Job description hotel manager: With work & travel experience against the shortage of skilled workers in tourism

Claudia Anderle became 31 general manager of a 4 star hotel. Career jumping board was doing a WorkundTravel stay in Australia. That helps her with the recruitment of new employees.

The call of the big, wide world

Even though her career path sounds a bit logical, Claudia Anderle never really wanted to go to the hotel. Having grown up in Paderborn, where she also graduated from the University of Paderborn with a master's degree in Tourism / Geography with Business Administration and Languages ​​(French), she had been working as an apprentice at the airport.

But then the big, wide world beckoned: “After finishing my studies I wanted to go away a little longer. And since I had an aunt in Perth, Australia, my stay at Work and Travel was just a formality. " She laid the foundation for her rapid career precisely during this stay in Australia. Your recipes for a successful career in Germany: “Learning by Doing” and “Leading by Example”. It therefore also offers jobs for smart work and travelers.

Australia as a career skier

For Anderle, however, it was clear that she wanted to use her stay in Australia in a targeted manner to advance her career: "I was already 27 at the time, so I didn't want to just take a break, I wanted to work in Australia specifically," she says.

That is why she decided to pursue this goal from now on: “I always give what I have to give to achieve my goals. Perseverance, assertiveness and positive thinking have always helped me. ”

With stubbornness to success

But finding an adequate job was not as easy as I thought: “Since WorkundTravel people often only stay in one place for a short time, they have a reputation among employers as being somewhat inconsistent. It is therefore difficult to get a qualified job. ” So she got her first job as a receptionist only with determination and persuasiveness:

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“I knew that I could only convince personally. So I walked to the hotel with my documents and wanted to speak to the manager. When I was told he had no time, I said 'well, then I'll wait'. In this way I was able to demonstrate that I am aiming for a longer-term career. ”

Rise after only 3 months

After three months, however, Anderle was looking for new challenges and applied as a receptionist for her current employer Adina in Perth, Australia. However, since she had been offered a supervisor job three days earlier, the signs had changed: "I then said that the receptionist was no longer enough for me".

Then Anderle was offered the job as a duty manager - this is the interface between the general manager and all operational departments. "I was responsible for complaints and reception and checked invoices and reservations," she summarizes her new area of ​​responsibility.

Sponsorship for the visa

After six months, the hotel offered her sponsorship. This is a business visa that Anderle could have worked with in Australia in the longer term. but she declined: "I wanted to take a three-month break - and travel through Southeast Asia because of the geographical proximity and cultural diversity," she says. "If I had accepted that at the time, I might still be in Australia."

Although she was offered sponsorship again in her next job, a hotel in the small town of West Australian Broom, the laws were then tightened: "My hotel simply no longer met the conditions." It was clear to Anderle that she had to leave Australia.

Career planning with wanderlust

But maybe not forever - even if she is currently happy as general manager in Berlin: "I am proud that my hard work has paid off and I am glad that after many changes of location at home and abroad I now have a permanent position." Long-term career and family planning is what Claudia Anderle currently has priority.

"But once you've been abroad for a while, you always have travel fever in your heart," she says. And the memory of Australia is always present: “The climate with a western standard of living is unique. So if there is an opportunity… ”

Ideas against skills shortage

However, the experience of working and traveling time still helps her today when it comes to practical leadership decisions such as recruiting new employees.

When Claudia Anderle left Australia in 2009, she initially decided to travel through Southeast Asia for another six months. "I may have had the opportunity to do that for the last time in my life," she said. I didn't plan to be general manager today, on the contrary: “If I had been told that five years ago, I wouldn't have believed it.”

On the way, she contacted the Adina chain in Germany: “I had the Company worked successfully in Australia for half a year - maybe you also had a job for me there in Germany? ”

In the right place at the right time

And, as so often, Anderle was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time: “The Adina Hotel in Frankurt was new to the market just three months ago. And I was hired as a duty manager. First only for three months - I didn't want to commit myself any longer. ”

Then came the chance to start as an assistant manager at the newly opened Adina hotel in Hamburg. “Managing the opening team was a great new challenge. But again I just wanted to commit for three months. ”

“You can get into a lot of things”

When the Adina Hotel in Frankfurt did not have a general manager for a while, Anderle was asked if they wanted to bridge this vacancy as relief managers. For Anderle this offered the opportunity to sniff into the unfamiliar responsibility on a temporary basis:

“It wasn't always rosy, but there are lots of tasks that you can get your hands on. And I had a lot of support from the company's headquarters, ”reports Anderle. When she was finally offered the job as General Manager at the Adina Hotel at Checkpoint-Charlie in Berlin, Anderle was no longer afraid of responsibility - and said without hesitation "Yes":

"I knew what was coming!"

“During my time as a relief manager, I was able to estimate what was going to happen to me.” Today she sees it as a great pleasure to see things grow: “It is nice when you initiate changes and see what comes out of it. In my previous positions, I had no long-term success monitoring, ”she reports.

She usually works from Monday to Friday, on average 10 hours a day, depending on the season. At the weekend, she often does administrative tasks: "I can wear jeans here," she says. In addition, she is available for her employees around the clock: "But it happens at most once a month that I get rung out," said Anderle.

No 9to5 job

Your job is not a regulated 9to5 job. "However, I cannot ask my employees to work overtime if I am not willing to do it myself," says the perfectionist, who always gives 150 percent.

She calls this management method Leading by Exampel - living what she expects from herself: "It is important to me that there is a positive team feeling and that everyone has fun mastering requirements together."

Leading by Example

For Leading by Exampel, however, Anderle also has to admit my own weaknesses to others: “It's fatal if you pretend you already know everything. If necessary, I can also ask for help. ” Anderle wants to convince with her work:

"Envy - you have to stand over it, act to the best of your knowledge and belief and offer no target," she says. And of course, you should treat your employees well, right down to the smallest trainee. "In this way, despite being more informal, I also gain respect as a young manager", Anderle is convinced.

Successful recruiting

As with many hotels, it is no longer easy for Adina to find suitable, well-trained professionals - even in Berlin. Especially in the service or in the kitchen it is sometimes difficult, Anderle states. Here, good career opportunities within the company, as the manager knows from her own experience.

It also helped her to solve this problem: Right now for the service, she is currently looking for work and travel employees who stop in Berlin. "This is a win-win situation for both sides," said Anderle. And who knows, this may result in unexpected career opportunities for one or the other, as with the hotel manager herself.

Dear Australia or Germany?

Speaking of manners - would she have preferred to stay in Australia? “Back then, yes. But I also always tell myself that when a door closes somewhere, a new one opens. And I would probably have made a career in Australia too. " Wouldn't that have been a little different? “Sure, Australia's management relationships are looser, just because of the 'You'. In Germany I first had to get used to structures and etiquette. "

What she wouldn't want to miss is her job at Adina, which is also an Australian company: “I've always been lucky enough to have good employers, but my heart is attached to this house. In Australia I loved it when 10 nations sat at one table, it opens you up to cultural differences. Such a hotel is cultural diversity on a micro level.

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