looking to major in tourism/hotel mgment...advice from graduates?

[die_rich88]

Hi,

I am currently attending the University of Toronto and I am in the middle of a pyschology degree. However, I have come to find psychology rather useless in terms of job potential and also it disinterests me.

I am looking to switch majors, and I find the hotel management major rather interesting. The reason being, I work in a restuarant right now and I personally enjoy operating a restuarant and servicing people. For people living in Toronto, I am thinking of doing the hotel managment program at Ryerson.

After looking at the program descriptions, I still find the term "hotel managment" rather vague. I am wondering if anyone who has graduated with this or similar degrees can tell me more about it, namely:

1) what kind of positions do you have?
2) what kind of work do you do?
3) is it more business related? or more service related?
4) is it easy to find jobs in this field?
5) how is the earning potential?
6) I am not that great in math. Do you need good math skill to excel in these kinds of programs/field?

[Maulik]

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1) what kind of positions do you have?

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Talk to people!

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2) what kind of work do you do?

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Why not ask someone who teaches at your school?
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3) is it more business related? or more service related?

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Again, meet people involved or graduating from this program.
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4) is it easy to find jobs in this field

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No, you’ll have to look arduously for a job.
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5) how is the earning potential?

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Earning potential is great for those who excel, in any field.
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6) I am not that great in math. Do you need good math skill to excel in these kinds of programs/field?

[/ QUOTE ]
Certainly not imperative you’re Markov.

[Blarg]

Growing up in tourist destinations in the Pacific, it was commonly felt by the people there that the industry didn't pay well at all, and that most of the jobs were in the very lowest paying tiers. It was probably worse in Hawaii, where the living costs are very high and at the same time, everybody on the planet wants to live there, so they can afford to pay you very little. If you don't want to work in Hawaii, and even for a low salary, you can rest assured that someone else would be absolutely delighted to.

Working at a career counseling center at UCLA, I saw the salaries for professionals(lawyers and accountants) could be a 20k or greater drop between jobs on "the mainland" and Hawaii, just because of the Hawaii factor.

So how much you'll effectively make, as in being able to net after expenses, as well as how much you actually make, can definitely depend on where you are and how stiff the competition is to live there. Not all hotels are in such super touristy areas, of course, but I just wanted to drop you a note about a little of what it's like in one place.

[imitation]

You can sweet exchanges to hotels around the world, I have friends here in China from France doing hotel management who have really cushy jobs living in 5-star hotels, sounds like it'd be a blast.