Out of curiosity (and a recent conversation at a company picnic) I asked my co-workers what his or her first job was. Wouldn’t YOU be curious to see where your boss started out? Some of their responses were surprising…and some not so much. For example, did you know the President of Prototype, Joshua Oppenheimer, started out washing dishes? Or that our Senior Account Executive, David Norcross, carried bricks for $1 and hour?!? (What a rip off by the way!) One of the most surprising (and a little creepy) was probably Mikael Blido’s job at a graveyard. [see the picture below for a visual]
Here are a few more examples…(feel free to pass judgement)
“I was a character escort at King’s Dominion at the age of 15. My basic job description included: making sure the characters don’t speak or take their heads off while on the park grounds, especially in front of kids (apparently this can be traumatic for them, make sure the characters don’t overheat and pass out, which is no small feat on 100 degree days in the summer, and keep characters away from obnoxious high school/college boys who might want to maul or beat them up. Scooby Doo was always a target of harassment for some reason. All this fun came at $5.25/hour. It was glorious.” – Johanna Calfee, Managing Editor
“My first job, I was 15 years old and I was trimming Christmas trees in the middle of summer. I was supposed to get paid 25 cents a tree, after 2 days of sweating, getting covered in sap and stung by bees (bees love Christmas tress in the middle of summer, they are like piney bee hotels) I was “let go” because he said I was “killing his trees” and I only got $15 even though I cut probably a million trees. 6 Years Later I needed a Christmas tree and knew of a field of them. I went back under the cover of darkness and found the perfect tree. Oddly enough none of the ones I had trimmed 6 years ago were dead. I think old man winters just wanted his trees trimmed on the cheap. ” – Todd Hacker
I was 14 when I got my first job. It was summer work at CVCC, duplicating educational tapes in the A/V department. Take a tape, place it in the duplicator. Take a blank tape, place it in the duplicator. Press COPY. Stand and watch. I can’t even remember how many tapes I copied. That was about all I did for 8 hours a day. Next year my summer job was even better. I got to work as a manual laborer for the construction company CL Lewis. This was also at CVCC, and CL Lewis was the construction company building the new Merritt Hall. I leveled dirt, brushed water off the floor, and hauled cement – the first wheelbarrow was filled too much and I couldn’t move it up the ramp onto the first floor – it fell off the ramp. They didn’t let me move cement anymore. My dad got me both jobs.” – Keith Poole, Graphic Designer
“I was 13 and I cut bamboo and cattails with a scythe in a marsh for the summer… in Hampton… for somebody that wasn’t family….who probably violated some child labor laws… but he had cash. Next job was when I was 15 and I illustrated a half dozen pages and the cover for a book about the CCC camps and the use of child labor. Odd isn’t it.” – Todd Allen, Owner
“My story (as I am sure many of you will be surprised) is not all that interesting. I got my first job at 18 working as a telemarketing operator at J. Crew. That’s right, I was the guy you yelled at because your order was wrong — well actually, not at first – believe it or not, that was a “step up” into the customer service department. I started just keying in orders. It was a nice gig for a 18 year old in college. I went to school during the day and then worked from 6pm-1am every night. I did get to talk to Cher and Joan Rivers who both called in to place orders – and yes, I had access to their home address. The nights were filled with much boredom but an opportunity to do school work and get “paid” to do it. The wage was good for it was – $9.50/hour if I recall correctly. I would bring home about $250/week. My car payment at the time was $365/mo. You do the math — I worked for a week and a half just to OWN my car. That doesn’t include gas or maintenance. My job basically got me around and bought me some nasty fast food to eat. I’ll never forget my scariest moment there. I had keyed in a huge $2000+ order, about 40 items and in order to do that you had to split the order into 2 separate orders for the computer to take the order. Well, I forgot to split it so the order bombed out. I acted quickly and made up some shipping prices like any scared teenager would do and then of course ensured the customer the order would ship out promptly. ——- I spent the next 2 hours sorting through that mess with beads of sweat on my brow the entire time. Luckily, I fixed it and everything shipped as planned (albeit with a considerably higher shipping price than the one I made up). Now, 15 years later, I can still remember the script. “Thank you for calling J. Crew, this is Klint how may I help you? Can I start by getting your customer number from the yellow box on the back of your catalog please? Thank you, I’m ready for your first item number… so that’s the Mens V-Neck Tee in Grey Heather, size Medium for $24.99 – I’m ready for your next item.” – Klint Holland, Senior Web Developer
“When I was 14 I started my first job at a jewelry store. I sold jewelry, cleaned jewelry, wrapped packages, kept the store spotless and, most importantly, got an awesome discount. I stayed there for four years, all through highschool…I even ended up outselling some of the full-timers one Christmas. Bonus: they still let me go behind the counters and pick out whatever jewelry I want.” – Megan Norcross, Director of Business Development
I was 11. After school each day my Mom would drop me off at a staffing office where my Aunt worked. I would wash cups, plates and clean up the kitchen for $5 a day. At the end of the week they would give me $25. That year I bought alot of baseball cards – which leads me to the best part of the story…I bought a single pack of Fleer cards. In the pack I got a Gold leafed Jose Conseco ELITE card. This was the equivalent of a WONKA’S golden ticket. It was worth at the time $250. I immediately sold it for $225 to an adult who collected cards. To date it is the best return on investment I have ever seen.I immediately took the money and bought a motorcycle.” – Daryl Calfee, Owner of Prototype Media
“The first ‘job’ i ever had was a part time gig. I was acting like a wounded kid for an emergency response class taken by new firefighters and EMS. I was kind of a big deal really (ok, not really). The coordinator slapped some really terrible looking black and purple face paint on me to make it look like a bruise. Basically, I had to lay there and act like I was wounded, sick or better yet unconscious (that one was my favorite). Hard work I know… and I am sure my performance was outstanding. Oh yea, I was about 12 years old, and it paid $100 for the day. Ka-ching! And I am sure I spent it on something ridiculous instead of saving it. And there ya go…” – Derek Bennion, Graphic/Web Designer
