Whenever I pull out the “Oh yes, I got my start in the industry with Amazon.com in the late 90’s” line, some part of me feels a little guilty, a little fake, for not completing the statement with “…as a customer service rep in the call center”.

It wasn’t a glamorous job, but the couple years I spent “de-escalating” angry customers and trying to “make things right” taught me some quite valuable, relevant job skills - and ingrained in me a service-oriented business perspective that I use every day.