LABJ FORUM: First-Time Experiences at Work

A person’s first paying job is always a character-building experience. Whether it was mowing the neighbor’s lawns or delivering food in trucks you didn’t know how to drive, the Business Journal asks: What was your first job?

Eric Schotz,

President and CEO

LMNO Productions

My first job was as a tennis instructor when I was about 15 years old. I taught tennis to rich women in the San Fernando Valley. It taught me to bend my knees and follow-through, which I have found to be an essential education for every job I have had since. I also worked as a box boy for a market on the Westside. Then it all just went down hill from there.

Dean McGill

Group Vice President,

American Express Financial Advisors Inc.

I was an entrepreneur at 12 mowing lawns where I grew-up in rural Northern California. I charged between five and 10 dollars a job and while I made money, my dad actually lost money spending it all on gas to drive me from one customer to another. I was allowed to keep the money and I was really into motorcycles so I bought my first motorcycle. I did learn a valuable lesson about customer service and follow-through with this job. It taught me that good service got you repeat business.

Kevin Mayer

Chief Executive, Media and Entertainment Practice

LEK Consulting

I was an usher at a movie theater an after school job in Bethesda, Md. I remember watching the first “Alien” film about 300 times. I learned to strategically position myself in the way of scared screaming women running out of the theater. I was also in sales. I went house-to-house selling my services as a window washer.

Iris Solomon

Founder/Principal

Swingset Press

My first job was right out of college. I was a secretary/production assistant to the executive producer of a New York-based film company, ironically called Iris Films. I learned something from my boss that I have carried through my career and particularly as a manager of my own business. His daily mantra was: “Double-check everything and never assume anything.” I have found it to be a good habit to get into.

Gary Lazar

Managing Director

California Technology Ventures LLC

I delivered barbecue food for a place called Smoky Joe’s in Tarzana, which is no longer in existence. I lied to get the job. I was 16 years old and they had two delivery trucks that were stick shift and of course I said I knew how to drive stick shift when I didn’t. The dead give-away that I had lied was the lingering smell of burning brakes when I had finished my delivery. I had left the park brake on the whole time.

Randall Green

CEO

Vedo.com

I was hand-rolling bagels for Bagel Nosh in Encino. As you entered the shop, customers could see us performing our craft as we were on display in this huge glass-paneled cage. It really was a craft though, and it gave me an appreciation of all things “handcrafted,” which I have still have.