Tomatoes? Tomatoes!
The First Job
What was the very first job you ever did? How did it go for you and why did you leave it? What lessons did you get from it and would you go back there if you had the chance?
Hello everyone, today another subject in the hive learners community. All about your first job. As a teenager, I did a couple of different student jobs, some I repeated for a couple of years in summer, other I only did one summer. My first job was, you can already guess it: picking tomatoes. First I'll tell you something why I did this job, than I'll head over to what did I learn from it. Maybe there are some lessons you could take away aswell. ;)
How does someone think: Let's pick tomatoes?
Well, It was January and my parents were telling me to go search for a student job as I was 17years old. I wasn't that motivated to do one, but my parents pushed me to do so (and nowadays I agree that it's valuable to do so, in terms of money but also in terms of lessons). As I wasn't motivated, I postponed the search and so it became already May-June. I started my hunt for a student job and figured out everything was already filled. Especially the ones nearby as I didn't have a drivers licence yet, so it had to be reachable by bike. I told my story to friends and there was one friend who told me: I did a student job at a tomato farm last year. They are always looking for students, you should contact them. I did so and indeed they could use an extra pair of hands. The wage wasn't fantastic, but it was something and my parents were happy as I had a job so yes, my first day was approaching.
How was my tomato experience?
Well, it wasn't that nice at all. There were 2 actions which I had to do the whole time, it could be a whole day of cutting away leaves of tomato plants or it could be a whole day of picking tomatoes. So I don't have to tell you, it's kind of boring work. The work was also happening in glass houses. So I was kind of lucky that it wasn't too hot outside, but inside it was over 30°C which is kind of hot for Belgian people. I don't know if you're aware but tomato plants also have some kind of green powder on them, so in the evening, I was completely covered in this power when I had to go home. Luckily I had some colleagues, atleast that was my first thought. But when I tried to talk with them, it appeared to be Polish guest workers who didn't speak Dutch, French, German or English and since I don't speak Polish, we couldn't really communicate. (It was in the time before smartphones) So yes, I really hated doing this boring job where I couldn't even communicate with colleagues. We kept on trying to communicate and at the end I was able to say the names of the days in Polish and hello and goodbye. I guess it was a small start.
What did I learn?
It's in my nature to even try to see the positive aspects of negative events. So I took away several lessons from this first work experience:
- I don't like to pick tomatoes. It might be quite obvious, but still, if you don't try it, you don't know it. I think it's also true more in general: I don't like repetitive work, I need some challenges, whatever they could be.
- The early bird gets the wurm. A saying that everyone knows, but yes, I can tell you the next years I started rather early to secure a more interesting and/or better paying student job. After several years of doing different jobs, picking tomatoes really was my worst, so I guess I learned this lesson the hard way.
- I like some social contact. During my work, I like to have some social contact. Working just on my own for a whole day without any contact isn't anything for me.
- Knowing your languages is very important. As I couldn't communicate with the Polish colleagues, it was once more obvious how important it is to know your languages. Ofcourse for an average person in Belgium it's normal to not know Polish, but still, it's true for every language. The more languages you understand, the better in my opinion.
- Having a drivers licence opens a broader job market. I was limited in searching for a job as I had to find something closeby, whereas there were better opportunities in the Harbor which is close by. As soon as I could start, I started to learn to achieve it.
Conclusion
I think it's quite obvious that I never went back for the job. As I really didn't like it. But as I always try, I atleast learned some different lessons.
Edit: Changed my picture to a copyright free picture. Sorry for first using another on which could be copyrights. Thanks @bruno-kema for the heads-up!