Your Answers to Our "First Job" Question
We asked you…
1. What was your first job out of college? What field are you working in now or did you retire from?
2. What advice would you give to people at their first job after graduation?
And you said…
1. My first and only job right out of college has been as a controls, measurement and automation engineer for Royal Dutch Shell Group. I have moved from plant engineer to project discipline engineer to project engineer lead to senior consultant over 19 years and will retire in 2010.
2. If you haven't figured it out, a serious work ethic and the ability to get along with your fellow workers will take you over the top. These are rare character traits in the grads of the last decade but these will be your keys to success.
--RC Reese Jackson, '88 BSCP, Orange, California
1. I am still living in Vail, working in the marketing department of The Resort Company, managers of 26 hotel and condominium properties in Vail, Beaver Creek and Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I have been with the company now for over eight years and love it. I have flexibility and put my kids and family first.
2. Have fun, stay young, ask questions, learn, expect the unexpected. Live, play, travel, see the world, don't get too serious too soon. You are still young—enjoy it. The first job is not forever—just a stepping stone or a break from expectations.
When I graduated in 1993 I was a Marketing Intern in the technology transfer department at Sandia National Laboratories. I was excited to apply for a permanent position with them but was told that they do not hire "kids" in that department. It was devastating, but I figured since I was looked at as a "kid" I was going to go be one for a while. I moved to Vail, Colorado and was a ski instructor for 3 years. It was the time of my life! Once I got to know Vail well enough I moved into the hospitality industry—banquets, front desk, concierge, sales and, currently, marketing.
--Liz Pyke, '93 BBA, Vail, Colorado
1. I was retired from the UNM College of Education on July 1, 2007. But my first job after college in 1971 was with the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, DC. I was commuting by DC transit buses for the first time. As I waited at the bus stop near the dorm I was living in in DC for my first day at the Commission's branch in Bethesda, Maryland, a torrential rainstorm hit. and being a native New Mexican transplant, I did not have an umbrella. When I showed up to work that first day for my badge photo, there I was with hair drenched and pretty mini-dress all wet.
2. (See 1.) Make sure you own an umbrella if traveling by bus for your first job after graduation.
--Susanna Gilbert, '93 MA, Albuquerque
1. I'm currently working in the software industry for The ORACLE Corporation, here in Redwood Shores, California. I've been in the software industry my entire professional career. I've been lucky enough to have a great job for a great company that has enabled me to travel the world.
2. The only advice I would give people at their first professional job after graduation is to be REALISTIC! Just because you are now a college graduate does not mean that you are going to be recruited for a starting position in an industry with a starting salary of $150k. Don't I wish! If that was the case, I would have retired by now! That kind of money takes time to earn, so be patient and work hard. It will come eventually.
The second piece of advice I would give is to be kind to everyone in your first professional job. Don't burn any bridges or create any enemies. If you choose a particular industry as a career and plan to STAY in that industry for quite some time, you're going to see a lot of the same players as you move from job to job. You might end up working at a new employer having to report to someone you don't like. If you've bad-mouthed them at previous employers, you're going to have a hard time liking your new position.
--Adrian Arteche, '85 BA, San Francisco, California
1. I retired from coaching football after 28 seasons in February of 1991. Since that time I have been selling commercial real estate in North Georgia.
My first job out of UNM was as a teacher-coach at Gallup High School in Gallup, New Mexico. I spent four years as a high school teacher coach (football & wrestling), one year at Gallup and three years at Washington High School in Fremont, California. While coaching at Washington, I received my master's at San Jose State. I then returned to New Mexico for one year and coached football as NMMI in Roswell. From Roswell, we moved to Williamsburg, Virginia where I spent three seasons on Marv Levy's and Lou Holtz's staff at the College of William and Mary. I left Williamsburg in June of 1971 and moved to Columbus, Ohio where I spent five terrific seasons on Woody Hayes' staff at The Ohio State University. In 1976, I joined Dick Vermeil's staff with the Philadelphia Eagles, where I was to coach for 10 seasons, including the 1980 season, when we played in Super Bowl XV. After the 1985 season, we moved to Atlanta, where I coached the linebackers with the Atlanta Falcons for four seasons. 1990 was my first season since leaving UNM after graduation in 1963 where I did not coach football; during that year I received my real estate license in the state of Georgia and started selling commercial real estate in North Georgia. During the 1991 season I returned to coaching in the NFL for one season with the San Diego Chargers. Since February of 1992 to the present, I have lived near Gainesville, Georgia and have sold commercial properties in North Georgia. I am not retired and don't plan to retire for another 10 years unless my health fails me. I love working with people and for most of my adult life, I have loved what I was doing. I loved the players I coached at all levels. I loved the competition and the great coaches that I had the privilege of working with. Commercial real estate is a people business, a relationship business not unlike coaching. Successful coaches, just like many successful business people, build their relationships on trust. You do that with your life and you will be able to handle gracefully both victory and defeat. Micah 6:8 tells us “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.”
Get out of bed every day and give it your best shot. Learn from your losses—there will be many—and be humble in victory. It ain't all about you.
--Chuck Clausen, '63 BSHP, Flowery Branch, Georgia