My first job was Subway. I was 15. Between then and 25, I had 17 jobs - retail, hospitality, service jobs, cleaning houses, waitressing, and others. None of it was glamorous. All of it built the person who could later sit in a corporate chair and not flinch.
Right now I'm building a cohort of interns as part of my job, on top of the recruiting I already do for junior and experienced hires. I read a lot of resumes. And the pattern is consistent: education, academic clubs, an internship in an office somewhere related to the major they're chasing. What's missing is everything else. The retail shift. The hostess stand. The summer spent scooping ice cream. Somewhere along the way we decided those jobs didn't belong on a resume - that they weren't "aligned" with the career path.
I think that's backwards. I want to see the small jobs. I'm convinced the people who worked them are more resilient once they're in a corporate environment. Their communication is sharper. Their customer service instincts are better. They ask better questions. That's not a knock on anyone who skipped that path - plenty of great talent never worked a service job. But when I see one on a resume, the odds shift in that candidate's favor.
Here's why: retail and hospitality jobs put you in front of difficult people, constantly, with no script and no manager hovering to fix it for you. You learn to de-escalate a customer, absorb a bad mood that has nothing to do with you, and keep moving. By the time I landed my first "nice, comfy" corporate job, I'd already been tested by things far harder than a corporate job - and I had 17 jobs' worth of practice to prove it.
We spend a lot of energy right now complaining that Gen Z lacks resilience. I'd rather do something about it than repeat the complaint. If you're in college, or about to be, go get a job that has nothing to do with your major. Not for the paycheck, you're not doing this for money. You're doing it for the version of you that has to handle a hard conversation, a slow shift, an unreasonable customer, and still show up tomorrow.
If you've already done that work, put it on your resume. Don't bury it. It's not a gap to explain away, it's evidence.
Right now I'm building a cohort of interns as part of my job, on top of the recruiting I already do for junior and experienced hires. I read a lot of resumes. And the pattern is consistent: education, academic clubs, an internship in an office somewhere related to the major they're chasing. What's missing is everything else. The retail shift. The hostess stand. The summer spent scooping ice cream. Somewhere along the way we decided those jobs didn't belong on a resume - that they weren't "aligned" with the career path.
I think that's backwards. I want to see the small jobs. I'm convinced the people who worked them are more resilient once they're in a corporate environment. Their communication is sharper. Their customer service instincts are better. They ask better questions. That's not a knock on anyone who skipped that path - plenty of great talent never worked a service job. But when I see one on a resume, the odds shift in that candidate's favor.
Here's why: retail and hospitality jobs put you in front of difficult people, constantly, with no script and no manager hovering to fix it for you. You learn to de-escalate a customer, absorb a bad mood that has nothing to do with you, and keep moving. By the time I landed my first "nice, comfy" corporate job, I'd already been tested by things far harder than a corporate job - and I had 17 jobs' worth of practice to prove it.
We spend a lot of energy right now complaining that Gen Z lacks resilience. I'd rather do something about it than repeat the complaint. If you're in college, or about to be, go get a job that has nothing to do with your major. Not for the paycheck, you're not doing this for money. You're doing it for the version of you that has to handle a hard conversation, a slow shift, an unreasonable customer, and still show up tomorrow.
If you've already done that work, put it on your resume. Don't bury it. It's not a gap to explain away, it's evidence.
