Careers with Minor Hotels: Find your Path Forward

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

It’s a question that sounds simple—until you try to answer it. At AIHM’s latest Guest Speaker Series, students discovered that the path to a successful career isn’t always straight.

With insight from Bree Creaser of Minor Hotels, the journey becomes clearer—one bold step at a time.
Here’s how our aspiring hoteliers are finding their footing and shaping their futures.

While listening to the first session of AIHM’s Guest Speaker Series this academic year, it occurred to me that one of the hardest questions young professionals face is, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

This seemingly simple question packs a big punch. As soon as a young person graduates from high school, we expect them to have a clear vision of where they want to end up over the course of a 30+ year career.

How do you begin to narrow down your options? Bree Creaser, Minor Hotels’ Vice President of Learning & Development and Talent Management, presented a solution for those who are facing that behemoth question and gave a path forward to finding the answer.

Meet Bree!

Bree Creaser has over 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry.  She has held a variety of senior positions across the hospitality industry, encompassing functions such as Vice President of Operations; Vice President of Learning, Development & Talent; and Hotel General Manager.

AIHM welcomed Bree to talk about the internship and post-graduate opportunities that Minor Hotels offers to the Institute’s young professionals. Over the course of Bree’s discussion with the aspiring hoteliers, a four-step path emerged for those who are stuck at the starting line of their career and wondering which tracks to follow.

Step 1: Trial Run!

Minor is no stranger to growing pains and questions about the future. Minor Hotels was found by William E. Heinecke when he was just 17 years old. They opened their first hotel in Thailand in 1979 and launched their luxury flagship brand – Anantara Hotels & Resorts – in 2001. Since then, they have grown into one of the largest hospitality companies in the world with hundreds of hotels and resorts across six continents. The path to becoming the Minor we recognise today was not a straight line, and news flash: your career won’t be either!

One of Minor’s core values is People Development. As Bree highlighted, Minor never wants to lose the entrepreneurial spirit that has made the company so resilient and long-lasting, and they continue to look for ways to foster that spirit in the next generation of the company’s business leaders.

AIHM was founded by Minor in 2020, and Minor Hotels is one of our biggest supports in connecting students to front-line hotel internships. “Having hotel experience is vital and will be a boost to your resume. Understanding how hotels work makes you a bigger asset to corporate offices later in your career,” Bree noted.

AIHM’s young professionals intern with the world’s leading hospitality companies, and many students take advantage of the Minor connection to learn and network via an internship in one of Minor Hotels’ brands. Minor Hotels offers numerous 6-month operational and management internships for students across departments, hotel brands, countries and continents. Keep in mind that the more mobile you are willing to be, the more opportunities there will be for you both now and later in your career. Consider traveling internationally for your internships and exploring a new country and culture!

Choosing your first internship isn’t just about boosting your resume—it’s your chance to trial any hotel department you think you might be interested in. Approach the selection of your internship as a test run! Remember that it’s ok if you change your mind during the course of your first internship; that is exactly what it is for. Be open to learning, be eager to explore new things, and you’ll no doubt be surprised what you come away knowing about yourself.

Step 2: Eliminating Your “No’s”

Congratulations! You have completed your first internship. Now that you have direct, first-hand experience in a hotel, take the time to write down your big takeaways. It will be extremely valuable to consolidate your experiences into an “elevator pitch” of sorts that you can quickly share with your lecturers, recruiters and peers.

You might find that the best place to start is eliminating the areas you DON’T want to explore further in your second internship. This will give you a clear picture of what departments you should focus on when looking for your second internship placement.

Bree explained, “The better you can outline your qualifications and ambitions, the better Minor and AIHM can match you with the right hotel for your internship. We want to know the value you will bring to our organisation, just like you want to know the value we can offer you and your career. It is similar to dating in that way! Be your own best advocate and the right fit will be much easier to find.”

AIHM has created an internship database that you already have access to. Companies like Minor share their internship and career opportunities with the database so that you can easily explore the possibilities. You can log in, directly compare the options, and find internships to apply to.

Remember: while we provide a huge number of resources to you at AIHM to help you find an internship and connect you with exceptional employers like Minor, it is ultimately your responsibility to apply, show up on time for your interviews, and act professionally as befitting a representative of AIHM.

Step 3: Narrowing the Scope

You are approaching graduation! We are thrilled for you. Throughout your time here, you have been able to explore different facets of hotel operations and levels of hotel management. You and many of your peers will be looking at joining a prestigious Management Traineeship Programme after graduation.

As an AIHM student, you are offered priority for Minor Hotels internships and the Ascent Management Trainee Programme. The Ascent Graduate Journey, as it is officially called, is a highly exclusive and very self-directed programme. It is vital that you are able to communicate your desires, ambitions and motivations clearly and boldly, right from the start.

You will join an incredible group of alumni and be able to explore many departments of hotel operations, hone your skills as a professional hotelier, and research and present a project to executive leadership. The program is 18 months long. The first six months are a Departmental Immersion focusing on giving a hotel overview. You will spend time in as many as six departments during these six months. The second six months are about Close Insight. This is where you will focus in on two departments that you are most interested in. The last six months are for Specialisation. You will select one department to continue investing in and learning about. From here, our hope and the hope of Minor Hotels is that you will graduate from the Ascent Management Traineeship into a full-time role in the department you have specialised in.

The Ascent Management Traineeship is designed to help you take what you have learned through your internships and finally select one department to start your budding career. Each step you have taken so far has been vital to help you clarify your vision for your own life and we hope that by this time, you will be able to boldly declare exactly what you want to be “when you grow up!”

Step 4: Never Stop Being Bold

Minor is growing rapidly now and has an extensive five-year expansion plan. There has never been a better time to join this organisation and be a part of what they are building. Minor Hotels currently has over 500 hotels, and they are looking to expand to over 1,000 hotels in the coming years. This means that countless numbers of new positions will need to be filled: more General Managers, more Department Heads, more Team Leads, and more Corporate Leadership. Maybe one of them will be you!

As Bree showed, there really is no substitute for trying things out. That is what AIHM and MINOR strive to offer you while you are a student here. You have the distinct honour to be a part of the Minor family already, so take advantage of all that they are offering and enjoy this unique time in your career.

Globetrotter? Memory Maker? Business Pioneer?

Are you a young person exploring your options for university and a future career? Dreaming of a career that takes you around the world? That lets you be a part of creating unforgettable memories for others? A career marked by management, executive or entrepreneurial success?

Explore AIHM’s BBA in Global Hospitality Management!