Last year, I went on a little journey through the hospitality industry—by journey, I mean I interviewed for five or six hotel jobs and didn’t get a single one.
Which is impressive, considering I’ve been in hotels for almost six years. Front desk, guest services, operations—if it involves smiling professionally while solving someone else’s problem, I’ve probably done it.
At the time, it was discouraging. Hotels are familiar territory for me. I know the pace, the chaos, the early mornings, the late nights, the “we’re short-staffed but still smiling” culture. These weren’t random applications. I wasn’t throwing my résumé at industries I didn’t understand. I applied because I knew hotels. I thought, surely, one of these will stick.
None of them did.
Fast forward to now, and I’m scrolling through Indeed when something starts to feel familiar. A little too familiar. The same hotels I interviewed with last year are reposting the same positions. Same titles. Same descriptions. Same “exciting opportunity to join a fast-paced team.”
And honestly? I laughed.
Because it’s funny how rejection feels so final in the moment. Like a closed door you’re not allowed to question. But then time passes, and the door doesn’t just stay closed—it starts swinging open and shut for everyone else too.
I know I’m not meant to work at every hotel. Hospitality is huge, and no two properties are truly the same, even when they pretend to be. But what gets me is that these places were different from each other. Different brands. Different management styles. Different vibes. Yet somehow, the outcome was identical.
Looking back, it doesn’t feel like I failed those interviews. It feels more like the universe protecting me from environments that maybe weren’t stable, weren’t aligned, or weren’t ready for what they claimed they needed. Hotels have high turnover for a reason, and sometimes the red flags only become visible in hindsight—especially when the same job keeps reappearing a year later.
There’s something comforting about realizing you weren’t the problem. Or at least, not the whole problem.
Now when I see those reposted hotel jobs, I don’t feel salty. I don’t feel rejected. I feel validated. Like, “Ah. So that explains why the position was available then… and now… and again.”
Sometimes in hospitality, not getting hired is the biggest act of self-care you didn’t know you needed.
So here’s to the interviews that didn’t turn into onboarding emails, to the hotels that passed, and to job listings that haunt Indeed like a ghost that refuses to check out. Turns out, I wasn’t meant to clock in there.
