Александр Порхун

Participant Name: Oleksandr Porkhun
Host Company: Atlanta Marriott Downtown
Program ended in November, 2007


Nowadays, there are a lot of different programs offering young people to come to the USA with a purpose of studying, working or on-the-job-training. And I was lucky to be a participant of an Internship program in the sphere of hospitality because I had already some experience of working at restaurant in Ukraine. I was happy to find out that the representatives of “Coliseum” offered a great variety of options in different states, all over the USA. I picked up the offer from a big chain of hotels “Marriott”. But my desire to go Marriott didn’t mean that I am already going, because first, I had to pass 2 interviews over the phone. The supervisors I was talking with were nice and friendly – they liked my English (although I have a terrible Ukrainian accent) and asked me a lot of questions about my previous working experience at the restaurant. The questions were rather precise, e.g. “How many tables do you have at your restaurant?” or “Describe the situation from your own experience how you handled an angry customer?”
 I passed an interview and waited a couple of weeks for the necessary documents to be ready. After the American side sent here all the papers, I had an appointment at the US embassy in Kiev. As I had been a participant of Work and Travel program two years earlier and didn’t break the American law, I got my visa pretty easy. The only thing left after that, was to collect my luggage and pick up airline tickets at “Coliseum”.
My quick journey to Atlanta was nice and easy despite the fact I had to wait a transfer flight at JFK for a couple hours. And when I arrived to Atlanta, I was happy to find out that there were two guys from Marriott waiting for me with a small board and inscription “Alex, Ukraine” written on it. As I found out later on, they were my future supervisor and chef from restaurant at the Marriott. After forty minutes of driving though heavy American traffic during rush hour, I saw the hotel where I had to spend the next year. It was a nice old-fashioned building in the heart of the downtown in Atlanta. It was surrounded by skyscrapers and they were so high that even during the day there was not enough light on a small round square before my Marriott. As soon as I got into the property, I saw happy smiling faces of the stuff. Especially, I was pleased to hear “Welcome to the family” from the bell stand person after I explained that I am an intern from Ukraine. I was introduced to the manager on duty and given a room upstairs at the hotel. The room was for free and I could stay at the hotel for 2 weeks before I found my own housing. Besides, I had a right to eat at the hotel’s restaurant once a day at a cost of Marriott. Next day I was introduced to the food and beverage manager. He gave me the uniform and explained the basis of my future training. I had to start the next day.
The first position, I was trained at, was a dining room assistant. I had to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning and come to the restaurant for serving breakfast. There was a breakfast buffet every morning that I had to deal with. My duty was to refill the necessary products as they were eaten pretty quickly by hungry customers. One of the servers showed me the coolers and hotboxes were I had to take the appropriate products to refill. There was nothing complicated in that job and my supervisors admitted that I was rather skillful.

In three weeks I was already on top of my game and my manager transferred me to the room service department.  Generally speaking the main principle of most of the internship programs is to rotate through all the positions in your department and to become a supervisor at the final stage of the training. My case was not an exception. So, it meant that I had to go through such departments as room service, banquet, concierge lounge, bar and restaurant at my food and beverage department. And I did. If you ask me which one I like the most – I would probably answer the restaurant. First - it is very interesting to learn the appropriate table manners, table set ups for different meals and especially proper wine serving. The last one – is a whole different story because we spent hours during wine training and tasting learning how to offer, present, open and serve wine, keeping to fine dinning etiquette. Second – the atmosphere in the restaurant with candles is quiet and sophisticated. You don’t have to rush with the order as in room service department or to listen to customer’s boring stories because he had a couple drinks at the bar. And third – if the service at the restaurant was excellent and your customers were happy, they were leaving you good tips – up to twenty percent from the bill of the table, which often exceeds hundred dollars for dinner.
To cut the long story short, I was happy with my Internship training and think that the managers of the hotel were happy with my performance too. Here, I can’t help mentioning that there is monthly award “Employee of the month” at every Marriott. And I am proud to confess that I was the best employee of April, 2007 and was given a proper diploma and a cash bonus. The People in USA appreciate if you are trying your best, especially if it is above their expectations. Good Luck!

Oleksandr Porkhun