Although I was not particularly close to him my father, having worked for Bank of America for many years, set up appointments for job interviews throughout the bank in San Francisco. In one of those interviews the interviewer was so mean to me. He kept repeating that I do not nearly have the background to qualify for the type of position I was looking for. He said I would at least need a masters’ degree and a second language or specialty in a given country or region to even be slightly considered. So, I was destroyed by that interview, but it motivated me, and now I have both a master’s degree and a second language. I went back to San Jose to my rooming house completely dejected.
After some deliberation, I decided to take the first management job I could find as business management was my major at San Jose State, and for the time being I had to forget about all this international stuff and pay off student debt.
In San Jose, F.W. Woolworth’s needed store managers, and I was employed as a store manager trainee.
I started out in the stockroom checking in merchandise and putting them into stock or taking them to the showroom floor. I learned how to receive goods, compare them with purchase orders, and stock them in the most ideal location and how to monitor inventory control.
From there, I moved to the store sales floor. At that time, I was promoted to assistant store manager, and I managed half the store sales floor and another assistant manager had the other half. I learned on the sales floor how to keep the merchandise out on display and meet customers.
Several things I learned at Woolworth’s. One is that I enjoyed working with the public and interacting with a lot of different people. I also learned I had a knack with managing people particularly women for some reason. I guess it is because I grew up with women, my mother and sister. The more I learned, the better manager I became and the more respect I commanded in the store, in some cases more than the store manager himself. The store manager was not particularly easy to work for, so the assistant managers who covered the other half of the store kept quitting. Therefore, for most of my time there, I had to manage both the front and rear of the store. I had over 30 people I had to manage. That was very exhausting from me.
During those years, I was still in the Army Reserves. Therefore, I was not only learning management skills at Woolworth’s, I was learning how to teach and train people in front of a group in the Reserves as well. Right in boot camp the management and motivational techniques I learned in the US military were powerful. Their management was connected to competition among Army squads and building group pride. My company had three platoons with four squads each. One squad had about seven people, and I was a squad leader. I learned that a leader has to participate just as much as the rest of the quad, he cannot sit back and let everyone else do all the work, as respect will be lost. That is something that has held true in every company I managed in. Our squads would continually compete against each other in a wide range of very detailed activities and each platoon generated its own pride. With those techniques, we were all highly motivated even though none of us wanted to be there! About 90% of that company was reservist trying to stay out of the Vietnam War and just go home.
Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話なども聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。
皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。
ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。
もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。
<ご興味のある地域を選んでいただた上で、出張報告をさせていただきます＞
After some deliberation, I decided to take the first management job I could find as business management was my major at San Jose State, and for the time being I had to forget about all this international stuff and pay off student debt.
In San Jose, F.W. Woolworth’s needed store managers, and I was employed as a store manager trainee.
I started out in the stockroom checking in merchandise and putting them into stock or taking them to the showroom floor. I learned how to receive goods, compare them with purchase orders, and stock them in the most ideal location and how to monitor inventory control.
From there, I moved to the store sales floor. At that time, I was promoted to assistant store manager, and I managed half the store sales floor and another assistant manager had the other half. I learned on the sales floor how to keep the merchandise out on display and meet customers.
Several things I learned at Woolworth’s. One is that I enjoyed working with the public and interacting with a lot of different people. I also learned I had a knack with managing people particularly women for some reason. I guess it is because I grew up with women, my mother and sister. The more I learned, the better manager I became and the more respect I commanded in the store, in some cases more than the store manager himself. The store manager was not particularly easy to work for, so the assistant managers who covered the other half of the store kept quitting. Therefore, for most of my time there, I had to manage both the front and rear of the store. I had over 30 people I had to manage. That was very exhausting from me.
During those years, I was still in the Army Reserves. Therefore, I was not only learning management skills at Woolworth’s, I was learning how to teach and train people in front of a group in the Reserves as well. Right in boot camp the management and motivational techniques I learned in the US military were powerful. Their management was connected to competition among Army squads and building group pride. My company had three platoons with four squads each. One squad had about seven people, and I was a squad leader. I learned that a leader has to participate just as much as the rest of the quad, he cannot sit back and let everyone else do all the work, as respect will be lost. That is something that has held true in every company I managed in. Our squads would continually compete against each other in a wide range of very detailed activities and each platoon generated its own pride. With those techniques, we were all highly motivated even though none of us wanted to be there! About 90% of that company was reservist trying to stay out of the Vietnam War and just go home.
Ronさんのセミナーいかがですか。苦労の多かったRon-sanの青春時代やキャリア形成の話なども聴いてみたいですね。それとRonさんが楽しみにしている出席者と皆さんとのノミニケーション。年末にはできそうですね。
皆さんがおやりになっている勉強会などに出張し講演させていただきます。
ただし、Ronさんが住んでいる東京都大田区から日帰りできるところとさせてください。
もっとも台湾でも日帰りは可能ですが。
<ご興味のある地域を選んでいただた上で、出張報告をさせていただきます＞
