I am a firm believer that every experience in life is a teacher, and that also holds true for one's work experience. It creates a mosaic of experiences, each valuable and each important to the whole.
I started working part time when I was 13 as a banquet server at the college where my father was teaching at the time. My boss had one simple request. When you come in to work, you leave your troubles outside the door and you do your very best. That lesson is engrained in me to this day. When we work with a client, we are a 100% present!
While in high school and in college, I had summer jobs, and jobs during the holidays. Here are some examples:
Teaching Bible school at a Lutheran church as well as arts and crafts.
Cataloguing books at the library.
Translating French history books into English
Working in the kitchen at a posh country club
Doing Nanny work as well as being an executive assistant
Typing Doctor's notes of a dictaphone tape.
Working at a garage door company as a receptionist.
And pictured above are cans of Le Sueur peas made by Green Giant, whose headquarters were in Le Sueur, Minnesota. I worked for Green Giant one summer. It was my defining moment as to why I needed to get an education. There were two shifts, one from 7AM to 7PM, for two weeks, and then you switched from 7PM to 7AM.
The first part of the summer, I was on the pea line. Peas are delicate and they need to be processed as fast they are picked, or else they start to wilt and ferment.
This was the line that led from the unloading trucks to the factory which was washed and then sent up to our conveyer belt line of 6. Three women on each side were delighted to look for debris, thistles, rocks, escargots (snails), and other critters. If you found a critter, you placed it in a small cup attached to your station. Each critter added .05 cents to your paycheck.
I was the only youngster among other ladies who did this every summer. This was their time to be away from their usual farm work. The highlight of the shift was when the conveyer belt backed up, and the switch was turned off. The clean up crew would come up to remedy the mess. We wore white uniforms and a white scarf to cover our hair.
The second part of the summer was corn season. I could choose to either de-tassel corn ( de-tasseling corn is to prevent cross-pollination) or shuck corn. I chose to de-tassel thinking that I would be in the great outdoors. It was hot and muggy with mosquitoes buzzing, and it was muddy work.
One day later, I quit and chose the shucking corn line. The job was monitored by piece work. A special device counted the number of corn ears you managed to put into the de-shucker above the norm. That added another 5 cents to your paycheck. I managed to pierce my palm, but kept on with a gloved hand.
My father who was working that summer at Green Giant in the experimental lab came to visit me. He just stood there silent. I had no idea what he was doing, standing there just smiling.
It turned out that he was double checking on the piece counter. He discovered that the counter was set to favor the company. After my shift, I quit and went home. Right then and there, I knew that education was the key to success.
"The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you will go"
~Dr. Seuss (picture above) aka Theodore Geisel
This is part 2 of my story for the February Challenge! This challenge is hosted by Carol Williams and Anna Banana Kruchten CRS, Phoenix Broker . Thank you ladies!
Comments (46)Subscribe to CommentsComment