Two UF alumni will be rolling onto campus in a giant hot dog and peanut.
The Wienermobile and its sister vehicle, the NUTmobile, will be on campus to recruit student drivers today, Wednesday and Monday. Students interested in being “Hotdoggers” or “Peanutters,” the vehicles’ drivers and public relations specialists, can attend an information session from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the Career Resource Center conference room Feb. 24.
Being a Hotdogger or a Peanutter offers a “good supply of warm and fuzzies,” said Mateo Velez, a UF finance alumnus and Peanutter.
His favorite part of the job is making people happy.
“It feels like you’re making a positive difference in the world,” the 23-year-old said.
There are three NUTmobiles and six Wienermobiles in the nation, and the drivers are recent college graduates with “an appetite for adventure,” according to Oscar Meyer’s website.
Applicants go through two rounds of interviews, Velez said, with one on campus and the other in Chicago for Peanutters and Madison, Wisconsin, for Hotdoggers.
Velez, who goes by “Mateo Macadamia,” was recruited to the first NUTmobile team to travel the western U.S.
“I was really excited to bring this giant peanut on wheels to a part of the country that had literally never seen it,” Velez said.
From big cities to small towns, the vehicles travel across the entire country.
For 15 years, Spencer Smud, a 24-year-old UF recreation, parks and tourism alumnus, wanted to be a Hotdogger.
He originally saw the Wienermobile when his sister, who was also a Hotdogger, drove it to his elementary school. Smud is now known as “Spicy Salami Spencer.”
“It’s always been a dream of mine,” he said.
Smud said he learned to communicate with others through UF organizations such as the Florida Cicerones, which was helpful because the vehicles are essentially traveling public relations firms.
For students interested in joining one of the mobile’s teams, Velez recommends using puns.
“We definitely do go nuts for puns,” the Peanutter said.
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 2/17/2015 under the headline “Wienermobile, NUTmobile visit UF"]
Spencer Smud, the 24-year-old “Hotdogger” who drives one of the Wienermobiles, poses for a photo in front of the hot dog-shaped vehicle.
