IHG Manager in Training Program: how it works and what hoteliers who worked at InterContinental, Six Senses and Regent say about the first years

The IHG Hotel Manager in Training Program, called MIT inside the company, is the structured way into IHG for a recent graduate in the United States: a placement at one of the group’s Luxury & Lifestyle hotels that begins with a rotation across hotel and restaurant operations, moves into a supervisory role, and carries a career coach and a placement conversation alongside it. InterContinental, Regent, Six Senses, Kimpton and Vignette Collection are the brands that sit in that portfolio. This page describes the program as IHG presents it, says what I can and cannot confirm about the older Future Leaders Programme, and then turns to what the careers site cannot tell you, which is what four people in my books who worked at InterContinental, Six Senses and Regent hotels say about their first years.

The program, as IHG describes it

IHG’s US Manager in Training Program page carries the tagline “Accelerate your path to hospitality management” and introduces the program under the heading “Future Leaders: There’s Room to Grow at IHG.” It is a United States program for recent graduates, hosted, in IHG’s words, across “a variety of our Luxury & Lifestyle brands.” IHG does not name the host hotels. It names the host cities: Los Angeles, Sacramento and Santa Monica in California, Washington, DC, Miami and Vero Beach in Florida, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Houston and Milwaukee, with placement depending on “property need and candidate flexibility.”

The structure has five parts as IHG lists them. Rotations give hands on experience across hotel and restaurant operations. After them comes a supervisory role in an operational department. A career coach acts as a mentor for professional development, self confidence and industry knowledge. Career guidance and placement tailors the experience to the trainee’s interests and helps them find a long term role at IHG after successful completion. Networking connects the trainee to the wider MIT cohort and to senior business and operational leaders. The page does not state the program’s length. The vacancies individual hotels post under the program’s name do; the Kimpton Seafire listing in Grand Cayman describes a 12 month track, a three to four month departmental rotation followed by eight to nine months in an operations leadership role, with monthly cohort seminars with senior leaders. Take that as one hotel’s description rather than IHG’s.

Who it is for is spelled out. IHG asks for a bachelor’s degree earned within the year before the program begins, a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0, residence in a host city or willingness to relocate to one, and “passion for hospitality and demonstrated leadership,” from student organizations, community service or other work. The page lists where the program leads: Front Office Manager, Guest Services Manager, Housekeeping Manager and Director of Housekeeping on the hotel side, Restaurant Manager on the restaurant side, both running on to Assistant General Manager and General Manager, and parallel roads into sales, catering, revenue management, finance, human resources and corporate roles. The way in, at the time of writing, is to join IHG’s talent community and register interest ahead of the next cohort; pay, start dates and relocation help are on the page and in the listings and I have left them out.

Six Senses, Regent and Kimpton

None of the three has a separately named graduate route. They take part through IHG early careers, which for a graduate in the United States means this program. Kimpton is the brand I can confirm by name: Kimpton properties post Manager in Training vacancies under the IHG program, and a Kimpton talent pool listing for the current cycle named Sacramento, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Grand Cayman as program locations. Six Senses and Regent do not appear by name in any listing I found. Santa Monica, home to a Regent hotel, is on IHG’s host city list, but IHG does not say which hotel there hosts, so I will not guess.

The Future Leaders Programme

Many people searching for an IHG graduate scheme are looking for the Future Leaders Programme, the group’s older global route: an 18 month rotational programme in three phases, which in its later form rotated trainees through every hotel department with a head of department as coach and the general manager as career mentor. That programme no longer appears on IHG’s Internships & Graduate Jobs page, which now lists only US Corporate Internships, the US Manager in Training Program, UK Corporate Internships and UK Hotel Internships. I have found no announcement that it was closed and none that it continues. Its status is unconfirmed, and if it matters to you, ask IHG.

What hoteliers who worked at InterContinental, Six Senses and Regent say about the first years

No one in my books came through the MIT program. Four of them worked at hotels now carrying IHG’s luxury brands, and their first years are the best guide I have to what the program’s rotation and supervisory year ask of you.

Tom Roelens, general manager of Four Seasons Resort Lanaʻi when I interviewed him and now chief operating officer of Wynn Al Marjan Island, joined “the InterContinental Hotel Dubai as assistant director of catering” in 1996, a few years after his first leadership role. He started at fourteen washing dishes and then as a commis de rang in Michelin starred restaurants in Belgium and France, where he was not allowed to speak to guests.

“I learned early on that no matter what position you’re in, you must be humble, open to feedback, learn from your mistakes, and continually strive for excellence.” Tom Roelens, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

His first leadership position was as assistant room service manager, which is the kind of role the MIT’s supervisory phase places you in. “It was the first time I worked in such a diverse environment, where every team member came from a different background and had very different priorities in life. It taught me to truly value diversity and difference, and to play to the strengths of each of my colleagues in order to build a strong team.”

Nicholas Yarnell was general manager of Six Senses Douro Valley in Portugal when we spoke and now runs Six Senses London. His first real job was in a kitchen at the Savoy under a head chef who was “very difficult to work with.”

“I learned a lot about how far people can be pushed, what kind of environment is helpful rather than hurtful, and internalized those warning signs so that I could recognize them in myself and others.” Nicholas Yarnell, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

James Low, then general manager of COMO’s two resorts in Bhutan, began on the events team at the Regent Hotel Kuala Lumpur, decades before IHG bought the Regent brand. “At the time, it was an institution that catered to captains of industry, heads of government, and royalty,” he says. “I learned the ins and outs of event planning and protocol. It was baptism by fire into the expectations and lifestyles of the rich and famous.” And Chan Yan Tak, the chef of Lung King Heen at Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, spent part of his career as executive chef of Lai Ching Heen at the Regent Hotel in Hong Kong, again before IHG’s ownership of the name. He began as a kitchen trainee at thirteen.

“I was a trainee and my role involved cleaning, preparing ingredients, and assisting chefs during banquets in private homes. Sometimes I worked until 2AM, but that was the life of a chef.” Chan Yan Tak, in A Wealth of Insight (2019)

IHG’s brands as a training ground

What the four say about training people once they are in charge tells you what the far end of the program should look like. Roelens, at Lanaʻi, puts every new employee through two days of onboarding before they reach their department and then keeps watching: “When you hire motivated people, you need to train them to perform in an extraordinary way.” Yarnell is blunter about the conditions a trainee should look for. “Hire the right people, give them the proper training and tools, and ensure you set the bar high enough so there is room to grow.” Low pairs every newcomer with an experienced colleague, and tells the newcomer how to behave toward the teacher.

“During orientation, new employees are reminded and encouraged to be humble, sincere, and respectful so that their assigned expert is motivated to teach them.” James Low, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

The career coach IHG assigns is that assigned expert with a title. Low’s advice about how to treat the person is the part no program page prints.

What to take from it

Register with IHG’s talent community and watch the hotels’ own listings as well, since both routes carry the program’s name. Expect the rotation to be short and the supervisory stretch long, and treat the supervisory months as Roelens treated room service: the team’s differences are the material you learn to lead with. Ask in the interview which hotel and brand would host you, because IHG’s page names cities and not properties. If you are looking for the Future Leaders Programme, ask IHG whether it still runs, since its careers site no longer lists it. And read the four Voices pages above before you go in. Chapter 2 of The Luxury of Attention, The Apprenticeship, is about exactly these years.