Since making the decision to graduate high school early, it has been my mission to find the perfect recipe for creating personal success in the workforce. On November 11th in Mr. Peckhart and Mr. Karlblom’s work program classes, Matt Baer and Jeremiah Subayi of Chipotle Mexican Grill conducted presentations to students in the work program. Baer and Subayi provided useful advice to students about how to be successful in their current jobs, and how to eventually choose a company that is the right fit for them.

Just like creating your perfect combination of ingredients in your burrito bowl, there seems to be a method to the madness when choosing a company in which you want to work.

When asked about this, Jeremiah Subayi, a field recruiter at Chipotle, claimed that when deciding whether to work for a certain company, you need to make sure that their mission “aligns with what you’re looking to do.”

To break this concept down– into convenient, bite-sized pieces– Matt Baer, marketing strategist at Chipotle, shared three important conditions for committing to a job: “you need to believe in their mission, know where you have potential to add value, and believe in the people you would be working with.”

After finding that perfect mixture of these three conditions in a workplace, Subayi shared characteristics that managers look for in employees at both Chipotle and most businesses in general. These characteristics range from exterior qualities such as being hospitable, polite, conscientious and presentable, to personality traits like being happy, enthusiastic, motivated and curious.

These are all beneficial traits that, according to Subayi, “cannot be learned.” The good news is that if you have most or all of these traits, all you have to do is put them on display for the employer to see. Something as simple as smiling and showing interest in a business can be the deciding factor in why one person was hired over another.

Baer also suggested that the more work experience a student has, the more that contributes to “feeling confident” in an interview or job.

Make sure you are continuously adding real work experiences to your unique story, and when talking to an employer, Matt Baer reminds students to “have your story down.” This “story” is yours to be told, and it provides an edge that can distinguish you from every other applicant.

Let’s say we wrap this up in some Chipotle-grade foil and call it a day?

Whether you’re going through the lunch line or you’re waiting for an interview, remember this simple recipe for workplace success, and there will be no limit to how many flavorful ingredients you can add to your unique story.