The job of a hotel porter involves greeting guests upon arrival and helping them to carry their luggage to their hotel room. It is a customer-facing role, where communication skills can be crucial, and it can also be an active hospitality career, due to the amount of movement and lifting involved. A porter may also need to answer customer questions.

A front desk employee will work in the reception area, or the main area for customer contact. Typical responsibilities will include welcoming guests or customers, confirming reservations, checking guests or visitors in and out, collecting payments, answering customer questions and answering telephone calls.

A front desk manager will take responsibility for the day-to-day performance of the front desk, supervising and coordinating front desk staff, hiring new employees, providing training, reporting on performance and making necessary adjustments to approach. A key part of the role involves making sure the front desk is always adequately staffed.

It's your job to keep tenants, guests or residents happy by making sure that your establishment is clean, well maintained and that staff are well trained and managed. You could be in charge of a care home, hall of residence, housing association or hotel but responsibilities are generally the same and cover budget control, business planning and administration.

Waiting staff provide services within restaurants and other similar settings, and are a good example of an entry-level hospitality career. Typical responsibilities will include taking orders, serving food, collecting plates and cutlery, communicating restaurant policy to customers, taking payments and catering for any requests customers make.

A bartender, also known as a barkeep, is an employee who works in a bar, pub or similar establishment, serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Responsibilities include taking orders from customers, preparing drinks, serving drinks and, in some cases, serving food. A bartender will also need to collect payments and make recommendations.

A restaurant manager takes overall responsibility for restaurant operations, often with a particular focus on the customer-facing aspects of the business. The role may involve creating and maintaining reports, hiring and firing staff, supervising restaurant service periods, providing relevant training and dealing with serious complaints.

Many people embarking on hospitality careers get their foot in the door as a member of the kitchen staff. This is a role that can involve a range of different tasks within the kitchen, with examples including washing dishes and cutlery, basic cooking or food preparation, organising and setting tables, and assisting chefs or cooks.

A kitchen manager takes responsibility for managing the kitchen staff and overseeing operations. Tasks will include hiring and training new employees, supervising kitchen staff while they work, managing departmental budgets and stock levels, and managing work rotas, in order to ensure the kitchen is never under-staffed or over-staffed

The head chef is the main chef in a restaurant and will usually have additional responsibilities, such as creating and implementing the restaurant menu, ordering stock and supervising other chefs. Often, it is the hospitality career choice of chefs who also have managerial aspirations, or a desire to fully demonstrate their creativity.

An example of a food and beverage-related hospitality career that is based in hotels, room service staff are responsible for taking orders from guests, communicating orders to restaurant or catering staff, and then delivering those orders to guests’ hotel rooms. It is a position that combines elements of waiting and customer service

Also known as a food and beverage manager, it's your job to plan, organise and develop food and drinks to meet customer expectations, hygiene standards and financial targets. The ability to think on your feet, work in a team and manage a budget are all important skills to be successful in a catering job.

It's your job to ensure high-quality food and drink and good customer service is delivered by your restaurant. You could also be required to take care of finance, operations and sales as required. Many managers start on the counter and work their way up but there are also opportunities to do a graduate scheme, degree level programme or apprenticeship.

Front-of-house work, staff recruitment, accounting and stock control are just some of the duties of those managing a pub or bar. You may own your own premises or be employed by a brewery or pub chain to run the business but either way you'll need to get a personal licence to sell alcohol, which is gained through an accredited licensing qualification. Aside from the licence no formal qualifications are required and emphasis is often placed on work experience.

The general manager position is often the pinnacle of a hospitality career and involves taking overall responsibility for the day-to-day running of the hospitality business. Tasks may include managing and setting budgets, completing administrative work and supervising the various aspects of the business, including dealing with customers.

The marketing team is in charge of promotional efforts for the hospitality business. Regardless of whether it is a hotel, restaurant, bar or cafe, they will devise marketing strategies, manage and coordinate marketing staff, oversee social media activities, take responsibility for branding and measure advertising performance.

Sales is a specialised hospitality career path and a sales manager oversees sales strategy and attempts to sell specific products or services. Within a hotel, for example, the Sales team may communicate with business leaders, attend exhibitions or trade shows, and attempt to sell hotel rooms, business facilities, weddings and other services.

The job of a revenue manager is to optimise financial results. It is one of the most data-driven hospitality careers, with the revenue manager using past performance, forecasting models, industry trends and other information to make strategic decisions about pricing and distribution, in order to optimise revenue generation.

The accounts team takes on the task of ensuring a hospitality industry business is recording financial information properly. This means keeping track of all income and expenses, as well as ensuring bills and taxes are paid on time. In addition, they will lead the finance department and make sure employees are paid on time.

Some businesses employ a dedicated purchase manager, who is in charge of the majority of purchases made by the company.

Key responsibilities within Purchasing include continuously monitoring stock levels and use of equipment, making purchases for the best price, at the right time, and avoiding situations where the business is over or under stocked.

Much of the role involves creating policies and processes that keep employees feeling safe, supported, protected and happy. This could mean dealing with disputes, providing performance appraisals, managing employee benefits and strategically managing staff turnover.

As the head of the IT department, the IT manager is tasked with managing the business’ IT resources. This may involve designing and implementing IT infrastructure, hiring, training and supervising IT workers, keeping hardware and software up-to-date, providing technical support and ensuring the business complies with data protection laws.

You'll ensure that all services provided meet the clients' needs and events are run efficiently, which may require liaising with an event organiser. As well as conference centres you could find work in hotels, universities and sporting venues. Effective organisation, the ability to budget and handle finances and customer service skills are all important to be successful in the role.

Responsible for planning and organising conferences, seminars, exhibitions and parties event managers need to ensure that the audience is engaged and the message of the event is clear. Negotiation skills are important to get the best prices when looking for suppliers and venues as are sales and marketing skills to promote the event and get sponsors.

You'll create exhibitions that look good, are practical, communicate the client's message and meet any space or budget limitations. Effective communication skills are a must as you'll need to listen to the client's ideas and turn them into reality while adding some of your own suggestions. Jobs are available in design companies, consultancies, larger museums and galleries.

The natural hospitality career progression route for those working as housekeeping staff, a housekeeping manager oversees the housekeeping department and is likely to be responsible for coordinating efforts, managing stock, hiring and training employees, creating work schedules and potentially dealing with certain customer complaints.

Housekeeping staff are employed by hotels and other similar properties to keep guest rooms and other areas clean and tidy. Typical responsibilities will include cleaning rooms, making rooms look presentable to new guests, washing bed linen, towels and other items, replacing toiletries and vacuum cleaning other parts of the premises.

Sometimes seen as a potential area of progression for those who started their hospitality careers as room service staff or hotel porters, a concierge will help to connect guests with the services they need. For instance, they may be required to organise a room clean, book a taxi, book a restaurant table or purchase event tickets for a guest.