First Job

EMPLOYERS HAVE been complaining for quite a while now about the quality of the high school diploma.Too many of the young people who tote them into job interviews aren't literate, can't add a column of figures, don't know the first thing about comportment in the workplace and show up late or not at all.Meanwhile, teachers feel as though they are sending students out into the dark. They have only outdated information about the skills employers want, especially in the rapidly changing area of technology.

After Hunter Machin bowled his first 300 in late January, he celebrated in a pretty nontraditional way: He went home and took a nap. But Machin's perfect game was anything but traditional - after all, he was only 12 years old. While most of his fellow seventh graders at Dundalk Middle School are focusing on homework and playing with friends, Machin is busy at the bowling alley, winning tournaments against kids more than six years his senior and...

Teens soon will spill out of classrooms and into summer jobs, creating something valuable for parents. A child's first job is a golden opportunity for parents to blend lessons on saving, taxes and budgeting with a child's real-life work situation, experts say. And teens desperately need those lessons. A survey by Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy released this month found that 12th-graders on average flunked a test measuring their knowledge of personal finance basics.

Going into the offseason, Chris Davis hoped next year would bring another opportunity to be the Orioles' everyday first baseman - along with a chance at redemption. Despite having his best season at the plate - Davis set career highs in homers (33) and RBIs (85) - some early-season struggles at first led to his move from the position in late May. The Orioles used him as their designated hitter, and experiments in right field and left field worked well. But earlier this month, just after the Orioles non-tendered first baseman Mark Reynolds, Davis received a phone call from Orioles manager Buck Showalter.

Listen up college seniors, you have the upper hand in the job market this year. So that means you could be pickier about your first job, which can set the groundwork for the rest of your professional life. "I really believe that the chief value of the first job out of college is to help you figure out what you like, generally your strengths, what you're good at, and what you don't like, generally your weaknesses and what you're not good at," says Dede Bartlett, a former executive at two Fortune 500 companies who lectures on career issues to college students.

Thomas Trgovac remembers the day 27 years ago when he went to apply for his first job at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Trgovac had attained the ripe old age of 17. After he told his dad that he was going for a job, the elder Trgovac sized him up and said, "First things first: We're going to the barbershop." Exactly one haircut and one application later, Trgovac had his first gig. He remembers the lesson about how young people should look and act when seeking employment. Trgovac was born and raised in Ohio.

Margaret Lyn Nelson lines up her bottles of pills, nine in all, on the dining room table."This is what I take in a day," the 42-year-old divorced mother of two says matter-of-factly.The drugs have led to high cholesterol, aching joints, high blood pressure, mild kidney failure and cushionoid syndrome -- "what the fat woman in the circus has," a condition that added 75 pounds on what had been her slim, 125-pound frame.Nelson studies an old photograph of her former self clad in a pale pink, formal dress and says, "I look at that and I think, 'I want her back.

Frank G. Zarb, international investment banker, former U.S. energy czar and onetime gas station attendant, looks back with a touch of fondness to his first job: wiping windshields and cleaning bathrooms.That first job, fresh out of the Army, led Mr. Zarb to a position running employee training programs for the old Cities Service Oil Co. (now Citgo). And it taught him the value of mastering the basics."The dealers who checked your oil, who wiped your windshields and who had regularly clean facilities invariably did a better job [at selling oil]

ASK successful people about their first job, or their worst job, and chances are you'll hear a bunch of horror stories. But the stories will be gleefully retold by the survivors, who were fortunate enough to find out early on that those awful jobs aren't dead ends -- they're stepping stones.Truth to tell, most of us were probably pretty awful employees to start with.This everyday wisdom is in danger of being lost in the debate over welfare reform and work. The chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on welfare policy, Democrat Harold E. Ford of Tennessee, thinks no one should have to give up welfare benefits for jobs that pay less than $9 an hour.

Cornerback Bobby Blackshire compiled 265 career tackles, eight interceptions and 39 starts at Tulsa. Blackshire is one of three rookie defensive backs competing for a spot in the Ravens' crowded secondary. How would you assess your development here? I think I'm doing well. When I first came out here, I was a little rusty and a little nervous. But as camp went on, I've progressed. What's the biggest challenge in your first training camp? It's knowing the playbook and knowing where to go. Physically, it's changed just a little bit because it is a little faster and there are some big guys out here.

Maura Gillespie turns the corner beside her desk and unlocks a door to the balcony. Laid out below her, perfectly symmetrical, is the National Mall, with the Washington Monument rising like an exclamation point at the end of the expanse. "People say it's the best view in D.C.," says the 22-year-old, who graduated last month from Loyola University Maryland. Strictly speaking, the balcony does not belong to Gillespie. It goes with the office occupied by her boss, John Boehner, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the highest-ranking Republican in the country.

When you enter grandparent land, the first thing you are asked upon your arrival is, "Do they know what they are having?" By this it is meant, do the parents know what sex the baby is, not whether they are having an alien or a box turtle. The second question — and it is only asked by women of women — is, "Do you know what you want to be called?" This is a lot harder to answer, especially if you are having a hard time seeing yourself as a grandmother because you still think of yourself as a thirtysomething.

Jennifer Prosa stood patiently in a line of at least 300 people, with each person waiting just to get inside a job fair Wednesday at the Baltimore Convention Center. "I probably should have gotten here earlier," said the 27-year-old Severn resident as she surveyed the hundreds of hungry job-seekers ahead of her. If there is any telltale sign of growing unemployment woes in this deepening recession, look no further than recent job fairs across the country and in the Baltimore region. Many have drawn thousands of laid-off workers and others in search of limited job openings.

The Ravens' Sam Koch is averaging 44.7 yards per punt - an average that would exceed Kyle Richardson's single-season franchise record of 43.9 set in 1998. Even though Koch has taken a few hits from opponents trying to block his punts, it's a task that is light years better than his first job back in Nebraska. What was your first job? The first job I ever had was detasseling. You go and pull the tassels off of cornstalks, the top things on the corn. That's what we do in Nebraska and the Midwest.

It's that time of the year again: When recruiters descend on college campuses across the country to seek prospective interns and employees. There's probably not another time in your career where you'll feel so wanted by recruiters. And you have the upper hand: The job market is still relatively strong with employers expecting to hire 16 percent more new college graduates in 2007-2008, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The hard part is making sure you snag the internship or the job that you want.

Trevor Pryce has spent 11 seasons chasing quarterbacks and decking running backs. But before he became a defensive end for the Denver Broncos and the Ravens, Pryce had a job that was less lucrative and less exhausting. What was your first job? I was a softball scorekeeper at the park for a bunch of old, drunken men. It was terrible. I was probably 12, and they paid me $10 a night, and you were there for five hours watching some [dude] swing and miss. It was like, "What am I doing here?"

The Ravens' Sam Koch is averaging 44.7 yards per punt - an average that would exceed Kyle Richardson's single-season franchise record of 43.9 set in 1998. Even though Koch has taken a few hits from opponents trying to block his punts, it's a task that is light years better than his first job back in Nebraska. What was your first job? The first job I ever had was detasseling. You go and pull the tassels off of cornstalks, the top things on the corn. That's what we do in Nebraska and the Midwest.

Jimmy Haynes, pitcherCareer recordIs in his first season with the Orioles. His 191 strikeouts last season with Double-A Bowie and Triple-A Rochester were the most by an Oriole farmhand since Ken Dixon struck out 240 in 1984 for Double-A Charlotte. Named Oriole Minor League Pitcher of the Year last season. Has averaged a strikeout per inning in his five-year professional career. Selected by the Orioles in the seventh round in the June 1991 draft.Personal recordBorn, grew up and still lives in LaGrange, Ga. Turned 23 on Sept.

Cornerback Bobby Blackshire compiled 265 career tackles, eight interceptions and 39 starts at Tulsa. Blackshire is one of three rookie defensive backs competing for a spot in the Ravens' crowded secondary. How would you assess your development here? I think I'm doing well. When I first came out here, I was a little rusty and a little nervous. But as camp went on, I've progressed. What's the biggest challenge in your first training camp? It's knowing the playbook and knowing where to go. Physically, it's changed just a little bit because it is a little faster and there are some big guys out here.

Thomas Trgovac remembers the day 27 years ago when he went to apply for his first job at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Trgovac had attained the ripe old age of 17. After he told his dad that he was going for a job, the elder Trgovac sized him up and said, "First things first: We're going to the barbershop." Exactly one haircut and one application later, Trgovac had his first gig. He remembers the lesson about how young people should look and act when seeking employment. Trgovac was born and raised in Ohio.