My First Job

I can still remember walking into the empty office around 3pm on a gloomy May afternoon. There was a long row of beat up folding tables stretched out in an "L" shaped room. Off to the side was what appeared to be a conference room that doubled as an office with a glass window situated such that the inhabitant could survey the rows of telephones scattered about the tables. In all, there were at least 40 old style flesh and black colored push button phones sitting idle on the bare table top in front of empty folding chairs, none ringing.

As I walked into the errily empty room, I took comfort in the fact serial killers don't usually work out of offices. In the conference room/office was a blond man about 6 foot 2 with blue eyes and wavy hair. He looked like a surfer.

In an awkward voice I notified him I was there for an interview. I had conveniently found the ad for a telephone marketer in the local paper. Minimum wage it said. Since I had no experience and no knowlege of how else to make money other than giving blood, I thought I could as least try talking on the phone for a living.

He gave me a cockeyed smile and asked if I knew who the Monterey Park Police were. Now I had never been arrested as a youth so I wasn't intimately aware of who they were but the black and whites did cruise down the street every now and then.

In a very tired but authoritarian voice he says to me "We work for the Monterey Park Police Association. There's a rodeo on July 4th. We sell tickets. Read this."

He half heartily offered a piece of paper with about 5 sentences on it.

Clearing my throat for a command performance, in my best deep cheesy radio voice I offer: "Hello, My name is Chris_______. I am calling on behalf of the Monterey Park Police Association to invite you to the Rodeo and Fireworks show on July -" and he abruptly cut me off.

"Thats good. Minimum wage. You have to sell 20 rodeo tickets a night in four hours. Be here at 5pm ready to smile and dial."

That in a nutshell was my first job. Oh I managed to learn all the tricks. How to slam my hand down on the receiver so that it would pop up in my hand. How to interrupt a person at dinner time in a polite but firm way. But most of all I learned confidence and the ability to talk to strangers and accept rejection. You guessed it. I ended up selling 20+ tickets a night.