"Work in different departaments
to understand how a hotel works completely"
JORDI LLAVERIA. Manager of the Isard Hotel in Andorra
I completed my studies in Tourism in 2005, in the first promotion of these studies in Vila-seca. I combined my studies with a summer job as an activity monitor. That's where I learned the meaning of the overused phrase "customer experience". Later I did a master's degree in Marketing and Tourism Promotion and later a specialization in F&B Manager, which gave me a much broader view of the hospitality world.
All this time I worked in various areas, ranging from the reception for companies like SB Hotels to the commercial department of the hotel Blaumar in Salou, the La Boella Convention Centre and the TRYP Port Cambrils, where I worked with another Tourism graduate, Raúl Cózar.
But I have also worked outside the hospitality industry. In 2010 I had the opportunity to work at the Tourism and Leisure PCT, where I was in charge of the technical office of the Wine Country Project, a wine tourism project that carried out the important task of structuring and promoting the wide range of wine tourism possibilities we have in the province of Tarragona. Once the project was completed I decided to go abroad, which helped me to improve myself professionally and gave me the opportunity to see different ways of doing things. It was then that I went to work in the United Kingdom, where I started as a receptionist at a hotel in Birmingham, and was promoted to Duty Manager, a job that later opened the door to working with the company where I currently work, the Isard Hotel in Andorra. I began as reception manager and I am now the manager.
Looking back over my experience, if I had to give advice to prospective Tourism students who want to pursue a career in the hospitality business, I would tell them to work in different departments to learn how a hotel works completely. That they work in large hotels, international hotels and small hotels, here and abroad. Keep studying while you work and enjoy the process. You have to move around to learn to the fullest, and then choose what you like best and find where your talents and experiences will be most useful. For me, it is important to enjoy your work to the fullest, after all, that is what tourism is all about.