I wanted to do law at university but I discovered international tourism when I got there, so I went for my second choice.

My first internship was in Kyiv, Ukraine, in a 12-storey hotel; it was hard work, even for four of us! We had three bars and a restaurant on the 12th floor and we met lots of people. That is what I love about hospitality – you don’t know what’s going to happen next and the people you meet all have a story to tell.

My first language is Ukrainian and I speak English, German, Russian, Polish, and now I’m going for French because I’m the black sheep of the family – I don’t speak French and they all live in Québec.

After the internship, I worked in the hotel during the summer. By the time I finished my internship, I was working for 24 hours and then had three days off. I was 16 and my mum was supportive but asked, are you sure you want me to sign the papers?!

It was ideal to be working for good managers when you’re starting and don’t know what you are doing; they would always help you.

After the internship I went back to study in Poland, and then I started in Mercure Wroclaw in reception; from there, I tried to do everything I could – helping with invoices in the office and getting as much experience as possible for more than a year. Now I am the Front Office Shift Leader.

I’m glad I can manage the people I am working with – I can be a leader for them. That’s where I wanted to be. Next, I want to go back to working in guest experience. I want to stay in hospitality and be the product auditor, to check everything in the hotel. I love talking to people.

Hospitality is limitless and that is what I love about it. You can do a job in Poland today and do it in New Zealand tomorrow; you can work anywhere in the world and meet such a variety of people; that’s incredible!

When people don’t know what to do, they often end up in hospitality because it’s a good mix of everything. Recruiters see that someone worked in a hotel reception and think they do not have much experience but that’s not true because you need to know everything: making guests’ problems disappear and solving the difficulties of other departments, as well.

Being a Heartist® means you don’t know what is going on in people’s lives, and why they act the way they do, so you should always be kind and open minded; treat them the way you would like to be treated – even if behind the scenes, you shout, ‘I never want to see those people again!’

I was worried about starting my job in Poland – my Polish is good and I learnt it before I went to university there, but I was nervous about communicating with people. Even when you know you can do something, sometimes it difficult to have faith in yourself. I fought my fears and I’m proud of doing that. And during my career, I was trying for front office shift leader and it broke my heart when I didn’t get it. But that helped me start seeing things I didn’t see before; I needed to grow up a bit, to concentrate on work. That gave me strength and it’s when I got the job. And I am proud of that.

I never let my team feel that they are not supported by me. And when new people come into the hotel, I always tell them when they are doing a good job because it’s hard to know whether you are doing something well when you are starting your career.

My advice to people new to hospitality is, don’t be scared; start trusting yourself and your intuition, you need that. Don’t be afraid to try new things because hospitality will bring you many new experiences and you need to be ready for that. And be kind to people – today’s walk-in can be tomorrow’s new job.