As a teenager and young adult, opportunities to attain jobs within the career field one wishes to be in are minimal, often requiring years of schooling to achieve. With this in mind, some may lack initiative to work a job less desirable than what they inevitably wish to attain. However, working jobs in the food service or service industry provide critical skills for later in life, and offer important perspective on human interaction. Thus, before teens or young adults fear working a summer job may interfere with fun or is simply something they do not wish to do, keep this knowledge in mind:
1. You learn time management skills.
With the acquirement of a first job you cannot rely on your parents to wake you up everyday or force you to go to work. You have to manage your own time, and take responsibility for getting to work when assigned. Similarly, if a task is expected of you in a given amount of time, you gain the ability to learn how to get it done effectively. Through trial and error, and maybe being late a few times you will learn the necessity of managing the clock.
2. It teaches you the value of a dollar.
Often service and retail jobs do not pay extremely well. With this being said, a job within these fields offers a chance to learn the value of a dollar. Working hard for a pay check instead of merely being handed money makes it worth more. You learn to manage spending on things that count, and realize that earning money takes effort.
3. You learn to work with others you may not get along with.
Let's be honest, not everyone you work with is going to be your favorite person or best friend. There is always going to be that one person who drives you insane or you completely do not mesh with. This being said, in a job in which customers are often demanding fast paced service, you need to learn to quickly resolve these issues in order to get work done. If not, the product you are making or selling may not come out as planned, or chaos will ensue. Group work is common within college and other settings so learning how to deal with people within your work environment will be beneficial later on.
4. You learn that people are not always friendly, and learn how to deal with it.
Sometimes customers are the worst. They can be unfriendly, lack courtesy, and just plain rude. On multiple occasions I've had people throw money at me, roll their eyes, and full out yell just because they couldn't get their way. However, this does not mean that you, as an employee of an establishment, can be rude back. The customer is always right even when they are wrong. This is by far an important lesson that teaches you how to control your anger or irritation, and remain calm unless of course the person is physically or psychologically harmful. Also, being on the other end of the register or being a server, makes you put into perspective how you treat others working behind the counter, perhaps giving them better respect than those without this experience.
5. You strengthen social skills.
This work requires communication. Customers rely on employees to understand what they need, and learning to be positive and speak clearly is a big plus for the future. Also, communication and socialization with other employees is key to being in a stress free work environment.
6. You learn to work under pressure.
Perhaps you work in the food service industry and thousands of customers swarm for the lunch rush, or perhaps there is a big sale at a store and the place is flooded with customers. The pressure of working with this many people wanting your service can be daunting but with some practice and coordination the pressure gets diminished overtime. This skill of learning to cope with pressure comes in handy in college when exams and big presentations pile up at the end of the year.
7. You take control of your own success.
With a service job, or any job for that matter, you learn to take control of your own success. It is up to you to make the best of your working situation. How you conduct yourself in summer service jobs can be a big factor in how you conduct yourself in other jobs later in life. Being professional, a hard worker, and well liked in these jobs can also open up opportunities to gain raises, or positive letters of recommendation.
Without service jobs, we would not have the conveniences that our country relies on. Thus, taking the time to commit to one of these jobs as a young adult can offer a range of benefits utilized later in life.
