Success story of Natalia Votyakova

To the school of hotel management Les Roches I decided to go to Switzerland by chance. At the age of 17, she entered Tomsk State University to study law. After just half a year I realized that the profession was not mine, but it was a very prestigious field at that time.

At that moment, a family friend opened a chain of restaurants and a nightclub in the city of Novosibirsk, where I went to work as an assistant to the marketing director: I helped in organizing events, organizing tours of various DJs from Moscow, developing menus, and so on. I really liked the direction of restaurant management and working with people and decided to pursue it professionally. For which, accordingly, it was necessary to graduate from an educational institution in this field.

I received my education at a specialized school with in-depth study of English, so we began to consider options for studying abroad, since in Russia there is no culture of hotel and restaurant management schools.

Next, I visited an educational exhibition, where representatives of Les Roches, Glion and other schools came, where I met representatives who told me in more detail about each educational institution. My choice fell on Les Roches, since as part of the program it was necessary to undergo at least several internships in international companies, which I considered very important for gaining work experience, and I never made a mistake in it.

I entered Les Roches Hotel Management School at the age of 18. During my studies, I had the opportunity to meet the best specialists in the hotel and restaurant business, master business skills in Europe and, as part of my studies, complete several internships in the best companies in the world, such as Philip Morris, Raddison Blu, Boscolo by Marriott and DoubleTree by Hilton in Switzerland, Czech Republic, France and Russia.

After completing my education and receiving my diploma, I was invited to work at the London School of Business and Finance, where I worked as a regional marketing director for Central Eastern Europe.

The field of education is very interesting to me, so in 2012 I opened a consulting company that specialized in education for Russian-speaking students in Switzerland. As part of the development of international educational programs, I worked on the development of the Swiss British Education brand, which is part of the Geneva Academic Center holding company.

In my spare time, I had the opportunity to organize a series of charity balls in Switzerland and also work as a consultant for the independent Swiss organization World Economic Forum to help prepare the annual economic meetings in Davos in 2015 and 2016.

Collaboration with the largest international organization pushed me to further develop my career, so today I work as the head of the customer service department at the largest oil company in the world, ExxonMobil.

I am pleased to watch my friends who, like me, are building their careers not only in the hotel business but also in other areas around the world. We were taught by the best teachers, showing by their examples how to be more successful and strive for more. I am sure that they are proud of each of the graduates.

The main difference from studying in Russia – you know exactly what needs to be done next: how and where to apply for a job, how to prepare a resume, how to attend an interview, how to fill out documents and move to another country and not be afraid to learn a new language.

School Les Roches