My First Real Job

We said goodbye to one of our interns at work today. She's starting her first real job tomorrow. (Good luck, Christina! We'll miss you.)

As I type this, Mr. Sunshine is on - a show about the manager of an arena. My first real job was in an arena - I worked for a minor league hockey team in the sponsorships department. Many people are under the impression that working for a sports team is glamorous. It's not. But I do have many fond memories of my first real job, and I certainly had experiences that many people do not get to have.

For example:
- I got to climb on top of the arena's center-hung scoreboard
- I worked two All-Star games (one for our hockey league and one for our soccer league)
- I walked past a pen of bulls when the rodeo was in town (scared the bejeezus out of me - I didn't know they were there!)
- I got to run on-ice promotions (biggest pain-in-the butt: chuck-a-puck)
- I was one of the people who blew up and deflated the giant gorilla our soccer team ran through before each game
- When we sold the naming rights to the arena, it was my job to make sure that everything with the old name on it got changed to the new name

I could go on, but you get the idea. It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of running (literally) around the arena on game nights, lugging boxes of promotional items around, working lots of overtime, climbing lots of ladders and using lots of spray adhesive (to hang dasherboard signs). I still work a lot of overtime, but I do a lot less running, lugging, climbing and spraying (thankfully!).

What was your first real job like?