Don't Wear Slippers to a Job Interview

On this episode of Our American Stories, it takes some time to find what we enjoy AND what we're good at. Joshua Texidor definitely found that out when he moved to Nashville.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is our American Stories, and now we bring you
a story from Joshua Texadour. You can listen to his
entire story at our website, our American Stories dot com.
It's a great one about overcoming hardship and taking responsibility
for your life. Today we bring you a piece of
his story that begins after josh decided to own up

(00:30):
on an alcohol dependency, moved to Nashville, get married, and
take his own life into his own hands. I got
to Nashville on a Sunday and I had a job
interview that Wednesday. It was working that following Monday, and
then I've basically you busted ever since that day. And

(00:52):
that was what we're talking almost three years ago. So
I interviewed for FedEx, h United Postal Service for Anomo factory,
and oh ups. I definitely went after the Postal Service
because they're always hiring, so I knew I could get

(01:14):
a job as soon as I got there from going
to the post office. And I hated it, hated it,
hated it, hated it, hated it. I hated it to
the point where I said, I I'm gonna make enough
money I will never ever have to do this ever again.
Being a package handler at a post office distribution center sucks.
It is the worst job ever. And then you know, yes,

(01:36):
I was making sixteen dollars an hour. When I tell
you're gonna you're gonna work for every single penny, You're
gonna earn every single penny from working as a package handler.
And I was on one of the harder lines because
they just see me. I'm not a small guy. So

(01:57):
I was on one of the toughest lines at the
at the job site, so I was in charge of
three and a half trucks. You got people who aren't
responsible for like two trucks. I have three and a
half trucks. And when our belt got crazy, because there's
like a our belt, there was a top and a bottom,
so you have like local packages and you have like
like a real I don't go non local packages whatever.

(02:20):
So when our local packages would fill up, I would
have to stop loading my truck, go down on the
bottom belt and help let them load that part just
for me to go back to the top of the
belt and start loading my trucks again. Because the value
was getting so crazy, we had instead of going in
at three in the morning, we were going in at

(02:42):
two o'clock in the morning. So from two o'clock in
the morning to like eight o'clock, I'm picking up boxes,
no bathroom break, picking up boxes, and I'm just like,
I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever ever do this again.
And it wasn't so much that you couldn't go to
the bathroom. I knew if I went to the bathroom
and came back, I was gonna have to play catch up,

(03:03):
so I would purposely just not cass, not go, but
you know, go. I was like, I can't do this anymore.
And then I tried to get a manager job at
dunkin Donuts terrible. I was there for two days. I said,
I'm good, I'm good. I'm not doing this anymore. So
the fun is funny. I was in a post office
and I was doing and I was doing dunkin Donuts

(03:23):
at the same time for those two days. So when
I left on the second day, the very next day,
I went to um FedEx. There's a security company there.
It's quite Allied Universal. So I started talking to HB.
I said, hey, man, like, it's how's that job? And
they're like, yeah, it's good. You know, it's not bad.
And I'm looking at them and they're getting paid and

(03:43):
that's not really doing much of anything. So I said, man,
I should just go out and I should go out
and do that. And that day I applied for our Universal.
The hiring process was great. Vote for me, it was great.
I think it's hysterical the day. The day in my interview,

(04:05):
so in the paperwork, you know, in the paperwork in
the advocation, it says, you know you need to be
clean shaving, and you know you need to look presentable.
So I went out, got a haircut. I had a
full beard cut, the whole beard off. I was clean shaving,
and you know, in my mind it's an interview, so
I have you know, I got a button up shirt,

(04:25):
I tie, I got khakis and shoes on. I go
to the building. I get to the building, I'm like,
and I'm walking past the room that I'm supposed to
go to. But in the room there's like a bunch
of people. So I'm like, am. I was like, man,
I'm in the wrong place. So a lady who sit
out a dash, she's like, hey, what are you looking for?
I'm like, I'm here to apply for al I'm here

(04:46):
for the Allied interview and She's like, oh, you're in
the right place. Man. When I tell you I'm the
only person dressed up, I'm the only person dressed up
in the entire room. I'm laughing at myself. I was like, Yo,
they cannot be serious right now, Like, who shows up
like this for a job interview. I'm the only person

(05:06):
dressed up. They had one girl in there with slippers, slippers,
she had slippers on and a special for jama pants
for a job interview. And I'm like, this girl's crazy,
you know. And I you know, I get high like
that day. And I guess from the way I presented
myself and how I did my interview. Um, I got

(05:28):
a really good job site and I ended up getting
my job site with the Country Music Hall of Fame.
It was, I don't want to say it was it
was a learning curve. It was it was like when
I first got there, so remember this is all new
to me. This is I think, this is like the

(05:48):
second or third month that I'm in Nashville, so I
don't even know anybody. And um, I was gonna quit.
I was gonna quit working security. And it wasn't so
much that I didn't like the country music Call of
Fame the leadership at the Country Music Call of Fame

(06:11):
for security, I was like, man, this this is not good,
Like it just seemed like people were just doing whatever
they wanted. I was like, I don't know if I'm
gonna make it here, but I remember I'm determined and
pretty much like they hired me as part time there,
but I ate up so many hours from people not
showing up, and plus they have events, so I was

(06:32):
I was getting like forty hours just off events and
covering other people's shifts, and they end up after three
weeks of me really you know, working hard. I got
offered a supervisor position there and I took it and
I became the firstship supervisor, and you know, I definitely

(06:55):
made some changes that weren't working because I like, I
like to do it works. I mean, people could say, hey,
you know, we've done this forever. I'm like, yeah, but
you know what worked ten years ago, it's not gonna
work today. I mean sometimes what happened last year is
not gonna work today. So you know, you have to
adapt to what's going on. So I made some changes
myself and the actual Sitement supervisor. You know, we made

(07:19):
some real strong changes, and you know, we were working
on just building a better culture and a better relationship
from our security standpoint with the client. The client would
be the Country Music Hall of Fame, and I one
hundred percent believed that we did that. And I end up,
you know, becoming the actual site supervisor of the entire thing,
and you know, running a staff of over over thirty people,

(07:43):
handling time sheets, payroll, you know, handling all the scheduling.
I think from my leadership there and you know, my
hard work there, I've definitely built better relationships with the
people at Atlis Universal Security as well as the Country
Music Hall of Fame. And like I said, reputations everything,

(08:04):
Respect is everything, and I think I've earned my respect
with people, and I think my reputation is very is
long standing with the people that I've had to work
with through my experience there. I mean, more than any
of your work ethics, it has to shine through. I mean,

(08:24):
by myself, I was a psyche supervisor, and I mean
I was doing sixty seven hours a week like steady,
and I'm and I'm doing that, but I'm also making
sure that I'm making sure that my other supervisors are
taken care of I'm making sure like the new people
are getting there hours. Like I didn't just take hours
because I could just take all the hours. I would
literally let everybody eat and then I would pick up

(08:46):
the crumbs. But everybody was getting a piece. So everybody's happy,
everybody's making money, everybody's comfortable. We changed the training at
the Hall of Fame where it was more hands on
rather than how it was before. It's kind of like,
you know, just figure it out, you know, And it was,
I mean it was it was a really really great
experience for me to be there. And like when I

(09:08):
was a slafe supervisor, anybody who came in who didn't
have a car, I made sure. I made sure like
we got a lot of young people, like, you know,
people fresh out of high school or people in college
who didn't have cars. All those people who came who
were like young people who didn't have cars, I made
sure they all got cars. And that was like a
big thing for me, was at least helping young people,

(09:30):
you know, get their accomplishments and at least pushing them
along rather than saying, yeah, you work here whatever, you know,
So I actually take pride in that. And you've been
listening to Josh Texadore, and we were all wondering what
would happen at Josh Is My goodness, See, you had
grown up right before our eyes in the first story

(09:51):
and Josh Texadoor's story here on our American Stories