03 Work: The Shift
First job at 13 (dishwasher馃槀). 1400+ paid hours and nearly $30k earned since.
Loving to travel also means having to love clocking in and out.
We all gotta start somewhere.
August 2022
Hey, even Jensen Huang (Nvidia CEO) started as a dishwasher.
Youth Leader
Hollyburn Country Club 路 West Vancouver, BC
Supervises groups of children under 12 during high-volume club hours, balancing safety, engagement, and professionalism in real time.
Kitchen Staff
Ancora Ambleside 路 West Vancouver, BC
Worked up to 20 hours a week across 8-hour shifts in a high-volume restaurant kitchen, keeping pace with constant ticket flow.
Dishwasher
Joey's Shipyards 路 North Vancouver, BC
My first paid job, a few weeks at 13 years old before Ancora Ambleside offered me a role closer to home.
The long way to Hollyburn.
It started in the summer after grade seven, when I began going out with my friends more. I'd ask my parents for $5-$10 for snacks or lunch, and after one too many asks in a single week, the answer was nothing. So I figured I should start thinking about how to earn my own money.
I still wanted to go out with my friends, so to be able to, I downloaded Indeed and applied to over fifty jobs. I got around ten replies back, which dropped to two interviews once I told them I was thirteen.
The first interview was at Ancora Ambleside. About ten or fifteen minutes in, they told me I was too short, too young, and probably wouldn't be able to reach what I'd need to reach to do the job.
聽聽聽
Gaslighting yourself is the way to survive long shifts.
Having worked many eight-hour shifts, I've learned a strategy to make time pass quicker. Midway through your shift, walk out of the building, the restaurant, or even the room. Wait a few seconds, then walk back in, gaslighting yourself that you just arrived and only have four hours left to go. Sounds crazy, but I'm telling you, it works.
The people you work with matter the most.
I've had the same job title in two totally different kitchens, and the work itself barely moved the needle on whether I liked being there. What did was who I was standing next to. When a run of good coworkers at Ancora started leaving for other jobs one by one, I didn't stick around much longer either, not because the job changed, but because the reason I liked it did.
[ PLACEHOLDER: still figuring out what to write here ]
[ PLACEHOLDER: still figuring out what to write here ]