“Journey to Manager Operator”
My name is Zak Gamas. I grew up Morocco in North Africa, moved to U.S. at the age of 18. As an immigrant, I have always been amazed by the American Dream and I knew I was determined to pursuit for myself. I arrived in Florida and knew that it being a popular place for tourists I would have job opportunities within the hospitality industry because of the numerous them parks in the area. After two weeks, I was able to obtain three part time jobs one of those at IHOP as a busser. Under the guidance of Mimoun Chouikhi, who quickly made an impact on me by teaching a very important life lesson; he told me “Nothing is impossible, whatever you set as your goal you can achieve it with hard work, willingness to learn, and dedication. Believe in yourself and be confident. Do not get discouraged with mistakes: take it as an opportunity to learn from it.” I was so impressed with his leadership that I recall telling him, “I want to be like you” and with a smile he responded “I want you to be better than me because you will learn quicker, and I will coach you to reach your goals in a short term.” He taught me the: I can attitude!. This manager made an investment in me by teaching, training, and developing me and within a year and I half I became an Assistant Manager. In May of 2013 I had the opportunity to participate in the company’s Leadership Development Workshop, where I was given the opportunity to identify the areas I needed to develop to eventually move in to the GM role. In February of 2017 I was promoted to General Manager and shortly after in 2019 I was promoted to Manager Operator which is a prestigious role within our organization. Today, I am still growing and learning and continuing my career development here at IHOP.