Beautiful nature and a pleasant climate, rich and varied gastronomy, nice local customs and life’s little pleasures such as the habit of drinking coffee in the afternoon, and above all cordial and hospitable people, are just some of the reasons why it is very easy to fall in love with Croatia. It gets even better if you find a great job that you are comfortable with. Sidney Lukas Zivko who moved from Germany to Novigrad a year and a half ago has all of this. In addition to living in beautiful Istria, he soon found a job at the Valamar Reservation Centre.
“I love the people I work with,” is one of the first sentences he’ll tell you if you ask him how he likes it here.
“I wanted to try something new and I’m thrilled. I can say that the people here are much more relaxed. They’re hard-working, but they are significantly more accommodating,’’ he says, adding that that’s what he likes the most in Croatia. His story is a bit unusual because while many Croats have been emigrating to Germany for decades, he has done the opposite. He had, he reveals, two good reasons for it: his roots were Croatian, so this country had always interested him, and he found a great job.
There is no language barrier at his job because the languages he speaks are sought after. Sidney is employed as a sales consultant at the Valamar Reservation Centre, located in the Poreč administration building. The sales advisers at the reservation centre are the first contact guests have with Valamar, which can accommodate 58 thousand guests in its hotels and camps from Istria to Dubrovnik.
Guests contact the centre with the intention of booking their accommodation or finding out more about their arrival and accommodation. During the full season, sales consultants at the reservation centre respond to about 2,000 emails and about 1,500 calls per day. But with the teammates he has, says Sidney, it all works out. “I love helping the guests and answering all their questions,” he points out.
The reservation centre staff speak two or three foreign languages, mostly English, German and Italian, which is a prerequisite for good communication with guests who are extremely satisfied with such a service. Sidney speaks excellent German and English, and his Croatian is getting better and better, and he fits in well with Valamar’s team. He learned all about business very quickly. His colleagues and the reservation centre’s manager Vesna Otočan are always available for any questions.
‘’I have the feeling that they appreciate me here and I’m really satisfied,’’ he adds.
Of course, the ideal balance between our private and work lives is important to us all, and with this job you can enjoy yourself, says Sidney.
“The work is organised in shifts. The morning shift starts at 08:00 and my work day starts with checking my emails. Then come the calls. We have enough free time, in addition to knowing the work schedule in advance. It’s easy to agree on everything we need,’’ he says, adding that he also hangs out with colleagues.
“We go out for dinner or a drink,” he explains, adding that Valamar’s employees have a ValamArtist card that allows them to get discounts on certain services and restaurants within Valamar’s facilities.
If you have a good command of foreign languages and are looking for a job in Croatia, the Valamar Reservation Centre is currently hiring sales consultants. This is an opportunity for a year-round tourism job in which fluent knowledge of foreign languages is the most important requirement. The induction process takes a month, with all possible help available.
The probationary period is three months. The contract immediately then extends to one year. All those who apply can expect to have excellent benefits that make Valamar a top employer in tourism and one of the most desirable employers on the Croatian labour market: a minimum net income of HRK 5,000 to HRK 7,500, a 13th salary of HRK 5,000 to net employees who work for a minimum of 10 months in next year and all full-time employees, continued specialist training and many other benefits.
Register today at [email protected] and build a career in a sought-after workplace such as this, of one of the largest global hotel companies.
