
Brent Harkins
Operations Analyst
Taco Bell
Irvine, CA USA
“I worked really hard, and I truly believe that anyone else who’s willing to work hard will be able to do whatever they want.”
Taco Bell
Irvine, CA USA
“I worked really hard, and I truly believe that anyone else who’s willing to work hard will be able to do whatever they want.”
Operations Analyst
My team helps execute products efficiently and successfully across 7,000 restaurants nationwide.
I’m on the Food Ops Team, so I work with everything food. We have a three-step process—discover, design, and deliver—and operations gets brought along for the whole ride. After a crazy menu item (like the quesalupa) is “discovered,” we act as the voice of reason to make sure our restaurants can realistically execute these items using their back-of-house hardware. We do a lot of testing to make sure the item’s soundproof, then once we feel it’s ready, we send it out to our restaurants.
Here's the first step for college students
Understand the difference between what you need and what you want: you have to prioritize your needs, but it’s also important that you figure out a way to do the things you want to do. And if you don’t know what you want, take as many different classes as you can and try to find that spark. Keep taking steps forward, and more doors will open.
"I don’t love this job anymore."