Everyone remembers their first real job—in part, because it’s everyone’s first experience with a new and foreign world of work. But it’s also because those first jobs can teach us valuable lessons that will stay with us long into our careers. As alumni returned to campus last fall for reunion, we asked them to tell us about their first jobs and what those experiences taught them.

READ MORE

Dan Biederman, class of '77. I took a job in the Systems Consulting Firm, American Management Systems, and it was a very low level job for an MBA. It had to do with output to the client of a new computer system in New York City. The day after Columbus Day, no one was in the office, and I looked at the reports that had come out that were going to the client.

And it looked odd to me. There was a line missing. And the report for that month was one line low. And I said, this doesn't look right to me. So I called the boss, who was in the suburbs. And he said, oh my god, thank god you called. He rushed in.

We had to redo the entire set of reports, which almost filled the room because paper was used in those days to report computer output. And he said, you saved us a massive amount of embarrassment just because you thought it didn't look right. Thank god, I said. I was afraid to call you because I don't know what I'm doing.

He said, you had the right instinct. Thank god you called. The client never saw it. We fixed it all. So I'm now going to reward you with a trip to One if By Land, Two if By Sea, the most glamorous restaurant in Manhattan. And what I learned from it is never assume that what the bosses have done is right just because they're the bosses.

My name is Janet Clarke, AMP 111 in the fall of 1992. When I was in college, in the summer, I decided to become a waitress up in Ogunquit, Maine. And I was able to get room and board near the beach and mostly serve lobster dinners. I was taking the orders and I was putting them into the kitchen and my meals were not coming out.

And my people, who were waiting for their meals, were starting to get very upset, which would mean I would get no tips. I went in the kitchen and they still wouldn't give me meals. And I saw the chef, and he looked at me, and I started to cry. And he put his arm around me and he said, now you understand who's in charge.

Once we established the fact that they were in charge and I was working for them, my meals came out so fast. And I would share compliments, sometimes my diners would give the extra tips for them. And so I took this lesson through the rest of my three or four decades of corporate work life and always remembered that the obvious person may not be the one in charge.

John Bennion, 1977. My first job coming out of business school was right here in Boston. I joined Bain & Company. I think I was the 40th employee. I really enjoyed the work, and I left just before they created Bain Capital. So I learned something about timing. I think I learned there the importance of just personal relationships with people.

And one of the folks that I really enjoyed working with was Mitt Romney. And he was tremendous. It was just a real privilege to work with him. And then about 20 years later, I was in Salt Lake, and he came to Salt Lake to work on the Salt Lake Olympics. And he hired me, so I got to be one of the executives on the Olympic Committee. I just had a fantastic time.

David Binswanger. I am section H of 1982. My first job ever was loading tapes onto tape drives for a large bank in Philadelphia. And I'd stand in front of an old cathode ray tube, and it would say, please load tape number 746 onto tape drive number B63, which we, like, had eight rows of A-M and, like, 70 down. So I'd have to go on the tape, find the right number, stick it on the tape drive thread--it was sometimes self-threading--those were the good machines. And I feel very old saying that. But then it would come back and it would say thank you. It was nice of the cathode ray tube to tell me thank you.

And that was my first job out of school. It was a very--it was actually kind of interesting just to see, because at that time, obviously no PCs. And to see how it was actually changing the way that things were automating. Out of college, I worked for a company called the International Business Machines Corporation --some people know as IBM--and that qualified me to go to Harvard Business School. And then after that, I took another job in a family business, and I'm still in that job 35 years later.

My name is Ray Liguorie. My very first job--I was 13 years old. A new golf course opened up literally across the street from where I was living. I started working as a caddy, and then also picking up golf balls on the driving range and eventually worked in the pro shop. I ended up working there over six seasons.

And I think the thing I learned more than anything else is how to deal with difficult people. Not everybody--some of the members were great, but some of them were, you know, big egos, and they wanted everything just the way they wanted it. And they'd, you know, complain. That job really taught me how to respond diplomatically to difficult people.

Teresa K Alba Kennedy, 1992, section I. My first job after HBS was at MTV Networks. First, VH1. The president of VH1 hired me. I was his strategic advisor, and he gave me a lot of leeway. He became a great mentor--still a good friend now.

And so, I was able to create the interactive division at the very beginning before the commercial internet. I did the first deal with AOL and VH1 that funded the interactive division. And then it grew into a couple hundred person entity. And my lesson was the value of mentors. If someone is really going to give you an opportunity, take it seriously, and give it your all.

Lloyd Berutti, and I graduated in 1977. My first job getting out of business school was I went to Cincinnati to work for Procter and Gamble as a brand assistant. At that time, they had a training program there. It was…basically, your first job was very much training. I absolutely hated it because they took every person who came into the program, as somebody who absolutely knew nothing, and it was as if I never went to business school and I was starting from the ground up.

And I remember we had every memo that we ever wrote had to have five copies attached to it. The one particular memo I wrote, where I had to calculate the market share of Folger's Crystals Coffee, I didn't realize it didn't add up to 100. The final copy of the memo came back down from the chairman of the company saying, these don't add up to 100, and kind of, like, what's wrong with you? And I didn't think that was relevant.

And I just, like, what is this? They were so darned precise. So after a year of that, I said, you know, there's no way that I can continue this way. What I ended up doing at the end of the day was I ended up starting my own company, which I probably should have done from the get go. But it took me about 15 years to reach that point. It was not a happy first year after Harvard because I thought that I could do anything after being at the Business School. And I guess I was in the wrong place.

Bruce Lockenhauer, 1987, section F. My first job out of college was being a sales rep for IBM, and they taught me a lot. I came in as an Econ major. They taught me about business.

The most important thing they taught me was how to tie a tie. They pointed to one of the sales reps, who said, take him in the bathroom, and teach him how to tie a tie. I can tie one heck of a mean Windsor knot, I tell you, to this day. And, you know, how to treat people, too, is an important lesson I learned right at the beginning from IBM.

My name is Paul Gilbert, '92, section A. My first job was at Booz Allen. And frankly, it ended in a termination. I'd worked there during the summer. They said if I came back, they would pay for the second year of business school. So I agreed to do so.

For whatever reason, I said I will come back if I can have my offer moved out to Chicago, which was odd because I had never been to Chicago and had this romantic vision that I would help to revitalize smokestack industry. And I got out there and I saw it was nothing of the sort. The Chicago office was used as a way station to send people down into different parts of the country, parts that I really had no place going into.

The key learning was culture. And later, when I founded a company, and we ultimately grew it globally, culture was at the core foundation of what we were trying to accomplish. We wanted to ensure that everyone felt that their role was essential, that they were integral, and what they felt coming in on Monday morning was very, very important to the leadership.

Susan Pieper, class year 1992, section A. So my first job was working at a men's clothing store. And it was a high end clothing store, sort of like a Brooks Brothers, and I knew nothing about men's clothing. But I learned at that job how to sell. And it's been a key skill that I've used my whole life.

The trick to selling men's ties, I think, was to help the person identify just something that would make them excited-­something that would be different. Like I'd say something like, so what do you normally wear? And they would say, well, I normally wear, you know, red paisley ties. And I'd be like, oh, well then in that case, you might like this.

And it would be some fancier version of what they normally wore to take them out of their comfort zone. And I feel like I've used that just, like, I said, my whole career. So when I interview people for jobs with my company, I always ask them about their first job and what they learned.

Skydeck is produced by the External Relations department at Harvard Business School and edited by Craig McDonald. It is available at iTunes or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. For more information or to find archived episodes, visit alumni.hbs.edu/skydeck.

Post a Comment