Making Big Career Moves: Relocating, Learning, and Growing in Hospitality - Candice D'Cruz, Hilton

Emily: For my first interview, I had the pleasure of speaking with Candice D'Cruz, Vice President of Luxury Brands Asia Pacific, including China at Hilton. Candice is such a thoughtful leader and I loved hearing her insights on mentorship, self-advocacy, and navigating career growth, especially as she recently relocated from Dubai to Singapore. I learned so much from our conversation, and I know you will too. Let's jump into it.

[intro]

Emily: You just moved with Hilton from Dubai to Singapore. What are your tips for starting a new job?

Candice: A few things that I would say, depending on where you are in your career, especially for leaders, is getting to know the team. Spending time with the team is important. Not sweating the small stuff, because the change is for a long range. So the change is not short-term. You're looking at it from a long-term point of view. So plan based on, as you start with a new company or with a new profile, Plan your first 90 days. Don't be in a hurry to deliver the first initiative right away. Make sure that you're very thoughtful for that first one. As you rightly said, first impressions are important. But give it time in terms of being able to also connect with the people. People in our industry are the most important piece. So always keep that at the forefront of any decision-making as part of settling in as a leader. Something that I do a lot of as a leader is being accessible. It is super critical for a leader to be not feeling like he or she is in an ivory tower, but being absolutely accessible. I feel after a certain point in your career, your skill sets are one piece, but the most important piece is people management. And if you're not accessible, you can't really show the leadership skills, show the mentoring skills, show the opportunity to shape someone's career for tomorrow.

Emily: Love that you place importance on being so accessible as a leader. Tell me more about mentorship. How do you recommend women go about getting mentors?

Candice: So I didn't have any godfather or mentor. I had to seek out people that I could sort of follow and learn from and sort of see what made sense for me to take from them. And that's why I try and be a mentor for women out there who, I say, most women tend to, that first step is always the most difficult, being able to have that first conversation, that first email, that first LinkedIn reach out to someone. I encourage women to do that, not feel shy. They can be, I say, reach out to complete strangers. And I've had some, in the last couple of years, I've had some amazing conversations with absolute strangers who found me somehow. either on Instagram or on LinkedIn, and who are just curious to know about my past. And I'd say that first interaction is probably the most difficult. But why I believe mentorship is important is to be able to have honest conversations. Sometimes you're not able to have those honest conversations within your organization, with your boss, with HR, even with your colleagues, because firstly, you feel that someone's going to judge. You then have this imposter syndrome that could take over. But if you're speaking to a complete stranger, who is not going to judge you so much, who's going to have these conversations, very unbiased conversations, helps people in terms of being able to stack up things and sort of say, where am I going right? Where am I going wrong? Where am I falling short? What is the gap? And how can I listen to someone who doesn't really know me, but is judging or is looking at things from a very non-judgy point of view to be able to give feedback and say, this is where I think you can pivot, or this is where I think you need to be revisiting. I've had some amazing conversations with females as well as men, which has been the interesting part where I've had some men reach out asking for mentorship.

Emily: I love that there are guys reaching out to you and how interesting that they don't have any qualms about doing it. They just go for it. And your point about women needing to just try and go for it as well. Do you have advice for someone who's actually a mentee? I just wrote an article about advice for mentees, which we can link to in the show notes, but I'd love to hear your perspective on making the most of a mentor relationship.

Candice: Yeah, so I would say come prepared to the call or the meeting or cup of coffee or depending on whatever format you reached out to this. In my case, I've said complete strangers prepared with what you want from that exchange. Even do some research on the person to sort of say, these are the kinds of questions that the person can add value to you, or this is the kind of questions that that person can help challenge you. And be consistent in terms of the follow-ups. Just don't have a one-off call because that one-off interaction is not going to do anything. It's going to get you interested in the person, no doubt, and might spark a few questions as you go through the conversation. But have a few. And I'd say one thing as much for the mentee as for the mentor is it's actually a learning curve on both sides, as I have had conversations with different people in different levels in their careers, right from people just coming out of university to mid management to even senior leaders who reached out to have conversations is you are almost having a certain amount of self-reflection. Sometimes you forget about the wins you've had over the years. And as you have conversations with mentees, it's just a reminder of how far you've come. So I'd say for a mentor as well, it's in a way, I say, it makes me very grateful for my journey. It's always a humbling experience to talk about certain big wins where you don't think they're big wins, but when you're talking to someone and their face sort of lights up, I'm like, okay, Maybe I did a few things right. Yeah, so I think it's great for a mentor also to have self-reflection. It's important for us to pause, especially as you get to a certain stage of leadership, be able to pause and look back and sort of pat yourself on the back and say, I've actually come a long way.

Emily: So great to hear what you get out of mentoring as a mentor. Those benefits are often overlooked. Another topic we cover a lot is self-advocacy. Going into a room where you don't know anybody whether it's at a conference Presenting in your own company or in a meeting where you want to speak up How do you stick your hand up? What's your method for advocating for yourself?

Candice: I've always spoken about as part of Growth and as part of stretch goals raise your hand that is something that I talk about a lot Raise your hand because if you don't raise your hand no BS is going to do it for you you've got to be able to charter your own journey, charter your own course, decide where you want to go. And if you don't make those hard decisions to sort of say, this is going to make me a little uncomfortable. And this might take me into a very different area or different path. If you don't do that, nobody's going to do it for you. So self-advocacy is important. As you do self-advocacy is also how much are you researching? How much are you learning? How much are you applying yourself? I'd say getting into Putting yourself out there is important, but equally applying yourself once you put yourself out there is important. So how do you go to the next level? How do you make sure that you're truly learning once you put your hand up or you put yourself out there?

Emily: Let's talk about your newish role with Hilton. You've just relocated from Dubai to Singapore with two small kids. How did you do it?

Candice: I have a, I have great support system. I am truly blessed when it comes to support system. I have an amazing husband who's been a big part of all my career decisions. Right from when I was head of marketing and cons for Burj Khalifa, I launched the tower. You're moving into hospitality and transition into hospitality, moving on property to above property. to this role in Singapore, based out of Singapore, looking after Asia Pacific. He has always been one to say, try it. You're someone who loves learning, who loves to push yourself outside your comfort zone. It's been incredible in terms of some of the decisions I've made with his support in terms of where my career has gone, in terms of the learnings I've had and the learnings we've had. I believe that children, our generation or the next generation of children, they need to be exposed to the world. I talk about my children being global, citizens, not defined by religion. They've lived in so many countries now. Now my kids were born, both of them were born in Dubai. My younger one was very small. Now we'll define Singapore as home because he'll have spent more time in Singapore. So as part of looking at the world, so support system, critical. Secondly is being able to also take chances. So when I talk about my husband and the travel, so I spoke about living in Singapore now and I've had a lot of time on the road. He has spent enough time, and he's still based in Dubai, so he spends time between Dubai and Singapore, so that I can go do what I have to do without having to worry about what's happening at home. So we have a balance between making sure that we're there for all the days that are important. I make sure that I travel through the week, and I've learned how to travel through the week so I can get home on the weekend. And this is where I talk about multitasking. I have no shame in sharing this, because I think there are many women who sometimes might need to hear that you've got to do what you've got to do. If you want to be a career woman, you also want to make sure that you're a good mother. I love being a mother. I have two kids, and I make sure that when I'm home on the weekend, I'll fly back. I'll take a red-eye to get back, and I'll take my daughter for her piano classes. I'll take her for her drawing classes. I enjoy that. I enjoy that from the fact that it gives me balance as well. I love being a career woman. I love seeing the world. I love interacting with our teams on property and spending quality time with them. But equally, I love being a mother. So with my support system, I've had my husband who's allowed me to have the quality time with the kids on the weekend. And I do talk about quality over quantity. I know I can't give them quantity. So when I'm present, I'm truly present. The weekend, I'm truly there for them to make sure whether it's running for that piano class or doing a breakfast out somewhere where I don't have my phone anywhere. Those are important aspects as part of being present. And then as part of support system, I have an amazing nanny or helper as they call them in Singapore. I wouldn't be able to do it without her. She's been with us for almost eight years now. She joined us, our family when my daughter was very young and she moved with us from Dubai to Singapore. So she allows us to also have this entire family focus where I joke about the fact that she runs a household, but if it wasn't for her in terms of taking care of some of the needs, just based on the quality over quantity, I wouldn't be able to do half the things I do. So it takes a village sometimes for a woman to be successful, but we can do it. I think if we apply ourselves to adding layers, there's someone in the office and she was saying, how do you make the time? And I always say, The more you add, the more the day sort of just flexes, and you can make it happen. It is about whether you want to do it or not. It is up to you on whether you want to flex the day. It's still 24 hours, no doubt. But how do you flex the day to get as much of strength, as much of learnings, as much of happiness? I mean, all of these different things that I talk about Whether it's work, whether it's going into a property, whether it's running for my daughter's classes, that's different levels of happiness. And it's about an individual flexing, whether you want to do it or not.

Emily: I love that. Wow. I love how openly you speak about your nanny and support system. We all need help. How do you manage when you need to travel for work?

Candice: As often as he can be and as often as needed. If I have multiple weeks in the road, then he'll come in and just stay put for this. Yes. So we've got this. We have a framework, if I may, of how we work around his schedule, my schedule, to make sure that it works. Just make sure that there's a parent always with the kids. That is something that we've tried to make sure, just so that the kids don't feel like we're just consumed by all that we do. And there will be days that there's imbalance. There will be days that I won't be able to be at all her all her recitals, or I won't be able to be at every class on the weekend, or a birthday party. That's bound to happen. And I'd say one of the things that I've tried to do is not beat myself over it. There's guilt. I'll be lying if I say that there isn't any guilt and I just get up the next morning and go. There are moments, there are days when I'm like, Wow, what am I prioritizing? But then I look at the bigger picture and say, OK, these are certain things that also make me happy. So I'd say there are different layers to a woman to sort of say, depending on the time of the day, depending on the time of the week, depending on the time of the year, how are you prioritizing yourself? That is also important to say, am I finding joy in being at a meeting? Am I finding joy being on the road? Am I finding joy being a parent? all of those things give me joy, but it's based on where what I was talking about flexing.

Emily: Yes, it is so real to find joy in all the different aspects of being a working mother. Wow, I have learned so much from you today, Candice, and I know our listeners will too. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences