Hello Jobcase people, Please understand and accept my grammar and spelling mistakes. I wanted to take a moment to tell all of you my story in an effort to give all of you some hope. I will try to make it as short as possible. I grew up in a very abusive household where both parents were not only alcoholics but also drug addicts. I was kicked out of my house in the dead of winter at a young age. The first job I ever had, I was too young to get and only got the job because I volunteered to work for two weeks for free, so that I could show the owner how well I could work. That was many, many years ago. Every job that I have ever had, i was always the first one there and the last one to leave. I would always skip lunches and breaks to keep working. I did this because I wanted to be the best at everything I did. In every job, unbeknownst to me, the management was watching. For example, I went to work at one company and made friends with a guy named Rick who had been there for two years. Three months after I started, the manager called me into the office and set me down, he told me what a great worker I was and moved me to top wage, i felt great. As I walked out Rick asked me what was going on and I told him that I just got a raise. Well when he found out how much, he was pissed because after two years, he wasn't at top wage. You see Rick did the bare minimum to keep the job and so during reviews he received the bare minimum. By the age of twenty eight I was making a six figure income because every time I would hit top wage in a company, I would go looking for more and because of my work ethic, many managers knew of me. I did not know that managers of similar businesses talked to each other and bragged about employees. Well to make a long story short, this man setting before you with a seventh grade education is now in management and in charge of hiring. I see so many people with the us against them mentality. Employees against management. Do any of you think this mentality gets you anywhere? I have never been fired from any job, I have never been written up on any job, I have never been turned down on a job that I applied for even when I was not qualified for the job. As a manager, I often ask employees to do things that are outside their job description and so very often, I get the response of "that's not my job" so I move on and ask someone else until I find the person that says he will gladly do it. Do you think the person that tells me it's not my job gets the same raise as the person who gladly does it? Nope, bare minimum gets bare minimum and above, beyond gets above, beyond. I understand not all companies work this way but many do...of course they are not going to tell you they do. So when interviewing, tell the person how you went above and beyond at your work, how you saved the day, how you were and still are the go-to person, how you strive to be the best at what you do and the steps you take to get there....tell them what you have done, not what you are going to do, everybody can say they are going to do something. Very few can say they have done things.