Today I got up early to prepare myself for what I thought would be just a little breakfast followed by some mock interviews for high schoolers at SECTA, a vocational school for Las Vegas and Henderson valley. Having arrived early, I thumbed through a book that was recommended to me not knowing that I could be rubbing shoulders with representatives from radio stations, news channels, Zappos, and other companies that seized the unique opportunity to interview SECTA’s students. If I only knew, I would have brought more business cards when I showed up to breakfast…

I was given the opportunity to sit on a panel of interviewers-one from Friendly Ford and the other from Henderson Chevrolet-on location at the school’s body shop classroom. There is something to be said for young students who are ambitious enough to actually seek employment aggressively during the interview process. One of the students told me that he had already tried to call me, to which I responded that he should leave me a message next time. He responded, “I did…[but] I’ll call you 100 times if that’s what it takes to get ahold of you.” Isn’t that somewhat refreshing to hear these days? As we interviewed the students, we often looked at each other wondering how it is that these high school students were so mature.

How great of a program they have for their students at SECTA High. I mean, you don’t just develop a culture of polite kids that are able to create a feel of concierge service without a true going concern for above-board service starting long ago. I find myself scratching my head right now (in between typing sentences) wondering how I can develop the same professionalism and attention to customer-service-detail at my body shop. I’ve graduated from two universities that don’t come anywhere close in terms of creating that inviting of an environment…and we’re talking about a high school here, not a nice restaurant.

I suppose we were considered special guests. Whatever the case may be I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, although I’d like to include the entire school this time: I’m really impressed with SECTA High!