My First Job

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So that inconsequential middle manager loser from the last chapter actually hooked me up with an interview. I did my research on this company. It was towards the beginning of the dot com boom.

Back then you get five or six people together and work 80 hour weeks to put up a website and then cash in by going public. A lot of people retired based on that.

Well I didn’t know how to program a computer, but I wanted in. I put on my “killer” business suit. The one where the top drops a little too low and the skirt is a little too high. When I sit down it isn’t possible to hide what so many want to see.

I walked into the place. It was a large room with for or five dividers in it. There were about ten people working. All looked like they could use a bath. There were cots in the back and a ping ball table as well as a foosball table. In the back there were three of them playing video games on a big screen. It looked like it was play time.

When I walked in the place stopped. A couple of the guy’s jaws dropped and the one girl that was in there gave me a dirty look. I guess I was infringing on her territory.

“Hello, Ms. Norton.” A man who was about five years older than me and had on business casual attire walked over to me. “My Name is Mr. Nichol, but everyone around here calls me Joe.” The man continued.

He was obviously in charge from the way he carried himself as well as how the other people treated him. It looked like he played hard and worked hard. I was immediately attracted to him.

“We are very informal around here. So I am going to have you talk to everybody and then you can come in and talk to me about whether you think it is a good fit.” Mr. Nichol said.

“I look forward to it.” I said while shaking his hand and bending down just far enough for him to see a little more cleavage than he should see. Mr. Nichol’s eyes stayed connected to mine.

So the group had me sit in an office chair while they were standing and sitting in various configurations. One guy was sitting on the floor, Carl. I could tell he liked me immediately. He is a good guy who works hard, but he had a family and thus was limited in how much he could help himself, let alone help me. Carl bent over backwards to help me later get acclimated to the business. He was always talking about his kid and wife and trying to get me to his church. It’s too bad the corporate world chews up and eats up guys like that for dinner. Carl left the company before it went public because he had to take another job with a marginal increase in pay. That other company laid off Carl. Last I heard he was trying to be a preacher in a store front somewhere.

Over in the corner was Larry. Larry was always joking. Even in the interview I had him pegged. He was good for nothing, he hardly worked, and he basically provided comedy relief. After the company went public, he made enough money to retire, which is good for him, the board of directors put in new managment that fired him soon thereafter.

There were about three of those nerdy computer techs. They did all the work, and I soon found out made the least amount of money. Whoever told you the lie that when you graduate the haves become the have nots and the meek inherit the world are lying. These three guys worked longer hours than anyone else and both of them are still working as lowly tech guys. One of them was named Barry. He was always bumping into me and trying to look up my skirt. He was an asshole who was always talking about women not wanting good guys like his tired ass.

Then there was the one woman in the bunch. Mary. She was hard nosed. She knew what she wanted and knew that what she wanted was going to have to go through these guys. Besides the techs she worked the hardest. She dressed like the boys and had a hair cut like the boys. I wondered if she was as attracted to me as Barry. I would find out later. She asked me, “I can see from your resume that you don’t have a technical background. What do you want to do here?” After surveying the look of that mess of loosers, I said, “I want do be the public face of your company. All of you are busy working hard producing great product, but you need someone who can interface with the public.”

Mary didn’t look to happy, but I could tell she was trumped.

Then it was time to talk to Mr. Nichol. He asked me to come back with him into a makeshift office made of a couple of dividers.

I said, “Well, Joe, I believe that you have a great need for public relations and advertising. Maybe not now, but you will need it. And when you need it, you will need someone like me.”

“Becky I am…”

“I didn’t say you could call me Becky.”

Joe laughed confidently, “You are right, You didn’t say that, did you,” Well Ms. Norton, I need to talk to my team and see what they think. You are definitely an impressive young woman.” He said.

“And you are an impressive man.” I said

We walked to the front door and Joe shook my hand and said, “Ms. Norton, We will be in contact with you. Here is my business card. We don’t have a human resources resources department, so please call me if you have any further questions.”

I leaned forward and said, “You can call me Becky.”

Joe laughed.

They called me back within a day and gave me a made up position as their secretary. Surprisingly Mary was one of my champions. Both Mary and Joe fought for me while the guys were scared that I would cramp their style. Their style was farting and dropping food on their clothes. These folks didn’t realize that I was soon going to be the second in command. The lesson today is don’t be afraid to start low, if you have a plan that will take you high.

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