During my junior year of high school, I drove myself everyday after school to Golden State Overnight’s (GSO) facility in South Sacramento, a relatively new shipping company that was founded in 1995. This was my first official job, and I was proud! I was making $8 an hour as a Data Entry Operator. These were big bucks for a 16-year-old in 1998.

The facility was a warehouse that sat in the middle of other warehouses. A little before 4 p.m., I would pull up in my 1985 Honda Prelude, park, and walk through the large warehouse doors to the back office where four desks sat in a small office. One sat directly in front of a large bay window that faced the warehouse area where the trucks and packages would arrive. The remaining desks were positioned directly behind the first desk, facing in the same direction towards the large bay window. Mix 96.1, a top 40 radio station, was always playing in the background.

I was among four Data Entry Operators. We all came in at the same time, when all the trucks were scheduled to arrive throughout the evening until 8 p.m.. Our job was to collect the manifest paperwork from the drivers that would come in with their truckloads of packages and enter the data into a database on our computer systems, which were connected to a shared database. As such, we needed to be familiar with the Windows Operating system as well as type at a quick speed. At the time, I could type at a speed of 80wpm.

When first arriving, I would take any manifest paperwork that was there before I arrived and begin typing the data from the paper into a database on the computer system. This was a very repetitive process and we had to ensure that we were accurate in every piece of data that we typed to ensure that the packages were going to the right locations. As the truck drivers would come in with packages, all four of us would get up to gather more paperwork that we would need to put into the system.

Information to add into the system included such things as the return and recipient name, address, and phone number. All this data needed to be typed in exactly how it was written on the page or else a major issue could occur with the packages and they would not arrive at the correct destination. It was important to ensure that all the information was correct.

At the end of the day, we would ensure we entered all the manifest documentations that came in that evening. We would also count to see who entered the most information. I must say that I do miss the simplicity of that job from time to time. It was a perfect after-school job but is now unfortunately replaced with scanning machines. Great for the owners, not so great for the loss of jobs.