First Job Series: Brooks Pettit
First job:
Shipping & Parts Department Helper United Group, Inc
Age 15 | $7.50/hr
Responsibilities
Packaged parts and sent them out for shipping to our customers, ran errands and swept the floors. Later I helped out on the manufacturing floor as a welder.
Why this job?
Family business. I was sure that I was on track to be promoted directly from the parts department to Chairman of the Board. (We didn’t have a board of directors.)
Memorable Experience
I thought I was smarter than my boss, and when he’d had enough of me trying to change the entire parts department to “make it better” he fired me... and then my mom gave me the same tough love by backing him up and not giving me my job back (about 6 weeks later, they hired me back).
Life Lesson
I learned a lot from interacting with all sorts of people, whom are all dealing with their own external and internal issues. I think it caused me to learn how to try to see things from the other person’s perspective.
Teen Advice
Get dirty, learn how to build something, learn the art of problem solving and fixing mistakes. Make sure the mistakes you make in your employment will make you a better person for your next employer. I believe everyone should be humbled by being fired sometime in your life... Someday if you are on the other end of the conversation, your life experience will cause you to be more compassionate.
