First Jobs
True Tales of Bad Bosses, Quirky Coworkers, Big Breaks, and Small Paychecks
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In First Jobs, reporter Merritt Watts collects real stories of early forays into the workforce from a range of eras and industries, and a diversity of backgrounds.
For some, a first job is a warm welcome to the working world. For others, it's a rude awakening, but as these stories show, it's an influential, entertaining experience that should not be underestimated.
A future mayor shining shoes, an atheist shilling Bibles, a housewife heading to work during World War II, a now-famous designer getting fired-we all got our start somewhere. A first job may not have the romance of the first kiss or the excitement of a first car, but more than anything else, it offers a taste of true independence and a preview of what the world has in store for us.
This book transforms what we might think of as a single, unassuming line at the bottom of a résumé into a collection of absorbing tales and hard-earned wisdom to which we can all, for better or worse, relate.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this slender, innocuous volume, Watts pulls together 50 short first-person narratives about first jobs, edited from interviews she conducted. Her own first gig was telemarketing, hoping "no one would answer , saving us both the pained exchange that was to follow." A school counselor recalls that as a teenager in Florida, he would tag along to work with his father, a pet cemetery caretaker. A graduate student working behind the counter in an Aspen, Colo., shop served former president Bill Clinton and California's then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on her first day. A 16-year-old boy in a small town in Illinois was tapped to be the local newspaper's sports editor during WWII. Watts balances these everyday anecdotes with others from more famous people. Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, for example, recalls shining shoes downtown when he was six years old, and designer Jonathan Adler worked the fax and photocopy machines at a talent agency in New York City before hitting on his true passion. What this collection offers in breadth, however, it lacks in depth, with the brief, episodic format not allowing for much background information or truly significant insight.
Customer Reviews
Awesome book
It's such a good book about bosses, coworkers, and anything else in the corp world. If you work in the corp world this book is for YOU!