Generation Z faces a Difficult job market. Unemployment rate among the age group of 16 to 24 years He went up To 10.5%, and an increasing percentage of young people as well workers– Not in education, work or training.
For those looking to get ahead, the best apprenticeship may not come from classrooms or corporate training, but from a low-paying job in the service industry, he says. Jeetu Patelnow Chief Product Officer at cisco.
Before overseeing products at the tech giant, which has a market capitalization of about $270 billion, he spent his early 20s waiting tables at… SizzlerThe steakhouse chain makes just $4 an hour. There’s nothing to hide. He says the experience shaped his work ethic and interpersonal skills, and ultimately helped him climb the corporate ladder in Silicon Valley.
“I think everyone in the first part of their career should work in the service sector somewhere,” Patel says. luck. “I think it’s really nice to have a level of appreciation for hospitality and customer service that makes you feel different.”
As a young man, he was introverted and suffered from a stutter. Although there were easier ways to make money, he intentionally chose a customer-facing job to push himself out of his comfort zone.
“What happened while I was waiting tables was that I was an introvert — and it wasn’t a conscious thing — and I realized that if I wasn’t talking to people and entertaining them and giving them a good experience, I wasn’t going to tip,” Patel says. “And if I didn’t tip, I would be working long hours for nothing.”
Eventually, he would take on leadership roles at technology companies like Doculabs, EMCand fund Before landing at Cisco. He says what ultimately helped him stand out was understanding that self-confidence is more important than external validation — and that confidence, when established, can become a superpower.
“If you set your mind to something, you can basically figure out what you want to discover.”
Patel’s message to Generation Z: Arrogance can be fatal
On the road to success, Patel believes one of the biggest mistakes young professionals make is believing they can do everything on their own.
“Too often, we let our pride and ego get in the way,” he says. “We say, ‘I’ll try to be a self-made person.’ There’s no such thing as a self-made person; we live in an interconnected society where humans depend on humans, so if you can stand on the shoulders of giants, it will take you further.
Since access to opportunities is not evenly distributed, Patel adds that receiving help is not something to feel guilty about. “If you have access to resources and you don’t use them, shame on you.”
However, Patel warns Generation Z that confidence can quickly turn into arrogance. Instead, the key is to strike a balance between seizing opportunities that come your way while remaining humble enough to recognize the privilege behind those opportunities, and that others may have had to work harder for the same opportunity.
Service industry pipeline to the C-suite
Patel isn’t the only one who has risen from the service floor to the executive suite. Some of the world’s most prominent business leaders started out in customer-facing roles.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Work for him First job at McDonald’s Outside of Miami, he flipped burgers and cooked Egg McMuffins, an experience he said taught him responsibility, teamwork and how to handle pressure.
“You can learn responsibility in any job, if you take it seriously,” Bezos said in his 2012 book. Golden Opportunity: Great Jobs Started at McDonald’s. “You learn a lot as a teenager working at McDonald’s. It’s different than what you learn in school. Don’t underestimate the value of that.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang He also began his career in the service industry, washing dishes at a Denny’s restaurant. This job was often credited with instilling discipline and humility.
He said during a conversation With students at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. “I used to work as a dishwasher. I cleaned toilets. I cleaned a lot of toilets. I cleaned more toilets than all of you combined. And some of them you can’t ignore.”
But Generation Z may need to act quickly to emulate their success, as the types of jobs that shaped many of today’s leaders may soon be harder to come by. A report released this week by US Senator Bernie Sanders estimated this Nearly 100 million jobs may be replaced by artificial intelligence In the next decade – fast food workers and customer service representatives are among the groups most at risk, with turnover rates exceeding 80%.
https://fortune.com/img-assets/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/JeetuPatel.png?resize=1200,600
Source link