis tools and creating reports on market trends. I also had the opportunity to work on some e-commerce/e-marketing projects and to assist with more specific aspects of marketing (creating a CRM plan, researching the development of the Chinese market, etc.), as well as working on the 2014 budget.

Overall, it was a great experience that allowed me to develop me skills while bringing real added-value to the company. In addition, it gave me a much better understanding of what it takes to perform at this level of management, particularly in the luxury sector. One of the main things I took away from my internship was an in-depth understanding of the importance of data analysis and gathering information about the market and the competition in order to adopt the most suitable strategy for a hotel.