Remember Your First Job?

Do you remember your first real job? I am not talking about those part-time jobs in high school or college that gave you extra spending money or helped put you through college. I am talking about that first real job that led to your life’s work.

My first real job arrived four years after I graduated with a degree in English and while I was studying for a masters in theater. I was working two part-time jobs and still did not have enough money to pay my monthly bills.

Finding the First Job

I responded to a blind ad for a speech writer and heard nothing for three months. One day while I was in class, my wife took a phone call from a man who wanted to talk to me about writing policy and procedural manuals for a nursing home company. My first question was why does nursing home need a writer. I had absolutely no idea.

I also had almost no knowledge of nursing homes. I vaguely remembered visiting a great uncle in one when I was a boy. My wife had worked as a nursing assistant in a nursing home for a few months and I had heard some horror stories from her about the way staff treated patients.

I interviewed for the position and was hired, even though I knew nothing about nursing homes or about writing policy and procedural manuals. But it was my first real job using the writing skills I had learned in college and I was excited. I figured that I would work for a year and then find a better writing job. How little did I know that forty years later I would still be working in the nursing home industry.

Reflecting back on that job all these years later, I think I learned some valuable lessons from that job.

1. Your relationship with your boss is very important.

I was very fortunate that my first manager was an excellent boss. He and I clicked and were able to discuss many creative ideas. He listened to my ideas and even implemented some of them. Research today says that people will leave or stay with a job depending on their relationship with their supervisor. I learned that on my first job when I turned down a job offer because I did not want to quit working for my boss.

Connect With Your Boss

2. Learn as much as you can about the company you work for and the industry you are in.

One of my first assignments was to rewrite the Medicare manual. By the time I had finished the writing project, I had become an expert on Medicare. I had absorbed the information. Contrast that with the writer who followed me into the position and who often had forgotten the information within 2 weeks of writing about it. Which person do you think becomes more valuable to the organization?

3. If you see a need within the organization, solve it.

At the time I realized that the company had too many medical records. Everyone complained about it but did nothing to fix it. I gathered all the forms and tacked them to a wall in my office and began analyzing the forms. This analysis led to the creation of a task force of experts who helped me redesign the medical records for the company and in the process we reduced the number of forms by 50%.

I then wrote the policy and procedural manual for the forms and was assigned the responsibility of training people on the new system. All of this came about because I took the initiative to solve a problem.

Create Your Own Projects

4. You are in charge of your career.

Promote yourself. Don’t wait for others to see the good work you do and promote you. Seize the opportunities to be promoted.

Two years into my first real job I faced with the need for more money with a child on the way. I saw a need for certain skills in the organization and I wrote up a job description and proposed it to my boss. He took it up the chain of command. Within six months I was offered a new position that was only slightly changed from what I proposed. The biggest change was that I now worked for my supervisor’s boss.

Don’t wait for others. Propose new positions yourself. The worst that people can do is say no.

5. Make yourself valuable to the company and the promotions will come.

Five years after starting with the company I had developed a reputation as an honest, hardworking person with strong analytical and communication skills.

The company was going through leadership changes and a new Vice-President of Marketing was now in position. He was looking to hire a Director of Marketing Communications. I called him on the phone and expressed interest in the job.

While I did not get the position, he did offer me a different job in the marketing department and a good pay raise. One of the reasons he hired me was because of my reputation for being honest, hardworking and analytical. And eventually, in another company, I was promoted to Director of Marketing Communications.

Make Yourself Valuable and Promotions Will Come