First Job

"First jobs are usually the worst," at least that is what I have always been told. Never did I ever believe that saying until I experienced my first real job. When growing up as a kid, my older siblings always held jobs throughout high school. It was something that I was sure I was going to do, hold a job in school like my older brother and sisters did. I never knew that a job could be so irritating.

It was the week before I had turned sixteen, and I was more excited than ever, because I knew that I would soon be able to hold my first job. My parents told me that holding a job while in high school came with a lot of responsibility, and if I could keep my grades up I would be good. I was so excited, I jumped on the computer and started searching for job openings. I came across the retail listings, and I found what I thought would be perfect for me, a courtesy clerk position at a department store. I filled out the application and called the hiring manager the next morning. Unfortunately, she was not accepting phone calls that day, but was taking messages. I figured I would try the following day, then the next day, and the day after that. For about a week I got the managers voicemail! Leaving message after message I started to feel hopeless. While getting ready for school on my birthday my phone began to ring. Startled, I ran to it because I never got phone calls that early in the morning. It was the store calling me, I answered it and the manager asked me to come in for an interview! Without a doubt, I said yes, that's all I could think about at school that day. When the time came for my interview, my nerves got the best of me. At first I felt like I could not answer any question the manager was asking me, but I just knew I had to pull it together.

I realized that when I acted confident and loosened up, everything seemed much easier. At the end of the interview the manager asked me to stay for a second interview with the district manager who would be in shortly. I knew right away that was a good sign. Excited, I called my mom who was sitting in the parking lot waiting for me. She told me to remember to be myself. About thirty minutes passed and I started to get impatient but I did not want to stress. Finally, a lady came into the employee lounge where I was waiting and took me to the office. The interview started and I felt like I was acing it, the manager seemed to really like me. While answering one of the questions I was asked by the district manager she interrupted me and said "stop right there, it would be a pleasure if you joined our team." Shocked, I accepted her offer. I felt so accomplished, not only was it a great birthday present but it was my first real job.

Right away the human resource manager took me into a room with a few other employees. There, I filled out paperwork and met everyone that worked at the store, to top it off I was getting orientation pay for it! At the end of my orientation I was given a start date which wasn't until two weeks later, I was kind of disappointed because after having such a good day I was ready to start work right away. But, little did I know I had to get a workers permit from my school, and that took longer than I thought. Before I could get a permit I had to have a 2.0 GPA, unfortunately I was failing geometry because I couldn't understand the chapter that we were on. I knew that I had to get my geometry grade up to a C at the least. I did everything that I could that week to raise my grade, I even stayed after school every day to get help from a tutor which was rare because I hated school.

Two days before my starting date at work I had gotten my grade up to a B. I got a grade printout from my math teacher and was ecstatic to take it to the counselor who distributed the working permits. When I got to the counseling office, I saw a note on the counselor's door that was going to issue my permit. The note stated "out until next week." When I saw that I literally felt like my heart stopped. I was so let down, all the hard work I put in that week felt like it went down the drain. I went to everyone in the counseling office asking if there was anyone else that could get me my permit, everyone I asked said "no, I was just going to have to wait." What was I going to tell my new manager? I was supposed to start my new job in two days and I couldn't because I had no workers permit. I felt like I was going to lose the job I had just got.

When I got home from school that day I knew that I had to call my manager, I was so nervous. What was she going to say? It took me about thirty minutes before I could build up the confidence and hit the dial button on my phone. When I finally got through to her, I got so tongue twisted and my heart was racing. I was able to relay to her that I was not able to get my permit, therefore I probably wasn't going to be able to start when she needed me to. Hoping to get a nice heartfelt response, I felt as if I almost got the exact opposite. My new manager seemed to be annoyed,