3 minute read

In 2022 I decided to take some time away from tech in order to travel. After spending a few months in Asia, I headed down to Australia for a year long working holiday visa, with the intention to work in hospitality.

Why work in hospitality? Aside from needing a source of income (life is expensive down under!), I had very little experience working in such roles, and I felt that that type of work would be somewhat of a rite of passage for me, providing me with certain skills that would aid me upon returning to tech. Now, over a year since landing my first hospitality job, I want to reflect on some of the skills that were most honed during my hospitality era. For context, I worked in several different positions as a barista, server, and fast food attendant.

• Customer service: This is perhaps the cornerstone of hospitality, as ensuring the customer has a seamless experience is key to running a good business. I had to ensure I was communicating clearly at all times, listening to what the customer had to say, and making adjustments as needed in order to make sure that the customer was satisfied. This could be challenging at times (especially when customers had unrealistic expectations, were impatient, or were just straight up disrespectful), but I learned that by putting in a little extra effort to remind them that their business is valued, most customers would walk away satisfied. In tech, although the products offered are different than at a restaurant, the same customer service skills are important for client satisfaction.

• Adaptability and problem solving: This is a big one, because things can quickly change and things don’t always run as smoothly as you’d want them to. I found that I often had to think on my feet and quickly come up with solutions to new problems, which helped me become more creative and resourceful. This sort of thing happens as well in tech - there are constantly new technologies to be learned, new processes to be used, and bugs to be solved - so being adaptable and able to solve these sorts of problems (sometimes on the spot) is important.

• Time management and working under pressure: Speed of service is important, especially when people are hungry. There is a lot of moving around in hospitality (such as between the kitchen and the dining room), and I had to learn how to prioritize tasks and optimize each trip in order to work as quickly as possible. Plus, the work environments can be a little…intense at times (have you ever seen The Bear?), so I was often making these prioritization and optimization decisions under pressure. This has definitely improved my ability to remain calm and work effectively, even in a fast-paced and stressful environment.

• Product knowledge: One of the biggest challenges at the start of any new position was learning about the products offered (i.e. the menu). This knowledge was key for being able to provide recommendations or to answer any questions (e.g. allergies, other dietary restrictions), and this applies analogously in tech as well - an effective software solution or even a simple answer to a question rests on a foundation of product knowledge.

• Attention to detail: Small things can have a big impact, so details matter. It can take something as small as a few burnt french fries or a missing dipping sauce on a plate to make a customer dissatisfied at a restaurant, so my eye for noticing the little things has certainly become sharper. As we all know, it can only take a few sentences or a few lines of code to steer things off course in tech as well, so I’m very glad to have sharpened this skill.

• Teamwork: One of my favourite parts of my hospitality jobs were the people I worked with. It was important to have good relationships with my team members to ensure we were delivering consistent and seamless service for the entirety of the customer’s experience. This, of course, is important in tech as well, as clients feel the most assured and supported when they know they’re working with a collaborative and unified team.

I’m thankful for the professional development that my time in this industry has afforded me, and hey, I had a lot of fun along the way. If you made it this far, I’ll leave you with one final message - tip your server! They worked really hard (amidst probably a lot of chaos) to give you a good experience, and they would really appreciate it :)