My First Job

Since 1998 I have been living in Pleasantville, a little town around ten minutes away from Atlantic City. I spend a lot of time in the city which means that I have a variety of experiences since I first got here. The best one of all is when I started working at Ceasar's Casino.

I started working at Caesar's three years ago. I started working in the food and beverage department which is in charge of the bars and restaurants of the entire casino. My frist year, I started working as a bar-porter. I remember my first day I was so excited but I was also really nervous because I had no idea of how to work in a bar. I didn't even know how to cut a lemon.

The manager, who hired me, gave me a tour around the casino and then he sent me to a service bar. A service bar is a bar where the cocktail waitresses get the drinks to the slot players; it is one of the busiest bars. That day I was supposed to get training, and the person assigned to do that was one of the oldest bar-porters in the casino. Here is where the fun started. This guy was very selfish, he didn't like helping anybody. Anyway, as I was saying he was supposed to teach me how to do everything and as soon as he saw me he sent me to take the trash out.

Never in my life had I met a guy as mean as he was. He used to get mad whenever I asked him anything. But that was about to stop. A few months later, all the bar-porters were given the opportunity to get promoted. There were twelve of us, and we were supposed to take two different tests. The first test was a written test asking about alcohol brands, cocktail mixes, drink names, ingredients, and garnishes. The second test was in front of all the food and beverege managers. They gave us twelve drinks, and we were supposed to make them in a certain time.

As smart as I am, I was one of the bar-porters that passed both tests. Unfortunately the mean bar-porter that trained me he failed his tests. Now I am his bartender, and he takes orders from me. Honestly I try not to be mean with him, because I know it's not right, but I taught him a lesson. Never underestimate a person.

-- Alvaro Ocampo