What Hospitality Careers Really Look Like - September 2026

By Farouk Rajab, President/CEO, RI Hospitality

Ask ten hospitality leaders how they got where they are today, and you are unlikely to hear the same story twice.

That is one of the ideas behind Talk Hospitality To Me, RI Hospitality’s ongoing series on the WPRI 12+ app. Each conversation gives someone from our industry an opportunity to talk about how they got started, the experiences that shaped them, the challenges they encountered and what they have learned along the way.

What has stood out to me is just how different those stories can be.

The series has featured voices from across Rhode Island’s hospitality community, including restaurant owners, chefs, hotel leaders, educators and other professionals whose careers have taken very different paths. Some knew early on that hospitality was where they belonged. Others found the industry through a first job that was never supposed to become a career. Some pursued formal education or training, while others learned by working their way through different roles and taking advantage of opportunities as they came.

There is no single route into hospitality, and that is exactly why these stories are important.

For too long, hospitality careers have sometimes been viewed as temporary, seasonal or simply a stop on the way to something else. But anyone who spends time listening to the people who lead our restaurants, hotels, attractions and tourism businesses quickly sees a much different picture. These are careers built through hard work, adaptability, mentorship, creativity and a willingness to keep learning.

Storytelling can help people see those possibilities more clearly.

When a young employee hears from someone who started in an entry-level position and eventually became a general manager, executive chef or business owner, a future in hospitality becomes easier to imagine. When a student hears a tenured professional talk honestly about mistakes, mentors and turning points, they gain a more realistic understanding of what building a career actually looks like. And when someone considering a career change hears from a leader who also entered the industry through an unexpected route, hospitality may suddenly feel like a place where their own experience belongs.

Those conversations are valuable for established professionals, too.

Hospitality moves quickly. Leaders are constantly making decisions about staffing, service, operations, workplace culture and growth. Hearing peers discuss what has worked, what has challenged them and what they wish they had known earlier gives all of us an opportunity to learn from perspectives outside our own businesses.

In that sense, Talk Hospitality To Me has become more than an interview series. It is also creating a record of the people and experiences that make Rhode Island hospitality what it is.

That matters because hospitality is, at its core, a people business. Behind every memorable meal, hotel stay, event or visitor experience are individuals who built skills, took chances, learned from others, and found a place to grow. We should be telling those stories.

At RI Hospitality, workforce development remains one of our most important priorities. Education, training, and professional development are essential pieces of that work, but visibility matters too. We cannot simply tell people that hospitality offers opportunity. We need to show them what that opportunity looks like through the people who are already living it.

That is what Talk Hospitality To Me allows us to do.

As the series continues, I hope more people across Rhode Island will tune in, hear these stories, and perhaps recognize something of themselves in them.

There may be no single hospitality career path. That is exactly what makes the possibilities so wide.