There is a good chance that you were not a manager at your first job. The job I want to focus on is the first job you got where you did not work for family. You may have been a leader in development for a jeweler or a burger joint but at a low level. Many of us worked for our parents or a relative but that is not the same as working for someone who did not know you before you started there. A person's first job can set them on a course they had not expected or it can just be an odd footnote on a resume…
Lesson #1 You Have a Limited Amount of Trust to Use
My very first job, at age 16, was working at In-N-Out Burger. In Southern California, in 1976, working at In-N-Out was a big deal. There were only 17 locations then, and it was one of the coolest jobs to have. They paid a dollar more than minimum wage, and you were given a giant diaper pin, that was about 6 inches long, to hold your apron on. It was often used as a keychain so that you could let everyone know where you worked. To get a job at In-N-Out usually required a referral from someone who already worked there. I do not ever recall anyone simply submitting an application and being hired. There was no shortage of friends who wanted a job there. You needed to be cautious when referring friends; you could lose a lot of trust if one of your friends were hired, and then did not work out.
#2 It Helps if You Like the Product:
The Uncle of a friend of my older brother, Chuck Pappas, was one of the higher-ups at In-N-Out. My brother's friend arranged for me to meet Chuck at store #3, on Towne Avenue in Pomona, California. It was not the nicest part of Pomona, but it was the closest location to my house in La Verne. (about 3 years later they moved the store to La Verne.) I got the job and I enjoyed working at In-N-Out for about three years. You had to do the job right because you knew that there was a long line of people who would love to be in your place. It did not hurt that I liked the burgers and fries a lot. At one point, I ate an In-N-Out Double-Double every day, for over a year. I cannot say I lost or gained any weight because of it, but I never got tired of them. I still love them today.
#3 A Good Company Feels Like Family
In-N-Out had a great family feel to it. The employees were well taken care of and they personally knew who they worked for. At that time the founder, Harry Snyder was still alive, and he or one of his family members, would visit every location every month. When I needed to move during my junior year of high school, they allowed me to transfer to the location nearest my new home, in Norwalk, California. When I moved back to La Verne, to finish my senior year with the friends I grew up with, they let me move back to store #3. By this time, #3 then been moved to La Verne, just up the street from my high school. About the time I finished high school, a new location was being opened, and the new manager, who I had known previously at the Norwalk location, asked me to join him there. I was only 18 and they made me a "4th Man" as they called it. That meant I was a management trainee. I was not planning to make a career out of burgers and fries, but it was nice to feel that I was being cared for, and my future development was a part of their plans, in case I wanted to stay on.
There are many more things my early training taught me but this is a blog not a book.
What was your first job and what are 3 things you learned?
(If you want to write your answer on your blog, so much the better. Please use the trackback below. If it does not link, send me an email so that I can fix it.)
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