On the latest episode of That Bad Review, I spoke to Amanda Hinton, general manager of Capricorn Caves in Queensland. Being a general manager of a hospitality-based business is impressive enough, but Amanda got this position when she was 21 years old.

In addition to having such a great job, Amanda is on the board of Caravanning Queensland. She started her career at 15 years old washing dishes in a local establishment in her hometown and hasn’t looked back since. Naturally, someone with accomplishments like that at such a young age doesn’t take their career progression for granted.

Our talk was pretty inspiring and I highly recommend you listen to the episode. But in the meantime, here’s a few things you can do in your job today to get your career moving.

Take Someone Out for Coffee

Amanda emphasised that it’s pretty important to find a mentor at a young age. Hospitality is a diverse industry, and it can be pretty dizzying to navigate. If you want to take on a management role, find someone who’s worked in that sort of position. Ask if you can take them out for a coffee or buy them lunch, and pick their brain for a bit.

Attend Workshops — and Take Action

There are a bunch of hospitality-centred workshops and conferences in Australia. Besides being great opportunities for networking, they’ll often have classes and talks on everything from marketing to finding the best POS for your restaurant.

The problem with these sort of events is that there can sometimes be too much information. You spend the whole day taking notes and getting inspired, and when you go home you let the lessons fall to that dark recess of your brain where they’re forgotten. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to enact every single little thing you learned at a conference. Take one or two high-priority pieces of advice, and work on incorporating them into your life.

Get Social

So many of my guests have something along these lines to say about social: maybe you hate it, but social media is here to stay. You can either stick your head in the ground or use it to connect with your current audience and find new people to visit your establishment.

Amanda mentioned that social media in the hospitality industry is very visual. This means you should be taking great pictures and video that light a fire in the imaginations of your potential guests. You want them to feel like they’re having a great holiday at your restaurant or caravan park.

Connect with Guests

If you’re always running around and micromanaging things at your place of work, you’ll quickly drive yourself crazy. The wonderful thing about hospitality is that it is literally your job to make people happy. What’s the point of doing that if you never get to see the fruits of your labour? Take some time to go have a chat with your guests and see how they’re doing. It’ll make them feel like they’re getting a more personal experience and take a lot of the pressure out of your work.

At the end of the day, don’t take yourself too seriously! You should enjoy going to work, not dread it.

Listen to my entire conversation with Amanda here.