Hilton Elevator Graduate Programme: how it works, the Management Development Programmes beside it, and what hoteliers who trained at Hilton say about the first years

The Hilton Elevator Graduate Programme, which Hilton also calls its Hotel Leadership Programme, is the company’s accelerated route for graduates who want to become general managers, built on two placements in two countries, departmental rotations, two business projects and a named mentor, buddy and sponsor. Beside it sit Hilton’s Management Development Programmes, the hotel operations tracks for graduates who want to run a department first. This page describes both as Hilton presents them, then turns to three hoteliers in my books, two who started their careers at Hilton and one who leads a Waldorf Astoria, Hilton’s luxury flagship brand.

The programmes, as Hilton describes them

Hilton calls Elevator “an accelerated pathway for ambitious graduates ready to shape the future of hospitality leadership.” Participants “live and work in two countries” across two placements in different cultures, teams and business environments. “Structured departmental rotations provide a comprehensive view of hotel operations,” and two strategic business projects “challenge you to deliver meaningful results.” Around the trainee sits “a dedicated support network” of a mentor, a buddy, a senior vice president sponsor and a “global alumni community.” At the end, Hilton says, participants have the experience, insight and network for a first major step toward becoming a Hilton General Manager. Applications go through the form on the Elevator page of the Hilton jobs site, which also carries a brochure; a Caribbean and Latin America version of Elevator has its own page.

The Management Development Programme in EMEA, offered in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Morocco, is “an accelerated pathway for ambitious graduates ready to build a career at the heart of hotel operations,” described as a “Comprehensive guided pathway with a diverse exposure across hotel management, including on-site training, leadership support, and alumni community.” In Egypt the trainee is “placed in one hotel”; in the other three countries, in two hotels in different parts of the country. The objective is a “Leadership programme to propel graduates to the head of the department,” in Food & Drinks, Front Office or Conference & Events. In the United States, a separate Management Development Program at select hotels offers “rotational experiences throughout all departments, projects, mentorship,” aimed at “developing leadership skills needed to be in a first-time manager role”; it is applied for hotel by hotel through the Hilton jobs search.

Durations, pay, intake dates and eligibility rules change from year to year and differ by country, so I have left them out; the Hilton pages and brochures carry them.

What hoteliers who trained at Hilton say about the first years

Two people in my books began their careers at Hilton, and one of them came through exactly this kind of programme. Stephen Ansell, then general manager of Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow, enrolled after hotel school in a Hilton International management training programme in Munich.

“After studying hospitality, I embarked on an international career by enrolling in a management training program with Hilton International in Munich, Germany. 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)

That is the closest thing in my books to a graduate’s verdict on a Hilton programme, and the detail worth noticing is the stewarding post. A rotation that put a future general manager in charge of the dish room is the one he still cites decades later. His first job, at sixteen in a small Austrian family hotel in the Alps, had taught him the same: “Nothing beats firsthand experience in an environment where you’re exposed to all facets of the business.”

Pinar Kartal Timer, then general manager of Pera Palace Hotel Jumeirah in Istanbul, started at Hilton too, and her first lesson there came from a filing error.

“My first job in hospitality was as a reservation clerk at the Hilton International Istanbul. At the time, reservations were coming through over telex and fax, not streamlined via the Internet and managed with sophisticated software. I was filing all such correspondence and by accident I labeled a guest arrival date 11/05 instead of 05/11. When the guest arrived, we couldn’t find their reservation.” Pinar Kartal Timer, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

“I learned that even in my very junior position, a small mistake could lead to a major issue.” Her first leadership post was as a group sales manager with one person reporting to her, and the lesson she took from it is the one every trainee eventually meets: “while you can delegate duties, you cannot delegate ultimate responsibility.”

Luc Delafosse, then managing director of Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, came up the older way, through a restaurant at fifteen and the bar and stewarding department of the Savoy in London, and he is clear about where his education happened. “To this day, I can say that I learned most of what I know on the job and through interactions with general managers, owners, investors, and other colleagues that I keenly observed and listened to.” His first hotel manager post, at a hotel closed for renovation, is the model for how he now treats people on their way up: “challenge colleagues to do more, to be better, and to take on more responsibilities, and they too are surprised by how much they can achieve if asked to do so.”

Hilton as a training ground

Ansell’s programme gave him “insight into all aspects of a hotel,” which is the purpose of the structured rotations, and he now runs the same idea for every recruit: after induction, “a personal coach is assigned to you in your department for the first three months.” That is the buddy in Hilton’s support network, seen from the general manager’s chair. Timer runs the equivalent for new department heads, who “spend a week rotating as guests of other units to understand each operation individually and in relation to others.”

What to take from it

Choose between Elevator and the Management Development Programme by what you want in the first years: the general manager track moves you between countries and departments, the operations track makes you a head of department in one discipline. Whichever you choose, take the humbler rotations seriously; the stewarding post is the one Ansell still talks about. Use the mentor, buddy and sponsor hard, because every hotelier here learned from a person rather than a curriculum, and expect the first real responsibility to land before you feel ready, as it did for Timer with one report and a block of wrong rooms. Chapter 2 of The Luxury of Attention, The Apprenticeship, is about exactly these years.