Why a Career in the Service Industry Might Be Right for You

by Paul D. Rosevear

Playing around had never paid so well for Blake Bernard, assistant manager at The Fore Runner, a ski shop near Killington, Vermont. As with most service industry careers, Bernard gets a chance to indulge in something he loves - the resort lifestyle - while helping others do the same. A recent college graduate, Bernard made the decision to steer his career toward the service industry when he came to a last-minute fork in his academic trail.

And he's not alone on the service slopes. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 96.3 percent of the new wage and salary jobs generated from 2002 to 2012 will be service-related. When you consider that sales in the restaurant industry alone have skyrocketed over the past decade (rising from $308.2 million in 1996 to $511.1 in 2006, according to the National Restaurant Association), it's no wonder why you'd be doing yourself a favor by perfecting your service skills.

“I had completed three years at Western Michigan University and was on a basic track to a standard business degree,” says Bernard. But going into senior year, he realized that though he wanted a business-oriented career, he also wanted to make a living doing something related to his interest in the resort industry.

“I’ve always had a good time at resorts – golfing, skiing, playing tennis – so I wanted to incorporate those things into my life beyond the times I’m on vacation,” says Bernard. As a result, he transferred to Green Mountain College’s resort and leisure management program. There, he discovered the secret to so many service industry professionals’ satisfaction: The right education can turn your love of working with people into career opportunities.

Managing the ski shop brings a host of responsibilities beyond satisfying patrons. “Beyond working with customers, I’m a soft goods buyer for the shop. I spend a lot of time making inventory decisions, and I also design the advertising that gets sent to TV and newspapers,” explains Bernard. “The shop provides apparel for the Green Mountain College Ski Team and the Killington Mountain School Ski Team, and I need to manage all sorts of stocking, ordering, and pricing for that. And I have to deal with the students’ parents,” he says with a chuckle, adding that his internships and coursework within the management program at Green Mountain gave him the hands-on experience necessary to pull it all off. 

“My resort management degree is basically a business degree I can take into any profession – I've learned about finance, human resources, and marketing, just in the context of resorts and recreation,” he explains. “I applied many of the things I learned while working for my dad’s wholesale apparel company, and I am even considering turning that education toward resort or corporate law in the future.”

For now, Bernard is content enjoying the perks of his degree. “While working at the resort, I get to do things like ski 78 days a year and spend workdays on a golf course,” he says. “I love what I do, and that’s the most important thing – you’ve got to enjoy your work.”

Sophisticated Service
Sometimes the idea of serving others, whether in a restaurant, hotel, resort, or health care facility, isn't a glamorous one. After all, who wants to be at someone else's beck and call? According to Chef William Hunt, dean of the culinary arts program at Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, the key to a satisfying service career lies in combining passions in fields like food, hospitality, and caretaking with sophisticated degrees that hone expert skills beyond the service aspect.

“Jobs are not hard to find in our industry,” says Hunt. “What's needed are educated people with experience. The manager of a restaurant needs to learn about the food and hospitality side as well as the business side of the job. If, by watching the Food Network, your customers know more about food than you do, it will be impossible for you to succeed in the hospitality industry.”

Academic training enables people to manage and operate service-oriented establishments. That's because typical curriculum in a service-oriented degree program includes classes in business, finance, marketing, and accounting, as well as coursework specific to the field in which you’ll apply that business knowledge. For example, restaurant management students will take courses in wine tasting and mixology, and resort management students will learn about event planning and lodging operations. And, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, higher wage positions are much more likely to go to candidates who have a degree.

“As an industry, hospitality is relatively young,” says Frank Pauze, director of the resort management program at Green Mountain College. “Though schools like Cornell University and Michigan State University have offered such programs since the ’20s and ’30s, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the industry took off.” Once the interstate highway system was in place, roadside chains and franchises like Sheraton and McDonald’s exploded. It was then that serving people became a corporate, professionalized endeavor, he adds. “No more mom-and-pop hotels and restaurants – the industry became much more corporate, and therefore much more lucrative.”

In fact, the service industry has since been weaved into the fabric of our lifestyles. “Mom and dad are getting in the car and going on vacation, taking the kids to Disneyland, doing more traveling, and eating out more,” says Pauze.  “There is a need for professionals who can organize and accommodate all that business."

Serving Smart
As the earning power of the industry continues to grow, so have the educational opportunities for prospective students – there are about 350 hotel schools alone around the country, with offerings ranging from certificates and bachelor’s degrees to full-blown doctoral programs. "Many huge schools like Purdue University, University of Massachusetts, Virginia Tech, and Ohio State University have hospitality programs,” says Pauze. With all the options available, choosing the right program is a need you’ll have to cater to first and foremost.

“When it comes to career schools, one of the main factors in selecting the best one for you is the career services offerings,” says Hunt. “Look to see where the graduates go, and what the job placement history is. You can often find testimonials from externship affiliates that can clue you into what a school is going to do in the long term.” What is the school’s relationship with affiliate employers? Does the school offer lifetime placement, so you can call years down the line and get job leads? According to Hunt, most hirings in this field are handled within the industry, not the want-ads, so your contacts are important.

Does Service Suit You?
Of course, it takes more than a love of golf or an appreciation for fine cuisine to succeed in a service career. The question is, do you have “it” in you?

“People who succeed in service industry careers share many of the same characteristics,” says Elaine Berke, founder of EBI Consulting, Inc., a company that specializes in employee training and service excellence. “They love to be involved in day-to-day operations and enjoy making things happen directly – generally, they are action-oriented people.”

Fortunately for those suited for service, the profession is virtually recession-proof, according to Pauze. “Families will always take vacations, people constantly travel, and the average food dollar is spent out – not in the kitchen,” he says. “No matter where they decide to use their education, students will be able to find what they’re looking for in the industry.”

With three out of five food service managers earning an average household income of $50,000 or more, according to the National Restaurant Association, and a recent wage and salary review conducted by the Roth Young national accounting firm showing general hotel managers earning as much as $97,000 a year, it sounds like these students are serving themselves well.