Ten skills you'll gain from part-time delivery jobs

Hey there, dear delivery riders! 

Did you know that the skills you develop being a food delivery rider can be useful for any future job you’ll have?

Despite the fact that delivery driver and cyclist employment provided a crucial service during the coronavirus epidemic, many students undersell their delivery professions on their resumes, frequently believing that the work won't seem particularly remarkable to recruiters. These are only some of the skills that working as a courier will have given you, whether you were driving, riding, or walking.

1. Being result oriented

This need, which is to be motivated by reaching goals, may also be described on job descriptions as "target-driven." You have plenty of proof that you accomplished goals and were motivated to produce outcomes if you attempted to "beat the app" or your personal time record while making a delivery safely.

How many times you exceeded your personal or corporate goals should be highlighted on your resume. 

Use your delivery work to respond to strengths-based interview questions like "What motivates you?" and competency-based interview questions on creating and accomplishing objectives.

2. Drive

When employers list "drive" as a job need, they are looking for candidates who are driven and have the endurance to complete a task, no matter the challenges they encounter or how long it takes. Simply accepting a work as a courier for longer than a few weeks, especially throughout the winter, will show your commitment.

When describing your delivery job on your resume, show how motivated you are by including dates of employment, the number of shifts you worked each week or month, and details about surpassing your goals (see above).

Utilize your delivery experience to react to interview questions like "How do you respond to a challenging situation?"

3. Working under pressure

Many people manage their stress while working, and delivering deliveries to the correct location, often in the dark, within a specified time window, and in all weather conditions may definitely create a stressful working atmosphere.

When asked to graduation interviews and assessment days, have confidence in your past experiences. If you could do delivery job, you can handle interviews!

When addressing interview questions like "How do you handle stress?" use examples from your current work.

4. Resilience

Being able to overcome adversities internally is what is meant by this. You will have grown more resilient as a result of any setbacks you had at work, including skipping shifts. You may have also acquired coping mechanisms while working a shift; one student rider we spoke with said she had time to consider her issues when working as a courier.

When participating in assessment day case studies, for instance, use your resilience because it's common for the scenario you're originally given to change as a result of some new knowledge learned later on in the exercise.

You may have instances from your delivery job that may assist you respond to interview questions like "Describe a time when something didn't go as planned." What did you take away from the experience?

5. Customer service

Even if you might need to make a delivery fast, you must not be impolite to the client, right? This position qualifies as an illustration of your customer-facing abilities, which are also referred to as "client management skills" or "a customer/service user/client focus" on graduate job listings.

On your resume, emphasize your contacts with clients by mentioning how many you regularly served every shift and any positive comments you have gotten.

Answer any interview questions on customer service and exceeding client/customer expectations by drawing on your experiences. Tell us about a moment when you surpassed someone's expectations. These questions might include "What does good customer experience mean to you?" and "What would you do if a client was dissatisfied with the service they'd received."

6. Independent working

Every business seeks graduates who can be trusted to do independent tasks. You probably become accustomed to working alone and making judgments throughout your time as a courier.

When composing your covering letter or responding to the questions on the application form, use your current job as proof that you have the capacity to work independently (if that is a prerequisite on the job description).

Use the experience you gained from the delivery job to bolster or clarify your responses to strength-based interview questions like "Are you a self-starter?" and "Do you work best on your own or in a team?"

7. Self-motivation

Without these two traits, you can't really be a successful independent worker, because being driven also includes being self-motivated and self-disciplined. By remaining signed in to get delivery alerts even when it is dark, chilly, and pouring, you would have increased your conscientiousness and your capacity to encourage yourself.

When responding to the interview question, "How do you motivate yourself when doing a repetitive task?" use your delivery experience as an example.

8. Adaptability

Delivery job has equipped you to have a flexible approach to work by its very nature, which includes being on a zero-hours contract, needing to arrange shifts, and modifying your routes based on delivery timetables.

Explain in your application and interview how your delivery job has given you the ability to deal with these work-related changes if the graduate position or internship you are seeking for requires rotating across the company, moving to a different location, or working irregular hours.

Assessors at a graduate assessment center will be looking at how you react to novel circumstances and digest new knowledge; having worked as a courier in an unexpected workplace can help you feel more at ease with this.

9. Time management

Flexibility goes hand in hand with the requirement for effective time management, both in terms of choosing the fastest route while making deliveries and juggling your delivery duties with your academic and social obligations.

Explain how you balanced your delivery work and other obligations while writing about your time management skills in your covering letter or in your application.

Tell me about a moment when you had to prioritize several requests on your time. This is an organization-related competence question. Use your delivery job as part of your response.

10. Knowledge of risk assessments and health and safety

Even while conducting risk assessments and abiding by health and safety regulations are routine job tasks, they are particularly important in the education, retail, hospitality, logistics, and construction industries. You will have gained knowledge about doing risk assessments and upholding health and safety standards as a result of adhering to social distance and making judgments regarding your own and other people's safety while traveling.

You might include your delivery work in your covering letter or bring it up as one of your reasons in response to the interview question, "Why do you think you will be successful in this job?" if the job entails performing risk assessments or managing risk. You may claim that your delivery work has given you the perspective to evaluate danger and one's own safety, and then describe how this capacity would translate to the position you are asking for.