By Brett Pucino
Friends is one of the most iconic shows ever made regarding the ups and downs of twenty-something life. One of the reasons for this is how real the struggles faced by Rachel, Monica, Ross, Joey, Chandler, and Phoebe were: particularly their career struggles.
Here are three Friends episodes with career advice pertaining to resumes, interviews, handling income inequality within your friend group, and the consequences of ignoring corporate policies and procedures.
“The One With All The Poker” Season 1, Episode 18
This episode starts with the gang stuffing resumes in envelopes for Rachel, who is tired of working as a waitress for Central Perk. She is so desperate to find another job that she has decided to resume-blast every opening she has seen.
The first tip regarding resumes comes a couple minutes later when Chandler points out her resume says good “compuper” skills- a typo that was caught after dozens of envelopes have been stuffed and sealed.
Don’t be like Rachel. Make sure you proofread your resume as the last thing you do before you hit send. Even if you’ve already proofread it last time you sent out a resume, it doesn’t hurt to get in the habit of double-checking.
After going a couple of days with no responses, Rachel gets a call for an interview as an Assistant Buyer for Saks Fifth Avenue. Rachel loves fashion and shopping, so she considers this an opportunity for her dream job.
A few scenes later Rachel is raving to the gang about how well her interview went. She talked about how she felt she bonded with the interviewer and how it went on for over 2 hours. She got ahead of herself and was talking as if she had the job, but unfortunately she doesn’t get it.
There’s valuable career advice here, and that’s to never assume ANYTHING off of the interview- good or bad. Rachel assumed she got the job based off her interview, so she felt like she lost a job she never even had.
“The One With Five Steaks And An Eggplant” Season 2, Episode 5
Do you have any friends whom who make more money than? What about friends who make more money than you? Income inequality can be a cancer to any post-college friend group, and this episode from season 2 brings it to light perfectly.
The issue arises when the gang plans on going to see Hootie and the Blowfish for Ross’s birthday. Ross,Chandler, and Monica all have well-paying careers, but Phoebe,Joey, and Rachel barely get by with their jobs. The latter three are talking about this income gap when Monica comes home and announces she got a promotion and wants to go somewhere nice to celebrate.
When it comes time to pay the bill, Ross does the math to split it equally six ways. This causes an argument where the group airs out how they feel about the income inequality. It’s a messy time in their lives and it’s something that happens in many Millennial friend group. We all have that one friend who started killing it in their career right after college, and the ugly duckling friend who has taken a while to find their path. Some of us are those friends.
The episode ends with Monica getting a call that she is fired for taking free steaks from the new meat provider of her restaurant. She’s informed that this violated the company’s policies and procedures, which she never bothered to read. Don’t make Monica’s mistake. When you get your dream job make sure to learn what not to do so you don’t lose it.
“The One Where Rachel Quits” Season 3, Episode 10
By season 3 it’s been established as a running joke that Rachel is an exceptionally bad waitress. This is the episode where she finally quits and it is such a powerful moment in her character arc.
Rachel is driven to quit when her boss Gunther has her go through new-hire training even though she’s been working there for over two years. Imagine how demeaning that would feel. The lesson here is that sometimes things have to get worse at our current job to push us to quit and find something better.
Chandler and Joey do just that for Rachel. They convince her to quit her job in order to raise the stakes and commit herself to finding a job in fashion. At first Rachel feels empowered, but then she starts to panic when she realizes she has no job and no prospects lined up.
Chandler makes a resume for Rachel, and in an homage to the first episode we discussed, the gang is once again stuffing resumes in envelopes. After Rachel has a breakdown, Joey tells Rachel that his father is doing plumbing work with a fashion company that’s hiring and offers to get Rachel an interview.
Rachel feels like the interview went horribly, but she gets a call that she got the job. The moral of the story? Success in a job search more often than not depends upon how effectively you use your network.
Do you know of any other Friends episodes with career advice? Let’s talk about them on Twitter!
