Mary Callender’s was definitely my first real job experience, and it was quite the experience! I started as a dishwasher, and man that was brutal. The first 2-weeks were rough. I didn’t think I was going to last and wanted to quit 3 days in. It was gross as I had to touch soggy half eaten food all the time. My hands hurt from the hot water and my feet hurt because I was standing for 7-8 hours straight. Not a lot of people know this, but dish washing for a big chain restaurant can be stressful. The restaurant constantly needed clean plates and pans as they only had so much, so I was never able to stop. If they ran out of clean dishes, they would come and pressure you to get them out faster. Other than washing dishes, I was also responsible for other miscellaneous tasks like preparing soups and baking cornbread when the restaurant ran out of them, which it was often. I was always on GO! GO! Mode as soon as I clocked in. The servers would pop their heads in at the back of the house and scream “We are out of cornbread!”, and I had to stop washing dishes to go prep and bake the cornbread. I had to do those other tasks as fast as possible as the longer I took to do other things, the more dirty dishes accumulated on my side. Because I was always in a rush, I ended up burning myself several times either with the oven or the boiling soup. Luckily for me, they promoted me and took me out of dish washing duties after 2-months. 

It was definitely not an easy first job, but now that I look back at it, I’m very glad I went through that experience. It made me appreciate the hard work my parents did when I was little as they had similar jobs back then. It also gave me an even bigger incentive to finish my college education when things got difficult, as I told myself I would never do that job again. Most importantly, it makes me appreciate and be thankful for the jobs that I’ve had since I graduated from college. I often forget, but my dish washing experience ended up shaping my life in a very positive way, and I’m very grateful for that.  

My first job was at Infosys, a multinational company that provides software solutions. The best part of the job was the training period which was about 4.5 months which was during the final semester of my Undergrad. It is a one of a kind experience that I still cherish and appreciate. For training we were sent to Mysore campus (my first away from my home experience) which is a proud testament to the company’s values and its soaring ambition that has a great infrastructure, a grand library with diverse collection of books,exquisite food courts, multiplex to watch free movies, bowling alleys, badminton courts, gym, swimming pool, free and comfortable on-campus stay and a multicultural environment with people from all over India. It is not just these that makes it best training program, the quality of lectures, lab work, projects and the tedious course of training that included most part of the day being in lab (Sometime would return to room only to sleep). Though it was challenging it definitely shaped us well, exposing us to technological advances and introducing to IT trends and corporate work culture. It was kind a place where we were treated both as a student and an employee (Mostly because fresh graduates were sent here for training). It was a good transition from being a college student to an employee and a great learning curve for me. Forever grateful for everything Infosys taught me.

Poor picture quality yet a great memory. 

My first job was in construction. Good ol' physical labor. I was a laborer and I liked it to start because the money was good. (I think it was $10 an hr) But, not long after I started I soon realized I did not want to be doing this for the rest of my life. Coming home sore and with a tight back and all only to wake up and do It all again tomorrow...No thank you. I would always get mad at the home inspectors who would pull up to our job site in their air-conditioned trucks and tell us what we did wrong and what we needed to re-do to pass and then leave. I said to myself "I want to do that, not this". That starts my story of going back to school, walking on the football team and everything fell into place from there. Long story short, I love physical labor when it is voluntary, not a prerequisite. I'm glad I learned that at a young age. HaHa