Two siblings will soon share more than an alma mater: They’ll share a 27-foot-long hotdog car experience.
Silvana Smud, a UF alumna who graduated as a telecommunication major in 1999, got the job of driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile across the country for a full year after graduation.
The job is difficult to get: Only 12 drivers are chosen out of more than 2,000 applicants every year, she said.
The genes must run in the family, because Smud’s younger brother, Spencer Smud, also got the job.
“I had such an amazing experience with this job and I always wanted Spencer to have the same experience,” Silvana said.
Spencer, a 23-year-old UF recreation, parks and tourism senior, will graduate in May and start driving the Wienermobile in June.
The job is a one-year contract that involves driving across the country and hitting three cities a week for specific events, Silvana said. Drivers are known as Hotdoggers.
When she had the job, a then 7-year-old Spencer would come out to the events and help his sister. It was a part of his childhood.
“Next thing I know, I’m finding out I’m going to have one of the best jobs that a college graduate could ever have,” Spencer said. “People saw me literally do my happy dance.”
Spencer will fly to Wisconsin on June 1 and go through a two-week training known as “Hotdog High.” He will graduate as part of Hotdogger Class 27. His sister was in Class 12.
Silvana said their family is also ecstatic about their shared Hotdogger status.
“Just the fact of having two Hotdoggers come out of Brandon, Florida,” she said. “They are just thrilled.”
The Smud siblings said the shared experience is extremely rare and hope that it will bring them closer.
“USA Today quoted that statistically, it’s easier to become president of the United States than to be chosen as an Oscar Mayer Hotdogger,” she said.
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 4/10/2014 under the headline "Siblings relish chance to share job"]
Silvana and Spencer Smud stand in front of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile after Silvana got the job of driving it across the country when she graduated in 1999. Spencer, now 23, will drive the car in June.
