How Winning This Contest Changed My Life

With summer jobs on the horizon, professionals recall the first jobs that launched their careers. Read more, then write your own #CareerLaunch post.

In the summer of 1971, I was babysitting for Mrs. Hackleberry for 50 cents an hour.

I entered the Miss Fire Prevention contest sponsored by my local radio station WVOL in Nashville. Everyone, especially me, was shocked when I won.  When I went back to the radio station to claim my prize, a Longines watch and a "digital" clock radio, the local DJ saw me looking around in awe. 

"Have you ever heard your voice on tape?” he asked. “Think you could read this?” 

He tore some wire copy, adjusted the mic, and rolled tape as I began to speak. I hadn’t finished three sentences before he called for another guy, then another, to "come listen to this kid read.”

I left the station that day with the biggest prize of all — my first job in broadcasting. I was 17 years old. 

More posts on this topic:

• “Here’s the Scoop: Why My First Job Mattered” — President Barack Obama
• “My First Job Lasted One Summer — But It Changed the Way I See the World” — Katie Couric, Yahoo Global News Anchor  
• “Dream Big But Be Humble: Lessons That Led Me from the Factory Floor to the Executive Floor” — Ralph de la Vega, Vice Chairman of AT&T, Inc.
• “Before I Became a Stylist, I Sold Shoes at the Mall. Here's What I Learned.” — Rachel Zoe, CEO, Rachel Zoe, Inc.; Editor-in-Chief, The Zoe Report
• “What Designing a Shampoo Bottle Taught Me About Business” — Meg Whitman, CEO at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• “Just Starting Out: The Life-Shaping Potential of Our First Jobs” — Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief at The Huffington Post Media Group
• “What I Lacked in Qualifications I Learned to Make Up with Courage” — Suze Orman, television host and motivational speaker
• “Practice Makes a Career” — Bernard Tyson, Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente
• “What I Gained from Choosing the Rocky Road” — Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations
• “Summer Jobs Are Your First Shot at the ‘Grown-Up World.’ Soak Up as Much as You Can.” — Adena Friedman, President and COO at Nasdaq
• “Everyone Should Have Access to That First Job” — Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama
• “Remember Your First Job?” — Tom Perez, Secretary of Labor at U.S. Department of Labor
• “Employers: Young Workers Are Your Diamonds in the Rough” — Maria Contreras-Sweet, Administrator at US Small Business Administration