Luke Gonzales

At this job I maintain a creative space that is designed for students and members to work on ceramics.

• Daily deep cleaning of the space, especially around throwing wheels and handbuilding spaces.
• Glaze pieces and process clay.
• Customer relations, such as explaining the space to new people, selling pottery, recommending classes and instructors.
• Sharing my own work and experiences with people to try and get them excited about the space.

• Currently a dishwasher at Tiny Champions off of Mckinney. It's a high pace job with a focus on maintaining cleanliness and a good working rhythm! I also have taken on a prep role where I have learned basic things like peeling shallots, portioning entrees, cleaning quail and prepping to make a stock. I enjoy the demand of the work and getting to be in an environment full of people who hustle.

• At this position, I am the face you greet at the door, voice that answers the phone and the guy typing out the emails. I handle all aspects of the shop that the barbers are not, including: - Cleaning the shop daily, front to back - Handling the books for all 12 of my Barbers, booking/rescheduling - Checking in and handling all money for the day - Ordering various hair/cleaning/promotional products for the shop and on occasion for one of our other shops.

• Maintained a clean and organized workspace, which included rotating stock and helping our back of house with their orders.
• Promoted a welcoming atmosphere! Friendly with customers and trying my best to attend to their needs.
• Pleasantly interacted with customers during hectic periods to promote fun, positive environment.
• Contributed to a positive team! I like to have fun and enjoy my day.
• Cleaned counters, machines, utensils, and seating areas daily.
• Controlled line and crowd with quick, efficient service.
• Handled customer complaints professionally and calmly.
• Maintained and operated espresso machines, blenders, commercial coffee brewers, coffee pots, and other equipment.
• Trained new employees, sharing knowledge and expertise of coffee, tea and whatever we had in the market at the time.

• This job was a fast and hectic expo job on skid row in LA that I co-managed FOH at for about a year. We made awesome burritos and squeezed orange juice every morning. - My day started at 5:30 every morning, preparing coffee, squeezing 10-12 boxes of oranges, ordering produce we need for the next day and ultimately running our expo window from start to finish of our service. - I did a lot of training on this job, as i had a knack for explaining our work flow, POS system and was good at handling angry customers. - I would make trips to restaurant depot with my boss here and there and i helped shape the coffee menu we had available, from lattes to teas/matchas, you name it. - My strongest suit was keeping the kitchen staff and the FOH staff in direct and concise communication so we could get orders out in order, on time and up to proper quality.

• As a barista, I handle the normal day to day jobs such as the following: - General Prep/Organization of food items/sauces and syrups/and necessary ingredients, which are ever-evolving throughout the year. - Quick and tactful memorization of recipes and preparation routines. - I also frequently assist with organizing and unloading the supply deliveries that we receive every other day. This includes maintaining the food and merchandise displays as well as dispersing materials to their relevant positions in the store. - The biggest part of the job is most definitely the customer relations, the bulk of which happens at the register, and the handoff area. I feel that I excel at connecting with strangers and Starbucks has allowed me to refine that skill quite a bit. I highly enjoy meeting new people! This job, in particular, has also helped me to grow my multitasking skills as well. During this pandemic we have been understaffed and that means you have to jump between multiple roles at a pin drop.

• At Nobi I started as a food runner and took on responsibility as I went. - Food running, I was responsible for delivering food to tables and ensuring customer satisfaction, especially when we were busy and the servers needed assistance. - Quickly, I graduated to Draft Tech and was in charge of organizing and maintaining the cooler in which we stored and tapped the beer for our 65 taps. This included heavy lifting, real-time coordination with both FOH and BOH staff, and careful descriptions of whatever beer I was tapping. At this bar, our tap list was constantly changing every other day so there was a lot of learning and explaining to both co-workers and customers alike. - As a server, I was responsible for friendly warm service and concise knowledge of our menu, especially pertaining to the beer. I was skilled in both satisfying beer snobs and amateur beer enthusiasts alike; I got good at finding something you will enjoy. I often showed people who previously hated beer that they actually might enjoy a specific corner of the culture, by virtue of having a diverse sprawling menu.

• I started at Jimmy John's as an in-shop. - In-shops handle orders and general store maintenance. I was running the register, preparing sandwiches, and taking phone orders on the service side. - Other than that, I helped with the general prep and maintenance of the store. This meant a lot of cleaning and a lot of communication with co-workers. A few months in, the PIC position opened up and I took the plunge. - This included 11-hour shifts, 4 days a week, and meant keeping the charge of the shifts while also performing any duty available in the store. - I enjoyed getting to learn how to time manage, which was huge due to the time-sensitivity of the prep work and how much sensitivity we had to give to the various ingredients. - I learned a lot about relating to and catering to customers at this job and I consider my time there valuable.