As a Customer Service Representative at Regional Pathology Services, I did much more than assist customers. My duties included specimen processing, data entry, inventory of supplies, new employee training, quality assurance, and problem solving. I was head of the clinical pathology team and tasked with new employee training. I was one of the top producers and a "go-to" for other employees with questions about proper accessioning of both clinical pathology orders and surgical pathology orders. Regional Pathology, as part of The Nebraska Medical Center and University of Nebraska Medical Center system, deals with testing for patients during and after organ transplantation, cancer diagnosis and treatment, home health care, and consultation with a group of highly specialized pathologists and other laboratory scientists as well as routine testing for outside physicians. As such, I have had experience with a wide variety of laboratory tests and specimen processing scenarios.

As a Lab Assistant and Phlebotomist at The Nebraska Medical Center, I worked in specimen receiving and collected blood specimens in the hospital including NICU, PICU, AICU, OHSCU, SOTU, and ED. I collected blood from patients of every age and from healthy individuals to people in the last stages of their lives. I excelled in centrifugation and aliquotation of specimens for delivery to testing departments and worked hand-in-hand with our Send-Outs department to ensure specimens were handled correctly in cases where the tests ordered were not performed in our laboratory. I worked with Sunquest and CareCast throughout the day to place and process test orders. I also frequently handled phone calls from nursing staff and physicians to assist in test ordering, specimen requirements, and results reporting.

I received and processed human and animal specimens, performed data entry, centrifuged, aliquoted, and distributed specimens to different departments for processing. I performed QA for the processing department and served as first point of contact inside the department for technologists and customers. I also prepared, packaged, ordered, and resulted testing for send-out to reference laboratories.

During my short career as a car salesperson, I received training in sales, customer retention, marketing, and the subtle art of persuasion. I regularly met or exceeded sales goals and enjoyed the experience of helping customers find the vehicle best for them. I found the idea of "tricking" the customer into paying a higher price, or convincing them to purchase a vehicle that was poorly-suited to their needs, distasteful and decided not to further pursue the career.