Couple of fun stories.
Back in about 2000, my friend Tim wanted to work for Apple. At the time, I worked for Apple (this was back before they went truly bad). Tim had had a couple of decent tech support jobs, but had never done anything big-time. So I helped him carve out a good resume. His experience was pretty thin, even though he's a smart and capable guy. So I asked him "What else have you done?" He told me he'd driven a forklift for a bit. I said "Great let's put that on the resume." He didn't think it was a good idea, but went with it.
So along comes the interview. Tim sits down on one side of a long table. On the other side are five Apple engineers. Nobody says a single word. Finally one of the Apple guys looks at Tim and says "So what kind of forklift did you drive?" Tim answers "A Hyster." Suddenly the Apple guy smiles and relates to Tim he had also driven a Hyster. And what developed was an hour long, very happy discussion about driving forklifts.
At the end, there were no questions about Tim's tech background. The Apple guys hired him on the spot. And Tim had a happy career with Apple for some time.
Second story. When I was a kid, maybe about 10 or 12, my Dad took me to a warehouse south of Market in San Francisco. It was owned by one of his clients. I was bored, but kept looking at the forklift. Dad's client asked if I wanted to drive it. Of course I did. So the client showed me how to operate it and even left me move some stuff around. Three years later I got a summer job in a fancy auction warehouse, and got to use the forklift there as well.
Fast forward about 12 years. I'm working a part-time job in a motorcycle shop. The manager who hired me knew I was way WAY overqualified for the job, having already had a career in the tech sector. (I just needed a part time job at the time cause I was in grad school.) One day, the manager hears that the guy who usually runs the forklift at the shop was out sick and he jokingly calls out to the employees asking if anyone knows how to run a forklift. Nobody says a word, but I quietly put up my hand. Manager looks at me and goes "Damn dude is there anything you can't do?" And then I was out on Pine Street in San Francisco unloading crates of SeaDoos and motorcycles for several hours.
Forklifts are fun stuff.
Those are great stories :) Thank you.