Anupam Luthra - From Hospitality to Journalism

From Hospitality to Journalism - A learning experience 

Anupam Luthra

During the 3 years of my study in hotel management, I had a number of visions of where my career could take me, no solid plan and an open mind. I still willingly accepted the offer to start my journey in an industry completely new to me and I couldn't wait to discover it. 

It all started with me getting my first job with ITC Park Sheraton, Chennai, recognised as Crown Plaza Chennai Adyar Park hotel, at present. I was selected as Guest Relations Executive in the front office department. Being a fresher, the post I got selected for was pretty uncommon as most of my batchmates and fresh graduates would either be selected as Management trainees or would start from scratch of the hierarchy ladder of various departments. However, in my case it was a double-promotion, and I was thrilled. 

Being in the front office department and working on different shifts wasn't easy at all. Being a 24-hour based business, the long hours with a few quiet breaks in between the rush - all come with the package of working as a hotelier. I worked in the property for over a year and hotel culture became part of me, a lifestyle. But, it did come with many challenges which i had to face with my working colleagues and seniors. 

As I was the youngest member of Guest Relations, I had to put in more working hours and extra effort to learn more. Everything was very new for me, and I had no clue about how the front desk works. There was constantly something happening somewhere to someone at some time, whether a colleague or a guest. It's full of action, stories and involves a great deal of variety. I was always expecting the unexpected.  

At some point, it gets exhausting but almost in a good way. There was so much that goes on behind-the-scenes. The beautiful surroundings, happy guests, smiling staff and impeccable service are merely the surface of what really happens. There is more than meets the eye. Everything extends far beyond what the customer sees. The amount of intricacies that go into effectively running the complex operations of a huge hotel was challenging and being part of each layer of communication to make something happen, was rewarding and satisfying. 

I gathered all the experience I needed, and decided to move my base to Mumbai, and got the opportunity to work with another ITC hotel chain in the same department but with a higher designation. My work became more intricate and highly challenging and being responsible for a team with more responsibilities added on my shoulder. But it was a great learning experience and a unique encounter from which i gained new insights and perspectives. 

The only thing that bothered me was facing gender discrimination when it came to me trying to give my views or suggestions to my higher ups, perhaps I was still a kid in their perception and they always felt that there would be nothing much significant I would be able to bring to the table. This sort of impression made me put in more hours of work. I proved that age doesn't really matter, it's just a number, which only made me more confident and enthusiastic towards my work.

With over two years in the hotel industry, I constantly raised the bar in accelerating my own learning curve. I did grow professionally, and even personally, learning so much through a journey I had been crafting myself along the way, and most importantly one that I had initiated and believed in pursuing. The whole of felt like taking a roller coaster ride where you are the driver and also a passenger. 

With my over 2 years stint in Hotel Industry, I finally decided to take a break from the industry and decided to go abroad for further studies, it was not a very easy decision to take but it was solely inspired by an in house guest who became a long staying guest in the ITC Grant central, Mumbai where I had worked and he guided me with the university and course which I should be pursuing for the same. He was a British, based out of London, and suggested I should apply in Leeds University where I could also explore my chance of getting a fully paid scholarship for the course.

This was indeed a very big challenge to take upon, a lifetime experience which I decided to finally sign up for and got selected for doing my Masters in International Business with half scholarship which considerably reduced the financial strain for me. Living and studying abroad was accompanied with taking up part up job in the University to pay off my accommodation and other expenses.

 I was less than 24 years in a foreign land where I had come only for one purpose was to enhance my skills and knowledge for betterment of my career and future. With my ongoing part time job in the university where I was appointed as a student correspondent, I was given the task to write on behalf of the vice chancellor of my university and to come up with a weekly newsletter which used to get published internally and circulated to all the faculty and students. 

I developed a knack for writing and decided to apply for another part time job with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for which I got selected and was handsomely paid too. The job profile which I worked there was of an fresher and mostly dealt with collecting news from local areas and doing story edits but it was indeed a game changer in my life and I was quite sure I wanted to explore more from it.

I was getting quite comfortable in my shoes and was quite happy with how my life was unfolding to, but as the saying goes, “Uncertainty is the refuge of hope. The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next”. It quite did in my case, the whole world faced recession and there were layoffs across the industry and I wasn’t spared too, getting a pink slip for the first time and with my studies getting completed I decided to return back to India with all the good and bad package on my shoulders.

Recession was not quite bad in India but with the entire world jabbing about how difficult it had become for companies to hire, It took me a while to get my career back on track and while the job hunt was on, I also decided to apply and complete my PG course in Journalism for building my career prospects more proficiently. 

My master’s degree helped me in getting a job with a publishing house where we used to write on Human Resource related topics. I also started doing freelance writing and contributed articles for various daily English newspapers. Working as a journalist only made me widen my understanding of the various stories and topics I wrote about. The working culture was vivid and mostly everyone kept on to themselves, very less of the fun, drama and laughs which I was used to when I worked for the hotels. Perhaps the deadlines to finish the story and getting it published took quite a strain of the journos, as you write and research on many and only one gets selected for publishing or perhaps none of it. So it is takes a lot of mental strain on an individual which I was getting used to in the new field I chose as my career.  

With over seven years now in the same sphere the road to my career journey has only become better and accomplishing and perhaps as time unfolds I might even reach to greater heights but the only fresh memory would remain will l be of young 17 year old girl who stepped in to the campus of IHM Chennai, with full zeal and excitement was given the platform to think independently and grow as an individual both professionally and humanly to face all the challenges that laid ahead. 

Anupam Luthra, Class of 2005