First Jobs - DD

I lived near a golf course and my brother and I would often search for golf balls then sit at the 15th hole and sell the golf balls. We had egg cartons for them and had 4 price categories based on the golf ball condition... most expensive being like 75 cents (pristine condition, no scratches or marks). This hole was also near a lake so there were those that would buy a bunch of the cheap 10 cent ones just to hit into the water. Here's my first few real jobs tho:

1. My first job after graduation was at McDonalds. That was a place close to me and the only place I actually put an application in at. I knew I was heading to college, so I wasn't looking to do much more than get some money for books, gas, etc. They had me working the cashier and I was often blamed for using up the fries without putting down a new batch in the fryer. Needless to say I was never employee of the month. I was a little shocked that some had this in mind as a career though and talked about wanting to get to manager some day. I was also surprised at the older people who came in the mornings and expected me to know what they ordered every morning including how many creams and sugars they took with their coffee. My fondest memory was once being given the "privilege" of doing drive thru and once walking out to the counter to find a line of people with no one at the registers. It was just me and the cook; apparently someone had gone on break! I was then talking to 2 people at the same time....over the headset in drive thru and in person at the front register. A little confusing for both at times, but I managed to keep the service flowing and remove the line. There was even a woman there that told me she was impressed how I was able to handle it all. My career in drive thru would be short lived however as I sometimes would forget to switch between the breakfast and lunch menus correctly so the cooks would see a breakfast order coming in and we'd have to figure out what it converted to on a lunch menu. My great smile did manage to help keep me employed there for the rest of the summer tho.
   
2. The following summer after freshman year I decided I'd try to look through the paper for employment. I found this ad for Vector Marketing and decided to check it out. Turns out they were really doing door-to-door sales type stuff for cutlery, but for some odd reason I still filled out an application and accepted a job with them. Cutco knives, if you've heard of them, trully are some of the best cutlery out there and really was a product that mostly sold itself. I was a little hesitant at first about calling people up and giving a sales pitch, but a number of people had heard of Cutco before and loved the product and wanted to buy more. My most memorable day was when I gave 2 sales pitches (2 hours total work that day) and sold full sets to both for over $1000 in sales ($200 commission). Vector Marketing gave me some pin in recognition and invited me to some conference for it all. In the end, I didn't like the calling people up bit or trying to get them to tell you about friends of theirs you can call. I stuck with it the whole summer though and managed to get about the same amount as I would of working at McDonalds for alot less hours of work. People asked me for many years after even if they could buy more from me.
   
3. My final summer job (after sophmore, junior, senior years) was as a camp consellor. This job I trully loved though the pay was very little. I fortunately had parents paying my college bills though so I could afford the small pay. I would not trade the time I had for anything. Some of the most challenging times and some of the best. Working with mentally handicapped was a very new and interesting experience to say the least. But they all have such great hearts. Many great experiences I could share, but you'd probably get bored if not already.

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• Career