Internship at The Hotel Bellevue Syrene
I spent a month interning at the five-star hotel, the Bellevue Syrene in Sorrento, Italy. Through my role as an intern I was responsible for checking clients in, answering phone calls, responding to hotel emails, and catering to the needs of the hotel guests.
Through my international internship experience I improved my Italian language proficiency, improved my management and customer service skills, and developed cross-cultural professionalism.
Hotel Photo Gallery
Basic Responsibilities
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Welcome and accompany hotel guests to their rooms
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Assist coworkers with the hotel check in process. (scanning passports, filling out forms, filing paperwork)
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Send out emails to current and future guests of the hotel with information about restaurant reservations, boat tours, and hotel information.
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Answering the phone in Italian and English
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Create and duplicate room key cards
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Assisting customers with whatever needs they have
Smart Goals
Short-term:
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Get over my nerves about answering the phone in a foreign language.
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Become well equipped with information about the hotel and Sorrento to be of better use to the hotel clients.
Long-term:
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Develop a collection of professional connections by networking with guests and other employees at the hotel.
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Develop personal and professional skills that can be used in any future jobs and careers.
Project Management: Answering the Phone at the Bellevue Syrene
Approach: One of my short-term smart goals was to get over my fear of answering phone in Italian. To reach this goal, I plan on asking my coworkers to teach me the proper phrase to say when answering the phone. Before answering the phone, I would learn how to properly transfer phone calls to different departments of the hotel so I could be prepared to adjust to the needs of the callers.
Stakeholders: The stakeholders in this situation are me, the hotel, and the callers. If I do not reach my goal not only will I let myself down, but the callers will not receive the answers they are looking for and it will reflect badly on the entire hotel.
Anticipated Challenges: One main challenge about answering the phone would be to fully understand what the Italians clients are asking. Although I speak Italian, I am not a native speaker and it is sometimes very hard to hear Italians over the phone since they speak very fast and have strong accents.
Desired Results: To be able to answer the phone without any fears or hesitations. I hope to gain confidence through answering the phone and being able to help customers as needed. Being able to effectively answer the phone will also help me assist my coworkers especially when we get busy at the hotel.
Communication Style
After taking the personality and communication style quiz I discovered that I am an Ask and Amiable person. From the chart, an Amiable person avoids conflict, is relationship driven, and values consistency and loyalty.
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After reflecting on these communication styles, I noticed how these values come up in my workplace. I am always asking my coworkers questions about thing I do not know to avoid making mistakes. I would describe myself as a perfectionist. I try to avoid making mistakes when working on projects in order to avoid conflict with my co-workers and supervisors. Although being a perfectionist can be beneficial it can also make things more challenging for me. My need to not make mistakes sometimes gets in the way of my work performance, hence being afraid to answer the phone in Italian.
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Amiable people also find relationships to be very important. To me, building relationships is important in everything I do. At work I try to build meaningful relationships with others through having detailed and real conversations. I always find ways to connect with hotel guests and employees and love communicating with others.
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Although I tend to be more introverted I still believe I am an effective leader with a strong communication style. As an observant and very patient person myself, I tend to notice specific details that others do not. Sometimes being a leader does not always mean being the loudest, most dominant person in the room. To me, being a leader also means taking a step back to be more observant in order to attempt to understand a specific situation from a different perspective.
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I noticed that one of my coworkers at the Bellevue Syrene has an opposing Communication style than me. While I tend to be more reserved and introverted, my coworker is very extroverted. I would describe her as a Teller and Driver communication style. After observing her in the work place, I believe she thrives when she is in control and able to make quick decisions. My coworker can also tend to be a bit impatient at times. For example when on the phone with customers, she tends to get angsty and frustrated when clients keep her on the phone with specific questions they have about the hotel. While I am relationship driven and value communication, I believe that she is more results driven and does not spend as much time developing relationships with others.
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Although our personalities and communication styles are very different, they are both valid and effective behaviors.
Cultural Experience
Here are three values I gained through my cross-cultural internship.
Professionalism: When I started my internship, I quickly noticed different cultural aspects between The United States and Italy. The Italians are much more detail-oriented while Americans worry about the big picture. Adjusting to a more detail-oriented work style helped me gain a sense of professionalism that I did not have before. An example of a detail-oriented cultural aspect is being able to"fare la bella figura" which means to make a good impression. Appearance is highly correlated with impressions in Italy. My co-workers spend time perfecting their appearance and the appearance of the hotel to maintain a high level of professionalism. I learned that adjusting small things makes a big difference in the work place like standing with your hands outside of your pockets instead of inside. Before my internship, I did not think that these small adjustments would make a difference, however, I now know that spending time perfecting small details can help me become more professional in any environment I am in.
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Adaptability: Working in a customer-oriented job helped me become more adaptable. Every hotel guest has different needs and desires and it is my job to accommodate their needs. I met clients from all over Italy, Europe, and the world with different cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, and identities. I quickly learned that being adaptable was an important and almost necessary value I needed to have. Being able to speak English, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic helped me become more adaptable. For example, there was one day at work where I used all four of my languages in the span of one hour. Thanks to my languages, I formed more personal connections with my clients and was able to better help them throughout the course of their stay ultimately making me more adaptable.
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Accountability: One of the most important values I gained was accountability. Through my internship, I learned how to hold myself and others accountable. As an intern from a different country, I found myself making mistakes at the beginning of my internship. Most of the time, the mistakes I made could have easily been corrected if I had been more careful. I quickly learned that I needed to hold myself accountable and take ownership of my mistakes so I would not repeat them.
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STAR Method
Situation: At my internship at the Bellevue Syrene, majority of [the] communication was held in Italian. While I have a strong background in the language, I had never used it on a professional level. Sometimes I found it difficult to understand specific requests from my co-workers or clients and respond to them correctly.
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Task: I was very determined to improve my Italian fluency and needed to find a way to understand the phrases I had difficulty with.
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Action: I quickly learned that writing information down helped me retain it. For example, if I found it difficult to understand a phone call I would try to take notes on what they were saying so I could review them after the call.
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Results: By the end of the internship, I did not find communicating in Italian on a professional level to be as difficult as before. My note-taking plan really helped me develop a better understanding of what was being asked. I was not only able to improve my fluency, but I was also more well-equipped as an intern at the hotel.
Networking
At the Bellevue Syrene I met guests from all over the world from countries like Belgium, The United States, China, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Mexico, and more. Interfacing with the guests helped me improve my networking skills. I met a professor at Stanford, the owner and developer of the Wynwood Walls in my hometown Miami, the CEO of financial tech company, and more!
Final Reflection
During my final two days at the Bellevue Syrene, the staff hired a new employee who was around my age and I helped train her. Training the new employee was a great way to reflect on my progress and growth throughout my month at the hotel. When I first started, I was asking the same questions as the new employee. I was confused, scared, and even overwhelmed at times. Although I faced a few challenges throughout my time at the Bellevue Syrene, I am grateful for everything I learned during my short time at the hotel.
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My internship helped me gain skills that I will use for the rest of my life in future jobs and other professional settings. I improved my Italian fluency, gained important management skills, improved my communication and networking abilities, and became a more well-rounded and culturally aware person. Thanks to my internship I am also more confident that I was a month ago. I formed lifelong cross-cultural friendships that I will always cherish.