A Sale for Every Buyer – Job 3

My third job was completely different than my previous work experiences. This time I worked in the food industry. Fox’s Pizza Den was a new pizza shop opening in Grove City and they were looking for employees willing to work as much as possible since they were planning their grand opening. I stopped in randomly during August their second day of being open and talked to the manager, Scott. I talked with him about how I didn’t want to work at the Outlets anymore since it was such a drive (I didn’t have my driver’s license until later this same year, so getting rides to the Outlets was a bit of a pain sometimes.) and I really didn’t enjoy retail work. He was happy to have me apply and handed me an application, told me to bring it back in when I started, which was the next day! I was shocked at how quickly he hired me, but I was thrilled to have a job.

The next day I walked into the shop and was shown around the place, handed three work shirts, and was put to work! Now I had no idea what I was doing, since I hadn’t worked in pizza before, so a girl who was a manager at the shop, Hope, started showing me how to make a pizza, from stretching out the dough, the sauce, and the toppings. Honestly, it felt something like a puzzle at first. As I worked for the next 6 hours, I was finally starting to get the hang of it, and I was having a blast with the other employees. Hope ended up becoming a close friend of mine for 2 years after I stopped working at Fox’s.

Fox’s was my longest job, August through January. I would have stayed longer, but I ended up moving to Pittsburgh for a program and had to quit. Throughout my time at this job I learned more about sales, and about people, than I ever had before at a job. I had to deal with people who were really broken and hurting, and who brought that into the work place, and customers who sometimes, were just really mean. This taught me that showing God’s love to everyone I interact with is so crucial. I had to figure out how to be kind, and authentic in my “sales person” side of the job, as well as the “fellow employee” part. It was sometimes extremely hard to stay positive, because everyone seemed upset, but when I was willing to just put myself out there and be genuine and kind, people responded. They were kind in return most of the time.

There were others though, who were just never nice. They just didn’t care how sweet you were to them, and how much you did to accommodate them, they were just not having it. I had to come to the realization that just like in everyday life, you can’t fix everyone. You can’t make everyone happy all the time.

Fox’s taught me so much about myself, about how I interact with others, and about what kind of employee I want to be, and I am so thankful for how God used that experience to shape me and grow me to be more like Him.