The Dorchester Collection Ultimate Leaders Programme is the group’s graduate route into supervision and management at its hotels: a programme in which participants work in several departments of one hotel in a supervisor role, building operational skills and leadership experience, with the aim of coming out as a highly skilled supervisor and assistant manager. This page describes the programme as Dorchester Collection presents it and then turns to something its careers site cannot offer, which is what two hoteliers in my books say about their own management trainee years and about the unglamorous departments that made them.
The programme, as Dorchester Collection describes it
Dorchester Collection’s development page frames all of its training the same way: “From the first days of learning through to leadership training later in your career.” The approach is practical by design. “We believe the best way to learn is by gaining hands-on experience,” the company says, and it has “tailored our development programmes to give you unique access to different areas of the business.”
The Ultimate Leaders Programme is the graduate entry point in that sequence. Participants work across several departments in a supervisor role rather than as trainees observing from the side, and the stated aim is to leave the programme as a highly skilled supervisor and assistant manager. It is advertised hotel by hotel as the Ultimate Leaders Graduate Programme, with listings in Rooms, Housekeeping and Food and Beverage at hotels including The Dorchester and Coworth Park, and it is aimed at graduates with a hotel diploma or equivalent who want to lead in hospitality.
What follows the programme is spelled out more fully than in most groups. Alumni receive “priority access to training at our Dorchester Collection Academy,” along with updates on company news and “fast-track recruitment” for later posts. Above the graduate programme sit the group’s internal leadership programmes, which the same page names as Engage, Lead, Expand, Inspire and Apex, so the Ultimate Leaders Programme is the first rung of a ladder the company has built out.
The only route to apply that the company gives is its “Discover all positions” listing, so the way in is to search the careers site for Ultimate Leaders and apply to the hotel and department that is hiring. The programme’s length, pay, intake dates, cohort sizes and deadlines change from year to year, so I have left them out; the company’s page and the listings carry them.
What the hoteliers in my books say about the trainee years
None of the seventy nine people in my books was working for Dorchester Collection when I interviewed them, so I cannot offer a Dorchester general manager’s account of rising there. What I can offer is the pattern across all of them, set out on the page on how the world’s best hoteliers and chefs got there, and in particular two hoteliers who came through management trainee programmes of exactly this kind.
George Cozonis, then managing director of The Plaza Hotel in New York, arrived at his trainee programme with the expectation that most graduates arrive with.
“After studying hotel management, I truly believed I would be hired as a general manager upon graduating. It was a wakeup call when, in my first job as a management trainee, I could barely keep up answering telephones at the reception desk.” George Cozonis, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
He completed his programme at the Parker House in Boston and was then offered a job that few graduates would choose, and it is the one he says taught him what a hotel is.
“I was then offered the position of laundry manager at the same property. This was a very special unit of the hotel. Not only did it have a stable and dedicated crew, but it also employed individuals with developmental disabilities. They had been there for years and were great at what they did.” George Cozonis, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
“Working on the laundry team also made me realize that it isn’t the relatively few glamorous jobs that make a hotel what it is,” he goes on. “Every person’s work is not only useful, but essential. Imagine if there weren’t clean pillowcases, bed sheets, or dinner napkins. The hotel would come to a complete standstill.” For a programme that lists Housekeeping as one of its departments, that is the passage to read before you choose.
Stephen Ansell, then general manager of Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow, came through a management training programme with Hilton International in Munich, and he is unusually direct about where it ranks in his career.
“Looking back at all of my early management experiences, this is where I learned the most. The program gave me insight into all aspects of a hotel, including a six-month position in charge of stewarding. I was constantly reminded that in our business, the most important people we work with every day come from all walks of life, often with different backgrounds and life experiences. This applies to both staff and guests.” Stephen Ansell, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
Ansell had already done a version of the rotation as a teenager, at a small family hotel in the Austrian Alps: “In the morning, I worked at the reception, then as a waiter at the swimming pool, and then serving lunch and dinner.” His conclusion from that summer is the case for a programme built on several departments: “Nothing beats firsthand experience in an environment where you’re exposed to all facets of the business.”
What to take from it
Apply to a hotel and a department, since that is how Dorchester Collection recruits, and arrive without the expectation Cozonis arrived with; both men say the telephones, the laundry and the stewarding were the education. Ask for the departments the other graduates avoid, because the hotel is made in them. Treat the Academy and the leadership programmes above the graduate scheme as the reason to stay, and ask in the interview how alumni have moved through them. And read both full profiles on the Voices pages above. Chapter 2 of The Luxury of Attention, The Apprenticeship, is about exactly these years.
Questions people also ask
What is the Dorchester Collection Ultimate Leaders Programme?
Dorchester Collection’s graduate programme for people who want to lead in luxury hospitality: participants work in several departments of one of its hotels in a supervisor role, building operational skills and leadership experience, with the aim of becoming a highly skilled supervisor and assistant manager. Alumni get fast track recruitment and priority access to the Dorchester Collection Academy.
How do you apply to the Ultimate Leaders Programme?
Through the positions listed on the Dorchester Collection careers site. The programme is advertised hotel by hotel as the Ultimate Leaders Graduate Programme, in departments such as Rooms, Housekeeping and Food and Beverage, at hotels including The Dorchester and Coworth Park, so the way in is to search the listings and apply to the hotel and department that is hiring. It is aimed at graduates with a hotel diploma or equivalent.
Which department should you choose in the Ultimate Leaders Programme?
Rooms, Housekeeping and Food and Beverage are the departments advertised, and the programme moves you through several of them in a supervisor role. The hoteliers in my books say the least glamorous of these taught them the most: George Cozonis, who went on to run The Plaza in New York, was made laundry manager after his trainee programme, and Stephen Ansell’s own trainee programme put him in charge of stewarding.
Does the Ultimate Leaders Programme lead to general manager?
It leads to a supervisor and assistant manager role, which is where a hotel career starts, and Dorchester Collection runs internal leadership programmes above it. The hoteliers in my books had been in the trade for around three decades when they reached the general manager’s office; George Cozonis says his own belief that he would be hired as a general manager on graduating lasted until his first day as a trainee.