Conbini work = a good idea
Especially for foreigners, I guess, but even as a native Japanese there are a lot of things you’d pick up while working at a convenience store in Japan.
I worked at a 7 Eleven for a while, as well as at an oldfashioned izakaya, and right now I work full time at a ryokan. And more than I thought, my conbini baito has been useful in my current job! Here’s a couple of reasons why~
Money handling! If you’ve never done it, or even if you have, it’s useful to be able to take money, count it, and return the cash and receipt in the way that’s expected of you. Why is this useful? My workplace has a souvenir shop and at least I didn’t have to stress over the money and language on top of learning how to use the register system.
Tobacco... as weird as it is, and as much as I personally dislike smoking, same story here. I got to know a lot of brands and types of tobacco, so in case a customer asks for something, I know what to ask or what to look for. And trust me, at a conbini there’s likely over 130 types xDD
Parcel mail! A conbini does a LOT of things including sending packages, and guess what people do at hotels too? They send luggage or the souvenirs they bought. It’s pretty useful to already know how to handle this, measure the parcel, ask about day and delivery time and if neccesary calculate shipping cost.
Other things include just overall language use (polite words etc), and typical things like uh, cleaning, stacking shelves, frying snacks, heating buns, getting oden, cleaning coffee machines etc. You never know what might be useful for your next job.
