As a profession, tourism delivers variety and opportunity – to travel, to meet people and to develop your career. It excels at tapping into talent, enabling gifted and enthusiastic employees to progress through the ranks.
It offers flexibility and caters to the wellbeing of those who work in the sector, often in ways that might surprise many outside it, and it places strong emphasis on developing interpersonal skills, invaluable in any sector.
‘The outdoor industry is a social job’
Elaine O’Riordan is senior and HR manager at Ballyhass Adventure Group, a Co Cork-based organisation that employs 130 people in peak summer season at its two centres, near Mallow and in Coachford.
Water-filled former limestone quarries form Ballyhass’s dramatic setting; visitors can enjoy wakeboarding, stand-up paddle boarding and kayaking or clamber across an inflatable water park. There are natural rock faces to climb, zip-lining and even axe-throwing.
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O’Riordan left school in 2005 and opted to go into the building trade, studying for a diploma in construction health and safety at TUS Limerick, then a degree in quantity surveying at Cork Institute of Technology.
However, by the time she graduated, the Republic’s economic boom had bust and there were few if any jobs in the construction sector, so O’Riordan got a part-time office administration role at Ballyhass.
“I fell in love with the role and fell in love with the company,” she recalls. “It’s not your typical nine to five.”
There was flexibility and scope for hobbies and family life, says O’Riordan, who has a 10-month-old son, Barra. She describes herself as “very sporty” – she has All-Ireland medals from playing camogie and ladies football for her club Milford and her county – and is a wakeboarding enthusiast.
“With increased hires, the company needed a HR department,” she says of Ballyhass’s expansion, which has coincided with her time there. “I recently completed a degree in HR at Griffith College, Cork; Ballyhass gave me the time to complete my studies.”
But it’s not all about hard work. “The outdoor industry is a social job,” says O’Riordan. Monday night is weekly staff night at Ballyhass – the business takes no bookings that day – when colleagues hang out and have fun together. This usually involves an activity – kayaking in Garretstown, coasteering or rock climbing at the Gap of Dunloe, for example.
“It’s to reward the staff and show them how much we appreciate them,” says O’Riordan. It also helps build self-confidence. “We take on staff from the ages of 15 to 24. During that time, you see people mature and grow. The younger staff talk to you, [whereas] before they wouldn’t have looked you in the eye.”
My burning ambition? ‘I love to take care of people’
Having started as assistant manager, Ronan Sharpe is now general manager at Elbow Lane Brew and Smoke House in Cork city. The nano brewery and restaurant are part of the Market Lane group which, Sharpe says, excels at identifying talent and leadership skills.
“From the outset they trusted me and assigned me a mentor, Dee Munnelly, proprietor of sister restaurant Orso,” he recalls. “If ever I had a problem or a question, I could go to her at any time of the day or night.”
The group introduced a four-day working week at the restaurant from the start.
“I work long, 10-hour days, Wednesday to Saturday, but then I have a three-day weekend,” says Sharpe. “One to do laundry and then two days off.”
Nonetheless, he sees the sector as very people-orientated, recounting how he met his fiancee, a co-worker, in his last job. It is familiar territory for someone who grew up in a pub setting, learning the trade cleaning and serving in the bar.
Sharpe went on to college to do a diploma in restaurant management at SETU, Waterford, then a BA in hospitality management, which included placements in five-star hotels, experiences that, he says, “polished” him. But after Covid he wanted something more relaxed and casual.
“My end goal every day is to make everyone leave the building happy,” he says. “It’s just something in me. I love to take care of people. I like to anticipate someone’s needs before they realise them. It is very natural to me.”
Sharpe sees tourism and hospitality as “a profession where you can climb the ladder quite quickly once you have the right attitude”.
“You are encouraged to support the competitors,” he says. “You don’t see that in other sectors.”
Why I said ‘I do’ to event management
Alex Brislane is senior wedding manager at Adare Manor, Co Limerick. It was the 2010 JP McManus Golf Pro Am, hosted by the five-star establishment, that piqued her interest in tourism. A young teenager at the time, it was like nothing she had seen before.
“I saw the buzz it brought to the village and the huge part it played in our community,” she says.
Brislane cut her teeth as an events manager in transition year, running a fashion show for her school. She organised the catwalk, models, hair and make-up and clothing – all supplied by local salons and boutiques – and a soundtrack for the models to strut their stuff to.
It enthused her to such a degree that her dad researched courses that might point her in that career direction. She took his counsel and did a three-year course in event management and public relations at ATU Galway. While on work placement there she travelled to Dubai and spent time at Thomond Park, home of Munster rugby. She completed the final year of her degree in business and event management at TUS in Limerick.
Adare Manor’s management “encourage you every day”, she says. “We’re all here for that same goal. We’re a large resort and there are a lot of different teams working together.”
Employee benefits include accommodation, gym membership and food and beverage discounts, meals while on duty, an assistance programme, and a generous reward to team members who refer a friend. There are staff outings, barbecues, hiking and surfing, and other activities that make for great intra-team bonding exercises, something that “unites us as colleagues”, says Brislane.
Brislane is a romantic at heart – “I just love being part of a couple’s big day,” she says – but the course of a wedding planner can be tricky to navigate.
“You are very much there to realise people’s dreams. Your job is very much to be in the background and to appear as required, tissue for tears, or to hold the bouquet,” she says.
Things do go wrong. “The weather, for one, requires you to always have a plan B,” she admits. “But it will always work out. It may not be the exact way you had planned but knowing this allows you to remain calm.”
The secret sauce here is the training, she explains. “It’s so rewarding bringing people’s visions to life and working in a happy environment.”
Ballyhass Adventure Group, Co Cork and Elbow Lane Brew and Smoke House, Cork city have been recognised as top employers through Fáilte Ireland’s Employer Excellence Programme.
Think you have what it takes? For further information on the wide range of professional opportunities visit tourismcareers.ie