The Best Places to Launch a Career

As career choices go, the hotel business isn't one that will put new college grads on the path to riches. With few exceptions, new employees can expect an annual salary of less than $40,000, a figure that has barely budged in recent years. So when Marriott International (MAR) visited the University of Delaware campus on a recruiting trip, it didn't wave a big wad of cash in front of Claire Pignataro. It didn't have to. It had already hooked her with something she considered far more valuable: a chance to help run a hotel.

A semester at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel, located on the Delaware campus, is required as part of the school's hospitality program. Pignataro, who was among the first students to work there, took part in virtually every aspect of opening the hotel, from developing marketing materials and designing weekend packages to even checking the legal mumbo jumbo posted in every hotel room. After graduating in 2005 and joining Marriott full-time, she entered a three-month management training program at a full-service hotel in Bridgewater, N.J., that put her through her paces again, including brief stints in the restaurant, food and beverage service, and front office. Knowing Pignataro wanted to be a wedding planner—and not wanting to lose her—Marriott gave her the next best thing: a permanent slot as an event planner at the Bridgewater property. "I was doing bar mitzvahs and weddings—all kinds of social and corporate meetings," says Pignataro, who is now in corporate sales. "You can do a lot of that within Marriott."