Change -- it’s part of life. Sometimes we resist it. Well, in my case often times but I digress. Sometimes, we welcome it. Other times, it’s all we have left in our pocket.
Many people in their professional life undergo a career change about 5-7 times. It was exactly one year ago today that I turned the page (pun intended) on journalism as a full-time income and joined Alhambra Water as a route trainee. I graduated to route sales representative four months later:
I have not given up writing entirely, however, as I try to maintain a steady stream of content on this blog. I also freelance write for my former employer on Friday nights during football season. One year later, I have no regrets at all about leaving the newspaper industry but I love writing enough to keep it in my life. However, I don’t miss the other headaches of the newspaper industry: fundamentals of journalism have been bastardized by social media, deadline pressure, time away from family and corporate suits that don’t know diddly about sports thinking they can tell an accomplished sports reporter how to do his job.
The career change I made was about as extreme as you get -- sports reporter to water delivery. So how did I get the job? Well, I interviewed -- twice. To that end, I thank Richard Slate (Vallejo branch manager) and Tim Ramos (Vallejo branch route development manager) for taking a chance to hire yours truly.
My selling points were multiple. For openers, I saw that the newspaper industry was a sinking ship, so I did something about it. I got my Class B Driver’s License. I gained real world driving experience driving buses both for a retirement home and for a wine touring company.
I think my being proactive appealed to them but I had two more hurdles: pre-employment drug test and physical skills test. I never worried about the former but I did the latter. However, once I passed the latter, I was in the clear. Hauling five-gallon bottles of water that weigh 43 pounds is a physical job. Can 42-year old handle a job that normally goes to people in their 20s? I learned the value of having a great work ethic at an early age from my dad. Even though I worked in a white collar environment for 18 years, physical labor was not a foreign concept since I changed tires at my father’s business.
I remember my first day of training with current colleague Juan Ybarra, who was a foreman at the time but has since gone back to being a route sales rep. My body had to be thinking, “Vince, what the hell did you get yourself into?” It was a struggle the first week. In fact, by the end of the first day, I thought Juan had changed my name to “Goddammitt!”
So how has the change treated me one year later? Like any change, it has been an adjustment but I would say it’s been a good change.
The hours are long and hard, frequently working 10-12 hours per day at a physical job ain’t for sissies. However, physically, the job has whipped me into shape as I have lost 25 pounds in the process without changing how I eat -- like crap. Physically, I am in the best shape I have been since I was 22 years old. Without going into numerical specifics, the money is light years better than what I made as a newspaper reporter.
The best part of the job though is no weekends, no holidays and no evenings. That freedom adds up to seeing my family more often.
What has been refreshing is that I have gone from one of the most shrinking industries to one of the most growing ones. Even with California’s drought, the water industry is growing. The reasons are vast and include but are not limited to poor quality of tap water and people being more hydration conscious.
Change can be unsettling but one thing I learned is that when you are in a dying industry, it behooves you to make a change.
Alhambra made a mistake hiring you!
ReplyDeleteI see my blog has invited the dregs of society.
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