Erin Andrews has been in the Sports world for over 20 years now. But before becoming a household name on the sidelines of the NFL and a familiar face on FOX, her career had a far less glamorous kickoff. Picture this: a fresh college grad, bright-eyed and ready to take on the world of sports broadcasting, only to find herself tossed into the deep end of a game she barely understood.

Here’s the kicker: what if I tell you this wasn’t her first job? Yeah, you read that right. On Feb 3, ELLE.com invited the sportscaster to take part in its series Office Hours, where she discussed her first jobs, worst jobs, and everything in between. See, at one point or another, you must have seen Andrews in front of your screen, right? But guess what? Her worst job had nothing to do with sports—yep, it’s even more surprising than you’d think.

“I was a ride operator at Adventure Island in Tampa, Florida,” Andrews started when asked about her worst job. “This is before I was worried about wrinkles, pigmentation, and skin cancer; I just really wanted to crush the old tan situation,” she said. Well, Tampa is the lightning capital, and when you’re stuck on the highest ride, you see a storm start rolling in. Talking more about her experience, she iterated, “You’re like, ‘Is this the way I’m going to go out? At Adventure Island by a lightning strike?’ I remember we were getting everybody off the ride, and it was a tube slide, so I had to ride down last. It was like a scene from Twister.” That must have been a nightmare.

Well! Well!! That’s something new we’ve learned about her earlier gigs. Imagine this: you’re standing at the top of the tallest tower and suddenly a thunderstorm starts rolling in. Well, for Erin, that thunderstorm was nothing less than a nightmare. That would feel like something out of Twister. 

On top of that, being the operator, Andrews was the last one to slide down. That’s like a nightmare and sleep paralysis at the same time, right? And of course, she also joked about how she hadn’t worried about wrinkles or skin cancer back then. But looking at the worst job in her career, we can only say that she came a long way.

Besides her worst job experience, the FOX reporter also shared her first job experience. “My first job was at American Eagle. (I really wanted to go to Abercrombie, because that’s where some of my guy friends worked.) From there, our manager moved to Banana Republic, so we all moved up, too. Khakis for everyone,” she told ELLE.com. Sure, Erin tried her hand at a bunch of gigs, but eventually, she found her groove in the sports world.

Erin Andrews and her multiple gigs at ESPN

Just like her initial gigs, Erin Andrews didn’t have a great start in her broadcasting career the way she might have expected. Right after graduating from the University of Florida in 2000, she got her first break with the Tampa Bay Lightning as a rink-side reporter for the NFL. Her NFL knowledge? Zero, zip, nada! But with her passion and hard work, she instilled that sports-enthusiastic personality in herself and eventually her career took off. But at what cost?

Reporting for the Lightning laid her foundation for bigger opportunities that eventually led her to ESPN, where she started covering the NFL back in 2004. Nah, scratch that. At ESPN, she started broadcasting almost every sport that you can think of. And honestly, that was pretty hectic for Erin. “I worked my ass off, [and] it was never enough,” Andrews said of her network’s earliest days.

At one point, she was doing two football games a week, “That is so friggin’ hard,” she said of it. And that’s wasn’t all. After joining ESPN in 2004, she covered all: college football, college basketball, Major League Baseball, college baseball, the Little League World Series and the Scripps National Spelling Bee. And her preparation? That’s pretty impressive, though. “For me, when I first started, I was just so excited to have my job. I love sports so much…. [I was] just so excited to learn, to read, to study about these athletes that I’m a huge fan of,” Erin noted.

Talking about her daily gigs, she said, “I read a ton. We get clips sent to us every single day of all the teams and in the league and all the articles written about them. And then I go on a deeper dive after that. I pull up articles on different websites, I go on the team’s websites, I watch all their locker room interviews. We’re on calls with the players and the coaches every single week, then I get other players to call me where my group didn’t hear from. I can offer different things that could be helpful and useful.” That’s one hectic routine for anyone. But she does that gracefully.

That’s Erin Andrews for you. Now, the sportscaster is a one of the most popular names in sports broadcasting while working for FOX sports. 20 years in the sports world and she already covered almost every major sporting event. Whether it’s World Series, Daytona 500, or Super Bowl, you’ll find her everywhere.