Don't Hide Your Waiter Job
I am writing this at McDonald's on Main St in Vancouver -- a very no-frills kind of fast-food experience. You can imagine a similar fast-food joint with cheap food and minimal comfort in your country. Seems an appropriate place to write this tip.
And for many of you, your first job is at this kind of place. It could be fast food, retail, delivery... So, the question is: should you hide this kind of work experience on your resume?
The common advice is "keep only what's relevant." I disagree -- because for a junior dev, this often means a very sad, empty resume that just says, "I don't really have any experience." Do you want to send that message?
So my advice is the opposite: these jobs are way more valuable than you imagine, and you should definitely keep them.
A job at a fast-paced fast-food restaurant teaches you how to:
- Work with customers and understand their needs (especially problematic customers -- that's your conflict resolution skills!)
- Handle stress
- Deal with teammates and supervisors (and their personalities)
These skills -- we normally call them "soft" -- are highly transferable.
In a software development team, you will be doing the very same thing! An angry customer at a restaurant (the kitchen was slow, their order was late) is surprisingly similar to an angry stakeholder (the dev team hit a big blocker and missed a deadline). You are already prepared for most of that!
Two more important things that your future employer will see.
First, it shows your agency. You took a hard job to pay your bills and earn your own living. Likely, you were also helping your family. This shows who you are.
Second, very pragmatically, you've got the stories you need for the behavioral interview! "Tell me about a situation when you resolved a conflict at work" -- I bet you have great stories, so bring them to the interview! Interviewers love specific stories. They can tell when a story is real and when it's invented. And your lived experience -- even from a job that has nothing to do with code -- will always beat a vague, half-fake story about a class project.
So, don't hide your real job. Be proud of it.