How Former Jobs Helped Shape a Top Sacramento REALTOR

What kind of former jobs have helped to boost the career of a Sacramento REALTOR in the year 2014? I thought about that yesterday as I drove around Elk Grove in the rain after listing another home for sale. The jobs that I held as a kid certainly helped to prepare me for the career I enjoy today. I got my first job at 16, followed by two more jobs at age 17 that helped put me through my senior year at high school — because I had my own apartment at that age. My life is so different now than it was in the year 1970.

My first real job was as a counter waitress at the Tick Tock Diner, which was located on 6th and Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis. All of my friends thought I was a nurse because I wore a uniform and a hat. I recall hauling a dishrack of glasses, and stopping to slip a nickel into the jukebox on the counter to play I’m Free, by The Who. And freedom tastes of reality. It made me stop dead in my tracks. I wasn’t free. I was chained to the counter 8 hours a day; it made me realize the price of freedom. We all pay a price.

By the time I became a senior in high school, I needed two jobs to pay for my apartment. Both were part-time, each four hours a day. The first was selling magazines over the phone as a telemarketer. We received bonuses for our sales. This job helped me to learn how to effectively engage with people on the phone. I often veered off the script we had memorized and talked to people, like they were real people and not a target for sale. I sold a ton of magazines. It was called: “smile and dial.” I dialed a lot, got hung up on a lot, received wrong numbers, busy dial tones and no answers. But I did not give up; I met my quotas and exceeded them. I hated this job because except for closing sales, the rest of it was boring.

My other job was as a teletype operator at Northwestern Bell. This involved typing codes on cards for phone installation orders on a huge machine the size of a small refrigerator. I quickly memorized the codes. I also learned to type more than 100 WPM. I had to sit in a chair and type for four hours straight. I hated this job with a passion, but everybody around me said it was my ticket for a full-time job in management at Ma Bell. My coworker went on to achieve that status. On the path to college, I chose instead to work full-time as a telemarketer. It was the lesser of two evils and, for years, I thought I had made the wrong choice.

Both of these jobs, the telemarketing and the teletyping, definitely prepared me for a profitable career today in Sacramento real estate as a Sacramento REALTOR. Today I type faster than anybody I know, which means the words from my brain hit the screen with rapid speed. The sales aspect, the thrill of closing, well, that has helped to propel, and I still love talking with people today. Real estate is a people business. Homes are just the commodity we move. I hope if you’re looking for a Sacramento REALTOR, you call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.