Autobiography - NU Cooperative Education

Northeastern University is a cooperative education university.  This means it has a work study program.  During the five year program to get a bachelors degree half of the time is spent in the classroom and the other half is spent on a real life job.  Each semester is 13 weeks.  Students go to job interviews to get hired.  You write your resume and submit it to the companies you want to work for.  This is real life stuff.  My first co-op job was with the Star Market supermarket chain.  The store was located in Dorchester near my apartment so it was an easy commute.  I was assigned to the deli department.  I spent my days slicing meat and cheese.  It was a good department for me to work because I ate my lunch and dinner off the scraps that I cut. It was a huge savings not having to buy food for 13 weeks.  My second semester at Star Market I worked the front of the store bagging groceries.  Thirteen weeks of bagging groceries was not a career I wanted to pursue.  The other issue was Star Market had a short hair policy.  Men’s hair had to be cut above the ears.   That was challenging being in college in the 1970’s.  In order to comply, I greased my hair so I could comb it back above my ears.  At night when I would go out, I could comb it down and look like a normal long haired college freak.  One night near the end of my Star Market tenure, I was at a party at the TKE frat house.  My Star Market supervisor was there.  What are the odds?  He recognized me even with my long hair.  He asked if I wore a short wig at work.  I explained my hair gel program.  Fortunately it was only a few weeks until the co-op semester ended and he did not hassle me.  

My next job was as an inside salesman for Atlantic Steel in Everett.  They sold steel beams and metal plates for construction.  My job was to call engineers and construction companies and find out what steel products they needed and try to get them to let me quote them.  I sold some stuff but not much.  It was a boring job. The company had a union workforce that had an adversarial relationship with the Richards family that owned the business.  One day the warehouse foreman approached me and asked if I wanted to make a little extra money.  He said all I had to do was get an order and give it to him and not put it in the system.  He would deliver the steel, collect the money and give me a commission.  I turned him down with as much respect as I could muster.  I was a liability if I mentioned this to the owners.  Union steel workers can be physical.  I hated the job so I did not go back for a second semester.  Years later I heard that the owners two sons sold the business out from under him.  He didn’t know until the deal was done.  

My next job was with the Mobil Oil company selling tires, batteries and accessories (TBA).  I rode around with the Mobil salesman as they made calls on gas stations.  They hated having me assigned to ride with them.  I figured out they usually worked only one day per week, if that.  Their customers had to buy the TBA from Mobil as part of their franchise agreement so orders were automatic.  Every Monday I would get a phone call from my assigned salesman telling me I had the week off.  I still got paid.  My second semester with Mobil Oil was spent in the regional office.  It was the oil crisis with lines of cars wrapping around the block trying to get gas at the gas stations. My job was to ration heating oil to the heating oil distributors.  I could only approve them to buy the same amount as the previous year and no more.  Somehow Joe DeTully the heating oil distributor in Hull found out I was the person with the power to get him extra heating oil over and above his allotment.  He told me he would deliver a full tank of free heating oil to my aunt Lil.  I politely refused.  At the end of the semester my supervisor told me that every one of my accounts was being audited by the accounting department to insure accuracy.  Honesty is always the best policy.

My next co-op job was life changing.  In my junior year (1973) I finally decided that good grades matter and I should start thinking about a career after I graduate.  I took my job search this semester seriously.  Northeastern provided a list of companies that were hiring co-op students. I thought that working for Wallace Business Forms would be my future.  After all, every business needs paper forms so how could I not succeed.  

I had learned from previous experience that it was important to go to some practice interviews before going to the one you wanted.  At the practice interviews I would try to control the questions and direct them to my strengths.  It would also build my confidence.  One of the companies on the list was Rust-Oleum Corporation.  I asked my father if he had ever heard of them.  He said they were a paint company and they had a line of spray paint.  It was good quality.  I signed up for the interview.  There was a third floor conference room on campus overlooking the Quad.  The Quad was a park area in the center of campus with trees and benches.  Students hung out there to get fresh air and sunshine between classes.  I was dressed in a navy blue sport coat, white shirt and tie with gray slacks.  I read the book “Dress for Success.”  The two representatives from Rust-Oleum were dressed like characters from the 70’s sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.  Herb Tarlitz was the salesman that always wore leisure suits with contrasting stitching and white buck shoes.  Dick O’Malley (regional manager) and Bud LeFabvre (local salesman) took their fashion tips from Herb.  I walked into the conference room and Dick and Bud were hanging out the window commenting on the attractive co-eds in the Quad.  I announced myself by stating “ if I get this job I will get you a date with the co-ed of your choice.”  Little did I know the interview was over.  They later told me that I was instantly their first choice.  The second part of the interview was a true lock.  The job they were offering was to work at a warehouse at 26 Blue Hill Ave in Roxbury.  They mentioned that all the previous interviewees turned down the job because Blue Hill Ave was the heart of the ghetto.  I told them I lived two blocks east of Blue Hill Ave and had a friend that lived a block away.  They told me on the spot that the job was mine.  I told them I had one more company to interview and I would respond within a week.  

I took the Wallace interview and they liked me enough to fly me to the company headquarters in New York City.  I interviewed with a half dozen staff and they explained my sales territory would be 10 floors of the Empire State Building.  I would have to move to NYC and ride an elevator all day.  A two block commute into the heart of darkness seemed like a better deal.  I accepted the job with Rust-Oleum.  Forty-two years later I retired from my co-op job with Rust-Oleum.  

The T. J. Hind Company was owned by Rust-Oleum Corporation.  It was a warehouse that supplied three delivery trucks called 4 Wheels Supply.  These trucks visited hardware and paint stores and stocked the shelves and racks with Rust-Oleum paint.  My job was to stock the trucks at the end of the day so they would be ready to go out the next day.  I helped unload the semi truck deliveries from the factory.  We also shipped a lot of UPS orders.  It was a good paying job and I enjoyed the people I worked with.  My second semester with RO was in the summer.  The 4 Wheels Supply salesman in Rhode Island had a heart attack.  I was assigned to take over his sales territory.  Five days a week I commuted to Rhode Island and drove a bread truck full of paint all over town.  After a few weeks I could do my route in four to five hours and go home.  I road my Honda 305cc Superhawk motorcycle to work most days.