After completing a hotel management initiative, Bermudians Jaquan Burrows and Tah-Mi Williams are one step closer to their dream of becoming hotel general managers.

The two men are graduates of the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club’s 18-month leadership development programme, which is split into food and beverage management and front office and rooms management.

Mr Williams, 26, recently became assistant maître d’ at the newly reopened 1609 Bar & Restaurant at the hotel, while Mr Burrows has just become housekeeping manager.

Both of them stumbled into the training.

“I used to work at Coral Beach as a housekeeping supervisor,” Mr Burrows said. “I was looking for new ventures. My mother told me about this leadership programme.”

But when he investigated further, the training was closed, so he applied for a switchboard operator position.

“When I was brought in for my interview with director of housekeeping Andre Binns, he kept smiling at me,” Mr Burrows said. “Then he said I want you to meet these other people.”

Mr Burrows was a little bemused to be introduced to a series of other managers, but took it in stride, thinking this was the procedure for the switchboard position. Later, the hotel told him they liked his energy and enthusiasm so much that they were offering him a place in their leadership development scheme.

Mr Williams applied for a job with the Bermuda Tourism Authority, after working in their visitor service centre. The BTA suggested he apply for the Hamilton Princess’s leadership programme.

“I think that was a good fit,” Mr Williams said. “I guess everything happens for a reason.”

As part of the training, the men spent several months in a variety of different departments so they could learn different aspects of hotel management.

Mr Burrows’s favourite part of the training was running the day-to-day operations, and also learning the back-of-house things, such as why certain policies exist.

“The programme has been a great way to get a feel for the hospitality industry,” he said.

Mr Williams said moving from department to department could be challenging because it meant chopping and changing working hours frequently.

“If you are not mentally ready for that it will take a toll on you,” he said. “Overall, it is a good programme, but you have to be strong-minded because it does really test you, in some aspects.”

But he loved being able to connect with people in varied parts of the hotel.

Mr Burrows wanted to be a lawyer when he was little, and would spend hours looking up things about the law on the computer. When he was 13, a one-month work-experience gig in the caddie shop at the Port Royal Golf Course changed his mind.

“Hospitality was me,” Mr Burrows said. “People would come to me and ask questions. I found conversations were easy and I enjoyed connecting and communicating.”

He went on to study international hospitality administration and management at Holland College in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and also became a certified tourism ambassador in Bermuda.

Mr Williams, a footballer with North Village, did two years of a university programme in sports management at Salford University in Manchester, England. A summer job at the Grotto Bay Hotel turned his head. He loved it so much he changed his major to hospitality.

Mr Burrows, 25, feels Bermuda needs to do more to bring in tourists his age, and keep them engaged.

“Some people want to come and mingle with the locals and do a little bit of partying,” he said. “They want to know a bit about the history and culture of the island. We have the partying covered so we need to do more on the events side.”

He said there are activities, but sometimes visitors have to really dig to find them.

“More has to be done to promote them,” he said. “For example, there are cruises on the UberVida and Marina Nights here at the Hamilton Princess. There is Harbour Nights in Hamilton. You can charter a boat for whale watching.”

Mr Williams said improving transportation is one thing Bermuda could do to improve its tourism product. Working at the Visitor Service Centre, he heard a lot of complaints from tourists about the bus system.

“A lot of times you do not even know when the bus is coming, but in other countries they will tell you five minutes until the next bus comes, two minutes … Little things like that make a difference.”

The pair will be recognised in a finishing ceremony at the hotel on May 4. The hotel is now looking for candidates for the next round of training.