by Chris Ong
It has become a tradition of SHTCA to organize a semiannual* Career Day for its graduating and current students. To make it a grander one this semester, a group of seasoned Event Operations students who have just successfully organized and coordinated the International Conference on Pro Poor Tourism, were once again commissioned to take-up the challenge.
The 12th of November then saw more than 30 companies from a myriad of business portfolios participated in the event to scout for talented potentials to fill up positions in their respective establishments, i.e. JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Impiana Hotel, X-Treme Dimensions, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur, Club Med, Volt or TNS Research International. For the very first time in four years, the SHTCA Career Day had seen so many participating companies.
Graduating students had brought up to date resumés and were mentally prepared to be interviewed on site for their future positions or industrial placements. Presentations from some of the eager participating companies added to the informative event.
The school believes that it was good to start students to practice real-life interviewing skills as well as networking with the important industry professionals as it is key to any hospitality personnel embarking into the work force in the near future.
From the beginning of 2008 until November this year, SHTCA managed to assist students to get prominent and permanent job offers, even before they’ve completed their industrial training, for example in the Food & Beverage department of Hilton Sentral and Westin Hotel; the Front Office departments of Prince Hotel, KL, and Golden Sands Resort Penang; as Management Trainees in Berjaya Hotels & Resorts, the Holiday Inn Glenmarie and the Grand Hyatt Muscat, Oman; or as Head Chef of FullHouse.
Therefore, one of the most important objectives of this event was to allow students to choose which department they are interested in and SHTCA as a school will assist them in whichever way possible.
*Whilst editing the article I learnt something! There is always some confusion around the two words biannual and biennial. Whilst biannual refers to an event, that occures twice per year, biennial indicates that something takes place every two years. However, when spoken, they can be easily confused. Therefore it is advisable to use seminannual instead of biannual.
