From Delivery Driver to Startup Employee

Life post-graduation for many young professionals is a challenging thing to navigate. The world suddenly becomes the wild west. So you better grab a horse or run the risk of getting stuck in a ghost town. Not sure if that’s the best metaphor but you get the idea. For me, it was no different in those early summer months following my graduation from the University of Cincinnati in the Spring of 2019.

I spent the first couple of months as many college grads do, applying to hundreds of jobs, interviewing for far less with not much luck. Disillusioned and hoping for something, anything, I got a call from a former college professor. He had recently started an Amazon Delivery Service Partner business and he wanted to know if I had any interest in helping him out.

A few weeks later I was driving as an Amazon delivery driver and helping the business in any way I could. From delivering yard signs for the largest realty company in Cincinnati to designing websites, I was doing much more than just dropping off Amazon packages.

Despite all of this, to say that I expected to be a delivery driver post-college would be a lie. I enjoyed the work but knew I wanted to do more. However, I believed there were a lot of opportunities to be had with the company so I put my head down and went to work.

Now jump to March of 2020 and I got my shot, moving from a driver moonlighting on some projects to a manager on the team in charge of recruiting and onboarding along with much more. From March to now I have learned countless lessons and grown so much personally and professionally. We have also grown so much as a team. Beyond the Amazon business, we have done some amazing work with Zooky our innovation and marketing consulting firm, Parallel Prospects our investment matchmaking and business brokerage company, and Prime Prospecting our talent management business.

We like to say 100 businesses in 10 years, who knows shoot for the stars and land on the moon, or is it the other way around? At any rate, we have some big ideas and we are working tirelessly every day to bring them to life.

So for me, my experience since graduating has been pretty a-typical. From starting off without a direction or purpose, to delivering Amazon packages, to now working on multiple startups its been a ride the whole way through that I wouldn’t trade for anything!

For anybody out there that is at a crossroads just looking to take that next step, know if you keep your eyes and ears open and continue to push on something will come. I am still young and have plenty to learn but I’ve gotten a lot out of life through the power of working hard and seeking opportunities.

Would you like to start a new journey? If you’re looking for your next opportunity or providing opportunities, we’d love to chat. Click the Seekers or Providers link to fill out our questionnaire!