10 Career Lessons Learned From Your First Job

Over the past several weeks I’ve been reviewing and reassessing my business; balancing what I love to do with what’s profitable. It’s a dance that many small business owners know well.

While considering my portfolio of services, I let my mind wander through a career review. Where did I start and how did I get here?

The first place my mind hopped was my shortest job followed by my longest. I lingered to uncover why one lasted less than 60 minutes and one 11 years.

Imagine me, sixteen years old, working for pocket money. When a new ice-cream parlor opened in town, I thought it sounded like a fun place to work. People are happy when they get ice-cream, and I wanted to be around happy people.

I convinced my mom to pull up in front of the store while I ran in to get an application – turned out it was unnecessary; the woman behind the counter was the owner. In my memory, she looked exactly like the woman from Throw Momma From the Train. I’m 99.9% sure that memory is accurate.

You want a job?

I do!

You need to do toilets. You do toilets?

Um, sure. (secretly thinking… um, gross.)

Start this weekend?

Absolutely!

Then she handed me a worn, ripped, ice-cream covered t-shirt that had no doubt been worn by countless other ice-cream scooping, toilet cleaning, employees. No lie.

I filled out a brief form, got back in the car clutching my disgusting t-shirt, and we drove home. Ten minutes later, we were back in the car, and I dropped off the t-shirt and quit. We still laugh about it to this day.

Lessons Learned From Your First Job

Lessons from your first job are just as important as lessons learned when you’re in a position of authority, an official leader. When you get that first job, you are the front line, and as they say, everything rolls downhill. You experience the impact of great leadership and crapola leadership. You also form ideas about what you will and won’t do and will and won’t tolerate later in your career. It shapes you.

Your first job influenced the leader you are today. It’s essential to reminisce and reflect to re-ground yourself in the lessons learned.

You may think I’m a quitter, and I should have given it a chance but by not working there I learned some things about myself that I’ve carried with me ever since.

1) How you treat your employees matters and how you treat your candidates matters too. The candidate experience reflects the employee experience.

2) How you treat your employees is a reflection of you. People are not disposable even in a high-turnover business. Great leaders area always talent magnets.

3) People don’t have to work for horrible people even when they want money.

4) It’s hard to have a fresh start when you’re throwing old baggage (or t-shirts) at new employees.

5) We have choices of where to work even when it feels easier to stay in a lousy job than look for a new one.

6) Look at the employees when you interview, do they look happy, miserable or somewhere in-between? Their demeanor tells a story even when no words are spoken.

7) You don’t have to say yes to everything to get a gig. If you’re saying yes to things that will make you miserable and you know it, don’t say it. Cultural fit matters a ton.

8) If you know during the interview process that a job is a horrible match for you, find the courage to withdraw from further consideration.

9) You won’t love all your job responsibilities, but if you hate more than you love (or like), you’ll be miserable from day one.

10) I still don’t love to do toilets and avoid it every chance I get.

In truth, this was not my very first job. I worked summers at a local day camp for years and continued to work there for all four years of college right up to weeks before I started with Andersen Consulting. Camp vs. a smelly toilet – it was an easy decision.

Now You: It’s one thing to have lived through an experience and another to intentionally look for the learning. Let’s do this.

Break the Frame Action

1. Pick a job you held over the course of your career and don’t worry about how long you stayed.
2. Grab a pen and paper (or your computer) and list out as many lessons learned as you can in three minutes. Shoot for a minimum of 10 and the sky’s the limit.
3. How did those lessons shape your values?
4. How did those lessons (and, of course, your experience) shape you as a leader?
5. What would you go back and tell your first boss given the opportunity (and a guarantee of no penalty)?

What are some of your biggest lessons from that first job? Share a few here. Would love to hear them.