My First Job: Moorhead Mayor Jonathan Judd

Written by: Jennifer Gades

Photo by Hillary Ehlen

Your first job. For some, it may have been fun and carefree. For others, it may simply have been a way to get some cash in your pocket. Whether you enjoyed your first job or not, it was likely the cornerstone of your career. This is where we got our first glimpse of the real world, learned how to manage money and maybe even decided what we wanted to do when we grew up and got “real jobs.”

In the following sections, join us and we hear from local business owners and leaders who share the lessons they learned at their first jobs. These fun and insightful reflections inspired us to delve deeper into the recruitment process.

Jonathan Judd

First Job: Bagger at Northport Hornbacher’s Foods

Current Job: Moorhead Mayor, Dad, Husband and Attorney at Judd Law PLLC

10 Lessons I Learned…

1. Teamwork. The ability to work together and support your co-workers and managers when times were busy or short-staffed.

2. Responsibility. We also stocked shelves, mopped floors and did many other tasks. Our floor managers did a great job setting high expectations to make sure that employees worked to the best of their ability.

3. Pride. Northport Hornbacher’s was one of North Fargo’s community grocery stores. I wanted it to look good and be a great place for our North High parents and North Fargo residents to shop.

4. Customer service. I always walked the customer to the item when they couldn’t find it. I went to get an item when a customer forgot and remembered it while in the checkout line. The customers really appreciated that.

5. Rotate your stock. I still check food expiration dates to this day. We were taught this is a reflection upon our store.

6.“Face” the aisles. This was especially important to elderly folks (and vertically-challenged folks like me).

7. Always check the egg cartons for broken eggs. It’s always good to double check for the customer just in case.

8. Always ask “paper or plastic.” Besides being recyclable, these bags have many uses such as carrying other recycling items and they make great trash bags for “mini” trash cans.

9.Try to keep all the cold items together. You never knew how far customers were traveling with their food. It helped to keep the food cool, especially on the hot days.

10. Place the bread on top of the groceries. I made the mistake of not placing the break on top once and a customer was not pleased. It never happened again!

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Jennifer is a University of Minnesota journalism graduate. She has worked in publishing industry as well as in sales and management for over 10 years. Jennifer is currently the Associate Publisher of Fargo Inc!.