It’s a pleasure for Les Roches Marbella to see our alumni taking charge of their futures and pursuing entrepreneurial ambitions on the global hospitality scene. A shining example of the principles, work ethic, and hands on industry knowledge that we aim to instill in our students can be found in a 2011 LRM graduate from Estonia, Marek Hirtentreu, who has developed an innovative hospitality networking platform called “I Work in Hotels” (iworkinhotels.com).
Marek’s career began with his first internship at the “Gran Melia Resort Don Pepe” in Marbella, Spain where he learned from the ground level what it means to be a successful professional in this demanding industry. While advancing his studies at LRM, Marek eventually took on a role with “Le Chatelain Hotel” in Brussels where he learned the business side of the hotel industry. It was in this position of varied responsibilities (from sales and marketing to social media management) that his entrepreneurial vision was born. As a person who possesses an innate ambition to pursue his dreams, he set out developing a focused plan that would efficiently pair hospitality professionals with hospitality companies through an intermediate recruitment source. And with this simple vision, iWorkinhotels.com was born.
“I Work in Hotels” is an online and offline recruiting platform designed to unite the primary stakeholders in the international hospitality industry: Company, professional talent, and hospitality/tourism schools from around the world. As an intermediary between these three stakeholders, iWorkinhotels.com, minimizes the human resource investment required to recruit top professionals by matching candidates with companies, schools with companies looking to fill internship positions, and vice versa. I Work in Hotels’ edge comes via a new online proprietary screening tool that uses video interviewing as a solution to narrowing down ideal candidates.
This online video interviewing application (powered by Clooks) enables both hospitality schools and businesses to conduct interviews with students or potential employees without actually having to carry out the process in person. Using the online application, the applicant is required to conduct a “time-shifted” interview with a set of pre-structured questions provided previously by the interviewer. It is then recorded via webcam and uploaded to a URL that is accessible only to the parties concerned. The result is a win-win situation for both the interviewer and the interviewee alike. (diazepam) The service saves valuable time and money in lengthy candidate screening on one hand while opening the doors to opportunities that may have been overlooked due to distance on the other.
Today, Marek’s work sees him shifting his time between three new offices in The Hague, The Netherlands, and Moscow where he is expanding the firm’s global networking portfolio and successfully providing hospitality professionals an important resource to help further their careers. Indeed, if you are a hospitality related company who is recruiting industry talent or a hospitality professional in search of expanding career options, then iWorkinhotels.com is one network you don’t want to miss out on.
