(23rd Entry) Where to, What next? (Part 4)

I remember being extremely upset at the comment made by the chief’s secretary. Who the hell was she to be making a comment about me? I called my friend and told him what had happened. As I mentioned the next thing I knew I had a job. But I also remember how I felt when I walked back in those doors a few years later and how the comment that she made at that time meant so much more. I remember intellectually the first comment, but I remember with feelings the second.

My first corporate job… Six years after graduating college I went to school to do post-graduate work in Accounting. Along the way I found Finance and realized that this was my true calling at the time. One day right after my finance class, I followed the professor back to his office. I had been having a difficult time with interviews and felt that getting a job with concrete skills was still going to be difficult. This specific Finance professor had been an executive in a couple of Fortune 100 Companies. I thought that he might be a good person ask some pertinent questions.

He was sitting at his desk when I walked into his office. I was in a bad mood, so I just asked my questions straight forward. I asked him, “if he was still out there in Corporate America what would it take and how could I prove myself.” He leaned back, smiled and said, “You already have.” “I already talked to a couple of clients about you.” Well that was the beginning of a great friendship as well as finding a mentor in Finance.

However, it took him a year after my finishing courses to help me get my first corporate position. In the interim, I helped him with his consulting business. In May of 1993 he was taking a block of business to a private company to have their health claims administered. He told the owner of the company that he had someone that this company could definitely use. I interviewed and was offered a job shortly thereafter. I’m not for sure when I found out the rest of the story, but…

At six months, I remember being called into the owner’s office where he called my friend and mentor. This memory is a little fuzzy, but they talked about me and the owner said that he was definitely happy with me. As it turns out, my friend had promised the owner of the company if he wasn’t a 100% satisfied with me after six months he would reimburse the company my total pay. That’s how I got my first corporate job.

Over the course of the next eleven years I worked for three corporations. The first and last were a direct result of my friend and mentor. The second was a person that had been my boss at the first corporation. I’m currently working on a book about my experiences in Corporate America! This is mentioned in the Mission Statement…

A quote from the first several paragraphs of the book…

“It was a short, but amazing (amusing) life in corporate America! I accomplished what I had set out to accomplish which was… To know that I could make it in this world, compete with others, and be successful. On April 9th 2003, although I felt defeated in many ways as I walked out the door for the last time, I also had a sense of confidence which I had never known before.”

Next blog entry… Pull the pieces together… OK! I said that last time, but this time…