The General Guidelines for Students who would like to start their career in Front Office Operations

The General Guidelines for Students who would like to start their career in Front Office Operations

The campus interview process would try to ensure the following qualities, skills and knowledge from a candidate:

1.     Appearance- well groomed and pleasant looking. Not necessarily good looking, though.

2.     Communication skills in English, a local and a foreign language.

3.     General knowledge, local knowledge and ideas about planning a customer’s itinerary

4.     Airlines- Indian and International

5.     Property Management System, theory & application (IDS, Opera etc)

6.     Front Office Terminologies (Glossary) and definitions.

7.     Mathematical  formulas from all three years (e.g. ARR, Rev PAR, Yield %, Hubbart’s Formula etc)

8.     General computer application (MS Word, Excel spreadsheet)

9.     Situation handling and Case Studies

10.         Industrial Training and other relevant experiences

11.         GDS and online booking channels

12.         Country, capital and currency

13.         Places of tourist interest and how to reach them (Bihar and Jharkhand)

Reference Books: (listed by Author’s name)

1.     Michael Kasavana & Richard Brooks

2.     Jata Shankar Tewari

3.     S.K. Bhatnagar

4.     Anutosh Bhakta

5.     Sudhir Andrews

6.     J L Bardy (pdf copy available on slideshare.net and FO Lab)

Note: The above listed books are all available in the Institute Library.

Tips for Preparation

1.     Group study is better than studying alone.

2.     Speak in English continuously.

3.     Revise regularly.

4.     Make short notes in your own handwriting.

Tips for Interview:

1.     Make a short but impressive Resume. Do not ignore the photograph.

2.     Read current affairs in newspaper and hospitality magazines to get an idea about the possible topics for GD.

3.     Prepare a smart introduction of under one minute, highlighting your achievements, skills, experience and people friendly nature.

4.     Prepare answers for FAQ in Interviews.

5.     Practice, whenever possible. Practice is the key to improvement.

6.     If not, record your own mobile video and analyze. Consult you teacher, if in doubt.

7.     Make a video resume.

8.     Video tutorials for all topics are available on YouTube.

                                                                                                                                   Praveen Jha

                                                                                                                                   Senior Lecture

                                                                                                                                   IHM Hajipur

Next: Reference websites.