{"id":3277,"date":"2016-05-19T10:14:30","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T10:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/?p=3277"},"modified":"2016-05-10T16:13:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T16:13:57","slug":"preslava-ivanova-ba-hons-tourism-management-placement-at-ritz-carlton-hotel-arts-barcelona-in-the-sales-marketing-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/2016\/05\/19\/preslava-ivanova-ba-hons-tourism-management-placement-at-ritz-carlton-hotel-arts-barcelona-in-the-sales-marketing-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Preslava Ivanova, BA (Hons) Tourism Management Placement at Ritz-Carlton (Hotel Arts Barcelona) in the Sales &amp; Marketing department"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article-header clearfix\">\n<div class=\"tencol last\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-title h1\">Preslava Ivanova, BA (Hons) Tourism Management Placement at Ritz-Carlton (Hotel Arts Barcelona) in the Sales &amp; Marketing department<\/h2>\n<p class=\"byline\">May 4, 2016 <span class=\"cats\"><a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/category\/careers\/\">Careers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/category\/featured\/\">Featured<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/category\/student-blogs\/\">Student Blogs<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Written by<a title=\"Posts by kdanceydowns\" href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/author\/kdanceydowns\/\" rel=\"author\">kdanceydowns<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"entry-content tencol last clearfix\"><a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/2016\/05\/04\/five-things-i-learnt-on-my-placement\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/2016\/05\/04\/five-things-i-learnt-on-my-placement\/\u00a0<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4372\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/files\/2016\/04\/Preslava-4-ed.jpg\" alt=\"Preslava-4-ed\" width=\"800\" height=\"255\" \/>I won\u2019t lie, placement search was probably one of the most stressful times of my degree so far. Fortunately, I didn\u2019t give up that easy and didn\u2019t let the fact that other students had already secured their placements de-motivate or panic me.Having said that, I didn\u2019t end up securing a placement until the May exam period, which seems very late! They phoned me and asked me to start in 2 weeks. This was great, however the problem was that I had an exam on the day they asked me to start and I didn\u2019t have an apartment sorted. Oh and because it was in Barcelona, my flight wasn\u2019t booked either.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4375\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/files\/2016\/04\/Preslava-7.jpg\" alt=\"Preslava 7\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" \/>After multiple phone calls and changes in the position offered, I was officially going to begin my Placement at Ritz-Carlton (Hotel Arts Barcelona) in the Sales &amp; Marketing department and although it was very difficult to get to this point, it ended up being one of the best years of my entire life, which taught me a whole world of new things! Many people feel daunted by the idea of moving away to a country where you don\u2019t speak the language or know anybody, but if I survived it, then so can anybody, so here are the five things I learnt while I was on placement:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t worry if you don\u2019t speak the language<\/strong> \u2013 I knew Spanish briefly before going to Barcelona, however people are very friendly and always try to help you learn it even if you don\u2019t know it. The one piece of advice I can give is to not rely on speaking English all the time, do your best to learn the language, even if it means saying imaginary words every now and again \u2013 people appreciate this and always try to help you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Get out of your comfort zone <\/strong>\u2013 Even if you don\u2019t like some of the activities your colleagues are engaging in, sometimes it\u2019s worth giving it a go (not always of course!). You may end up liking something you didn\u2019t think you did before, and trying something new can be the best way to bond with your new colleagues!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4374\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/files\/2016\/04\/Preslava-Staff-Party.jpg\" alt=\"Preslava Staff Party\" width=\"843\" height=\"562\" \/><strong>Don\u2019t be afraid to take initiative<\/strong> \u2013 Placement students are valuable as we have a world of up-to-date knowledge and we can bring a lot to the table. Don\u2019t be afraid to speak up and share your ideas \u2013 prove to your employer why they hired you!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Explore<\/strong> \u2013 Going abroad is the perfect opportunity to really immerse yourself in the local culture and see new places. I spent every day walking to work and back (10km in total) but I saw some awesome things and places, so take any free time you have to do that, it makes a great ice breaker!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4378\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/files\/2016\/04\/Preslava-2.jpg\" alt=\"Preslava 2\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" \/><strong>Get involved<\/strong> \u2013 If your placement company gives you the opportunity of cross training, or volunteering in another department \u2013 DO IT! Even if it is outside of your working hours \u2013 DO IT! Even if it is something you aren\u2019t interested in \u2013 DO IT! I never wanted to work in sales before my placement, but now it is what I want to do after I graduate. It gives you a chance to prove to your employer that you are indeed hard-working and want to learn no matter how much you may want to watch Game of Thrones snuggled up in bed after a long day at work.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4376\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/files\/2016\/04\/Preslava-6.jpg\" alt=\"Preslava 6\" width=\"720\" height=\"960\" \/><strong>By Preslava Ivanova, BA (Hons) Tourism Management<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Preslava Ivanova, BA (Hons) Tourism Management Placement at Ritz-Carlton (Hotel Arts Barcelona) in the Sales &amp; Marketing department May 4, 2016 Careers, Featured, Student Blogs\u00a0\u00a0Written bykdanceydowns \u00a0https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/2016\/05\/04\/five-things-i-learnt-on-my-placement\/\u00a0I won\u2019t lie, placement search was probably one of the most stressful times of my degree so far. Fortunately, I didn\u2019t give up that easy and didn\u2019t let the&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/2016\/05\/19\/preslava-ivanova-ba-hons-tourism-management-placement-at-ritz-carlton-hotel-arts-barcelona-in-the-sales-marketing-department\/\">Read more &raquo;<span class=\"sr-only\"> about Preslava Ivanova, BA (Hons) Tourism Management Placement at Ritz-Carlton (Hotel Arts Barcelona) in the Sales &amp; Marketing department<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255,164,8],"tags":[391,430,423,387],"class_list":["post-3277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-student-experience","tag-butourism","tag-barcelona","tag-placements","tag-tourism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3277"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3296,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3277\/revisions\/3296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/tourism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}