.png)
A high school internship with the RW Brown Boys & Girls Club changed Tashea Lowery's life. Originally they placed Tashea in a hair salon, realizing hairstyling was not for her, she asked for a new job and landed in corporate human resources. This turned out to be a fortuitous move, interning in HR taught her about this area of business, which she loved! After grabbing the first rung of the career ladder in HR while still in high school, she set her sights on climbing it. Asking for and taking in advice from mentors, not only helped her road map her career but also motivated Tashea to keep pursuing her certifications and education.
Tashea worked alongside college, and then navigated going from HR generalist to specialist. Seven years ago, she joined the team at the Salamander Collection as human resources manager, and quickly fell in love with hospitality. Tashea shares her insights working in hospitality through the pandemic, hiring trends in hospitality and offers great advice for new and recent graduates on job hunting. As it is Black History month, we also chat about bias in the workplace, and her experience has not been what you might expect. Excited to share herstory with you!
Where did you grow up?
I was born in New Jersey and grew up in Philadelphia.
Hey, I'm also from New Jersey! What was your first job?
An HR internship for Rosenbluth International working with their Corporate HR team. It started out as a summer opportunity but because they valued the work that I was doing, they kept me on until I graduated from high school.
How did this internship launch you into a career in HR?
I had no idea what career path I wanted to take. A lot of females around me were going into cosmetology or nursing. I knew that I did not want to do nursing, so the Work Ready program that I was in placed me in a hair salon where I worked as a shampoo girl, cleaned up hair, and occasionally did hair relaxer treatments. However, after three weeks of this assignment, I realized that doing hair was not my calling.
The program director then placed me in the corporate office of Rosenbluth International in the HR department. It was there that I fell in love with the process immediately. I began to ask the people who I assisted how they began to work in HR and asked them to help me plan a road map for myself and they did. I followed that road map exactly as laid out for me. I looked for a college that had a business major with a concentration in human resources. They advised me to get as much generalist experience as possible, so I interned my last three years for a company ICG Commerce. They even told me to begin networking at an early age so that I would be considered for volunteer opportunities that would look good on my resume.
Wow, sounds like an amazing internship for a high school student. How did you find it?
I was given this opportunity through the Work Ready program through the RW Brown Boys & Girls Club in Philadelphia. It single-handedly changed my life.
From there you studied at Temple University on scholarship, and went right into corporate H R. How did your time at Temple prepare you to enter corporate?
Temple University prepare me immensely to enter the corporate world from various aspects. One way that Temple prepared me is by offering career services through the Center for Student Professional Development where they help you learn the proper business attire and the difference between business professional and business casual attire. They even get specific about what shoes to wear (dark colored, close-toe shoes with a low heel is my preference), how to write a professional resume and reminded us to always send thank you cards.
I always tell college students to be your authentic self because a lot of companies hire for fit (personality) and train for skills.
I always tell college students to be your authentic self because a lot of companies hire for fit (personality) and train for skills. You want to make sure that you accept an offer for the company and position that will be the right fit for you. The hardest part a lot of the times is getting in the door. If the hiring manager’s first impression of you is not favorable, you won’t get past the interview phase to show how much of an asset you can be. While it seems unfair, the outer appearance when you show up whether it’s your clothes, shoes, or hair color, hiring managers form an opinion of you before you even introduce yourself.
Another way that Temple prepared me for the corporate world was because of the University’s diverse student population. Going to an all-Black middle school and high school, I was familiar with just one culture. At Temple, I became partners and even friends with people from all backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and cultures which is an accurate depiction of how the work world really is.
As you worked your way up, you continued to get certifications and even your MBA. What inspired you to keep up your studies and how has this impacted your career?
I hold a BBA and an MBA from Temple University. There is a perception in the Black community that you have to be twice as good for the same opportunities that other races get afforded. Knowing that I wanted to be an HR Director, I asked those who were already in that position what steps they took to get there. The common two things I received in their responses were a master’s degree or a human resources certification. So, if the saying is true that I had to be twice as prepared, I set out to get both a Master’s degree and my HR certification The choice to get an MBA and both HR certifications was a personal choice. I firmly believe that HR needs a seat at the table. That’s why I wanted to pursue my MBA, so that I could understand the finance side and the operations side of business better and find ways to incorporate the agenda of HR with the business and financial needs of our company.
You've been with Salamander for nearly eight years. What a time to enter hospitality, you had to navigate a pandemic! What trends have you seen in hiring and compensation?
Well, travel is back and the labor market is still tight. I saw a recent survey from AHLA (Jan 2024) found that 82% percent of respondents have increased wages, which hit a record high average for hotels in December 2023. In addition, 59% are offering greater flexibility with hours, and 33% are expanding benefits. This tracks, as we have seen the increase in wages at Salamander. We also allow flexibility in non-guest facing positions.
During the pandemic, a lot of hotels had to close and do layoffs or furloughs. That caused a lot of the hourly workers to go look for employment elsewhere. When hotels opened their doors again, it was hard to bring those same employees back. Therefore, to entice some to come back to work in the hotel and to complete for the few employees who wanted to remain in the hotel industry, employers raised their wages to be competitive. Some employers would increase their starting wages by $1 to $2. So, all of the hotels followed suit and started doing the same thing because it appeared worth it to just offer $2 more to hire qualified employees. Especially since ADR went up as more and more travelers were ready to get out of the house. It seemed to not affect the bottom lines as much. Until you had to play this ping pong game of raising wages multiple times and for multiple positions.
Now, we are starting to see ADR go down and we have set new standards for starting wages. It is good for those hourly professionals working in the hospitality industry and the wages are certainly well deserved. However, if we continue to see a decrease in revenue companies will have to make very hard decisions in the near future.
Do you predict these trends to continue?
I believe that since the precedent has been set, these trends of high wages will continue. Especially since the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased and employees are looking to make more money.
Based on your own experience as a job seeker and your time as an HR executive, what advice would you give students (either in high school or college) that are looking to enter luxury hospitality?
My advice would be to accept an internship with a luxury hotel or luxury hospitality management company as soon as possible. There is an emphasis on having previous luxury hospitality experience, so this prerequisite can limit the pool of applicants. If you really aspire to be in luxury, take an entry level position to break into the sector. Most people are not able or willing to do this, and continue to work in limited-service hotels or move locations within the big box hotel management companies, and the luxury positions are difficult to transition into.
Switching gears a bit, it's Black History Month, before working at Salamander which is a Black-owned business, with a female CEO, in your previous roles were you ever the only Black person in the room or in your position?
I have faced bias on different occasions. One instance was not for my race but because of where I am from from. My first internship opportunity that introduced me to corporate human resources was under the leadership of a black male. There was also a black female executive who was in a leadership role within the corporate team. It was actually her daughter, who worked for the non-profit helping minority students, who placed me into the internship! Talk about lucky breaks because they were not a company who hired interns in the past.
I'll never forget that the mom told me at lunch that she wasn’t sure after all of the money she invested in her daughter to go to the best private schools and get an ivy league education, why she wasted her talents on urban kids from the 'hood in Philly (they lived in suburban New Jersey). I was determined after that conversation to work really hard in my position to show the mom that her daughter’s decision to take a chance on kids from the inner city would prove to be purposeful.
I never got a chance to tell her how much she changed my life, but I think that in a small way, her mom saw the impact even within the first year. She threw a cookout at their home and invite a few of us over to eat and swim in their pool as a year-end celebration. Which inadvertently sparked another flame in me to be the first person in my immediate family to purchase a home.
I did have another role at the headquarters of a non-profit in Philadelphia, where all of the executives were white. Then they hired a black female as the new VP of Human Resources who became one of my greatest mentors. She had been in HR for a long time and was a true advocate for me to earn my HR certifications. She was also the one who believed in my goal to become an HR director so much that she helped me transition from the benefit administration role into a generalist role knowing that it would make me more marketable to one day advance my career and leave my position. She even helped me select a company that was a good fit for me later on.
I believe all of my other positions either had one other Black executive or many times no other Black executives. Although, I have not had many Black females in my workplace who could be mentors or advocates for me, in my current position, I do have a lot of women who genuinely want me to succeed and have become mentors to me in their own right.
The hospitality industry has a ways to go for racial equality in leadership, what actions do you think the industry can take to move this along?
I believe that this is true for many industries. In all of my positions that I held, I rarely see racial equality amongst the leadership teams. For the hospitality industry specifically, I think that the industry could start by recruiting from diverse colleges and universities. Many of the leadership positions in hospitality REQUIRE you to have previous experience in the hospitality industry. And rightfully so. That is why it is important to recruit and promote diverse students from hospitality programs so that minorities can get the experience and build their resumes early on. Then as we commit to promoting from within, you have a deeper and diverse pool of qualified candidates.
What do you think the next generation is most concerned about when it comes to looking for employers?
The next generation seems to be looking for opportunities to make a splash. They want to feel like the work that they are doing makes a difference and/or they see how what they are doing is connected to the larger circle of life. They are also looking to make a lot more money and work less hours.
You spend a lot of time meeting potential candidates - what are your top 3 tips for job seekers to stand out?
Research the company prior to the interview so that you are not asking those basic questions during the interview.
Always have a few questions for your interviewer. These questions should be well thought out questions that helps you determine if the position and the company is a good fit for you. These questions should not be ones that could be easily answered had you researched the company on its website or LinkedIn.
Be your authentic self. Bonus tip: make sure that the information on your resume matches your LinkedIn page and your profile picture is professional. I have compared dates from resumes to the dates that candidates had on their LinkedIn page in the past, and they did not match. They clearly filled in gaps on the resume and that is a red flag to me.
What are the most common mistakes you see people make in the job search process?
They commit to interviews and then cancel.
Quickfire with Tashea!
What do you do for self-care?
I get the full monty pedicure every two weeks. It’s about 90 minutes of me time. I make sure to get that even if I don’t have enough time in my schedule to get a manicure or my hair done.
What is your top networking tip?
Have your elevator pitch ready at all times.
What is the best advice you ever got?
Don’t be afraid to ask, all they can do is tell you no. But if you don’t ask, you’ve told yourself no.
What is the worst advice you ever took?
The worst advice that I took was related to my HR career. I was told that the best thing that I could do was find an area of HR to specialize in it. So, I became a Benefits Administrator. It was very fulfilling work for me but it set me back several years from my ultimate goal of becoming an HR Director because I did not have the HR generalist experience that they were looking for to promote me to an HR Manager. So then I had to transition into an HR Generalist for a few years but that was after six years of specializing in benefits administration.
What books / podcasts / TV / Movies / music are you into right now?
I love to read self help books and I usually only watch documentaries. I think that a lot can be learned from watching how people before you overcame their struggles and shortcomings to be successful. Even if it is in a career that is different from yours. Persevering and overcoming the odds can look like many different things so you never know if seeing something sparks a creative solution in yourself.
Right now, I am reading Salamander CEO Sheila Johnson’s book “Walk Through Fire.” I am also on a journey toward financial freedom, so I am listening to “The Black Girl’s Guide to Financial Freedom” by Paris Woods on Audible. I have learned some awesome actionable advice so far. Most recently I watched “Waiting for Superman” a documentary about how the education system in the US is failing our children.