If you’ve ever worked in customer service, you know it’s hard work.

You have to exercise extreme patience and kindness while being on your feet for hours at a time and sometimes doing very repetitive tasks.

While customer service is exhausting work, it can still be very rewarding. So rewarding, in fact, that it can lead to another career completely!

One man, a cashier at Target, exemplified amazing customer service to an old woman who came to his register. Customers at Target were so impressed by him that he’s received one seriously amazing perk as a result!

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The cashier named Ishmael Gilbert was just 19 years old. He was hired at Target during the holiday season when retail employees are in high demand. Customers are often critical of retail employees and young people for not being more attentive, but not Ishmael.

When the old woman came to his register, she realized she only had change in her pockets. Flustered, she became nervous about counting out the change to pay for her items.

Ishmael helped her count her money and kindly told her that she was not an inconvenience, that she shouldn’t worry about holding up the line.

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Ishmael’s actions have given him some well-deserved attention. Another woman in line for his register, Sara Bigler, took a picture of him to document the caring interaction.

Sara then shared the picture along with a description of what happened on Facebook. Unsurprisingly, the story went viral.

What makes his story so endearing is that he wasn’t being patient or kind just to get some attention. He was just doing his job well.

But Ishmael’s story is not over yet. A few weeks later, someone saw him YET AGAIN providing amazing customer service. The woman was so impressed by his work that she offered him a job.

Ishmael no longer works at Target. He is now a patient care technician at Fresenius Medical Care where he’s receiving funding to become a registered nurse.

Ishmael is incredibly lucky that so many people noticed his hard work. It’s true that hard work pays off. Have you ever received an award for a good deed that you did? Have you rewarded others for being kind?

Watch the video below to hear Ishmael talk about the experience.

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