Hilton has hotels all over the world, which means plenty of travel opportunities for employees. We catch up with a stalwart who has carved out a 15-year career with the brand to hear about its international pathways.
Walking around a Sydney Hotel School careers day in 2008, looking for an internship, Yasmin Formosa decided to drop her resume on the Hilton desk. At the time, she was unaware that it would be a career-defining decision.
I was looking around the careers expo for anything that could be a suitable internship for my course,” Formosa says. “Hilton has that global reputation – it’s the worlds best known hotel group so it stood out as a frontrunner from a brand perspective. That’s what made me apply.”
Formosa landed a six-month internship at Hilton Sydney’s executive lounge, working in a front-of-house role. Once the internship finished, Formosa stepped into the role on a permanent part-time basis while she completed her studies. While her “obvious next step” would have been into a senior front-of-house role, Formosa had gained an interest in marketing and public relations – and wanted to grow her career with Hilton.
“I told my food and beverage manager that I was interested in marketing, so he set up a meeting with Hilton Sydney’s marketing manager. I ended up helping marketing out with admin tasks after my shifts for a few months,” Formosa says. “I realised the growth opportunities at Hilton are limitless. If you want to work in a department that is different to your current role, you have support from your manager and from human resources to explore so many different avenues.”
Formosa’s next step was to take on a full-time marketing assistant and sales role in Hilton’s corporate office. From there, she stepped into a dedicated marketing position and, after a couple of years, was introduced to the travel opportunities available to Hilton employees.
“The regional director of marketing approached me and asked if I’d be interested in moving to Hilton Brisbane to be the marketing and communications manager there. I’d never moved out of Sydney before…three months later I was set up in Brisbane in a new management role.”
While it wasn’t a huge geographical move, it was a significant one for Formosa. Taking on a senior role and moving out of your home city for the first time is a daunting prospect, but Hilton was with her for the entire process.
“I had a boss who believed in me, which helped me perform in a role that I felt was way out of my depth at the time,” Formosa says. “Hilton supported me with the costs of moving states – I actually lived in the hotel for a few weeks while I looked for permanent accommodation! Brisbane is a super friendly city as well, and the crew at Hilton Brisbane was so accommodating. I became close friends with so many members of the team there, and we still keep in touch.”
Following success in the Brisbane role, Formosa moved back to Sydney as regional marketing and communications manager for Australasia. With maternity leave on the horizon, Formosa (like most in a similar position) was uncertain about the future of her career. But support from Hilton was available close to home, too.
“Initially, I was only going to take 12 months off. Once that time was up, I just didn’t feel ready to leave my baby; and I felt more comfortable going back to three days a week instead of five. Hilton fully supported both those wishes, so I took more time off and went to three days when I came back,” Formosa says. “Hilton values me as a team member, so they’ve really done everything that they can to keep me happy and keep me involved with the company.”
The support offered by Hilton extends to travel opportunities – the brand helps create pathways for both junior and senior staff to work abroad. Typically, travelling for work can be limited to those in management or senior positions, but Formosa says this isn’t the case at Hilton.
“If you have an ambition, a dream or a personal reason that you have to move somewhere, Hilton will do what they can to keep you. Hilton values its staff and the business always finds a way to keep people on board – that’s the benefit of having locations all over the world” she says. “And I have plenty of colleagues who have lived all over the world. The beauty of our network being so interconnected means it’s easy to find opportunities in Australia and abroad.”
Working at Hilton, Formosa has been able to spend time in locations such as San Diego, Maui and Singapore – she even got a heavily discounted honeymoon trip to Bora Bora as a Hilton staff benefit. These employee discounts extend to destinations in Europe and North America, too.
Formosa says her most memorable work trip was to Fiji as part of the Hilton Global Foundation (HGF). HGF is set up for Hilton employees to undertake programs to help benefit people in less fortunate communities or those faced with difficult circumstances, anywhere in the world.
“We were in Fiji with a team member who was partnering with a local charity to support poverty-stricken families. We visited families in difficult circumstances, living in squatter housing, sharing a garage with ten families and similar things. It was totally eye-opening and really changed my perspective on life,” she says. “We donated our time, money and resources to help out, and getting to know the families and their stories was special, it’s something I’ll never forget. Hilton makes opportunities like that possible with the resources we have available.”
After 15 years with the company, Formosa says the travel and progression opportunities (on top of the supportive culture) are what keep her coming to work each day.
“I’ve always been challenged to do something better, and that keeps me engaged here and keeps me growing. One week you might be in Melbourne organising an event, the next you’re in Singapore for meetings, then you’re back in Sydney for a few weeks doing something else,” she says. “The diversity of the role and the fact that I’m able to look at different arms of the organisation keeps things interesting – in 15 years I’ve never been bored here.”
Photography: Katje Ford
This article is produced by Scout Jobs in partnership with Hilton.
