Russian hospitality has moved on since Soviet times, and the appearance of luxury hotels in Moscow has brought with it career openings for those with the right personal skills. Candidates need the ability to deal patiently with all kinds of people — from the rich to the capricious — and those without that quality had better find their niche elsewhere.

Galina Morozova, deputy rector at The Institute of Hotel Management and Tourism in Moscow, says that while Russians are great people, they have trouble smiling. Recruiters for the industry in the early 1990s certainly came up against that problem, but a lot of progress has been made since then, thanks both to in-house training in the hotels themselves, and institutes such as Galina Morozova’s and The Plekhanov Academy.

A representative of the Le Royal Meridien National hotel’s human-resources department said a huge recruitment campaign followed the hotel’s construction six years ago; but these days there are few vacancies and so the hotel does not use recruitment agencies. Most of the posts that come up are filled by candidates who have sent out resumes. The official said there is always plenty of room for promotion at the National — the hotel’s marketing manager originally joined the hotel as a receptionist.