Rockstars Wanted (to make Sandwiches?)

With the rest of the money I hadn't burned up while living in Nashville, I decided to drive around the entirety of the Florida peninsula in January 2009.  

From Orlando to Amelia Island all the way down to Miami & Key West on A1A & back up through the Everglades, Fort Myers, Clearwater & Tampa around to Orlando again.  It was quite the one-man adventure that left my GMC Sonoma & I in search of money to keep the Florida dream alive & well.   

So, I moved into the spare room of my SIU friends, Misty & Adam's two-bedroom apartment & started looking for work.

I searched around Craigslist & after a one-day stint as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman (that yielded $0), I was skeptical of a heading that read, "Calling All Rockstars."  

The paragraph below the heading offered more promise though, offering a trainable position, with plenty of growth potential at a brand new Jimmy John's sandwich shop opening in downtown Orlando.  I responded to the ad & went downtown for an open interview.

"So what are your strengths & your weaknesses?" Brian asked me between the sound of wailing saws.  

"I'm a good people person- ask anyone," I said.  "And...I'm not good at waking up early."

He laughed & took a look at my resume.  "So, you worked at a Sub Express...in Illinois.  You from there?" I nodded.

"My girlfriend grew up in Chicago.  I went to visit once.  It is cold as hell there," he said.

"Well, that's one reason I moved to the south," I said.  We talked about the weather for a while, Florida in winter, that kind of stuff.  I just kept pushing him off the subject of work, so he knew that I was a people-person after all.  

The key is to show plenty of enthusiasm for whatever you talk about in an interview.  And, it must have worked because he cut the conversation short & stood up.

"Well Zach, I'll be honest with ya, you're the kind of person that we're looking for to get this operation on the ground & running," he said.  "But, I still have to interview a lot more of candidates & talk to my boss.  Is this 309 number a good one to reach you?"

"Yep," I said.  We shook hands & I walked out of the bottom floor jobsite with a smile.  It was a bright & clear February day.  Is still had about twenty minutes left on the parking meter, so I wandered down Orange Avenue & over to Lake Eola.  

I had never worked downtown in a city before, with the hustle & bustle of city buses & traffic lights.  At age twenty-five, I felt right at home with the tall buildings, banks & parking garages.

Brian called me two days later & I started working at Jimmy John's two days after that.  On my first shift, we got our uniforms (two black t-shirts & a black baseball cap with "JJ" printed in red) & all twenty-five or thirty of us new hires, walked to several intersections & handed out free sandwich samples.

It was the first day of a job that would change the entire course of my life.