Career Path: Trainee in hotel > Experienced each Department > General Manager > Director of own Business
“I quickly knew I had chosen the right career"
My Story: I started my career in hotels at 16 years of age and quickly realised I had chosen the right career path. Working in nearly every department and then left the chain and took my new skills to become General Manager of a country house hotel. I then moved to a company that organised large corporate events and product launches, before moving to manage a hotel reservation business. I then spent 20 years working in recruitment of hotel staff before launching my company “Full Circle”. I now have 140 relief chefs working all over the UK.
Funny Story: Waiting until 1.00am for a very famous guest to check in to hotel I worked in who should have arrived at 8.00pm – when he arrived, and came to the desk with a huge smug look on his face, and I was, to be honest, annoyed at having to stay and wait on 5 hours to check him in, said he had a room booked via the local TV station. I replied “certainly sir – what name is it?” His face was an absolute picture (he was one of the most instantly recognisable people in the country) and the night porter, who managed to keep an incredibly straight face advised that “he doesn’t have a TV sir!”
I also had to explain the staff of the cocktail bar that I understood the resident pianist was really the only person we allowed to play the grand piano in the bar, but that it was Ok for her to give the keys to the nice blonde gentleman and he could play the piano if he wanted to as he was Richard Clayderman and had just played at the local concert hall to several thousand people and sold millions of albums!