getting a summer job

 

So where do I start. This summer, I'm a graduated high school senior with seriously no obligations and stresses. It's been pretty crazy honestly, just this feeling that I've longed for for so long, for this entire school year. There were so many times, especially when I was studying for multivar, where I was just like... MAN!!!! SET ME FREE FROM THIS!!!

Like don't get me wrong, second semester chill definitely had tons of elements of like freedom and zero stress because there really is highly minimal stress, but there would always be something on my mind. My economics teacher would do some wild sh*t, or I would have homework from music theory, or a project that I haven't started. 

But yeah, apart from that, that basically left me with the premise of getting a job this summer. I wanted a job specifically in like the food/drink service, excluding boba, or a grocery store service. SO like jamba juice, whole foods, trader joes was super ideal for me. You'll see what this transpires to.... Here's what my journey was like of finding a job.

March/April

SO right now it's mid-july so i dont remember like any details or any exact order of events of course.

But I do know that I started taking real action during March and April specifically. I remember bro MAN I WAS SO NAIVE LOL, I remember I drove to Wholefoods after one of my contacts employment and straight up asked them if they were hiring or something, they said yes, and that the forms were all online.

So then I went online and applied to be some like shelf manager or something and halfway thru the application I realized you need to be over 18, and that sht HIT ME LMAO, I was like "D*MN!!!"

So then yea I gave up on wholefoods, though im actually pretty sure that you didn't even need to be 18 or something, it was just at the time they werent hiring.

So then like after that sht a week passed by where I kinda procrastianted, but like one day I felt ambitious and went to jamba juice and saw that they were hiring, and I took a photo of their poster and was like, cool!

In fact, I actually branched out which is so cool, I realized that you just don't apply to places one by one. I wrote out this list I remember vividly in my car and was like, OKAy, there's no way I don't get one of these jobs.

So then I called trader joes and mochiholic in the car and asked them if they were hiring and they said they were. So then I applied to trader joes online all valid even if I was 17, but I did give up on mochiholic because idk i just wasnt that interested. Realistically that shts kinda unhealthy, it's just that I always envisioned my summer job to something that accompanys the gym, and mochiholic was close. I had the same mindset for Ranch 99, where I gave up after browsing their online sht and saw that they werent hiring.

But I DID get an interview from panda express, it was my first ever job interview, I was like kinda confident that I just act like myself and it'd be fine. And that's what happened. It was a pretty chill interview. I remember prepping what I would answer if they asked me "why do you want to work here" and yeah that was some nice experience to go through. 

But yeah, a week passed by and I didn't get any call back or anything, that's when like it fully came to me that this thing might be harder than I thought. My mom taught me a lot too, especially since she's a boss/manager when she's at work.

Other than that, something else worth mentioning is that Jamba jucei actually offered me an interview through text and I somehow didnt see it until like 2 weeks later so that was a MAJOR fumble from me. Who knows what would've happened from that. I definitely prefer it if they didn't hire me, because otherwise I wouldn't have gone through so much trouble and learning a lot.

May

So I've been writing a little WAY too much, this post is going to be pretty long. What happened in May is that I started an indeed account. And began mass applying. I couldn't be picky anymore about wanting to choose where I work, that shts almost never the case in reality either. I applied to Vitality bowls, primrose backery, blaze pizza, mochiholic, gotta eatta pita, sourdough & co., 85C bakery, boba nation, juice and java, paris baguette during may. I started off slow, but that's a lot. I got interviews from paris baguette and boba nation. I did kinda dogsh*t in paris baguette, BUT on the contrary I remeber I thought I did really good at the boba nation interview. They had me like measure out ice and I gauged that sht FLAWLESSLY so confidently. The woman interviewing me also said that I did well.

But like flash forward a week, I don't get any calls, I go back, and they said taht they didn't pick me cuz I'm only working for the summer. That sht was pretty sad, and honestly made me realize I need to apply to way more jobs. The funny thing about that interview actually, is that the lady interviewing me was like "oh, so I saw on your resume about all your cubing competitions, that's really cool! You must deal with pressure really well" and I just followed along and was like "YES I DO." And I would use that idea of "cubing competitions" to "working well under pressure" and take it to like every job interview after that lol.

It's tough cuz like you can see on indeed, that like 40 other people applied for this job, or sometimes like 200 other people. So like, you really do need to mass apply, and if it took me 2 months to learn that, then I guess it did. I started early, so that helped me a lot.

June

I started applying to tons of jobs. When I was bored on my computer I would filter out like "drinks" or "bakery" or "food" or something on indeed and continue accumulating job applications. Indeed did make it very fast, sometimes you could apply to a job in 2 weeks cuz u auto-upload ur resume.

But yeah, I then applied to California pizza kitchen, Sprouts, Jamba Juice, pieology, panda express(another location), mendocino farms, noah's bagels, new balance, vitality bowls(another location), dave's hot chicken, rockin' jump, panera bread, jamba juice(another location), five guys, surf city squeeze, yafa hummus, and then three spots at the alameda county fair: juicy's LCC, JLQ Concessions, and Fabe's Churros. 

Even though altogether I collectively applied to 34 jobs in indeed, it felt like a sht ton. 

From that pack I got interviews from pieology, along with invitations to go to like hiring events at jamba juice and panera bread where they take a sht ton of interviews and basically a person like me thats still a minor and only doing it for the summer has like a 0% chance in the competition. Idk why I even bothered going to the jamba juice one, I remember seeing all these ppl applying and being like "wtf am i doing here." 

But then I got 3 interviews from all three spots that I applied for at the county fair. I scheduled them strategically to be all on the same day so I could do it all in one day. 

So I biked to the fair and that bike ride was a vibe because it was like days before the fair was opening and like I was just biking through this empty fair with all these construction workers. 

But yeah so the story was I was actually LATE to the fabes churro interview which was in the morning. I saw them in this circle and there were like some kids and stuff and i was just like "nah" and gave up on that. Like it wouldve been so awkward trying to go there especially being late. Like obviously theres a chance they could've hired me, but like that job wasn't even that appealing to me and there's so much inherent shame to being new to a job and even more when you're APPLYING to be a job. You know what I mean, not actual shame, but just like embarrassing shame. It's kinda dumb if u rly think about it.

But yeah I moved on and went to Juicy's and it was a pretty informal interview and they basically GAVE ME A JOB. YES I GOT A JOB LMAO. I literally couldnt work for a full week because I was going to Vancouver, and I STILL GOT A JOB, that's how desperate they were. 

The fair is 3 weeks long and I'm gone for like an entire 9 days or something, and I GOT A JOB LMAO I WAS SO HAPPY. THis was what I initially thought getting a job woudl be like. Ppl being desperate or like idk, i just imagined it to be way easier than it actually is. And that you would end up where you wanted. But nah, here I was like 3 months later and it finally happened. 3 MONTHS.

But after that I cancelled my third interview at JLQ concessions because I already like somewhat committed and I was pretty happy with this job.

Juicy's

Ok so I got the job on like Monday or somethign, and we had like orientation on wed or something i forgot but this was my plan that i told my manager

1. work on friday for my first day

2. leave for vancouver on saturday

3. continue working for juicy's after i came back

this stand at the fair seemed fairly desperate for help so they were totally fine with that cuz the july 4th weekend was gonna be packed.

So at my first day working for this stand at the fair (which turned out to be the only day) was a pretty interesting experience. I worked from like 10 AM to 4 PM, and basically the job was pretty loose if I were to describe it, like my manager didnt give af about any training, she just told us how to clock in and use the ipad to cashier, and explained a few basic things like how if a customer tries to pay with cash, you redirect them to this kiosk thing with a card machine thing. 

But yeah there was like 5-6 of us hired cashiers throughout the three Juicy stands, and we basically just rung up customers, filled up drinks, and fulfilled orders. Basically some customer would come in and ask for a corndog or something, and id charge them like 20 dollars lMAO FOR A CORNDOG ill talk about that later, but i go to the ppl cooking behind me thru the window and tell them to pull up with a corndog, and then i give the corndog to the customer once they pay and stuff. Thats basically what the job was. I did help fill up some drink lids and stuff and carry things around in the beginning but the entire day was just doing being cashier. We got like 0 training on what to say to customers and how to greet and like ettiquette so i was kinda stressed but like i figured it out.

But yea it was super tiring and sometimes super boring when there were no customers. The 30 lunch break was pretty fire and flew by, we got food and wE STILL HAD TO PAY 5 DOLLARS AS EMPLOYEES in this lunch combo. THe burger was actually so good holy cow, it was pretty fire. The fries were really good too. I took a photo of them.

The thing is that they charge like $14 for a basket of waffle fries, $22 for a turkey leg, like $18 for a burger, $7 for a lemonade, $4 for water cuz it's the fair. like THEY ARE MAKING BANK OUT HERE. THATS SO MUCH MONEY. AND PEOPLE WOULD ACUTLALY BUY $7 LEMONADE LIKE WHAT???? hUH?? THATS so much money for some mid lemonade, it wasnt even that good.

This one family ordered lunch for their entire family and it ended up being like 2 turkey legs, 1 corndog, 1 burger, 4 soft drinks, and 2 fries or something crazy and the total was like $120+ dollars and that blew my mind lmao. I felt so bad flipping the ipad around for them to pay like WTF $120 DOLLARS. The fair is so fking expensive, maybe the vendor has a lot of rent ot pay but like thats crazy how much i was actively scamming every customer that would pull up, and it was pretty busy.

SO yea i shouldve taken more photos but heres like all the photos i have of that one day:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SM4gCfZbWwNFvCGJ6

Chipotle

ALright so here comes chipotle. Before I get into this, I wanna say that right now it's Sept 19, and I started writing this post on August 3rd, LMAO so Im going to forget a lot of the context or lead-up but either way I am going to write about my experience at chipotle.

So here I am at like my first real job. Chipiotle accepted me WHILE i was in Vancouver in this email:

And I was pretty surprised. Given how im a minor just doing a summer job for like 2 months, I didn't expect anyone to hire me. I was planning on working at the fair.

So anyway after thinking about it for like 2 minutes or something it was pretty obvious that i should accept this chipotle offer which was such a surprise/lucky to me. It was helpful that I already worked a day in the fair so I could compare. Chipotle is a more like societal-relevant or like just more relevant, more legitimate corporate business. It's also something that like you can connect with easier on a resume if that matters, cuz like no one rly knows what "juicys at the alameda county fair for 2 weeks" is, but everyones heard of "chipotle."

SO that was kinda like my thought process or whatever. Anyway i accepted and emailed them back and at the same time had to text my boss at the fair that i had a family emergency and i had to go to china or something 💀💀💀. She had enough employees and I actually referred ashwin to the job so i honestly dont feel too bad about dipping out like that. 

OK LEts get into the actual experience. Let's start with like the first week. The first week things were so different than my fair job. I literally was in the office on the computer watching videos and reading things about how to cook stuff, how to report/detect harassment, sexual harassment, i dont even remember. They taught the most random stuff like how boss' have inherent bias or how to pick up heavy objects without breaking your back which VERY MUCH INTRIGUED ME LMAO. I prob spent like 5-6 hours total on all the vids, maybe longer. ANd this was like 2 shfits of this. The first day I legit was on the computer and then on teh ipad finishing up some random videos about grill and allergens and i dont even remeber. This was the difference between like this corporate type like official professional businesses or wahtever and the fair. My manager at the fair literally just told me not to give out free water cups and then gave me an ipad check register and dipped out faster than carmelo on the atlanta hawks 💀💀💀

Then after that i just started working. I remember the last like 30 minutes of day 2 when I finished all the stupid videos, i was stacking bowls. You basically just stack the bowl with its foil cover so its faster to set up when ure greeting customers. I could like pull up a photo and show u exactly what i mean but i really dont care lmao 💀💀 

ok i needa stop spamming these skull emojis but theyre so funny. anyway on day 3, the general manager wasnt there and so one of the other kitchen managers just sent me straight to do online orders. I was FRAZZLED cuz i remember seeing this other new worker and the manager literally taught him how to do everything and here i am walking towards the online orders pretending i know wtf im doing. I remember i was just like "hi, im wilson and this is like my third day. Can you teach me how to do some of these orders." to this guy named thomas. It was either thomas or Ian, i dont rly remember, but both of them taught me a lot on the first day. There were a ton of orders in queue so it was MAD stressful literally doing orders for the first time in your life. I would just slowly get the hang of it, but then there was so much to learn. About like all the foils, the portions, the differences between bowls, burritos, tacos, quesadillas, etc. I remember speedrunning learning how to wrap burritos and it was pretty frantic cuz i had to pretend i knew what i was doing. faking it until i make it.

theres so many other like small things that im forgetting, i kinda wish i updated this sooner rip, but its alright. Throughout the next couple of shifts, I just started learning more and getting better at doing things. I remember one time during like 3 PM or somethign when there were no customers, shreyans and kanuj taught me how to do cash and also fixed up my portions cuz i was giving customers way too much meat. I give them like 2 scoops when its supposed to be like 1 scoop. Also, sometimes the customer would ask for like barbacoa and then I had to pretend I knew what tf they were talking about and like guess which tray was barbacoa correctly. Well, it was just that and pork, cuz they looked the same, but like yea i was still a beginner in the first couple of weeks. 

Other than working online orders and helping line, whether it was hot, cold, or cash, I helped sweep/clean out lobby with praket, or refilled the drinks, or scrubbed the walls, or restocking things like napkins and straws/cups, or taking out the trash and rebagging the trash. If there was absolutely nothing to do with no customers, i always resorted to stacking bowls or the quesadilla trays because u can never stack too much. It was honestly some pretty honest respectable work that I was doing. I never got to work grill tho cuz you have to be experienced, but also because I wasn't 18 with a grill certificate yet. I did have a food handler certificate from one of those random online courses which enabled me to serve things.

And yea, lots of my coworkers were in high school or college so i never was rly too bored, just lots of times being tired. I can't speak much tho because all my shifts were 3.5 hours long cuz i was a minor, and i would work like 1-2x a week. This was SUPER ideal because I still had so much time to go to the park and things. It was a really nice balance to only be working 1-2x a week. During my shifts I had a 10 min break where I usually ate lunch/dinner. I got a free meal with a large chips and drink. Bringing home the chips and guac was so nice cuz my sister and mom loved eating them, so did I. I also snuck some chips in for allen and ashwin and friends lmao. Bro one time my sister was having a birthday party and I legit snuck like 2 large chips, 3 large guacs, and 3 large salsas or something of that caliber. It might've been more. I remember the store wasn't that busy so I just like walked outside in the middle of my shift with the bags and dropped it off in the car nonchalantly. I also did some naughty things as cashier, giving the 50% discount to a bunch of friends that would visit. You're technically not supposed to, and one time my manager actually caught me, but I was like new so she thought it was an accident and literally didn't think much of it. I got kinda stressed but she legit thought it was an accident. 

And yea im running out of things to talk about. I remember this one time I worked closing with praket and got some extra money. The store closes at like 10 but we leave at like 11 after closing everything down and cleaning everything and wiping everything. It's some good experiences, especially when youre with friends. At the end I still remember all of us would sit down with the tip jar and split it up amongst us. I scrapped away with like 2 dollars and a bunch of coins, but ill take it.

Oh yea lets talk about some customer interactions. I remember one of them bro, this lady asked for a veggie bowl and when we got to cold, I told her "guac will be extra, are you okay with that?" and then she was like "no its not for a veggie bowl" firmly. And then I was like "ahhh, my bad you right" and she was like "are you new here?" and i was literally new in like my second week so it was kinda funny. It did hurt a bit, like rly bruh??

Then I remember this family, the little boy was ordering tacos and he asked for a hardshell taco and so i had to hit him with the "we're out of hardshells for the day, sorry, we do hvae soft tortillas tho" and my guy legit broke down CRYING on the spot. The mom was like "excuse us for a sec" and they went off to the side. Idk why but htat was honestly so funny/cute, like idk man that kinda resonates, its just so funny.

That's honestly all that like really sticks out. There's a couple of customers that had some like rude remarks like "why are all you workers serving so little meat these days?" or "oh no... im not eating that burnt steak" that i legit dont know how to respond to lmao. But mostly, customers are nice. 

Ok, let's talk about like what insights or whatever that I can offer as a chipotle worker. What things about chipotle you may not know. Firstly, we make legit like everything from scratch. We cut up all the peppers, onions, cilantro, avocadoes, etc. and all of our salsas, corn salsas, and guac are legit truly made from real fresh ingredients. Our chips come from some bag in our "walk-in" fridge where they fry all of it in the beginning of each day and mix it with lime and salt. Our tortillas are all like packaged imported but also heated on our presser when you order them. Our meat and fajitas are all grilled as you can like see in front of you when you walk in the store. I will say that the chicken al pastor, one of our seasonal proteins, is straight up just chicken mixed with some packaged imported sauce. It still tastes FIRE though, i get 1/2 chicken al pastor, 1/2 regular chicken on my bowl and MAN that tastes so fire.

Next, realistcally speaking with all due respect if u wanna get a drink just get a water cup and grief it bro. Literally no one cares and u can put a lid on it if you are really that anxious about workers caring somehow. If you wanna spend the money then put it in the tip jar realistically speaking like its so much easier to just get a water cup im not even joking i do that all the time when i go in as a customer even if i have 50% off of drinks.

And i guess that concludes it. I don't know what else to talk about, theres some like drama lmao like when one manager just quit, people were gossipping about why she quit and stuff and who would replace her. Or like talking about past workers that got fired. My work came to an end when I had a wisdom tooth procedure in august 8th, so I couldn't work for like a week after that. Then my work permit expired, which is something that happens apparently, annoyingly. Renewing that took another week. Literally word for word my boss says "Hey Wilson when possible can you bring in a newly filled out work permit as yours expired. I have extra copy's at the store if needed." On August 21st. SO then yea he helped sign it but after that and I turned it in, he legit sotpped responding and hasn't given me a shift on the crew app ever since. I think it's just annoying cuz he moved on without me cuz he hired a ton of new workers and its hard to re-integrate me to the flow/schedule I guess. But It's alright. I would've hoped to work a bit more and for some more transparency from my boss, but I had some fun times. Plus I was never officially like let off so I still go there to get the 50% off meals a lot which is an awesome perk. 

Really grateful for chipotle as their food is legit SO GOOD and so healthy and straight up quality. It's seriously some top tier fast food man, it might be my favorite of all time. That's tough, but its definitely up there in the mount rushmore with subway, any mediterrannean food, and dave's hot chicken. I also learned a lot about like just really how tiring this type of lifestyle is and how much respect I have. Some of it must get so repetitive and I have to say that I humbly can't even imagine honestly. Just like doing that same thing for so many years in a row. Chipotle isn't even that bad in terms of this, the managers all rotate so regularly and we have lots of workers. The wages are just kinda bad tho in comparison. But yea, that's really all I have left to reflect on. It's like 12 AM right now and I rly wanan sleep. 

byebye

Lyric(s) of the Post:

"

Nights with your old friends
Think that you've got em'
Everyone say that you're better off
No, you don't believe em'

"

Your Side Of The Bed - Steve Reece Remix, Loote, Steve Reece