~ An engineering college drop-out, Arjun Menon has blossomed in the hospitality industry. Two foreign stints, thanks to VMSIIHE has helped the alumnus fetch a cruise liner gig ~

It took two and a half years in an engineering college for teenaged Arjun Menon to lose interest in electrical circuits. That’s when a spark lit up in his life.

Menon, a native of Kerala, googled for education opportunities in the hospitality sector. A foodie and traveler at heart, he thought it would be a good idea to invest in an education that would serve as an extension of his passion for food and meeting new people. That’s when he came across the Goa-based V. M. Salgaocar Institute of International Hospitality Education (VMSIIHE). He made a trip to Goa in 2015 and fell in love with the campus, which is modeled on the lines of a five-starred hotel with sprawling lawns and surrounded by green fields cozily tucked into the beautiful village of Raia. He signed up immediately.

According to the electrical engineering drop, it was the best decision he has made yet.

“After completing the three-years course at VMSIIHE, I took my second international trip to Portugal. My first international trip was to Switzerland which was a 10-days study tour by VMSIIHE, which involved sightseeing, meeting new people, and visiting institutes and factories. That’s when I realized I loved what I was learning. I soon got an opportunity to work in Portugal for one year as part of the management trainee program offered by VMSIIHE,” Menon said.

In Portugal, he worked for two hotels from May 2018 to May 2019. At the Lake Spa Resort for nine months and Praia D’Él Rey Marriott Golf & Beach Resort for three months, an experience which has brought him great learning, experience as well as practical know-how. And he learned a new language in the bargain as well: Portuguese.

Menon’s next step was to hop on board a cruise ship. He applied for a vacancy in Costa Cruises, Italy’s biggest cruiseliner firm. “I worked in Costa Deliziosa for one and half a month and then at Costa Smeralda for the rest of the months on my contract. The company has always taken care of its employees and the passengers too, even during the pandemic. I closely saw the company endure the struggle and how they handled the situation was amazing,” he said.

Life onboard a cruise liner isn’t easy, Menon says, because of the sheer volume of passengers and crew on board at any given time.

“On the two ships where I worked, one ship had a capacity of 3,500 passengers and 900 crew, while the other ship had 6,700 passengers and 1,500 crew. We had around 14 restaurants and the workload of all the guests and crew coming in at once is a great challenge. It was really difficult for me, for the first two months as we were staying in the ship itself and they could call us for shifts at any time,” he said, adding that one should be mentally prepared before signing up for the rigors of the cruise liner industry.

His talent and penchant for interpersonal communication, one of the two qualities which inspired him to join the hospitality industry, appears to have held him in good stead. “I’m a very positive person because of VMSIIHE and thus I love communicating with people. So, on my job as well, I would talk to guests very comfortably and this was noticed by the manager there. He approached me and asked me to take over the responsibility of guest management as well. That is a kind of a step ahead for me. I am hoping to get a promotion soon based on this development in my next contract,” said the alumnus.

Long spells at work, also mean that one tends to miss important events like Christmas, but for Menon that is a part and parcel of the vocation.

“I celebrated Christmas in Finland last year where I, along with my colleagues, roamed around town. Our ship was under construction and we were on land. We also had parties organized for the Costa cruise family,” says the lad who also loves playing badminton, football, and listening to music.

Currently, Menon is at home in Kerala, after completing his nine-month contract as an F&B attendant onboard a Costa Crociere cruise ship that was sailing around Europe. “I came down in June and was supposed to join back in November, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the joining date has been postponed to January 2021,” he said.