Workaholic

Finding a job isn’t that hard…unless you’re a high school student.

Junior+Caitlin+Carrillo+changes+into+her+Bowl+of+Heaven+uniform+right+after+school+ends+in+order+to+get+to+work+on+time.

Tara Peterson

Junior Caitlin Carrillo changes into her Bowl of Heaven uniform right after school ends in order to get to work on time.

As summer is coming into view, the need to find a summer job is intensifies. Scrolling through the websites of all the different places, you see your dream job is not hiring. The next best place only hires people over 18 years old. Finally, you think you find the perfect job when you realize you don’t have any previous experience, so your poor resume will just end up in the trash.

Finding a job can be near impossible for high school student. However, junior Caitlin Carrillo, did not find her lack of experience as a problem and ended her job search with not just one job, but two.

“My family was making fun of me one day about how I was never going to get a job, so I emailed the Yogurtland manager that night,” Carrillo said. “She called me at 3 a.m. and told me to meet her at 8 a.m. that day.”

It is unusual for a lot of companies to respond to you immediately, but even more unusual for them to give you an interview less than 24 hours after contacting them. Carrillo’s luck was just the start of an unusual first job.

“She ended up using the interview to lecture me about how I was not allowed to ever cut bananas,” Carrillo said. “Not once did she say I actually got the job, but then she hand me a t-shirt, so I assumed the job was mine.”

Carrillo found herself with a lot of free time at Yogurtland, so she used this time to create friendships with her co-workers.

“My co-workers and I always play tricks on each other,” Carrillo said. “We have yogurt fights with each other in the back room. We also have a hose that hangs from the top of the ceiling so we can wash the floors. I have walked in before and gotten sprayed with the hose.”

After a couple months of working at Yogurtland, things began to get slow. There were rumors circulating about the manager cutting shifts. Carrillo heard the rumors and refused to be defeated, so she walked down to the Bowl of Heaven that just opened next door.

“When I walked up to the manager at Bowl of Heaven I explained to him that I knew what Bowl of Heaven was, which surprised him because the store was not popular at the time,” Carrillo said. “Since I knew the brand, he hired me on the spot.”

Turns out, Yogurtland never laid anyone off, so Carrillo decided to keep both jobs.

“I like working a lot because it keeps me sane and it takes me out of the Santa Margarita bubble,” she said. “I love hanging out with all my coworkers because they are so fun to be around and I just enjoy it.”

Yogurtland and Bowl of Heaven may be two different stores, but they are both laid back and fun to work at. At Yogurtland, Carrillo can play tricks on her coworkers and skate around on her Heelys at work, but even without that freedom at Bowl of Heaven, she enjoys it just the same.

However, Carrillo found that the two stores differ in their customers. At Bowl of Heaven, customers are all nice and friendly, but the same cannot be said for the ones at Yogurtland.

“There are people who won’t stop talking to their friends in line so by the time they realized they are next to pay, all their yogurt had already melted,” she said. “Then they get frustrated and look at me like I am supposed to do something about that. You also get some pretty weird people after 11 p.m. There are customers who will come in crying and tell you their life story, like breakups and divorces. It can be really uncomfortable.”

Carrillo has managed to hold down two jobs for almost a year, along with keeping her grades up and being part of the SMCHS swim team. With so much going on, it is a wonder how she has time to listen to customers’ problems and make smoothies, while still having time to sleep.

“The most important thing is to keep yourself organized,” she said. “I used to go home and just sit on my computer, but now I take the computer time out and actually do homework.”

For everyone looking for a job, take Carrillo’s advice, because she has proved not once but twice that she knows how to get a job.

“Walk into a potential job with confidence,” she said. “I have always walked into my interview being super confident. I try not to act like I am in high school, but try to be really mature and I never act like I am afraid of them. They want to hire you, they are not looking for reasons not to hire you.”