There’s a kind of education that no classroom can teach you — the kind you earn by being underpaid, overworked and still expected to smile.

Unfortunately, I’ve had the pleasure of working in customer service. In high school and now during college breaks, I work as a server in one of my hometown restaurants. Some days, I come home and lie on the couch for three hours in order to disassociate from the monstrosity that is the general public. Other times, I come home with stories about the sweetest customers who tipped me generously. It honestly just depends on the day, and that sums up the entirety of customer service. 

Customer service jobs are the backbone of society. Think of how frequently you interact with someone over the phone, at front desks, in stores and, of course, when you go out to eat. If you’ve never worked one of these jobs, you’ve only ever experienced the customer’s point of view, where a slightly tired-looking worker in a standardized company uniform greets you to the best of their ability. Despite the trials and mental strength it takes to hold interpersonal skills for your entire shift on repeat, everyone should work a customer service job at some point in their life. 

Being forced to talk with customers on a daily basis builds necessary skills and character. I’ve really come into who I am today because of my serving job. I’ve become much more extroverted and open, can hold a conversation with essentially a brick wall at ease and get excited to give presentations or speak to crowds. If you asked me to give a lecture in high school, I don’t think I’d have been able to properly communicate to a crowd of strangers in a confident way. Now, I feel like I have gained the necessary skills and can easily roll with the punches during stressful situations. 

For example, I’m one of the world’s worst multitaskers. If my friends are talking to me but I’m reading a message off my phone, they know it’s going in one ear and out the other. However, when I clock into my restaurant shifts, I can suddenly juggle five things at once — table 13 needs butter, table 10 needs to be greeted, my table’s food is in the window, straws need to be refilled and someone needs to make a new batch of iced tea. Working in customer service has allowed me to overcome the fear of not being able to please everyone. Those five things need to happen, and I’m just one person, but they will all get done. Customer service jobs alleviate the stress of being a people pleaser in an ironically backward way. 

When you are dealing with the general public, you’re dealing with all of the public — the good and the bad. Naturally, you’re going to disagree with some people, and that’s OK. So, not only do these jobs build the skill of professionalism, but they also build the skill of remaining professional, even with people you disagree with or do not like. This is one of the most valuable aspects of customer service. You are going to disagree with a lot of people in your lifetime, but it’s about how you handle these situations that speaks to your character. Learning to be compassionate and understanding to grumpy or rude customers prepared me for situations with coworkers, friends, family, bosses and peers where problems could easily be solved with kindness.

Customer service jobs also build empathy when you’re off the clock. For example, if you’ve worked a restaurant job before, you’re probably going to be nicer to your server the next time you go out to eat, maybe even tipping a little higher than normal. If you’ve been an Uber driver, you may be sure to leave five stars and chat with your driver because you remember how important that was to you. 

Our society is filled with people just trying to pay their bills and feed their families. Customer service jobs will always remain an important part of everyone’s lives — worker and customer — and are vital to learning skills of empathy, compassion and professionalism. 

Before you lead a team, manage a crowd or instruct an audience, try handling a lunch rush. It’ll teach you more about humanity than a textbook ever could. 

Faith Richardson likes to write about student life, the arts and the media. Email her at [email protected]