What if you only had one month to impress everyone, make friends, and influence people, do you think you could do it?

As you might know, I have traveled to Buffalo New York for the summer, and now that it’s drawing to an end, it is time for me to go home. This time I am taking a different route that the way over. I’m going to drive through Ontario to Michigan and then drive across the country on the I-90. (but that’s a little off topic!)

Our main business idea didn’t quite work out so I picked up a summer job here. As a seasonal worker I only had a finite amount of time to leave an impression.

The game was on, first order of business… training. I wanted to become competent with the operations and lexicon there.

My next priority was to improve/master the working skills. After training was complete I worked to become as efficient as possible with the customers.

The third task on my agenda was to offer help to other employees. While this was more of a courtesy most of the time, being useful and productive is a great habit. When you help people out, they are more likely to help you out down the road.

The last portion of my strategy was basically just talking to people. I tried to be friendly to customers, employees, delivery people, and management. Once again if people like you, they are more likely to help you later on.

I’m not going to be arrogant and say that this plan of attack impressed everyone, made friends, and influenced people. But what I am going to say is that I believe it certainly paid off.

After the first two weeks I was on friendly terms with the managers and supervisors. As I’m sure you know, this holds all kinds of perks and benefits. If you are on their bad side work can be a terrible time. It really is the difference between night and day. Of course you never want to compromise your own character to appease someone else.

Finally on the day of my last shift, the district manager came by and thanked me. He mentioned that everything he heard about me was good, and mentioned that if I ever come back to Buffalo that I would have a job.

My strategy of hard work and communication worked out well in this situation. You never know who is going to talk to who, so it’s a good idea to display the same great work ethic around everyone you encounter.

That’s how I tried to get ahead in the game. So now I ask, if you only had one month to define your image and mold how people think of you, how would you go about it?