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In a recent discussion of HSMAI’s Revenue Advisory Board, the conversation took a lively turn: are hospitality graduates actually ready for the commercial roles companies need today? And just as important — are we ready for them?
One participant summed it up perfectly: “The problem isn’t the people being hired — it’s the people doing the hiring.”
The Talent Gap Isn’t Where You Think It Is
Everyone agrees that, surprisingly, traditional hospitality degrees don’t deliver the breadth commercial teams need and expect. But the gap isn’t only technical. It’s mindset.
Hiring leaders want:
- People who can think, not just operate a system
- Curiosity strong enough to pick apart messy problems
- Comfort working with ambiguity instead of waiting for perfect data
- Analytical thinking from fields far outside hospitality
Ironically, the most traditional candidates — the “lifers” — may struggle the most. Teams are finding huge value in mixing hospitality-trained professionals with data engineering, analytics, and computer science grads who challenge assumptions and rethink long-established approaches.
The Real Bottleneck: Leaders Stuck in an Old Model
Several Advisory Board members noted that the issue isn’t whether graduates can learn the industry.They can. Quickly. The blocker is hiring managers who are still expecting candidates:
- To accept “junior” salaries
- To have the savvy of 50 years experience
- To already have a perfect local-market knowledge
The fix is cultural. Organizations need a reset in how they evaluate potential, how they prioritize skills, and how they train new hires. The industry drags its feet on this — and it’s costing teams great talent.
The Soft Skills That Matter Most (and Rarely Get Taught)
Across every comment, one theme frequently arose: technical skills are teachable; communication is not optional.
Commercial roles require:
- Clear, confident communication
- Persuasion without ego
- The ability to translate analysis into action
- Knowing how to adjust tone for every stakeholder — ownership, GM, sales, ops, finance
One speaker called it “storytelling,” and that’s exactly it. If the team can’t sell the strategy internally, it won’t succeed.
There was even an unexpected suggestion: improv comedy. Turns out, improv builds the one thing analysts often lack — the ability to think out loud, stay steady under pressure, and handle impossible questions without freezing. The industry might not be adding improv classes to curriculums anytime soon, but the point landed: commercial teams need practice communicating, not just calculating.
Hospitality Degrees Don’t Have to Be a Limitation
Another important insight was offered: the skills hospitality programs teach are transferable — when reframed correctly. Graduates can succeed in service-driven fields like retail, luxury goods, travel, entertainment, and even specialized areas such as customer experience design.
Perishability — the core concept behind hotels, airlines, and event-based revenue — is its own superpower. Commercial students trained in it often find other industries easier, not harder, to navigate.
How the Industry Can Actually Help
Participants were clear: hospitality programs do better when they have more exposure to real work. Students want:
- Real data, not textbook cases
- Real challenges from real businesses
- Hands-on projects
- Applied analytics
- Commercial problems with imperfect information
Academic programs struggle to source those projects without industry partners raising their hands.
That’s where our community can have the most impact.
Recommended Team Discussion
These prompts can help internal teams align around what matters most:
- What are the actual must-have skills for our early-career commercial roles — and which “requirements” are we ready to eliminate?
- How open are our hiring managers to candidates outside hospitality? What would make them more confident?
- Which soft skills (communication, persuasion, storytelling) are consistently missing on our team, and how can we develop them intentionally?
- Where could automation or self-taught skills matter more than formal degrees in our hiring decisions?
- What real-world projects could we share with universities so future graduates are more prepared for our environment?