Memory Monday: A launch into my vocal career?

It's funny how, even after you leave a job, little things remain as placeholders or proof that you once worked there. Not only things like certain files or ways of doing things or stress balls or life-size cardboards of Sean Connery -- those are obvious. What I'm talking about are things that face the outside world, to which you are still some sort of face for the company you have left.

For example, in my last position, when you called in to the company and got the outgoing message, you heard a highly Bostonian-accented voice of a woman who hadn't worked at the company for approximately six years. Similarly, I left something of the sort behind at my first major job.

During my interview for that job, it came up that I like to play trumpet and sing. After I got the job and had worked there for a few months, this very fact came up again. We had a telecommunications client who would call into our conferencing system and hear the brand of our system, which just so happened to be their direct competitor. What to do, what to do? My interviewer, who had turned out to be my higher-ranking boss (of which I had at least 3), told IT that I sang and had a great voice, and before I knew it, I was recording “Welcome to the [COMPANY] conference center. Enter your access code, then press pound.”

It was the most fun I had during my entire time at that company. I did on my company laptop in takes, by myself in the office that I usually shared with my direct boss (who was late that day, otherwise he would have been there to distract me with his breathing). I took the time to make sure my vocal inflections and emphases were just right. I put too much "e" in my "a" in one take, was too nasal in another...but when I finally had it just right, I had become the voice of the company. I think I took more pride in this fact than I did in the entire qualitative method and database I single-handedly developed for a major client. Looking back, I realize now that that probably should have told me something.

My voice, welcoming you to the company conference center, is probably still there, even though I haven't worked there for 3 or 4 years now. Even though I disliked working there for the most part, I hope my voice is still there as it will forever be my voice over claim to fame. Maybe I should be the voice mail lady (you know, on cell phones -- "enter your password, then press pound") or one of the readers for audiobooks? This very well may have launched my interest, if not my career, in that direction.