As high schoolers, many students find themselves getting a job their junior or senior year. For teenagers there are many different types of jobs available however working in the food industry is the most common. Elyse Giblin, a senior, is a hostess at the Oceanside Broiler and has been working there since May 2020.

“Because it’s a small restaurant it really is like a second family and everyone there is so nice and welcomed me well from the start,” Giblin said. “They also treat me the same as everyone else and not like a child.”

Due to the overwhelming amount of support and respect from everyone she works with, Giblin loves working at the Oceanside Broiler. As a hostess hours can build up and managing her homework proves to be difficult at times however management is flexible.

“During the summer I was working 35-40 hours a week but when school started I switched to 4 days a week only which put me at around 15 hours a week,” Giblin said. “Usually I’m very good at managing my time between school and work but sometimes it’s unavoidable on large and time consuming assignments, luckily my managers are very understanding and let me take days off if I’m behind on school work.”

Giblin was able to create a near perfect balance between homework and her job but sometimes she must put her school work before her job. Her job also brings many skills that Giblin can take with her as she goes to college.

“It taught me a lot of skills that will be useful later in my life, like being able to be respectful and calm even in a situation where a customer might be angry at me, I’ve also learned a lot about being a team player,” Giblin said. “I’ve also been able to save up a lot of money that will help me pay for college.”

The skills Giblin has gained from this experience will prove to be beneficial for her in the future. Her job also helps her have those social interactions we crave due to covid-19.

“I’m a very talkative person, and my job is literally to talk to people all day so especially with Covid lock downs I’ve been able to maintain social interactions, additionally it has been really nice to have real work experience,” Giblin said.