Workin’ for the dough: Why minimum wage work spices up your skill set

So, you didn’t land that internship at Children’s Hospital. Or, maybe, you just didn’t have the right qualifications for that prestigious internship with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You applied for a cushy work-study job at Hillman, but, instead, someone else is getting paid to sit behind a desk and do homework.

Don’t fret. Many underclassmen don’t land their ideal internships or work-study jobs that directly relate to their prospective fields. That doesn’t mean you should sit around, jobless, in the meantime — even if you can afford it.

Instead, you should work in pizza. Yes, pizza.

Why? The pizza industry — and the food industry in general — is a subtle indicator of life beyond education, or life as an adult. Working a less-than-glamorous job reflects the challenges recent grads face in the first few years after graduating, including fruitless job hunts, pay disparities and a lack of necessary “people skills.” Most importantly, minimum-wage work exposes a sad reality — not all in the workplace are treated equally, as we’d like to believe. Women, in particular, are subject to workplace inequality. 

In short, there are more commonalities between grunt-work jobs and careers than we might acknowledge.

The influx of Hogwarts letters that Harry Potter received had nothing on the paper storm I was unleashing on local businesses prior to finding my first pizza gig. I put out what felt like dozens of applications.

To my dismay, no one called back for months. Surprisingly, this is not an anomaly.

Just as 16-year-olds with no work experience struggle to find minimum-wage jobs, college grads struggle to find careers after graduation. According to government data analysis conducted by The Associated Press in 2012, about 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree holders under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed.

Just as college grads must laboriously seek jobs and subsequently interview for them, so must the minimum-wage workers. It’s not just research labs or newspapers that will ask you cliché questions about what your greatest flaw is or what your skills are — pizza shops do, too. Consider these interviews necessary practice. Being comfortable sitting across the desk from a superior and selling yourself is an invaluable quality.

Interview skills are just a part of a larger pool of interpersonal skills, though.

When I finally got hired by Sbarro pizza in a local mall, my boss nearly fired me. Although I was intelligent, I was backward shy. I’d hide in the corner by the cash register and only make eye contact with customers when absolutely necessary. 

Of course, I eventually picked up on workplace behavior and expectations — although with delay. After I learned to be vocal, I asked my boss to teach me managerial skills, alongside cashiering. I was employee of the month five times and was offered a management position at 18. This was the first step in my journey to becoming a writer, I just didn’t realize it yet.

Having “people skills” is invaluable — not only in pizza, but also in white-collar jobs. A 2009 study on 348 IT managers revealed that  “interpersonal skills” were among the most important “soft skills” employees can possess. It makes sense — what is the use of “hard skills,” such as the ability to interpret data, if you can’t present your findings to peers?

In developing my skillset, I came across complicated barriers — typically ones that intersected with gender.

On one occasion, after finally becoming a manager and expecting proper recognition, I was disgruntled to learn that titles meant nothing, unless that title was “male.” 

On a typical workday last year, a tall, chocolate-brown man approached the counter.

“Hi, how are you, sir? Is there anything I can get for you today?” I asked, eagerly.

He looked at me with wide eyes, released a bit of air and scoffed.

Shaking his head and laughing, he said, “Sweetie, I’m a dominant male.”

Confused, now, I raised an eyebrow.

“So that,” he continued with emphasis, “means I only want to speak to a manager.”

“Oh of course, I’m a manager.”

“No, I want to speak to another man,” he said, pointing to my coworker.

My years of experience were somehow inadequate because I had been blessed with two X chromosomes. Somehow this customer equated “manager” with “male” in a way I still don’t want to comprehend.

Seem far-fetched? Think again.

Despite legislation against workplace discrimination, professional women often face not only sexual harassment in the workplace, but gendered standards in hiring, promotion and salary. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, on average, women make 81 cents to the whole male dollar.

Similarly, many fields — mine prospectively is journalism — are male-dominated. Approximately 37 percent of writers are female as of 2012, according to Women’s Media Center.

At my second pizza job with Vocelli Pizza, I am one of two female employees. I thoroughly enjoy working with the majority of the men, but I notice that they expect me to answer the phones while they fill out paperwork. When I lift something heavy, they want to take it from me. Would they assume another man is great at communicating just because of his gender? Would they take a 50-pound bag of flour out of another man’s hands? Although they are great people, I don’t appreciate the assumption that a woman is dainty or destined for a communications position.

Adapting to gender expectations in the pizza industry has prepared me for the inevitable “othering” I will face in a professional setting. I believe it’s better to enter a field with expectations rather than to blindly stumble through. When I eventually do become a professional writer, I will bring these lessons along with me.

Of course, pizza shops aren’t the only setting for unemployed college students to learn about the often-harsh realities of the real world. Any participation in the food industry will equally baffle, irritate, astound and educate you.

Participation in the minimum-wage food industry can help prepare college students — especially underclassmen — with broad skills and knowledge that can be applied in almost any field. By developing general skills, students will be better prepared for the interviews that matter when they are upperclassmen applying for internships and careers.

So, rather than spending your evenings frivolously, dedicate a few hours at a local pizza shop — there’s more to learn than how to make a delicious pie.

Courtney Linder is the Assistant Opinions Editor of The Pitt News and primarily writes on social issues.

Write to Courtney at cnl13@pitt.edu.