Internship

The hospitality industry covers such fields as hotel management, food services, and tourism. Internships in these disciplines can provide opportunities for travel, both domestically and abroad while providing amazing work experience.

A hospitality internship might place a student in a hotel, on a cruise ship, in a university food service, convention center, resort, or tourism bureau. There are many aspects to the operations of hospitality services, and a good internship will provide experience in a number of areas. Applicants should be sure that their assignment will either provide a broad base of experiences or focus on the area of their interest.

Possible duties of a hospitality internship might be leading guest activities, planning and organizing events, operation management, marketing, customer service, executive management, overseeing resort properties, retail or group sales, or organizing housekeeping and maintenance. Food services is also part of the hospitality industry and duties might include researching menus and recipes, testing new foods, quality control, purchasing and ordering, catering, banquet operations, sanitation, or overseeing of food preparation. With the wide umbrella of diverse roles, an intern should consider whether their long term goal is to understand the industry as a whole, or to focus on one particular aspect.

A hospitality internship may not always be a paid position. Receiving academic credit for completing an internship may also be possible. Sometimes being able to defer income can lead to being offered a highly desirable position later. Applicants should consider their long-term goals as they look for internship opportunities, and not simply the immediate remuneration.

Finding intern positions in the hospitality industry can be aided by sites such as University of Dreams, Also, searching for “hospitality” within sites that specialize in international internships, such as Intern Abroad, or Transitions Abroad, can yield many possibilities. A paid internship in hospitality might be a perfect way to live in a somewhat exotic location while gaining academic credit and valuable knowledge. Although the net income might be small, the pre-professional experience could be highly satisfactory, and might lead to a lifetime career.