Graduate turned pizza shifts into a path to Cisco

Ayala Ossowski turned pizza-counter shifts into a job-search channel after more than 100 internship applications failed to produce an offer, Fortune reported. The approach helped her get her first internship and later a communications job at Cisco, showing how some graduates are trying to break through entry-level hiring barriers.

Ossowski, now 26, told Fortune she was a first-generation college student at American University when she ran into what she described as the internship paradox: employers wanted experience before offering the roles meant to provide it. Fortune reported that many entry-level positions now ask for two to three years of experience, making internships harder to secure for students without workplace credentials.

At the time, Ossowski was working 20 hours a week at a pizza shop in suburban Washington, D.C., according to Fortune. She told the magazine the neighborhood put her in front of affluent and influential customers, but they knew her only as the employee handing over pizza.

Her solution was low-tech. Fortune reported that she began wearing a baseball cap with the American University logo during her shifts, hoping customers would see her as a student as well as a service worker.

The cap did what she intended, according to Fortune. Customers asked whether she attended the university, and Ossowski used those openings to say she studied public relations and marketing and was looking for a spring internship.

Ossowski told Fortune many customers reacted awkwardly to being pitched at the register. She kept doing it because she believed the method could create the first professional opening she had been unable to get through online applications.

After about a month, one customer responded, Fortune reported. Ossowski told the magazine that the person valued her drive and willingness to ask directly for an opportunity, and she landed the internship; her final pizza shop shift came the following week.

Fortune reported that the internship became the start of a sequence of work experiences. Ossowski later joined Cisco, where she works as a public relations manager on the company’s communications team, according to the magazine.

A service job became part of the interview

Ossowski told Fortune the customer who gave her the opening had watched her before she made her pitch. She said a difficult customer ahead of him had complained about an order that was wrong and slow while hungry children waited.

According to Fortune, Ossowski said she handled the problem calmly and helped resolve it. The hiring manager later told her in an interview that her response to that customer was a major reason he handed over his business card.

Ossowski told Fortune that young job seekers should keep an elevator pitch brief because it can show they can speak clearly under pressure. She also said people should use their own strengths to stand out, rather than copying a tactic that does not fit them.

Fortune said it first published a version of Ossowski’s story in 2024 and revisited it as the entry-level market grew more difficult. The magazine pointed to an uncertain economy, AI-related job cuts and a strained hiring market for young workers.

Ossowski told Fortune her advice has expanded to include paying attention to social media’s effect on job seekers. She said negative comment sections and comparisons with other people’s online success stories can hurt confidence during an already hard search.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.