During my last year of university at BYU I was working full time as a teller at First Security Bank on University Avenue. They would have offered me a full time permanent position as a management trainee but I did not feel that I wanted to live in Utah. I applied with several companies in Alberta. Royal Bank sent me an offer and Imperial Oil as well. I accepted the offer from Imperial Oil and we traveled to Edmonton to start my career. ESSO which was the marketing name of Imperial Oil had a beautiful new high rise office building and I had an office with a view that overlooked the beautiful North Saskatchewan River Valley. I remember the first day that I went to work they held a briefing for about 10 of us in an impressive theatre like room. We learned about the history of the company and a few things that I already knew since my dad had worked for Imperial as a Land Manager for his entire career. They took us for a tour of the building and all of the departments. At one point we were shown the brand new facsimile machine which had just been installed in Edmonton and Calgary. The device was about as big as a full size Xerox copier and the operator phoned the Calgary office to have them demonstrate the amazing technology buy sending us a fax.
I knew how to type because I had taken a typing class in high school and I had actually taken a portable typewriter with me on my mission. (very unusual . . . I never met anyone else who did that) so it was a little hard to get used to for me to learn that anytime I wanted to send correspondence to someone I had to write it out or dictate it onto tape, and take it to the typing department where a professional would type it for me.
I worked in the commercial department as a supervisor of about 12 bulk agency offices. The agents operated our bulk distribution facilities which sold fuel and lubricants to farmers and oil rigs and other bulk customers. Virtually all small towns across Canada would have at least one bulk dealership and some would have one for each of the mayor oil companies.
My territory ran from the outskirts of Edmonton west along the Yellow-head highway to Hinton. I was responsible to hire and fire agent for the company. I would advertise in the papers if we needed to hire someone and then I would set up interviews and make a decision. Usually this was a process that was within my level of competency but I never had to replace the big agents like the one in Hinton who serviced a large mine and who would have made 10 or 20 times the amount of money that I was making.
Imperial gave me the use of a company car. It was awesome . . . a 3 year old Plymouth Satellite which had an optional V8 engine. They let you use the car for personal use without paying anything for the gas. I loved to drive and it was my responsibility to be on the road visiting my agents quite a bit of the time. The country west of Edmonton is absolutely beautiful as it leads through the foothills and up into the mountains to Jasper.
Once when we needed to consider expanding our facility in Hinton my boss Gaven Hamilton decided he would like to come with me to visit the agency so he ordered the company plane and we were flown up to Hinton to have our meeting and then back the same day. Imperial was a great company to work for.
So why would I leave?
My posting to the Edmonton territory was temporary. It was just to complete my training. I gradually learned from talking to the other executives that each of them would love to have my territory so they could live in Edmonton. Most of them were living in small towns across western Canada and I could see that I would likely get transferred to a place like Grand Prairie or Flin Flon Manitoba. This possibility or likelihood weighed heavy on our minds and when I reached out to see what was available another offer came up immediately.
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