🔒First jobs, enduring lessons: Maine leaders share early job experiences

We had fun checking in with a handful of Maine business leaders about their early job experiences — and learned that while their first jobs may have appeared to have had no connection to their eventual career paths, there were lessons that served them well later on. We asked, “What was one of your first jobs, and what did you learn from it?” Michael Bourque is president and CEO of MEMIC Group, the workers compensation insurance firm headquartered in Portland. He’s been with the company for 30 years, but he began his career in journalism.

“My first ‘real’ job was as a sportswriter for the Anchorage Times in Anchorage, Alaska — a long way literally and figuratively from my job today!” Bourque says. “I was a journalism major graduate at the University of Maine and had covered the Black Bear hockey team, which was rising in national prominence under then-new coach Shawn Walsh. “Covering that team gave me experience, which landed me a job covering the University of Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves men’s hockey team. I worked out there for about 15 months before returning to another newspaper job in Maine,” Bourque recalls. “The Alaska experience was life-changing for me. It was my first time living outside of Maine and on my own. I made lifelong friends, found colleagues who made me better at the craft and learned to navigate life without the safety net that existed for me back in Maine. “It was a small part of my life in duration, but I think about those experiences and those people every single day.”

Staying busy

Kelly Flagg is the executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Maine. This job, along with her former position in human resources with CCB Construction in Westbrook, exercises skills honed at one of her early jobs in her teens — a barista at a coffee cart inside the Portland Post Office lobby.

“It was a small cart owned by a lovely couple; it was long before the chain coffee shops had arrived in the city. My job was, as I referred to it, the ‘bartender of the morning.’” “While the job description may have read ‘make espresso and other coffee drinks, serve customers and wipe tables,’ I found the job to really be so much more than that. I loved the fast pace and the repeat customers and met many wonderful people. “My customers were people who worked in and around Congress Street, teachers from Portland High School and others who had post office boxes in the building. I would spend my days focused on being as efficient as possible behind the counter, while also chatting with customers to learn more about people, their jobs and their lives. “What I learned from this job was my own love for being busy, efficient and engaging with people. A skill that still serves me well today. “I also learned I had an uncanny memory for details about people. On a funny note, I ran into one of those customers many years later on the summit of Mount Washington, and while I could not recall his name, I swiftly recalled he was a double cappuccino with extra foam.”

Mowing lawns, raking blueberries

Fred Forsley is the founder and CEO of Portland-based Shipyard Brewing and was an early partner in

Kennebunkport Brewing Co. and Federal Jack’s restaurant. He also owns Sea Dog Brewing Co., and has developed a number of real estate projects. Not surprisingly, when we asked about his early jobs, he had a list. At the age of nine, Forsley was in charge of mowing the lawn at his family’s boarding house for veterans, Gray Manor. He raked blueberries during summers, starting at age 12. Pickers were paid by the pound, and Forsley recalls speed was critical, in every aspect of the job. “You had to run off the bus as fast as you could to get the best rake.” Forsley lasted just three nights at his next and least favorite job, “pulling chickens” at Hall’s Egg Farm in New Gloucester. “It was the toughest, most disgusting job ever,” he says. By age 14 he was washing dishes at Cole Farms, where he learned that working hard — and working hard at having fun with the rest of the staff — made the labor far more enjoyable. Forsley says he learned through all of his early work experiences that “the more energy you put in, the more benefit you get out.”

University president’s start on a shrimping boat

James Herbert has served as president of the University of New England since 2017. Prior to that, he held several senior administrative positions at Drexel University in Philadelphia. His very first job was far less suit and tie.

“Growing up in a working-class community on the Gulf Coast of Texas, my first job was as a deckhand on a commercial shrimping boat,” Herbert says. “Those fishermen taught me two things that have never left me: the value of hard work and the importance of being genuine. “I had no idea then that my career would eventually bring me to Maine, but looking back, it makes perfect sense. The people here are unpretentious and hardworking, and this is the kind of place where those values thrive. I’m sure that’s part of the reason I feel so at home in Maine.”

From selling shoes to economic development

Anne Krieg is Bangor’s community and economic development director, with a background in city planning. Her first job, which she held onto for five years during high school and college, was selling shoes at Shoppingtown Mall in Dewitt, N.Y., where she grew up.

“While it may seem far removed from my current role, the experience taught me lessons I use every day,” she says. “Success depended on listening carefully, understanding customer needs, building relationships, and helping people make decisions that add value to their lives. “Today, those same skills help me work with residents, businesses, developers and community partners to strengthen Bangor’s economy and improve the quality of life for residents.” “My father told me when I got my first job, ‘No matter what you end up doing in life, you are always selling,’ and he was right!”

A different side of the food business

Heather Paquette is president of Good Shepherd Food Bank, which is the largest hunger relief organization in the state, distributing food through more than 600 pantries and programs across the state from offices in Auburn and Hampden.

“One of my first jobs was an internship at Shipyard Brewing during college. I’d been waitressing in their restaurant and was eager to learn marketing functions,” Paquette recalls. “I learned a lot. One of the biggest lessons, how to manage things you can’t control, still resonates in my current position as president of Good Shepherd Food Bank. We keep moving our mission forward no matter what circumstances we face. “The other lesson that stuck with me is the value of investing in others,” Paquette says. “I worked for Fred Forsley, who I am privileged to have as a mentor to this day. He was generous in sharing his time and lessons with me, and I’ve been intentional in paying that gift forward in my career.”