Oct. 21, 2011
Last week I had the opportunity to work at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. My roommate, KB, had worked there previously and asked me if I would like to make a few extra bucks over the break and I couldn't resist her offer. Little did I know that the job we would be doing would be important enough the snag us free tickets to the race!
We started out working the first day in the Speedway Club which was full of high class race car fans that redefined my image of the typical cutoff sleeve tee and ripped jean shorts wearing type of man who holds up a three for Dale any moment he can. We told people where to sit, answered their questions and got lots of offers to dance with drunken men.
Fortunately for us, the second and third day of the race we got to do something that could actually be related to our majors. Our job was to do Toyota promotional work four and five hours before the race began. We had to talk to fans as they walked through the gates and get them to let us scan their driver's license to sign them up for a 2012 Toyota Camry. It was a cool job to have because it forced me to turn on my persuasive hat and engage in conversation with tons of people. I was surprised how many conversations I got into about where people were from by looking at their driver's licenses and how many people did not want to sign up because it was a Toyota. I told them they could sign up and if they won I would take it off their hands since they didn't want a free car.
Not only did we do work for a major international company, but we did a great deal of networking as well. The Director of Advertising, David MacDonald, was the man in charge of the Toyota promotion and I made sure to ask him about internships offered at the speedway. He was kind enough to get the internship coordinator's information for me. I made sure to act professionally and went up to him at the end of the promotion to shake his hand and thank him for the opportunity.
Come to find out, having good business etiquette made a good impression on Mr. MacDonald because our boss told us that he was bragging on KB and I the next day. Our boss also told us that he put in a good word for us with several departments at the speedway. We're keeping our fingers crossed that internships will work out for us both!
P.S. NASCAR is much cooler live!
My roommate, KB, and I before the race in our uniforms inside Charlotte Motor Speedway
