Another great first job story today this time from friend and former co-worker Gary Palgon from Atlanta.  Gary and I worked together on a couple ventures while I lived in Atlanta including nuBridges where he is currently Vice President of Product Management.  I love receiving these stories so please keep sending them to me and I'll keep posting them here.  Read my first job story.

From Gary:

My First Job

If you ask my mother what my first job was, she’ll tell you it was to make my bed every day before school in exchange for my weekly allowance.  But let’s be real, I don’t really count that job and I never did a very good job at making my bed.  My reasoning, of course, was why make it if I’m just going to climb back in it at the end of the day! To be perfectly honest, I still don’t do a very good job at it though I do at least try since it makes my wife happy!

First Real Paycheck

My first real paycheck came in 1977 from the City of Miami Beach, Florida for working at the Junior Orange Bowl Tennis Tournament.  While I was only 10 years old, I had to wear many hats.  My job consisted of (1) picking up trash around the bleachers, (2) cleaning the lines on the clay tennis courts before a match and (3) working at the tennis counter storing and retrieving tennis bags for the tennis players.

None of it was very exciting since I had not interest in tennis at the time, but looking back at it many years later, I came to realize I was actually interacting with the future stars of the tennis world.  The winners of the tournament in 1977 were Ivan Lendl and Anne Smith.  Other famous-to-be players whose bags I stored and whose spectators’ trash I picked up included Yannick Noah and Andrea Jaegar from what I remember.  According to their 60^th anniversary story, “The 1977 final developed into one of the most dramatic in Orange Bowl history as Lendl, two points from losing in the second set, outlasted Noah 3-6, 7-6, 6-3”.  What I difference I must have made in making it a memorable year!

Second “First Job”

While I’m quite sure I was offered the job again the following year, I found other things to keep me busy.  It wasn’t until my first summer during college that I returned to my hometown in Miami and started my second “first job”, this time working behind the counter in a sub shop, Subs $1.29.  This job I remember a bit more clearly given I was 19 years old. Personally I think I did a pretty good job of being helpful to the customers, making their sandwiches on-demand after spending several hours before the store opened to prepare the goods.

I learned a lot about how many businesses operate, though they are not necessarily how business should be conducted.  First, there were only four subs on the menu for $1.29 and a plain cheese sub was one of them – my first exposure to marketing! While the owner had all these fancy tins of olive oil displayed, I remember being asked to fill the fancy bottles we used on the sandwiches with Mazola oil in the back – while not necessarily bad, this was another example of deceptive advertising in my opinion.  And then there was the canisters of Coke syrup which were delivered in a non-descript truck out back for pennies on the dollar – obviously shorted from the distribution center so someone else along the way could earn some extra cash on the side.

Jobs from that point forward

It was not long after that I decided to take control of my career path for the remainder of college and picked up some computer programming jobs and later assisted a small company in selling software to small businesses.

Lots to learn from my first jobs. And no more picking up trash or deceptive retail advertising for me with my “second jobs”!

Thanks Gary!

Do you have a first job story?  Email me and I'll post it.