Technology has become a major factor in all aspects of life, including the hospitality sectors. If you are the type of person who loves to work with numbers and see how they can help build brands and create customer experiences, then one of the technical jobs within the hospitality sectors might be for you.
Those interested in this more technical side of the hospitality business will find a wealth of opportunities that will allow them to combine their enjoyment of IT as well as their appreciation for hospitality. Here are just a few jobs that you can consider seeing if they would be a good fit for your skills and personality.
1. Corporate travel consultant
As a corporate travel consultant, you will bring your travel and hospitality skills together with your love of technology to help businesses plan trips and events. Organizing corporate travel requires professionals to keep track of a lot of different details, including the client's needs, a thorough knowledge of world geography, understanding how to put together trips that meet client expectations while also finding the best routes and fees, and how to solve problems that can easily arise on the job.
On the technical side, you will need to understand different computer programs, particularly global distribution systems and programs that allow those in travel to track the relevant data, such as airfares and rental car fees. You will be called upon to have a thorough understanding of airline routing principles and how to construct international fares.
This job will also use your hospitality training, as you seek to provide the optimal experience for your clients. As you apply your problem-solving and critical thinking strategies, provide consultations, and put your understanding of international travel to use, you will set yourself up for success in this field.
2. Technical marketer
For startups, marketing will be a chief priority. As the new business in the industry, the startup has to introduce themselves to customers and cultivate a positive brand reputation. Businesses for generations have known that marketing allows them to control this message and start getting their organization in front of new customers. However, in the modern digital age, the role of the marketer has often taken a more technical turn. This is particularly true for startups, who often have smaller teams and might not have multiple people working within a marketing department.
As a technical marketer, you will need to have a thorough understanding of the latest SEO and SEM best practices. You will also need to be comfortable with analytics to help you understand how customers behave on your website and what you can do to encourage them to convert. Marketers who really thrive in the industry will also bring at least a basic knowledge of HTML and JavaScript to the job, which will help them improve the web pages they create.
Those in hospitality know the importance of reputation and experience as well. Professionals diving into the technical marketing field will want to incorporate the importance of the customer experience and how they feel when interacting with the brand into each of their tasks. This will help them create an outstanding experience online and encourage a favorable reputation for the new business.
3. Data Engineer
The sharing-economy has allowed for the growth of entire new industries as people find opportunities to connect with each other. Many of these businesses, however, rely heavily on websites that allow their clients to make these connections and uncover new money-generating chances. This makes a data engineer a critical part of the sharing economy.
As a data engineer, you will help to build and manage data services, websites, and web applications that run the sharing economy.
To succeed as a data engineer, you will need to begin by building a strong understanding of various critical programming languages, such as SQL and Python, as well as data structures and cloud platforms. You will have to be very good with numbers and data and understand how the information collected can transform businesses.
You will also bring to the job an outstanding comprehension of the importance of the customer experience and cultivating a great impression. You will help your brands remember the value of the hospitality that they extend to their website or application visitors, empowering them to create outstanding customer experiences that will help their business grow.
4. Web Developer
Anyone interested in working with startups will find an environment that is perfectly conducive to their technical personality and their hospitality training. Startups building and running websites to get their organizations out and in front of potential customers need to work with outstanding web developers.
A web developer will help them create a site that not only looks beautiful, but also ranks well on the search engine results page and provides an excellent customer experience. Helping customers feel welcome and encouraged to buy from a business will always be an important part of getting a startup off the ground.
Those interested in pursuing jobs as web developers will need to bring together an excellent background knowledge in web development along with a commitment to the customer experience. They should have a strong working knowledge of the latest optimization best practices as well as what customers want to see when they engage with brands online. Web developers will also need a good understanding of coding and UX. This includes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript at a minimum.
5. E-commerce manager
An e-commerce manager helps retail brands build their online presence and sell to customers through their website. Therefore, those who want to thrive in this industry need to understand how to cater to customers online and create an outstanding experience for them, while also using their technical skills to create an outstanding buying experience.
As an e-commerce manager, you will play an important role in developing the e-commerce functions of the website and continually monitoring how customers interact with it and what needs to be improved. You will analyze competitor sites to see what you could do better to draw more customers towards your brand. These managers learn the patterns in customer behavior and how they can use these patterns to direct customers towards increased conversions and business growth.
To thrive in this position, you will need to have a thorough understanding of website development and optimization. Your skills in analytics will allow you to properly understand customer behavior and expectations so that you can better interpret what customers on your website appreciate.
You will also bring together skills related to sales and customer satisfaction. This will help you create an experience designed around the customer and how to make them feel welcomed and happy while patronizing the site. This will encourage them to come again and help you create a stronger organization.
6. Customer Relationship Manager
A customer relationship manager uses data to understand how customers interact with the business. This allows them to therefore understand what needs to be done to improve customers’ impressions of the organization and therefore increase loyalty and retention. This job brings together hard data collected from customer behavior from a wide variety of sources including the website, email, live conversations, and social media to create a more complete picture of the brand’s reputation and what needs to be done to create a strong user experience.
Those who want to thrive in this position will offer a strong understanding of data and analysis. They will understand how to drive sales growth through creating excellent customer experiences. Your hospitality training will prepare you to understand customer needs as you seek to improve customer retention and build the organization.
7. IT Support Specialist
With the connectivity of people today, guests at events, resorts, and hotels and other hospitality venues expect to have regular access to their devices and technology. When people come to stay at hotels or play at casinos, for example, they expect that their computers and tablets will work effectively, allowing them to remain connected throughout their stay.
As a part of hospitality service, these businesses want to make sure that their guests have the access they need for a pleasant stay. Therefore, the IT support specialist will play an important role in the success of the organization.
As an IT support specialist, you will bring your skills in computers and computer systems together with your training in hospitality to improve the experience your clients receive. You will help them troubleshoot problems that arise, maintain the computer systems at the business, and help guests complete IT tasks-- such as setting up the needed computer equipment for an event at your business.
You will need to have a good understanding of computers and computer systems, experience in help desks support, insight into troubleshooting and solving problems with common systems and devices, and knowledge of common hardware, such as cabling.
Within the hospitality sectors, there are a variety of jobs that offer you opportunities to put your technical skills to work. If you enjoy working with numbers to solve problems and understand the role that IT plays in the modern hospitality industry, then see if one of these positions might offer you the career you desire.
