Carlos Estrella

After working at Subway and actively attending college part-time while navigating work life, I found that the Deli located nearby my previous workplace to exceed my expectations. Given that the position was $5 above minimum wage, I've found it fitting and the work environment very similar—already working with slicers, sandwich and salad prep, I was quickly learning to navigate through the new position.

That said, one the few tasks that I learned to pick up and quickly learn was prepping rotisserie chickens & salads. While this Deli in particular is no different from any other, prepping chickens, salads and pizzas made me learn more about prepping food more than just sandwiches. Additionally, our location takes food safety regulations & safety very seriously, actively having Army food safety inspectors and upper management frequently check our inventory.

While I'm still working at the Deli, I'm looking forward to expanding my work routine outside of just making sandwiches—hoping to work in a restaurant or kitchen as a Prep Cook. Given my interest in Culinary and kitchen work, I look forward to seeking new work oppertunity.

While I picked up a part-time job at Subway in high school, I learned a lot about being part of a group, acknowledging , food safety, regulations, preparation, and working under pressure. During my time, I worked both morning and evening shifts so I picked up the routine of cleaning, taking out trash, and making a checklist for myself and others before leaving. After working 2 months, I was awarded employee of the month—later winning our store August 2024 & January 2025 Subway Store Of The Month, a local program that acknowledges high sales, worker efficiency and safety among Subway locations in Kitsap County.

While it wasn't much, working there for a year gave me a good sense of working through lunch rushes and closing at the same time in the evenings. Moreover, given the store I worked at was located on a Naval Base, customer traffic was very high-having to multi-task between prepping, serving food, communicating with co-workers, and making sure product was being rotated according to their manufactured label.

However, after a year the store became increasingly short-staffed, being limited to only 7 people including myself -tasks became more compiled, inconveniences occurred more frequently, eventually causing me to leave. While the work itself didn't bother me, it was the lack of staff, upper management complaints and short-comings that led to my 2-week notice.