Labor Day 2022: What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
Stephen Tang
Transformative Leader | 30+ Years as Chairman & CEO in For-Profit, Nonprofit & Government | Best-Selling Author | Leadership Roles in Launching All Three FDA-Cleared Infectious Disease Self-Tests | Pioneer in Innovation
Today is Labor Day in the United States. We celebrate workers on this day by honoring their accomplishments and all they do for us. As management guru, Jim Collins said succinctly, “It is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life.?And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.” This made me think of the many jobs I had as a kid.
Tucked away in my filing cabinet, I found my copy of Your World: Let’s Visit an Oil Company. In this 1968 book, a racially diverse group of students (including yours truly) tour an oil refinery. For those that thought inclusion was only a recent phenomenon, there were a few examples of it way back when. Pictured here are the students from one of the book’s pages. Can you recognize me? I was the very fashion-forward kid rocking the long shorts 30 years before it became vogue!
Besides the time warp experience of looking at the 1960s-era cars and 25.9 cents per gallon gasoline prices, I remembered that this was my very first paid job. At the ripe old age of eight, the authors paid me $15 for modeling in the book. In today’s dollars that would be $127. Not bad pay for a day’s work!
It got me thinking about the other jobs I had before graduating high school—paper route (for the old Philadelphia Sunday Bulletin), shoe salesman (for the old Kinney shoe stores), chart keeper for a stock broker (at the old Dean Witter), and delivery truck packer (for Nabisco, which thankfully is still here today).
I learned a lot from each of those jobs, mostly through encouragement, mistakes, problem-solving, and expectation-setting. Fast forward to my 40-year career: the first-hand experience I gained in delivery logistics, warehouse operations, sales, data analysis, and cash management gave me the utmost respect for those that I would meet along my career journey who worked in those areas.
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In case you're wondering, I retired from the modeling profession after this book. Somehow, I knew it wasn’t my strength nor a sustainable source of income. A moment of wisdom at a young age.
My love of books, thirst for knowledge, and latent curiosity about work continue though. I’ll be sharing more about it in this blog and elsewhere, in the lead-up to the 2023 launch of my book, A Test for Our Time: Crisis Leadership in the Next Normal (working title).
What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
With 33 years as Chairman, CEO, and Founder/Owner, Stephen Tang is an accomplished business and civic leader, with a career built on professional will, dignity, and personal humility.
Director of Communications
2 年My first job was a dual-role: Babysitting and pet sitting for my neighbors when I was 14. That was 30+ years go. I remain childless by choice, and I have a managerie of pets. Coincidence? I think not. ??
C-Suite/President level global P&L leadership in medical technology industry
2 年First job- Friendlys (the ice cream shop chain which is still around in NJ). Scooped ice cream at age 16 and went home every night with sticky arms. So much for any future ice cream cravings. Also got first promotion- to waitress. Made $2.01/hour but got tips! Very hard work for sure.
Your resource for oral fluid drug testing, wellness, pain management, and behavioral health
2 年My first job was at McDonald’s at 15. I worked there on the weekends and went to track or band practice on the weekdays. I was always busy! All of my friends worked there so that’s where I socialized. I learned: 1- that work could actually be FUN! 2- the value of a dollar. 3- work ethic 4- that chicken McNuggets don’t actually come from chickens! ??
Development & Grants Manager at LVCIL
2 年Great blog Stephen, thank you. My first job was technically at 13, taking over a newspaper delivery route for a friend temporarily and then at 15 being a cashier at A&P where I also did everything from getting carts to cleaning the stock room. Learned a lot about responsibility and working hard. Even today, I think back to how beneficial it was to learn how to work with the public and it was a good feeling to earn your own paycheck.
Vice President Corporate Development at United Research Laboratories
2 年Kudos to you, Steve! I love it! I was working, well, since I could remember. Growing up in a family of seven siblings in rural China was a different world from what Steve had. I started helping the family, I believe, since I was able to walk. Started from helping with setting up table, sweeping the floor, washing dishes, all the way to helping with the farming, and raising goats, chicken and geese. These are real, hard work and very demanding. Of course, I was never paid, and I don't know if these are qualified as jobs. My first paid JOB was working as a scientist in a research institute in Beijing after my college, I was the first person who entered a college in my village. Now reflecting back, I realized I was very happy as a child with overwhelming love and caring from my big family. I am a product of my family love, doing what you are supposed to do, and passionately pursuing my own dreams.