Your First Job Should Teach You More Than How to Clock In
There are jobs you take because you need money.
And then there are jobs that quietly teach you how to become an adult.
The service industry is one of them.
Restaurants, hotels, resorts, coffee shops, bars, retail stores, ski resorts, tour companies and other hospitality businesses have employed generations of young people. For many, it is simply a way to make money during high school or college.
But something interesting happens when you spend a few months working in one of these environments.
You start learning how to read people.
You learn how to communicate when you’re tired.
You learn how to stay calm when someone is angry.
You learn that showing up on time matters.
You learn how to work with people you wouldn’t necessarily choose as friends.
You learn how to make someone feel welcome.
You learn what it means to be responsible for someone else’s experience.
You learn how to handle money.
You learn how businesses actually work.
And eventually, you realize that these aren’t really restaurant skills or hotel skills.
They’re life skills.
They’re relationship skills.
They’re leadership skills.
And they’re career skills.
The Service Industry Is One of the Best Classrooms for Learning How to Deal With People
Even if you eventually become a software engineer, lawyer, doctor, designer, entrepreneur, accountant, teacher, architect or scientist, you’re probably going to spend a significant portion of your life communicating with other human beings.
The service industry puts you in that situation immediately.
You don’t get to hide behind an email.
You don’t get to ignore the difficult customer.
You don’t get to decide that you simply don’t feel like talking to someone today.
You have to figure it out.
That can be uncomfortable.
It’s also incredibly valuable.
Customer service work forces you to practice active listening, communication, empathy, patience and problem solving. Those are skills that career resources consistently identify as transferable across industries.
And unlike learning those skills in a classroom, you have to use them when the restaurant is slammed, someone is upset and your coworker just called out.
That’s when the learning gets real.
You Learn How to Read People
One of the most underrated skills you can develop in your late teens and early 20s is the ability to read a room.
Is this person joking?
Are they frustrated?
Do they want help or do they want space?
Does your coworker need you to jump in?
Is your manager stressed?
Should you speak up?
Should you listen?
Should you apologize?
Should you solve the problem yourself or ask for help?
Service work gives you hundreds of tiny opportunities every week to practice answering these questions.
Over time, you become better at understanding people.
And that ability follows you everywhere.
It makes you a better coworker.
A better manager.
A better salesperson.
A better friend.
A better roommate.
A better partner.
A better leader.
You Learn That Your Mood Isn’t Always Your Responsibility
This might be one of the most important lessons a young person can learn.
You are allowed to have a bad day.
You are allowed to be tired.
You are allowed to be frustrated.
But the customer standing in front of you didn’t cause your bad day.
Neither did your coworker.
Neither did your roommate.
Neither did the person you’re dating.
Learning how to separate your internal emotional state from the way you treat other people is a surprisingly advanced life skill.
Service jobs give you a lot of practice.
You learn to take a breath.
You learn to reset.
You learn to put your personal frustration aside long enough to do the job well.
And eventually, you start carrying that skill into the rest of your life.
You Learn How to Work With People You Didn’t Choose
School gives you a lot of group projects.
Work gives you coworkers.
There is a difference.
In school, you can often choose your friends.
At work, you don’t.
Your coworker might be 17.
Your manager might be 43.
The person working next to you might be from another country.
Someone else might have completely different political beliefs, personality traits, habits or expectations than you do.
And somehow, you all have to get through Friday night together.
That is a useful education.
You learn that you don’t have to like everyone to work well with them.
You learn how to communicate with different personalities.
You learn how to compromise.
You learn how to ask for help.
You learn how to give help.
You learn when to let something go.
You learn how to have a difficult conversation and then come back to work the next day.
Those are transferable skills.
They’re also relationship skills.
You Learn What Hard Work Actually Feels Like
There is something uniquely educational about being on your feet for eight hours during a Saturday night rush.
Or cleaning rooms all morning.
Or working outside in the heat.
Or opening a restaurant at 5 a.m.
Or closing at midnight and coming back the next morning.
You learn that work isn’t always supposed to be comfortable.
You learn that sometimes you simply have to finish the job.
This doesn’t mean young people should accept bad working conditions or exploitative employers.
It means there is value in doing something difficult and discovering that you can handle it.
Confidence doesn’t always come from thinking positively about yourself.
Sometimes confidence comes from having evidence.
You can think, “I can handle hard things” because you have handled hard things.
That’s a very different kind of confidence.
You Learn How to Stay Calm Under Pressure
Hospitality is rarely predictable.
A table arrives late.
A customer has an issue.
Someone spills a drink.
A reservation gets messed up.
A coworker doesn’t show up.
The kitchen falls behind.
The weather changes.
A bus arrives with 40 people.
Suddenly everyone needs something at the same time.
And you have to prioritize.
That’s problem solving.
That’s decision making.
That’s adaptability.
That’s time management.
That’s emotional regulation.
Those are skills that show up in almost every professional environment.
Hospitality career resources specifically identify adaptability, teamwork, communication, problem solving, time management, flexibility and decision making as transferable skills developed through the work.
You might not realize you’re learning them at 19.
Your future employer probably will.
You Learn How to Make Money
There is also something wonderfully practical about having a job.
You work.
You get paid.
You decide what to do with the money.
Maybe you save it.
Maybe you spend it on a trip.
Maybe you buy a mountain bike.
Maybe you pay your rent.
Maybe you put some into an investment account.
Maybe you blow your first paycheck on something ridiculous.
That’s okay too.
Part of growing up is learning the relationship between time, effort and money.
A job gives you that experience.
And service jobs can be particularly useful for young adults because many hospitality positions are accessible without extensive prior experience.
You Learn How Businesses Actually Work
There’s another benefit that doesn’t get talked about enough.
When you work in a restaurant, hotel or resort, you’re not just doing a job.
You’re seeing a business from the inside.
You start noticing things.
Why does the restaurant schedule so many people on Friday night?
Why does the hotel care so much about reviews?
Why does the manager care about labor costs?
Why does the owner care about table turnover?
Why does the business push certain products?
Why are some customers worth more than others?
Why does one employee seem to make everyone around them better?
You start seeing the relationship between customers, employees, operations, revenue and profitability.
That is a basic business education.
And you don’t need to major in business to benefit from it.
You Learn How to Talk to Strangers
This might sound simple.
It isn’t.
A surprising number of young adults reach their 20s without feeling comfortable walking up to someone they don’t know and starting a conversation.
Service work makes that normal.
You talk to hundreds of people.
You learn how to introduce yourself.
You learn how to ask questions.
You learn how to keep a conversation moving.
You learn how to make people feel comfortable.
And eventually, talking to strangers stops feeling scary.
That can change your life.
Because almost every opportunity in life eventually involves another person.
You Build Social Confidence
There’s a reason hospitality can be such a powerful experience for young people who are trying to figure out who they are.
You’re constantly interacting.
You’re constantly learning.
You’re constantly being exposed to different personalities, backgrounds and perspectives.
And you’re doing it alongside other young people who are often in the same stage of life.
That creates community.
You make friends.
You meet people from different places.
You find people who share your interests.
You make memories.
You sometimes make mistakes together.
You go out after work.
You explore your town.
You discover places you never would have found at home.
For someone asking, “How do I make friends in my 20s?” a job can be a surprisingly good answer.
Especially when that job takes you somewhere new.
The Best Part Might Be the People You Meet
This is one of the reasons seasonal hospitality work can be so memorable.
Imagine moving somewhere you’ve never lived before.
You don’t know anyone.
Then you get a job.
Suddenly you have coworkers.
You have roommates.
You have people to ski with.
People to hike with.
People to grab dinner with.
People to explore with.
People who are also trying something new.
You arrive as a stranger.
A few months later, you might leave with friendships that last for years.
That’s a pretty good return on a job.
You Learn That You Don’t Need to Know What You Want to Do Forever
This might be the biggest lesson of all.
At 18, 19, 20 or 21, you are not supposed to have your entire life figured out.
You don’t need to know your dream job.
You don’t need to know what industry you’ll work in for the next 40 years.
You don’t even need to know what you want to major in.
You need experiences.
You need to try things.
You need to meet people.
You need to discover what you like and what you don’t like.
You need to find out what you’re good at.
You need to find out what drains you.
You need to figure out what kind of people you want around you.
You need to start understanding what kind of life you want to build.
A service job can help you do all of that.
Your First Job Doesn’t Have to Be Your Career
There is a strange pressure on young people to make every decision “strategic.”
Choose the right major.
Get the right internship.
Build the right résumé.
Network with the right people.
Start your career as early as possible.
But what if your first job doesn’t need to launch your career?
What if it just needs to teach you something?
What if it helps you become more confident?
What if it helps you pay for school?
What if it introduces you to your best friend?
What if it gives you a reason to move somewhere new?
What if it helps you discover that you love working with people?
Or that you hate working behind a desk?
Or that you love hospitality?
Or sales?
Or operations?
Or events?
Or outdoor recreation?
Or entrepreneurship?
That’s still progress.
Maybe Your First Job Should Be Somewhere Interesting
This is where the idea of a traditional summer job starts to get more interesting.
You don’t necessarily have to spend every summer doing the same thing in the same place.
You could work in a mountain town.
You could work at a ski resort.
You could work near the beach.
You could work at a national park.
You could work at a hotel.
You could work at a restaurant.
You could work at an outdoor adventure company.
You could spend a season somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit.
Instead of asking only, “What job can I get?”
You can start asking:
“Where do I want to live?”
“Who do I want to meet?”
“What do I want to learn?”
“What kind of experience do I want to have?”
“How can I make money while doing it?”
That’s a much more interesting question.
Work Can Be Part of the Adventure
Young adulthood is one of the few periods in life when you can make a relatively simple decision to go somewhere new.
You don’t necessarily have a mortgage.
You might not have children.
You might not have a long-term career tying you to one location.
You have flexibility.
That flexibility is valuable.
And working can actually make travel more meaningful.
You’re not simply visiting a place.
You’re living there.
You’re contributing.
You’re meeting the people who actually live there.
You’re learning how the community works.
You’re earning money.
You’re becoming part of something.
You are experiencing a place from the inside instead of looking at it through a tour bus window.
That’s a fundamentally different kind of travel.
The Skills You Learn Follow You Everywhere
The great thing about service industry experience is that you don’t leave the skills at the restaurant.
You take them with you.
You take communication to your next job.
You take problem solving to college.
You take confidence into interviews.
You take patience into relationships.
You take teamwork into your career.
You take financial responsibility into adulthood.
You take adaptability wherever you go.
You take the ability to talk to strangers with you for the rest of your life.
And when you eventually sit across from a hiring manager for a job that has nothing to do with hospitality, you can explain what you actually learned.
Not just:
“I was a server.”
But:
“I learned how to manage competing priorities in a high-pressure environment.”
“I learned how to communicate with people who had very different needs.”
“I learned how to resolve conflict.”
“I learned how to work as part of a team.”
“I learned how to take responsibility when something went wrong.”
“I learned how to make decisions quickly.”
“I learned how to create a positive experience for someone else.”
Those are not restaurant skills.
Those are professional skills.
So Yes, Work in the Service Industry
If you’re 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 or 22 and you’re wondering what you’re supposed to do next, you don’t necessarily need another credential.
You might need an experience.
Get a job.
Work hard.
Meet people.
Make some money.
Go somewhere new.
Learn how to deal with difficult customers.
Learn how to deal with difficult coworkers.
Learn how to deal with yourself when you’re tired and frustrated.
Figure out what you’re good at.
Figure out what you don’t want to do.
Make friends.
Have fun.
Make mistakes.
Become more independent.
And then see what happens next.
Because the point of your first job isn’t necessarily to find your forever career.
It’s to start becoming the kind of person who can build one.
And if you can do that while living somewhere beautiful, meeting great people, earning money and having the kind of experiences you’ll still talk about ten years later, even better.
That’s why we believe working in the service industry can be a rite of passage.
You don’t just learn how to serve customers.
You learn how to serve a team, a business, a community and eventually, the life you’re trying to build.
