Hospitality was not my first choice of career because my degree is in languages with marketing and advertising. But after my graduation in 2021, a friend who worked for Accor said there was a great choice of jobs in Novotel Milano Linate.

I sent my CV and one month later they interviewed me and said I was the right person for a position in reservations. I was not sure about it because I didn’t know anything about hospitality but I decided that as they are in the industry and they say I’m the right person, they would know!

I did an internship of six months and then they said they would like to hire me. I continued in reservations for a year on a fixed term contract and then they offered me a permanent position. After 2½ years in reservations, on October 1 last year, I moved to front desk because I felt I needed something new – more stimulating, I am enjoying it.

I use my English and sometimes Spanish – the languages I graduated in. I would like to add French – I understand a bit of French but don’t feel confident about speaking it; I would like to learn it.

What I love most about hospitality and hotels is that there are many departments, so you have the chance to learn from restaurants, administration, reservations, front desk, meetings; I have had opportunity to learn from everybody and have tried to store as much information as possible – I enjoy the dynamic environment.

When you have a tough day because you have to manage a lot of things during your shift and guests appreciate the time we take, then our efforts are rewarded. And if they are regular visitors, they say we are like family to them. With Accor you have the opportunity to move from one hotel to another, so you could be in Italy, or Spain, or anywhere in the world.

In hospitality, you have opportunity to learn a lot from different departments and to connect with people because you talk to them every day. You learn how to put yourself in other people’s shoes, to see things from another point of view, and you become less self-centred and more proactive.

Being a Heartist® means I can be myself at work just as I am at home, and during my shift I can express myself the way I want without judgment – I can behave with colleagues as I do with friends.

One of the best things was when they told me they wanted to hire me after the internship; I’m not very self-assured so that was one of my proudest moments. And I had the chance to work in the conference department – my colleague trained me and then I had 10 days on my own and at the end of that, they told me I had done a great job; I’m proud of that too.

I have always been aware of the trust people have put in me at Novotel Milano Linate – every day, every week. And when I was working work in the restaurant last summer, we arranged some parties in the garden with music and a DJ. I enjoyed that and our guests did as well; when they are satisfied and you can see they are enjoying our hotel, I like that.

If you are new, you need to have patience in the job because you are always with people, some of whom are kind and some are not. You have to be proactive and always be curious about what you can do because the job can give you a lot of opportunities for the future; use it as a chance to grow as a person and professionally.