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When I decided to cross the Malaysian border to Thailand back in 1992, my parents thought I might be making the wrong move.

Whether we like it or not, in the hotel industry there is always a lot of movement from one hotel to the other.

I started my career as a sales manager in Kuala Lumpur for almost seven years. My responsibility was to sell ideas for tailor-made overseas trips, providing professional meeting services to corporate clients who would like to give incentives or rewards to their staff or dealers.

The need to think and be a consultant for the client is a priority. Your general knowledge must be very wide, especially geographical information pertaining to the selected destination.

In 1992, I was offered a job by a handling agent in Phuket as a sales and marketing manager (inbound) to organise meetings and incentive groups for overseas corporate or travel agents visiting Thailand.

There were indeed a lot of overseas trips and site inspections from one province to another, depending on the venue selected by the overseas client.

My career continued in Bangkok with the same company for the next eight years. Over the years, I picked up the Thai language from my colleagues as much as I could. I can see the importance of the language if I want to continue to provide my services in this country.

Being able to speak the language, the chance of organising overseas incentive and meeting groups for Thai companies took me back to where I first started - Malaysia. I was given many overseas trips for site inspection.

The turning point of my hotel career came in 2000 when I started with the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok. I was given the position of assistant sales director for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions). My responsibility was to convince conference organisers, overseas companies, MICE agents and local DMCs (destination management companies) to use the hotel as their preferred venue.

A year and a half later, I was promoted to director of business development, with the same responsibilities and with a lot of overseas travelling, especially attending major trade shows pertaining to MICE.

My next opportunity came along. I was hired by Sofitel Silom in Bangkok to be its director of sales and marketing. The job responsibility was high as my priority was to be able to manage the entire sales and marketing team, ensuring there was good teamwork, setting the budget for the corporate and leisure market, preparing reports, travelling to trade shows, doing contracting and negotiations. The crucial thing was time management.

On top of all those things, I had to reposition the hotel's rates from low to high as the hotel was below the market rate. This was difficult because such a move inevitably means the hotel will lose some business.

Finally, my third opportunity came along when I was offered the same position at Nai Lert Park Hotel in Bangkok in June this year.

There's no secret to career advancement. It's all pure hard work. You must be honest with your team (you cannot work alone) and clients, be a good role model as much as possible in everything you do, guide wisely and listen to your subordinates, create strong teamwork and give clear instructions and advice.

Lastly, always have an open mind and open heart to listen carefully and speak wisely. Always make the working environment a fun place to be and make sure you enjoy my work.

By Mei Cheen Joanne Chung

Director of sales and marketing,

Nai Lert Park Bangkok, Raffles International Hotel