About Me — Andrey Pilipets. Part II

The story of bookworm who turned passionate trainer & top athlete

Chapter III. A young office rat. How my first full-time job changed my life

I started working full-time when I was 19. Yes, I was still studying full-time at my university. Most of my colleagues were doing the same. The bank paid us peanuts yet we were gaining experience. The perspectives were exciting! Our department was Correspondent Banking, a part of Treasury. We worked with other banks, domestic and overseas.

Crises were common those days, one of them came one month later I landed my first job. They downsized our department of 5 people to 2 of us, me and my boss. That crisis led to a situation when a lot of banks missed cash for client payments. We had to analyze incoming and outgoing payments by each bank. We contacted them and coordinated how payments went both ways. We had more work every day than 5 people before us. There was a lot of experience to earn. I remember my award from top management for the hard work. They put an appraisal into my records and even gave me a small one-time bonus.

The Treasury had a great team of friendly people. We worked hard during the day and we partied hard after work. The bank had strict rules about alcohol. We had to bring vodka bottles in secret inside our clothes. We added the booze into 1.5l bottles of mineral water or soft drinks inside the toilet to avoid cameras. Security knew it yet stayed silent as long as everything looked OK. A lot of our parties ended outside in bars or nightclubs. Alcohol was a social staple for us. It helped me to relax after a week of hard work. Friday evenings became a night out, which sometimes lasted until Sunday.

I was still going to the gym to lift 3 times a week. Yet I noticed my weight was going up. The reason was my increased appetite. I started eating 2–3 times my previous amounts of food. You had to eat when you drink, as it’s hard to drink when your stomach is empty. By 20 years old I was around 90 kg or 200 pounds which was ok. Girls liked me and that was more than enough at that age.

My New Year lift rescue mission

It was the year 2000’s countdown night. I rented a tiny flat back then and was meeting the New Year together with my girlfriend. It was a romantic night, only two of us. We went for a walk to get some fresh cold air after the countdown and a light dinner.

My rented flat was on the 7th floor of a 16-floor building with two lifts. One was a regular passenger lift. The other one was a big cargo cabin, residents used it to move furniture and electronics. Both lifts were not working. Oh well, the passenger one was down since yesterday. It’s important to tell nothing works on New Year’s night because everyone wants to celebrate. People who do work that night get 10x normal pay and they’re still hard to find.

We walked down the stairs and I heard sounds from the cargo lift. A group of people got stuck there right after the door closure. There were kids among them. That was the worst possible time to get stuck in the lift. Remember, nothing works. They pressed the button and called for help, to receive zero response.

I had to help them out. What could I do? I felt myself a strong guy and was proud of that. I could lift two girls holding them by my sides. I helped to push out cars stuck in snow almost every week. I enjoyed these little demonstrations of strength. Years of lifting weights made me confident to move heavy things.

Yet opening a cargo lift’s door was a new task for me. The cargo lift had one door which opened sideways. It took me some time to find the right leverage. After several attempts and cheering from my girlfriend and people inside the lift… I opened the door!

I still remember there were 7 people inside, including 2 kids. They hugged me and cried with happiness. No one cared that my actions broke the lift for several days. I had a brief Bruce Willis moment. It felt great to save people from spending New Year night trapped inside a dark lift. One of the best feelings you ever get.

You can check out Part 1 here:

Connect

Like my stories? You can subscribe here.

New to Medium? You can get full access if you join here. I will receive a small portion of your membership fee. The price for you is the same, $5 a month or $50 a year.

Have Facebook? You can find me here.

Thank you for reading!