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.png "All I Needed to Know I learned in a Pizza Shop, Well Kind Of!")
Shane Rodrigues
June 28, 2022
Newsletter ArticleAfter handing out a bunch of resumes, I got a call from a pizza shop here in the city.
I learned a lot from my two years at the pizza shop, including how many pepperonis go on a large pepperoni pizza. Most importantly, I learned transferable skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my working life.
1. Customer Service & How to Talk to People.
It is really, hard to order a pizza without calling the store. (At least it was before you could online order). Therefore, every single shift I worked; I spoke to no less than 100 different people. Most people were happy or excited to order pizza and were pleasant to talk to, however, some, on the other hand, made my day very unpleasant.
From my first training shift, I was taught to
This was the foundation of my customer service training, and when you think about it, it makes sense. There was nothing I could do to fix the mistake, only ways to make it right and give them something extra to make up for the inconvenience. Oh, the apology helped too.
I have since been able to transfer this to other customers, and other colleagues too. Learning how to speak to people who are upset is a tool I will be forever grateful for.
2. Working in a Team
As I mentioned, there were some days when pizza was being ordered faster than we could make. On days like this, we often ran out of prepared food, so we had to split up our team further to ensure we had enough toppings and dough to keep making pizza. We always tasked people with their strengths and their favorite tasks to ensure everything was done effectively and efficiently. If I had to run to the cooler to get more sauce, it was imperative that I made sure to ask my team if they needed anything, too. This was to ensure our team could be as efficient as possible.
When our team was working together, we were the best. We got our job done faster and with less stress. This transferable skill is one that I use every single day, in the workplace and in my personal life.
3. Problem Solving
Due to the nature of fast-paced environment of a pizza shop, sometimes we had mistakes I would pull a large pepperoni pizza out of the oven, but I could not find what box it belonged to. I would see a large vegetarian or a medium pepperoni. What do you do?
Problem Solve.
Once we figured out what the issue was, we had to problem-solve. In this instance, the large pepperoni pizza I pulled out was supposed to be medium-sized. Solution? Give the customer a large pizza for free.
In other situations, the solution needed a bit more creativity. I remember once I took ten wings out of the oven, and I dropped a single wing. My solution was to take one wing from the next order to ensure the customer got their order as quickly as possible. I quickly asked for the next order of wings to be put into the oven to have eleven, and not the regular ten, so that all customers got exactly what they paid for as soon as possible.
4. Leadership
When I worked at the pizza shop, we always had a shift leader or a manager. Yet, there were multiple times when they were occupied with something, and I had to step up to the plate and lead the team. From problem-solving to customer complaints or trying to keep staff busy when we were slow.
While I had no special training or real management experience, I watched. I saw how and what the shift leaders would do in these situations. I mimicked their motions when they were not available. This allowed me to be promoted later in my pizza career.
Leadership is more than just leading a team; it is about being able to communicate with them and understand their thoughts and feelings. This is a skill I am still working on today, but my learning started back when I was 15, working at a pizza shop.
