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Evangeline Carpenter landed her first job scooping ice cream at a Texas Braum’s when she was 16. She must’ve done something right, because she was promoted to shift leader at 18.
Now the head of people at marketing firm MODintelechy, Carpenter says she sees her early roles in customer service as critical to her HR career.
She shared with HR Brew how her first jobs shaped her career trajectory.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What did you learn from your first job?
That job, in particular, was definitely an interesting introduction to, again, the workforce, and eventually started leading to some of the lessons that I would learn in terms of equity, and how you’re addressing compensation…I was probably 17, or 18, I had been working [at Braum’s] for a couple of years, was one of their best, and they hired some kid [for his] first job, and he was making already $2.50 more than me. And I’m like, “What does this mean?” And, so eventually, it dawned on me later on in life…It happens a lot and what do we do now to combat that?
What other lessons did you learn in your early career?
My next big job…was the big push into HR…I was working within the service industry and was constantly faced with, honestly, quite serious issues in terms of racism, misogyny, sexual assault. Things like that were all happening around me, and not in an environment where they were really supported or taken care of, or where people were listened to. And that’s really where I got that push and started to see that I think the true or more holistic need and the ability to impact others positively through a role like HR or people operations.
[As a restaurant manager,] I had an employee call me about one in the morning saying that she and another employee had been essentially assaulted at work. And, I had immediately taken the call and talked her through what happened…She said [to me,] “You’re the only one that cared to listen to us”...It really stuck to me that this is something that was perhaps a calling for me, and something that I could do to lay some type of positive impact on people who are simply trying to make a living.
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When did you decide to pursue a career in HR?
I realized that I was really unhappy with where I was. There is something to be said about the impacts of job satisfaction, and I had not experienced that yet. So, I knew that had to exist somewhere…I started looking at what meant something, like what were things that really fired me up? Either in a way that was positive, [like] I really want to go in that direction. Or, in ways that were negative, and things that I did not want to experience again, or allow others to experience, and I really let that drive my search.
I stumbled upon HR and saw it as an opportunity to provide structure, which is something that almost nowhere I worked really had. But I really found joy in providing it. And then, as well as an opportunity to have, if [it’s] the right organization, the voice and that influence to make that difference and stand up and put your foot down, when people are being mistreated.
Did your early jobs influence the type of leader you are today?
Those experiences that I went through definitely shaped the type of leader that I became, in terms of what I would allow to stand and really leading with a lot of the moral beliefs that I hold. If I’m not able to lead in that way, then I don’t see a fit where I work.