What I learned cleaning toilets at a campground at 11 years old

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” Beverly Sills

Your resume tells your professional story. What I've always wanted to know about people is what does your resume not tell me about you and your experiences. My resume is pretty strong. Lean manufacturing engineer at a big company, industrial equipment engineer (design and manufacturing) at a small company, progressive industrial equipment sales, building of a business unit of a global public company, etc. But for a lot of people a resume doesn't include the start of their career. Here's mine...

My first job was cleaning toilets at a campground. I was 11 years old and I was eager to earn some cash. My family was pretty tight on money with a stay at home mom that worked part time and a dad in the Navy so every little bit helped. From a young age I did not want to be a burden to my parents. I was asked if I wanted a job working at a campground, paid cash daily, and was able to drive a golf cart around as part of it. Sounded great! Maybe I was a na?ve but I even liked cleaning the toilets. I took much pride in doing a great job and doing my best. Sure it wasn't glamourous but I learned a lot. I spent an entire summer going from bathroom to bathroom clearing the trash bins, wiping down sinks, and all of the other fun tasks that you could imagine. I did all this for less than minimum wage and at the end of the summer I had just enough saved up to by myself a pair of Nike shoes that I really wanted.

I really learned the value of a dollar that summer but more importantly I learned a skill which has served me well throughout my career. That skill is how to see tasks and create processes to be as efficient as possible. I didn't just wander about the campground, or within those bathrooms. They were absolutely gross until I was done with them! I mapped out the different bathrooms and created a loop. This ensured that by the end of my shift I had not missed a location. So with my travel route mapped I started developing my process for getting in and out of those bathrooms as soon as possible. I remember having all my cleaning supplies organized and walking into the bathroom on a mission. I'll spare you the details but I had basically created a process for being extremely effective and efficient and ensuring I left those restrooms as clean as possible.

I've never lost sight of this skill or the start of my working career. Ever since that job I have almost always been gainfully employed. The money at each and every job helped but more importantly I learned skills. People skills, management skills, technical skills, and so much more that frankly I was gaining just as much value from them as they were me. Some jobs I really enjoyed and others I did not but no matter what I learned from them. Whether it was learning what to do or what not to do I continued in my pursuit of gaining more knowledge so that one day I could apply them to help others get ahead in life. For all the people that have been a part of my journey so far.. THANK YOU!

Here's my career progression in chronological order:

1. 11 years old- Master of custodial arts at campground
2. Ran cash register, took customer orders, battered chicken wings, scooped ice cream for a takeout place
3. Started a lawn mowing business in Virginia Beach mowing and trimming any yard for $20. Had about a hundred customers over 2 summers.
4. 13 years old- Short stint working at a commercial landscaping company in Iowa
5. De-tasseled corn for a summer (right of passage in Indiana)
6. McDonalds
7. 16 years old - Kmart stocking shelves, running cash registers.
8. Jim Dandy - Cook/ kitchen hand
9. Pizza Shack- making pizzas, taking orders, cleaning
10. Onecall Communications- Summer job as midnight shift phone operator (I was the person that answered when someone pressed Zero on a payphone in the middle of the night!)
11. 19 years old (during college)- Circuity City - Home audio salesperson (great commissioned sales position!)
12. Meijer- stocked shelves, ran registers, etc
13. Freedom Lawns - Summer internship running a professional mowing crew.
14. Whirlpool Corp- Factory worker bagging replacement parts
15. HSBC Collections- 2nd shift consumer loan collections
16. Speedlinks- Made parts on lathes/ mills/ 3D models and prints for a startup motorcycle accessories company.
17. Fairfield Manufacturing (now Dana) - design engineer using Solidworks
18. Carpet Warehouse - using a forklift with a 10ft long pole to grab roles of carpet off of racks, grabbing lunch for the owners!
19. Industrial Dielectrics- Summer internship doing lean manufacturing and process improvement studies and projects.
20. Fairfield Manufacturing - intern working on a machining center setup reduction project. Primarily working with shop floor and tooling engineers and creating 3D models and prints to document machine set ups, tool lists, etc to provide for rapid changeovers
21. 21 years old- Fairfield Manufacturing -Manufacturing engineer for the Assembly department. Focused on Lean CAPEX projects and assembly department management. Designed assembly lines, improved processes, and learned what a thread stretcher was. I turned down Rolls Royce for this position (Ops leadership development program). Presented projects to leadership team for funding.
22. Gibson Parts and Equipment- Designed, created prints, assembly SOPS, etc for a line of industrial abrasive equipment. Learned how to weld and the art of shuffling around "stuff" sitting on the shop floor to make more room for us to get work done.
23. Pick And Store Systems- Start of a 15 year professional relationship with Kardex Remstar. Senior Account Executive - Commissioned consultative Sales and Project management of Kardex Remstar ASRS solutions in the state of Indiana as well as sales and installation of inventory control software in Indiana and Illinois
24. HMT Tank- Tried to sell oil storage tanks to Oil and Gas clients
25. Sapient Automation- Director of sales for a startup vlm manufacturer
26. Kardex Remstar- Lead sales and project management of special applications of their asrs solutions and worked as part of the leadership team to develop and execute the US go to market strategy
27. Kardex Handling Solutions- Built a sales and service distributor that covered 3 states and expanded to 6. Started with a business plan I created, brought in the right people, resources, and processes to make it happen.
28. SRSI - Director of System Solutions- Lead the System Solutions team of a startup integrator. Didn't work out but was an interesting experience!