The Kid Is Just Trying to Make a Buck!

I have worked for as long as I can remember.  I was quite an enterprising youngster with keen negotiating and survival skills.  My first enterprise was to negotiate or extort compensation for the evil deeds my siblings might have been involved in that our parents were not aware of.  However, my mission statement needed to be rethought when it became hazardous to my health to continue with that venture.  I believed my next venture would be more fruitful.  I embarked on a project that involved obtaining compensation for the ‘other duties (a.k.a. chores) as assigned’ by my parents.  It was about that time my father decided I was old enough to pay rent plus utilities and food.  We inevitably settled out of court.  I cannot comment any further on that issue without violating the terms of the settlement. At which point I became the car washer, babysitter for the neighborhood and scorekeeper, timekeeper, and Administrative Assistant for a local basketball league until I was of legal age to pursue corporate opportunities.

At the age of 13 my parents decided to retire and move across the country to Arizona so they could play golf every day. I begged everyone I came into contact with to allow me to move in with them in order to avoid the move – unsuccessfully.  Shortly, thereafter, I found myself kicking and screaming in the backseat of a Buick Riviera driving for FIVE days.  To date, I can’t stand driving long distances.

The first real paycheck paying employment was my dream job at the age of 15.  It involved ice cream. No one could put the Dairy Queen curl on the ice cream cones like I could.  It could not get better than that.  Unfortunately, my first big corporate experience involved my unforeseen release from D.Q. due to a corporate restructure (Ha! Summer was over).   The ensuing couple of years were blurred with a myriad of jobs and employers; sales associate at a retail store at my favorite mall, weekend secretary at an airport, hostess at a restaurant, weekend PBX switchboard operator. Finally, after a series of interviews, letters of recommendation from my teachers and guidance counselor, and review of my grade point average I was given the opportunity to go to work in a Cooperative Education Program at First Interstate Bank of Arizona during my senior year of High School.  Being the shrewd corporate player, I of course seized the opportunity.  It paid $4.15 per hour.  I wasn’t crazy.   I was offered a permanent position with the Bank midway through the nine-month program. That opportunity lasted for nine years. At one point, I was the youngest Manager and Bank Officer in the Southern Region.  I was also attempting to put myself through college on a sometimes full-time sometimes part-time basis.  Anyone familiar with being on the 10 year plan? Soon thereafter, I was promoted into Human Resources.  I have been in various positions in H.R. ever since.  My second big corporate experience involved my unforeseen release from First Interstate Bank due to bank acquisition – that was a rarity.