My First Job

"After college i concentrated on learning how to interview and getting a job. I went to an employment agency. They sent me to an interview for a job at an international business. I drove to the interview and realized the address was at the Plant City Farmers' Market. I wanted practice, so I interviewed at Tomato World-and they offered me the job right then.

"I had practiced how to interview and how to sell myself; what I hadn't practiced was how to turn a job down! I went back to the employment agency and explained that it wasn't in my field and that I didn't want to accept the job. They said that was fine, but to check my contract. The contract said upon verbal agreement, you had to pay [the employment agency's] fee. I went to work at Tomato World so I could pay their fee.

"It was 1982 and minimum wage was three dollars an hour. I did all the shipping, correspondence, payroll and accounts payable and receivable. There were no computers, so everything was written in the ledger. We had thousands of dollars in checks coming in every day and I had to make sure that

everything balanced.

"I learned to wear different hats and deal with diversity. Farmers would come in and we would buy tomatoes off the dock from them, then I would be meeting with the head of Publix.

"It was a very stressful job. I would be on the phone at midnight calling for shipments if something happened to the crops in Florida. Sometimes I had to help out packing tomatoes. They come down big conveyor belts very fast and it's hard to keep up. There were some I Love Lucy moments.

"If that employment agency had let me refuse the job, I think I would have missed out on a lot of valuable lessons and experiences."

-Interviewed by Katie S. Betz