“First Days Of Work”
How Many “First Days of Work” Have You Had?
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I have experienced numerous first days at work, reflecting on a total of 15 such occasions, with one more on the horizon, all spanning over a period of 24 years. Since 1999, I have maintained a consistent stream of income every year.
Embarking on a new job is intriguing. The majority of my previous positions were held before and during my college years. I have enjoyed a relatively stable career trajectory since graduating, acquiring a wealth of knowledge in the process. I've come to appreciate the immense value of experience and the time required to amass a comprehensive understanding of the ever-evolving business world. It's an ongoing process of adaptation and change.
Below, you'll find a recap of the companies I've worked for, the roles I've undertaken, and the pivotal lessons I've gleaned from each experience.
The Local Community Pool:
Role: Public Pool Associate. Main Responsibilities: Checking pool passes, telling kids “go” when all clear for the slide, squeegeeing the pool deck, bathroom checks and clean up (the worst).
Pay: $5.15 per hour (15 years old)
Primary Lessons Learned:
$5.15 per hour was not that great after taxes.
Being on slide duty was the best (free suntan).
Get jobs with friends or make good friends at work - it makes things more fun.
Bathroom duty forever solidified my public bathroom/locker room fears.
Rollprint Packaging:
Role: Data Entry. Summer job while one of my Mom’s coworkers was on maternity leave
Pay: $7.50 per hour (16 years old)
Primary Lessons Learned:
Working with a parent is cool. You finally get to see them in action when you’re not quite sure what your parent does for work. But you still won’t really know what they do even after seeing them at work with work people.
At 16, you get a lot of praise for doing very basic tasks.
First taste of what the corporate world looks like.
Unos Pizzaria:
Role: Hostess
Pay: $7.50 per hour (16 years old)
Primary Lessons Learned:
Pizza only cost about $1 for all the raw materials back in the day. Giving a person a free pizza for a mistake was an inexpensive way to keep a customer.
Mushroom pizza is delicious.
Most people hate tables and prefer booths. No one wants to sit by a bathroom.
Merle Norman Cosmetics:
Role: Retail Sales Associate (this franchise also has spa services)
Pay: $7.50 per hour (17 years old)
Primary Lessons Learned:
Some people are great tippers, some are not so great, regardless, jobs with tips are fun.
Aestheticians are in a way are therapists for their clients.
Get a job with good perks - all the free waxing, facials, nails, makeup etc was very fun as a senior in high school.
Mid-American Auto Glass
Role: Windshield Sales Specialist
Pay: $10 per hour
Primary Lessons Learned:
Many people drive cars that don’t belong to them. Therefore, they are not the windshield decision maker.
It’s a strange business model to have ASU dorm girls wear jean skirts and hustle windshield sales at the local gas stations
Hooters - Phoenix AZ Center:
Role: Hooters Girl Server
Pay: $2.17 per hour plus tips
Primary Lessons Learned:
You need to spend money to make money (the most common phrase from our manager when our white sneakers started to look dingy)
Being kind to the back of house staff will result in free food and help whenever needed
There’s a secondary market for used nylons that are destined for the trash.
Hooters - Downers Grove
Role: Hostess
Pay: $7.50 per hour
Primary Lessons Learned:
You’ll need to start at the bottom and work your way up (this location started everyone as a hostess before moving them to wait staff, even if you served at another location as a waitress)
If a significantly better opportunity comes along with higher pay potential and job responsibilities you want, take it
Champps Americana
Role: Server (took this role after working the above hostess job for three shifts)
Pay: $3.50 per hour plus tips
Primary Lessons Learned:
Some people take karaoke night very seriously.
I excel at menu memorization and recall, scoring the highest on all my post-training exams.
Loco Patron - Scottsdale
Role: Server (opened this new location)
Pay: $2.17 per hour plus tips
Primary Lessons Learned:
If you discover the owner/your boss was in “The Real World, Cancun”, don’t watch it unless you’ve acknowledged you can’t unsee/unlearn things
Showing up with a positive attitude can and will result in better shifts and bigger tips
Watson Pharmaceuticals - AZ
Role: Chemist (Intern)
Pay: $7.50 per hour
Primary Lessons Learned:
Pharmaceuticals are serious business with loads of regulations
This company was coming out of a consent decree when I started. The consent decree stemmed from a 1999 FDA inspection that uncovered poor training, documentation and lab control practices. This was a BIG deal.
VetAdvance
Role: Veterinary Equipment Sales Representative (first role out of college)
Pay: $30,000 per year
Primary Lessons Learned:
Sometimes you’ll have to share a hotel room with a coworker of the same sex (prepared me for another future role)
Start-up companies do things differently
It costs a lot of money to buy your first “professional” wardrobe.
Flavorchem
Role: R&D Applications Technologist
Pay: $30,000 per year
Primary Lessons Learned:
Make good friends at work and there’s a good chance you’ll have them forever
The 40 hour work week - what it looks like and how to fill all of those 40 hours
That sometimes a job can be a lot of fun but you’ll have to go somewhere else for a pay hike
Prinova
Role: R&D Applications Technologist
Primary Lessons Learned:
Family-owned businesses can have some quirks
POINTS are a nice bonus to work travel
Newly Weds Foods
Role: Several, from Food Scientist to Sr. Food Scientist
Primary Lessons Learned:
Finding work/life balance is possible - just build your pitch and make the ask
Food Scientists are super creative, quirky, and fun
So many things can go wrong during a plant trial
Cresco Labs
Role: Director, Food Science, and then VP, Product Development
Primary Lessons Learned:
Infinite learnings. IYKYK
Kellanova
Role: Sr. Manager, R&D
Primary Lessons Learned:
The best is yet to come!
There you have it, my work history in a nutshell. I am looking forward to what is on the horizon, and I truly believe the next 10 years are going to be the most enriching for my career.