Flor Zepeda

Responsibilities

This internship makes you learn and support in all restaurant areas, like taking orders and serving drinks and food to the pool area, including cabanas and daybeds, and aiding coworkers to provide better service for guests. Packing up food with adequate presentation. Helping the cooks clean and cook when needed.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment during my internship experience was being recognized by guests and having the opportunity to build relationships with them. It makes both their experience and mine more special. After all, that is what hospitality is about, making experiences for guests, and when someone comes in every day, and you remember small details about them, they feel welcomed; but it works the other way too. When guests ask for you because they liked your service, you realize you must be doing something right that benefits their experience.

Learning experience

The greatest lessons I learned from my experience were that you must stay true to yourself and always do your best, even if you're the only one doing it. Also, building relationships with everyone around you, not just coworkers in your department, is essential for success. Even people who aren't in your department can help you out when you need it, and vice-versa; everything is intertwined, and it is important to work well with everyone around you.

What advice would you give?

Learn how to enjoy the little things in your interactions with people. It is a people-to-people major, and those small things make it worthwhile. It is easy to get caught up in the chaos or the hardships of the job but don't forget what made you want to follow this path.