First Job "Bob"

 This post is dedicated to my amazing D.C. work family.

Our time together profoundly changed my life and I will never forget you.

Photo Credit:  Paul Ordal, talented D.C. friend and work brother.

I recently read an excellent "My First Job" feature on Linkedin.  A series of posts written by successful professionals reflecting on life lessons acquired during their first jobs.  My favorite story comes from Shane Atchison, a child candy entrepreneur and current adult CEO of POSSIBLE.  In his post, "I Started a Candy Mafia," Shane shares how at a young age he learned that "Jolly Ranchers sold big."  This got me thinking...

In high school, I held the typical small town right of passage fast food and retails jobs.  Anointed by my coworkers as Queen of the Wendy's Superbar, I could rehydrate pasta in record time.  "Look mommy, there's that Wendy's lady!" I heard on more than one mortifying occasion.  Certainly not how I wanted to be immortalized in my sophomore yearbook.  The next summer included a graduation of sorts to retail at a small chain department store.  I could flat board fold graphic tees better than balance my register at store's close.  Both jobs taught me the basics of pay per hour work and provided some financial independence, but I had bigger first job ambitions.

While in college and mostly by happenstance, I became active in student politics.  I spent my spring breaks not in Florida or Mexico as did my friends, but Washington, D.C. with a group of like-minded students sharing the importance of state university higher education funding with congressional staff.  Several promises to pass our concerns on to the Congressman later, and if lucky a photo opt, we were back on campus schlepping our backpacks towards commencement and hopeful futures.

Many a DC weekend and pay check was spent in Georgetown.

There is nothing more breathtaking then the Capitol dome at sunrise.  Seeing this celebrated symbol on my first student trip was the beginning of a love affair from which I've never quite recovered.  The hallowed history of our forefathers; stunning neoclassic architecture of postcards; infinite heritage housed in Smithsonian museums; never ending Mall where Martin Luther King, Jr gave his famous impassioned speech; and Georgetown, oh how I love thee!  Though it was seeing by chance Richard Nixon visit the Senator floor and hearing his distinct and iconic voice, "Nice ta meet cha!" that Jerry McGuire completed me.

Fueled by young idealistic resolve and a seemingly endless supply of 20 oz Diet Mountain Dews, I spent my junior year plotting a more permanent path back to D.C.  Much like a TV politician, I worked every angle.  Who knew that begging and pleading could be presented on a resume as "excellent networking skills?"  Early that spring, I found a personal champion in a Senate office manager.  A truly kind and supportive woman who saw something redeemable in a bit precocious political science major with the uncanny ability to leave a record number of voicemails in a day/week.

She called one rainy, spring quarter afternoon with the good news - an offer for an internship with a Senate committee.  This committee would lead the Hill's publicity charge on healthcare reform during my three months in Washington.  Regardless of personal ideologies, it was surreal seeing the First Lady, and once the President, at committee meetings and press conferences.  Between meeting my political idols, answering phones, daily yogurt runs, watching live coverage of O.J. Simpson's white van, and a fairly impressive social life in Georgetown's on campus housing it was the best summer ever.

 Where it all started, the Senate Hart Office Building.

Though I never quite mastered the transfer/release of the phone system while at the committee, the following summer and right before my July graduation, I was offered my first professional full time job.  A staff assistant position for the same Senator as the office manager/internship angel.  My primary responsibility, ironically, would be answering phones in the front office reception, or as I later would find, the epicenter of those who demanded to meet and share their concerns (no matter how interesting) with the Senator.  As I walked through the metal detector on my first day, as I would for the next four years, I knew I was home.

Oscar Wilde once said, "Experience is the name we give to our mistakes."  The name I give to my biggest D.C. work mistake is "Bob" (names have been changed to protect the innocent - me). Certainly not a shining first job moment, but in hindsight, its never fails to impress on the I-can't-believe-you-did-that-scale.  One afternoon, I was answering phones when I picked up a call from "Bob."  Thinking it was a fellow staff member notorious for his prankster ways, I sarcastically asked, "Why are YOU calling?" when the caller identified himself as "Bob."  In a pleasant but mildly confused tone "Bob" responded, "pressing matters of state."  I immediately laughed and I asked, "What pressing matters of state could YOU possible have?"

There was a sudden and eery silence.  As I looked from my computer to the phone dashboard, my heart sank.  The call wasn't coming from inside our Hart office pictured above, but the Senator's office in the Capitol.  I immediately hung up on Senator "Bob" and waited teary-eyed to hear I was getting fired.  That didn't happen, but just to be on the safe side, I never told anyone about this little phone foible until my last day in the office several years later. 

Always wearing a headset, coworkers affectionately
called me "Debbie the Time Life Operator."

Aside from "Bob," I had other significant life and career learnings during my first year on Capitol Hill:  kindness goes a long way; respect is earned not given; complete and total loyalty to those covering for dumb first-timer mistakes is assumed; never argue with a constituent claiming to have a metal plate in his head signaling outer space; take headset off before leaving the office to use the restroom; oh, and let me re-emphasize ...  Never ask anyone what "pressing matters of state" they possible could have.  They just may be a Senator and your boss.

I would love hear your stories!  Tell me about your first job "Bob."