“Be loud and assertive!”, “be funny and sweet”, “be fast and professional!” So much advice was being thrown at me from different directions and there was shy little me, trying to make sense of it all. One would think I was getting prepared for a big speech or a big game. Really, I was just getting ready to serve my first table as a waitress. I always tried to stick with the easier jobs like retail or food concessions, but so much talk of good tips drew me in. So yeah, stepping out of my comfort zone was scary and stressful but going home with money in my pocket every night is a little bit exciting. On my first day at work at a new burger joint on 61st, I was super excited to start learning and working. First, I was shown around the restaurant. The utilities closet was in the back, to the left with the oddly shaped broom …show more content…
and the old smelly mop. The kitchen was behind the counter, there were dirty dishes, slippery floors, and spilled fries almost everywhere. They took me to the patio where we ignored the bird poop on the floor. After all of that I was still excited to learn how to handle my own table. For the rest of the night I followed one of the waitresses that had a lot more experience. It came so easy to her. She introduced herself, joked with the customers, talked about the menu, and took their order. It was like that with every table. Introduce, joke, inform, order, and repeat. She went home with a good amount of cash considering how slow that day was! The more I followed her around, the more discouraged I became. I’m not funny! I’m an introvert, I like keeping things simple and fast. By the end of that night I wasn’t sure if I was capable of getting the job done on my own. The next day I came in, I followed a different waitress from table to table.
She worked a little bit different, but it was the same concept. Around six o’clock they said they were going to start giving me my own tables and no one was going to follow me. So I was going to be completely on my own. Of course I panicked for a good seven minutes. But I thought to myself, “I can do this, my mom did it, and my friend does it. I’m pretty and nice, just speak up.” I also forced myself to do it because my phone bill was coming due, and any tips I’d take home would be helpful. A minute or two later a couple walked in through the glass door looking happy and hungry. I knew that table was mine. I followed the couple to the table with wobbly knees and a sweaty back. I introduced myself. There was no joke. Nothing was funny about my current situation. I took the order and was on my way. I started getting more confidence with every smile I got. I praised myself for having the guts to do something I was so afraid of. With every table I had my communication skills became stronger. I was sort of content with my tips that night, but that only made me want to do
better. The next day at work I was once again on my own. Although I did start getting the gist of it, I was still nervous. I didn’t know what to say or how to talk to these people. I didn’t just want to be their waitress. I wanted to be their temporary friend. I wanted them to laugh and smile with me. I wanted their tips especially, and I was willing to work hard for that. Over the next few tables and days I began to notice that sometimes it didn’t matter how hard or fast or nice I was, sometimes people are going to tip very small amounts. That’s okay because there’s also going to be people that tip very large amounts, even when they don’t have to. Ever since I was sixteen and I started working, I would meet people that were serves or managers of big restaurants. They would try to convince me to switch from my job to serving tables or even running food. I always said no because it was too intimidating. I hate confrontation so I don’t like getting yelled at by angry people. Now, every step I take I have to remind myself to relax a bit, to breath, and if anything goes wrong, simply laugh it off and proceed to fixing because it’s really all I can do. I can’t wait to see what else I try for the first time.
I don’t know why I feel so nervous. I’ve eaten at Hooters once before and it wasn’t so terrible. It’s just a wing joint where the waitresses are famous for being bosomy. Maybe that’s it. I feel inadequate. My small chest will pale in comparison to the over abundance of female flesh put so confidently on display and my boyfriend will never look at me the same. Come to think of it, why was he so proud and anxious to tell every male friend he had that his girlfriend asked him to go to Hooters with her? And why did they respond with cheers, hollers and, “man, you’re so lucky?” The feeling of trepidation grows as our car nears the dreaded restaurant. I don’t need to feel uneasy: how busy could this restaurant be at 7:30 on a Wednesday night? The sight of a parking lot full of cars almost causes me to force my boyfriend to turn the car around, leaving skid marks as the only piece of incriminating evidence to prove that I was on Hooters property. No, face your fear. I open the car door and walk up to the restaurant, with my boyfriend doing a good impression of not being giddy following at my heels. When I have almost reached the door, a car pulls up and two older couples, probably in their middle sixties, get out. I find it odd that they would patron this particular restaurant, but their presence helps to put me at ease. Maybe I won’t look so bizarre walking into the restaurant next to them.
late to have any chance of getting the job. So I walked into the local
Some of the lessons I learned from doing these interviews are, that I must study hard and work a lot on myself to succeed. I also learned that I have to educate myself as much as I can and get higher degrees in school to be able to have the best job opport...
My first signature theme was discipline and it means that I need to have everything together all the time. I need order and stability in my life that I created in order to be happy and feel safe. Others can come to find my need for order annoying and this may be because they do not understand my need for predictability. My next signature theme was competition and it means that I thrive when it comes to winning or achieving something better than others. If I don’t outperform someone that I may feel hollow and that I am weaker than that person. It means that I need to compare things that I do to others. My third theme was included and it is having a large group of people of friends in your life because you want to make sure everyone is included. It means that I am very accepting of others no matter what race, gender, religion or other barriers that may arise. The fourth theme I had was an activator and it is an indicator that I believe that action is required to get things done. It means that I need to get things done in an instant and that if
My background in the fast food industry starts with my first real job. I began working at Wendy’s when I was sixteen years old. I kept to myself for nearly a year. I was working for one thing, and that was to satisfy the customers. After exactly three years, the choice to move on and change was a hard decision to make, my hours were steady, and the managers were pushing me to move up in the chain of power and become a shift manager.
I am the night custodian at the Byberry Mental Institution in Emeryville, Kentucky. I clean, fix, mop, sweep and polish. However, I am also a cook at the local pub called the White Crow, and an on call doctor at the OLNEM clinic. You name it, I do it. People often think that I don’t get much done because they say that I “drift off” too easily. That doesn’t bother me too much because the people that I talk to here are all nutcases who are locked in their room’s day in and day out. Sometimes when I’m walking around, sweeping or whatever, I’ll run into one of the staff members. They always send me to the broom closet. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. All they ever talk to me about is screws always getting knocked loose. And I swear to Christ, this old place is damn near fallin’ down in most places.
I was raised to always respect one’s personal space, as well as never intrude on someone’s conversation, both in which, I took part in. At first I had to force myself to walk over to the tables and then force myself to take a seat next to them. I was fighting against my inner conscience to make my body do the experiment for the sake of the experiment. The friends who were with me had to reassure me that it would be fine and to go ahead and follow through on the experiment, knowing that I needed to get people’s reactions to the situation. I was experiencing anxiety over what I knew I needed to
The defining moment when you transition from child to adult comes in many shapes and sizes, as for me it came when i won HOSA presidency. Being part of HOSA my junior year and my senior year being my school's HOSA chapter president taught me so much , things that will be useful in the future, like leadership as well as professionalism, “walk the walk and talk the talk” one could say. Together these two skills with the help of my fellow HOSA officers and teachers we had a blast at the Health Occupations Students of America regionals, states and, nationals.
The final area was upstairs above the meat market. Upstairs contained an office and a storage area. Jonathan asked me if we had been upstairs and I responded that I had not been yet, but I would go inspect upstairs. I knew the managerial office
It began in the County Mall food court. Resting at one of the tables after my lunch, I casually glanced around the place. The food court wasn't crowded, and consequently I had no trouble spotting him: a tall, dark, gray-haired man. He caught my gaze, and started walking towards me. As I took in his gaunt frame, his tattered red t-shirt, and the holes in his great sweats, it dawned on me that before me stood a homeless man. Reaching my table, he asked if he could sit down with me but I declined. I wasn't in the mood to talk to him, and so mumbling a poor excuse and an apology that was probably a few octaves below any decipherable level, and not particularly caring whether the man heard me or not, I got up and walked away. The man called out after me, assuring me that he didn't want money, but rather only someone to talk to. I was rattled by his persistence, and pretending I didn't hear him I quickly walked away, my heart pounding in my chest.
I had eventually moved up in duties outside of the register. I began taking on responsibilities such as maintenance and working in the dairy department. These jobs would entitle me to stock various dairy products along with serving customers on a more personal level such as where to find an item. Also, I began sweeping the store along with removing the returned cans to the back of the store for storage and removal. These simple tasks allowed me to work at my own pace rather then take the next customer in line so it was a great confidence booster to work harder.
Have you ever been nervous about your first job? When I was still 14 years old, I decided to go try out for a job that I heard about from my teacher at school. I was so nervous the day I went to the job orientation because at first, I wasn’t sure about going to the orientation because it was my first job and I didn’t think I would get it. When the director of the organization Ms. Selena, and the president of the organization Ms. Regina told me what I needed to do in order to be considered for the job, I started sweating and could feel the heat in that room rise. Everyone was so shocked about all the things we had to get done. I can still remember the president Ms. Regina say, “This will be a hard job
When entering a restaurant, I usually expect to leave full, satisfied, and wanting to come back again. I believe that many people expect the same thing. The way people react to service can be very different from person to person. Depending on the way the customers are feeling, or the way that the server is feeling can be a big factor for the way service comes across. Service is an important part of everyone’s lives because majority of the jobs that people preform are service related. Poor service is an unfortunate part of life that everyone comes across. The way that I react to the poor service I receive is important and can change in the blink of an eye. Whether I react in an outspoken way, by getting loud and voicing my opinion. Or if I react in a quiet or apologetic way, it can affect my server, and the people around me, and myself.
Once upon a time, I saw the world like I thought everyone should see it, the way I thought the world should be. I saw a place where there were endless trials, where you could try again and again, to do the things that you really meant to do. But it was Jeffy that changed all of that for me. If you break a pencil in half, no matter how much tape you try to put on it, it'll never be the same pencil again. Second chances were always second chances. No matter what you did the next time, the first time would always be there, and you could never erase that. There were so many pencils that I never meant to break, so many things I wish I had never said, wish I had never done. Most of them were small, little things, things that you could try to glue back together, and that would be good enough. Some of them were different though, when you broke the pencil, the lead inside it fell out, and broke too, so that no matter which way you tried to arrange it, they would never fit together and become whole again. Jeff would have thought so too. For he was the one that made me see what the world really was. He made the world into a fairy tale, but only where your happy endings were what you had to make, what you had to become to write the words, happily ever after. But ever since I was three, I remember wishing I knew what the real story was.
I never really thought about where my life was going. I always believed life took me where I wanted to go, I never thought that I was the one who took myself were I wanted to go. Once I entered high school I changed the way I thought. This is why I chose to go to college. I believe that college will give me the keys to unlock the doors of life. This way I can choose for myself where I go instead of someone choosing for me.