U.S. Toy Company

You may have heard of this small company if you live in the Kansas City area.  It's a great place to buy all sorts of party gifts, regular toys, pointless toys, and magic tricks.  They have a store open to the public at 103rd and State Line, but they also have a huge warehouse for all the customer orders that come in via mail, phone, or the internet.  I started out unloading trailers and stocking freight.  I then moved up to checking in the freight as it was offloaded and telling stockers where it goes.  I was there about a year when the company bought a new computer system and warehousing software.  They needed someone in the Receiving Department to use the computer to do various things.  I put my name up for the job and got it.  This was my first official foray into the world if IT.  Another year went  by and one of the computer folks in the warehouse office quit, so suddenly that job became available.  Once again, I put up for the job and got it.  More responsibility came my way, and people looked to me as some computer genius.  I didn't mind.  I just did my job, made things run smooth, and went home.  In late '98, the Operations Department Supervisor left to go work in Purchasing, leaving a vacant position in the office.  Myself and the other Division Operator submitted our names for the job, as did the other Operators in the departments.  It only stood to reason that either myself or the other Operator I worked with get the job, mainly because we've worked with that particular person for a lengthy period of time and we already knew what they did and what needed to get accomplished.  To make a long story short, I was the best qualified for the job, but I wanted too much $$$.  For whatever reason, the other Operator didn't get the job.  As a matter of fact, no one who was even remotely qualified, got the job.  It was given to someone in Customer Service.  Being a diligent worker, I already had a couple leads elsewhere to begin with.  So...the next week after getting back from lunch, I gave them my two weeks notice.  Time to move on.

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