Working
 

At what age did you start working and how many jobs have you had since that time? Did you ever have a period where you did not work and what was that like?

My first job: aged 16: Ponderosa (local chain steak house) started as the drink girl ("iced tea? Lemonade?" we were told to push those two as were cheapest)

Burger Chef (not to be confused with Burger King)-lasted 1 1/2 months

IHOP-five years as a waitress--made great bux--usually 60.00 per Sat./Sun. mornings. Partied like a madwoman with co-workers. Also worked as a puller/line judge for Skeet Club

Hospital--student X-ray tech, then as real X-ray tech in a clinic. then in a bigger clinic tech. THEN-got RN degree and....

RN cardiac unit
RN occupational health (GM and a steel mill)
RN for Coca-Cola
RN for State Hospital
RN for hospital-psych/home health care RN
now--part time RN for university and full time Uni student.

I have worked since the age of 16-sometimes 2 jobs-and haven't had a break despite 2 pregnancies (worked the very day both sons were born) and divorce and suicide attempts--day after I had my stomach pumped I was at a job interview--and I got the job. amazing what a person can do if motivated.

When I was a kid, I would mow lawns and shovel driveways around the neighborhood. Babysat too. Must have been around 12-13 when I started those odd jobs.

First real job job was working in a college bookstore for the last summer of high school.

Then had cafeteria jobs all through college. Everyone should work food service at some point in their lives.

For a few summers and winters I worked at a local mom & pop corner store. That was awesome, ran the place myself for up to ten hours a day. First job with real responsibility. It was the store I used to take my pennies to when I was a kid so I could buy candy. Felt like I had come full circle when I was selling the same crap to the next generation of kids.

My first post-college job was working in an antique furniture restoration place. It was fun, but unhealthy. Scary warning labels on all the products we used. I learned a lot about furniture there. And racist southerners, like the owner.

Then I was unemployed and borrowed/embezzled enough money to live poorly on from my parents for 6 months before I got a job temping in a law firm. They know about the money, but forgave the debt a long time ago.

That temp job turned into a permanent job, and I've worked my way up the ranks of this firm over the last 15 years. Don't see myself leaving any time soon.

Oh I forgot the question about what it was like to be not working.

It sucked. I lived in a cheap basement apartment alone. I had friends in my town, but rarely saw them because I had become nocturnal. Actually, that's not true. I didn't become nocturnal, I started a new sleep/wake cycle. I like staying up late at night, but also like getting a full night's sleep. I found that the ideal length of a day wasn't 24 hours, but was more like 27 hours. So I started living a 27 hour day, which meant that I was coming into and going out of phase with the lives of my friends. Sometimes we would be awake at the same time, and sometime we wouldn't.

Those six months were both wonderful and depressing at the same time. Like a long lonely slovenly vacation in a dump.

My first job was when I was 15 - I worked in a donut shop called Donutland in Ames, Iowa. It was really fun.

In the summers during high school, I worked at Six Flags Great America.

In college, I was an RA.

After college, I was a residence hall director.

During law school, I was a residence hall director (free rent, who can pass that up?).

Now, I'm a law clerk.

I'm sure there were other jobs in there, but they weren't as memorable.

Sold knives the summer between high school and college.

Through college, I delivered copy paper at Penn.

I've been hired by 4 optical companies, all of which changed hands while I was there.

13 years old--local large produce farm picking strawberries and "packing" corn (for large scale distribution) It was about 3 miles from home and I could ride my bike...later moped to work.
Continued there every summer all through college.

College: cafeteria (what a fun job--we worked hard and had a blast)

Post college--

manufacturing (soldering to mil-specs, made safety/arming devices for missile systems right about the first gulf war time) testing, etc--later on supervisor/solder school teacher)

Another manufacturing QA job, testing airplane generator parts (commercial and military)

Another manufacturing job, QA Supervisor in charge of testing and calibrations for a printed circuit board maker (not the components...the boards themselves...single layer, multi-layer, flex...all kinds of complexity, commercial and military)

Another manufacturing job testing RF filters and trying not to get fried in the large amounts of electricity involved in some testing

Current job in financial aid at a college--5 years.

All through post-college jobs also worked at the popular downtown bar, and the country club...bartending, waiting tables, cooking...also bartended private parties in people's homes.

I miss the physicality of my old manufacturing jobs, but my organizational skills and love of documentation made me a prime candidate for my current job (which is a state job so have public employee bennies.)

My first job, other than the ranch/farm work of normal kids that grow up on them was at 13, sand-blasting tractor-trailers for citrus.
I cannot begin to imagine how many jobs I have had since then, well over a hundred.

First job - kitchen hand in a family-run restaurant on Saturday evenings & Sunday lunchtimes aged 13

I can't list the rest, it would bore you senseless - I don't have as many as rkzenrage but with my evening and weekend jobs I'll easily have 50

I've worked as a hostess in a late night drinking establishment, food sampling for a supermarket, a barmaid, waitress, and shelf-stacker amongst others.

Often my criteria for choosing my part time jobs is the perks. If I'm poor enough to take a second job I usually expect it to feed me :)

Book shelver at the local library ~ age 13 (volunteer, since you can't hire a 13-year-old. My mom made me -- something about building character.)
Doctor's assistant (podiatrist) from 14-16 summers/evenings.
Summer intern (mostly programming) at PPPL, 16 summer
Programmer at the Astrophysics department, 18 summer
Lab tech in the EE dept, 20 summer
Got my bachelors and my masters
Optics engineer at Lucent Technologies/OFS from graduation till they folded.
Sold my soul to the devil; am now an EE at a defense contractor.

A farm can.
That's funny, I got my part time job because dad suggested it--he said it was either find some part time job or he would find work for me around our place. I knew he would have me filing blades of grass with a nail file, so I got the job at the farm. Best thing my dad ever did as far as teaching me a work ethic...and I have great memories of there...later I worked in the market as a cashier etc, and became really close with the family. The job kind of grew with me.

Lawn mowing and babysitting (!) from 13 to 15
At 15, I started washing dishes in a local motel restaurant. Lots of fun stealing beer from the adjacent bar on Sunday mornings when I took out the trash, which my buddies and I would then go swill in the park on balmy Sunday afternoons.

At 16 to 17, I worked for my uncle's rental business, mostly cleaning lawnmowers and sharpening blades when they were returned, and other nasty stuff that no one else needed to do. I was the shag boy, only shagging doesn't mean in the States what it does in Britain. I did learn to back trailers pretty well while working there, though.

At 17, I worked painting and generally restoring HUD foreclosures for my Grandfather. The work was too inconsistent to count on, and I didn't much care for being on top of 40 foot ladders, or in the parts of town where we worked. Also, the whole getting up at 5:00 AM thing got my partying hippy ass down.

Still at 17, I took a job cleaning restaurants after they were closed for the day, six nights a week. This was a nasty job, the company owner was a drunk and a thief, and often gave us bad checks for payroll. I was living in my own apartment at the time, and I could barely afford drugs on what I made, let alone rent, fuel and food. My friends didn't understand that I worked all night, and so would usually show up to party about the time I had been asleep for an hour, so I never slept, and became a speed freak. I moved back home and became unemployed. That wasn't bad for the most part, as my unemployed buddy and I would go up and skate and screw around with hockey sticks and pucks all day at the local rink for $1.25. Still, I was too poor to buy my own booze and drugs, and had to bum them a lot.

At 18, I got a job building cabinets - assembling the main body portions. This was the most fun job I ever had. We were an even split of hippies and hicks, and we all got along great. We'd come in stoned, go out to lunch to refuel, and come back and work with dangerous power tools half blasted. Every weekly payday, the boss would go to the liquor store across the street, buy gallons of beer, and hand out the checks while we all sat around and bullshitted and boozed.

The cabinet job petered out, and I was married by this time, so I took a job in a very small manufacturing operation right up the street from my apartment. Nasty, dirty, boring, and all the guys that worked there were redneck jerks. But at least I got to see lots of neat guns.

When that job went toes up, I went to work for Quik Trip. It sucked. Long and hard. It was decent money for that point in my life, but it was incredibly stressful, with very long days and lots of corporate BS to contend with. I did that for six years as I had a kid and a mortgage by then. That was the worst of drunken years, as you needed to be a total sot to bear working there. I got fired from that job for short inventories (that's a story in and of itself - suffice to say that I wasn't the one doing the stealing, and didn't know who was).

I then started a housecleaning business, and did that for three years. I was pretty shell shocked from the QT gig, and had no desire to ever work for anyone else again in my life. However, I'm not very disciplined, so I quickly got into tax trouble. That phase of my life ended when I had my colon out.

After six months off, I started as office manager for a roofing company. I worked for them for 11 years, then left to start a local office for an out of town roofing company. 60k a year, free run of the whole thing...and fired after 20 months, despite a two year period guaranteed to us to become profitable. Why? Because we were about to become profitable, and the jerk who ran the home office location wanted a piece of the big city action, so he poisoned our well. Dude ran the place into the ground within a year.

Six months unemployment, and I came on here as office manager for an insulation firm. I also delievered pizza for a few months. This place is neither fun nor interesting. Pizza delivery was at least fun, sometimes.

Man, this got kind of long, huh?

Yeah, but it never got boring.

I really miss working. I have never understood people who complained about it. Even when working eighty hours a week at a very physical job (while having arthritis and spinal problems), I wanted the job instead of just not having one.

Awwww I remember the Burger Chef fondly! When I was a kid it was the only fast food close to us. (There was a McDonald's but it was wayyy over on the other side of town.) I don't remember when the Burger Chef in our town shut down--it must have been in the late 70s. Now, of course, there is one of every chain you can imagine on every other block.

Anyway. Umm 9-11 or so. Sold Grit. I guess it was my idea initally, but my mom wouldn't let me stop after I discovered I hate talking to people. In spite of all this I managed to move a few dozen copies a week.

12-13? A former teacher & friend of my mom's did a summer day camp kind of thing at the local college. They got hold of a couple Apple ][ systems, and she got me to come in and teach the kids some computer stuff.

17 wrote some dinky education computer software for my high school. (I thought I was a computer programmer then. Blech.)

During college, worked some in the music library as circulation desk clerk/shelver/etc. Worked much more in the campus computer center as a lab assistant and senior lab assistant. (Senior meant I got to help with the scheduling and be on call one night a week to triage any catastrophes.)

During grad school I had a fellowship so I was essentially paid to go to school. The summer in between I signed up as a "Kelly Girl." My first temp job, at a Big Pharma company to fill in while they found a replacement for an administrative assistant who had transferred, ended up lasting the whole summer, which was cool. Highlights included setting up a mail merge that almost didn't work, because we had to use a form with 5 carbon copies (and I mean literally carbon copies), and we couldn't come up with a printer that would print all the way through. (We finally tracked down an old daisy wheel.)

When grad school ended, went to work doing low-level tech support at a local college. Ended up doing a bunch of other stuff, including training, managing student workers, unix sysadmin, and setting up the first gopher and web servers. After a few years of that I went on to a similar job at a smaller school. I am currently in a VP-ish position, but we are small enough that I am still hands-on.

Odd jobs: When I was in school I made some nice pocket money tutoring (mostly math, with some physics, and even German once) and typing papers for other students. I have also been paid for my clarinet playing on rare occasions--maybe 3 or 4 times total.

You sold Grit? I always saw those ads and wondered about that. If I recall, the kids in those ads made tons of money. Was the magazine any good?

Yes, exactly, the ads in the comic books! I dunno... it was worth me reading at the time... of course that probably means I'd think it was pretty dumb now! :D As I recall (and I could be very wrong) I paid the company 35 sents a copy and sold them for the cover price of 55. I probably netted $10 a week. A real entrepeneur and/or salesman would have done much better.

Our Grit guy was Monty. I loved that magazine!

My first "real" job was pumping gas at Texaco. Followed by stints at 7-11, WaWa, Sunoco and some computer storage company whose name I forget.
Then came the Navy, Wayne Automation, various temp agencies (3 at once at one point), two security firms, both defunct now, several restaurants slinging hash, then back to the Navy again, retired from that and slung some more hash until I decided I was going nowhere and retrained as a truck driver. Six months at school paid for partly by making Quizno's sandwiches (as motivation to finish top in my class) and then Werner Enterprises as a solo OTR truck driver, which is the best and smartest move I've ever made. I've found more than a job, I have a career that will keep me gainfully employed forever as long as I don't lose my license or have too many accidents.

I can move anywhere and either keep my job or find a new one within a week.

I am going to test this no later than June 1. I have decided that barring complications, I will move to El Paso TX by then. Porbably sooner as my house renovations are nearly complete. One more door and one room to be drywalled is all that's left. I think I'll skip sanding the crappy floor and just throw a cheapo rug over it and nail it down.

Unemployment sucks not just because I had little money (never borrowed from folks or friends) but mostly because guys define themselves by their job and having none, I felt as though I were nothing. Losing Dagney as a partner doubled that pain but I recovered anyway. Now I have a new love (I hope to God that this one means what she says) and a future again.

Fingers crossed!

Brian

$10 a week! That's awesome money for a kid back then.

I saw an ad for grit just last night...in the Mother Earth News.

I forgot to add that I, too, have been paid for my guitar work...and not just for stopping playing and leaving, either. In fact, in the past two weeks I have earned a total of $140.00, but I donated $20 to Lane's husband, who variously runs sound, helps haul stuff, and lets us practice in his house. I try to tip him from time to time as he's rather useful. :D

It sure would be--now that I think of it more it seems high. But even if I only made 15 a paper and only sold 30 a week (and I think it was more), that's still $4.50 and if I recall correctly I was getting $20 per month in allowance when I was in jr. high, so if that's accurate it was almost matching my allowance. (Mom got paid monthly, so we did too.)

Born and raised in farm country so it was a gradual transition from being baby sat in the hayfield to working in the hayfield and then working in other peoples hayfields for cash. Raised calves when I was a kid but it was for the family so I never saw a dime of that. Washed dishes at a boys camp when I was 16?. Apprenticed for an electrician. Worked 3rd shift at a transformer wrapping place when I was 20. Got an assoc. deg. Worked as an apprentice electrician at 21. Worked for one of Bruces competitors for about 6 years. Worked my way through school on crap jobs. Got a bachelors. Worked in a bike shop. Substitute taught. Stayed home with the kids and built a house. Surveyed. Went back to school. Taught boys on the spectrum for a couple years. Finished the Masters over the summer. Hope to finish off the certification next semester and then its back with the little guys despite a couple of Profs suggesting doctorate. I've been off work but only when I had other things that needed doing.

i was a dishwasher for 5 hours

then gas station attendant for a month

then 2 summers as a masonry laborer ( hell )

1 summer as a landscaping laborer ( almost hell )

bagger, then cashier at acme

1 summer and fall as a carpenter

edit: 2 weeks as a sheister selling speakers out of a van

furniture refinisher / delivery mule

waiter at Denny's while we saved $$ for TOUR

Denny's Manager (the worst hell ever)

car salesman

assistant new car manager/asst finance manager

new car manager/finance manager

internet sales department ( 1 man show from start to finish)

finance manager


i've made more every year i've worked except for when i went on tour for 3 months and was voluntarily unemployed. that was my favorite time.

My first job: 16 years old (but I turned 17 in two weeks). It was at Papa John’s as one of the phone girls but after I turned 18 they made me a shift manager. I was there for 3 years all told.

Then when I worked at Krispy Kreme doughnuts (and gained 30 lbs while I was there that I never lost… doughnuts are evil!) 3rd shift as my second job to Papa John’s. The I worked both places for a year (I had been at PJs for 2 years when I started).

As I have only had three jobs I am currently at the third, the bank. I have been here for 2 ½ years. I quit both Krispy and PJs when I got the job at the bank since I got a $1.50 increase starting at the bank. So I have never been without a job since I was 16. I have obviously never been fired either.

First job was a voluntary job at the local museum and art gallery, aged 15. First paid job was working in the Bolton Plastics Factory, deflashing the plastic moulds as they came out of the.....actually I don't know what they were, big hot asbestos gloves time. Some sort of burner, the moulds came out of the front bit hanging from hooks. Fucking hot. Oh and the gloves had holes in them. someone in management must have had a friend in health and safety, cause they always knew when an inspection was due; they'd start giving the bandsaw people safety goggles:P

Didn't like it there much, the manager had wandering hands.

I've had several short term telesales and telecanvassing jobs; bit of timeshare (uk based office);assistant in a small clothes shop (another manager with one eye on his female staff); buyer / silent partner in a small design house for about 6 years; adult literacy/ESOL tutor, Councillor/student.

Yes, in there have been spells of unemployment. There were aspects of it I liked at first. The novelty of not having to keep a timetable of any kind, the freedom to indulge in creative pursuits...the novelty wore off very fast, not having any money got really dull. Freedom accompanied by an income below the poverty line is distinctly unpleasant.

LJ, you crack me up. How you lasted Five hours, I'll never guess. I only lasted three. It was in this restaurant in Glacier Nat. Park.

I can say with confidence I have had more moves/address changes and also jobs than anyone here at the cellar, though I bet LJ may come close. Here is what I can remember:

Worked for city parks dept assisting director of summer entertainment. Highlight: removing Logo from a Mayflower moving van and repainting it Blue with a sprayer and no respirator.

misc. carpentry/ handyman work
checker (tallied customer checks) at PJ Clarks in NYC (the Macy's location)
Checker and bartender at PJ Clarks (the 55th and third location)
roofing crew
picking raspberries - season
picking apples-three days wasn't fast enough
assistant to woodcutter (clearing brush, limbing, etc)
worked for a gentleman farmer doing odd jobs around farm
baker in a tiny bread factory which became mega giant Vermont Bread Company
baker in a showcase bakery
Baker in a croissant shop
dishwasher in restaurant (three hours)
Sold tools at Garret Wade (woodworker porn shop)
Pizza cook
Bike mechanic
Bike tour leader for a vermont based bike touring company
Baker at Harrington's smoke shop retail location
retail at a photo store/lab
custom printer at a photo lab
sales rep for Sucanat (about three weeks)
cabinet maker
back to Garrett Wade
custom black and white printer for Duggall Labs in NYC
Photo Assistant Freelance
1 year living in a Buddhist monastery (not actual employment, but a large piece of time)
Freelance photo assistant
Grip
Gaffer
Carpentry, rough and trim
Photographer (self employed, my own studio)
Teaching college photo
Back to carpentry

I'm sure I've forgotten a few things in between. The longest I've ever been employed by some one else is one day short of one year.

ADH... what were we talking about?

I've had the same programming job since graduating college 8.5 years ago...

boring old me...

Dish washing gigs are the best! I worked for a substantial old black woman from the deep south who was sorta hard to take with but there was this girl...:redface:


HM- how's your 401K looking though?

That's a plus, indeed.

I remember your thread about your bout with pizza delivery. Definitely kept me interested! :p

I've never worked retail or in a restaurant. I've always wanted to, but ... I never did. I always found myself earning money by just kinda "fitting work in" with what I happen to be doing anyway.

The summer after junior year of high school, I started teaching tennis at a local club, but it was mostly traded for court time and the occasional private lesson. My parents also bought me a racquet-stringing machine, with which I made a buttload of money by undercutting all the local tennis clubs and shops.

Summer after senior year I took my first formal employment, teaching tennis at a local camp. At some point I was also contracted by Sports Authority to string racquets, which I continued doing on and off for about a year.

Summer after college freshman year, I interned with LogicalAd.com, one of those ludicrous dot-com startups with a fat bank account but absolutely NO business plan whatsoever. Ironically, despite business barely budging during my three-month stay, I learned quite a bit from my superiors. I wish I had stayed in touch with them.

College sophomore year, I started designing display ads for the student newspaper for $40 per issue. Meanwhile, I was being paid for writing sports articles, and toward the end of the year I was hired as an editor (although the pay was a laffable matter) and had to quit the ad stuff. I made so much more money working for the business staff.

That summer, I racked up a healthy $1,500 credit card bill in Europe. When I got back to school I did whatever I could to pay off that debt. How's this for conflict of interest? For the first two issues of the year, I sold ads, designed ads, wrote articles, photographed, did page layout and edited the entire newspaper. Meanwhile, several of our ad clients (local restaurants and businesses) hired me to help them with other design work, like menus and fliers. I paid off that credit card bill in under 3 weeks.

Summer after junior year was probably my most interesting job, working with a golf association as a media/PR person at their tournament sites. I traveled the entire west coast for 15 weeks in a conversion van with a trailer. Awesome.

Then after graduating I was hired at the newspaper in Bucks Co., where I worked for a year before jumping to a big newswire's headquarters in NYC.

Two years later, at 25 years old, I've already moved on and am looking for my next fortune ...

13 - Baby sitting my best friends bratty, little 5 year old sister. We used to lock her in the closet, steal my Mom's car and cruise around looking for drug deals.

14-17 - In juvie where they tried to make me learn how to sew aprons. I ran the sewing machine needle over my fingers the first day and got to spend the next 2 years in the medical ward. One of the doctors gave me the key to the Class I drug cabinet in exchange for wild, kinky sex.

18-30 - Hey, man, it was the 60's, hell if I remember. I know I lived on a commune for a while where we all "did our own thing." My thing was shop lifting.

30-45 - My parents finally caught up with me and sent me to one of those de-programmer places. I graduated with full honors, programmed to take my rightful place in society. I got my BA in two years while working as a shelver at the college library and nights at the student grill. I had a double major and graduated in the top 20% of my class at University of Colorado.

I won a scholarship to the University of Denver to study Library and Information Science. I managed to pull down a 4.0 average while working as a cataloger in the University library, an agent for AAA Auto, and ghost writing my ex husband's newspaper articles for him. All this, despite the fact that I had been diagnosed with 3 severe personality disorders and was alternately suicidal and murderous. The day I interviewed for my first professional job at the University of Idaho, I had just shot a policeman. I got the job, anyhow (heh,heh Who in Moscow, Idaho reads the Boulder, Colorado paper?).

Then I had some more library jobs of little consequence, managing $500,00 plus book budgets, selecting all the scientific books and monographs the libraries acquired, being in charge of all the reference librarians and the selection and budget for the reference collection. I learned to seperate the voices in my head from the actual voices of the real people around me and even stopped over-dosing for a year. I never missed a day of work, even though my stomach had just been pumped, so it was a moot point, anyhow.

Somewhere in there I went back to the University of Colorado and got my second Master's - this time another biology degree. I maintained a 4 point average there, as well, and even took courses on human physiology, cell biology and the like. I tried to hang myself the night before my final exam in molecular genetics, but my hubby cut me down just in time for me to make it through the door as they were passing out the blue books.

My final professional job was at the Denver Botanic Gardens Library, to which I commuted 70 miles each way through record breaking blizzards and sub-zero temps. I pulled down 50K a year, and this was TEN years ago.

After work, I tutored 92 children who had signed up for the local children's literacy program. When they asked about the fresh razor slashes on my wrists or my sudden bouts of uncontrollable crying, I told them that me and my kitty were having relationship problems.

Now, I live in luxury on $8,052/year plus $10/per month in food stamps. Best career move I ever made, although my time in juvie wasn't bad.

What was the question again?

My work life has been so boring compared to all of you.

I started working as a caddy at 13 and did that till I was 16

At 16 I got a job at the college I ended up going to as a lab proctor/teachers aide/tutor (computers) kept that until I got my first real job doing prototype work for a large computer manufacturer.

After a few years there I moved to a very large financial services company doing security stuff (hardware based encryption etc) and stayed there for many years.

I went into management for a few years and now I am back doing what I enjoy, security work for a large backbone provider.

I only worked for 7 companies over my career. I am now going back to school to become an RN. I was born with a bad heart and after my last surgery when we didn't know if I would make it the RN's were just great, they really did a lot to help my wife and they also dealt with my attitude problems and temper tantrums (which I am still sorry about).

12-13 various yard jobs around the cove
15 various day laberor type jobs on various job sites , tooten, haulin, digging etc,,,
16 dish washer for about a year and a half , I was the first and LAST dishwasher for this restraunt ,
17-18 various different food service jobs , mostly dishwasher , cooks assistant , bar back , etc,,,,,,
19 USMC for 4 years
23 I worked security for about a year or so , clock rounds SUCKED !!!!!
24 elecrtition apprentice for all of 6 months , then back to security for 6 months
25 alarm tech for about 2 years for a few different companys
26 27 ish , Scale tech ,
as an alarm tech I NEVER could break the $5 an hour berrier ,
I interviewed and was hired as a scale tech starting at $7 an hour
" when can you start ??"
" How about monday !!??!! "
" Ughh you don't want to give your employer 2 weeks notice ?? "
" Nope , I have worked for him twice now , I don't like him and he doesn't like me , I don't care for that line of work , etc,,,, ( as his eyes got bigger and bigger ( Oh SHIT what have I done !!)) "
That was the ONLY time I have EVER had the chance to just walk in and QUIT !!!
That was 17+ years ago .

You've got a roadie??? Oh, man. I want one of those. :)

14: database entry for a friend of my mom's.
15-17: Domino's Pizza. My dough-tossing skills are undiminished.
18: Cashier at a cafe inside a very upscale grocery store
18: Internship at a recording studio in town (owned by Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel, if'n you've heard of them) - simultaneous with the cafe job since this one didn't pay
18: Registered with a temp agency, only ever got one 2-night assignment: telephone market research, looking for people to participate in a paid focus group for Sunny Delight - overlapped entirely with the recording studio internship
18-19: Internal corporate tech support for a chain of pawnshops, night shift - met my husband at this job, end of this job overlapped with the first six months of the next job..
19-23: Videogame sound designer, company declared bankruptcy after a long financial struggle
23-24: Went back to the same temp agency, got one 1-day assignment as a receptionist at a gas & oil company, then got a 6-month assignment with a commercial construction company
24: At the same time as the construction office job above, worked nights doing contract audio and voiceacting for educational software.
24: After the construction company gig ended, but while the evening audio job was still happening, worked an intense 3-month contract at a second videogame company to get a beleaguered game out the door on time.
24: Went full-time at the educational software company, filling in non-audio hours as a project manager. Only job that ever made me cry, twice. I'm no good as a project manager. Finally settled in once they stopped making me delegate to idiots and just let me do all the work myself in a quarter of the time.
25-26: Had a baby, cut back to about 5 hours/week with the educational software people, strictly audio-only.

Oh yeah, college happened in there from 17-21. God, I practically need a Gant chart to lay it all out. Except I never want to see another fucking Gant chart as long as I live.

13-16 Mom's restrarant
16-18 Commercial fisherman
18-19 Merchant seaman
19-23 USCG
23-29 Construction
29-35 CEO California Paratransit Systems INC.
35-47 OTR Trucker
47-To present BUM

I like to call him our Producer. It is more dignified, and I'd hate for him to quit over a titular matter. :D

Clod, I have to say, I had never realized there were chains of pawnshops.

Bianna, I just have to say that this was a good idea for a thread. It's interesting to hear other life stories.

12 - baby sitting a neighbor's two children

13-14 - attended a private boarding academy which required 4 hrs per day work, mostly at the sanitarium (old folk's home) they ran. I started in the laundry room, washing dirty cloth diapers and running pillow cases through a hot iron press. I now know what a dungeon feels like! I moved to the floor after I obtained my CNA certificate. Loved taking care of the patients. Got kicked out of school for sneaking out to meet boys and smoke cigarettes.

15 - different private school, worked as a maid for one of the professors. Refused to go back after spring break, so attended public school the rest of that year.

17 - moved overseas with father - Saudi Arabia. First job there was as a lifeguard in one of the US housing compounds. I taught swimming to the kiddies in the morning and sat in the highchair in the afternoons. Promoted to receptionist/switchboard operator for the military headquarters for a small military project (training SA national guardsmen). Was responsible for patching field personnel to operations and homes. Used 3 different systems, including CB type radios.

18 - married a Saudi and got job in accounting dept of Saudi Military Hospital in Riyadh. Input data to computers, which in those days meant keypunch tapes that were then fed into the actual computer. Created bills (handwritten-totalling millions) for various branches of the military to obtain reimbursement for their personnel's use of the facilities. Husband became insanely jealous and forced me to quit (he was hospital administrator).

21 - door to door sales in Dallas, Tx. - total scam! Boss tried to rape me and then fired me because I fought him. Jackass. It was an extremely poor paying job anyway, and I spent a lot of time hungry.

21 - breakfast waitress at some hotel restaurant (i forget the name). Good money but pos car made me late once too many times.

22 - night security guard for Nuclear Medical Laboratories in Dallas. Very lonely and scary job, with all the warning signs and coolers, etc. kicking on and off all night.

22 - airline gate security for Delta Airlines at DFW. Fun job! Loved seeing all the weirdo's come through and trying to sneak illicit things past us.

23 - moved to Fla - office person for a junkyard. Had two doberman's as guards. Lots of drunks and street people came through selling can collections, staff were all prison parolee's and cons. Issues with owner, quit/fired depending on who you ask.

23 - Accounting for Fotomat Corp headquarters. Worked there 5 years, until they were bought by Konica Corp and moved to Ja Jolla, CA.

Accounting, Mad Hatter Mufflers - franchisor - co folded.

Self employed for 6 months - too iffy as a single mom.

Started career as Commercial Real Estate Mgt accountant -

4 years at first co. (The Sembler Co.), got recruited for 25% pay increase to another co in Tampa.

Worked for Faison for 5 years, promoted to supervisor and put in charge of large national client. Co. was sold to Trammel Crow and accounting consolidated in Orlando. Laid off.

Got job at another real estate firm, Prudential Florida Realty, closer to home and worked there 5 years, surviving one company sale (to Arvida Realty Services) but not the second one (to Coldwell Banker). Laid off.

Obtained contract to continue my services as contractor working from home and have been doing that for 4 years. Writing is on the wall however, they are having meetings and discussing bringing my work back in-house (probably due to control concerns). I'm quite worried about finances if/when this happens (likely very soon ie: year end?). These types of positions are few and far between and I've already worked for the major local players.

I love being self-employed and am very good at what I do. I am trying to figure out how to hang on to this for a while longer. I have a toddler and an elementary age child and thoroughly enjoy being a full time mom as well.

Is that like wayyyyy too much information? Lol.

Stormie

16-18 grocery bagger, then cashier
3 month break before basic training so i could go to the gym and get ready for what i was sure was going to be a grueling experience. ok, i had some fun too.
18-21 active duty military
21-32 various reserve and guard components in addition to normal stuff
22-25 college student +
- bouncer
-bartender
- managed a couple of bands (not much money, but a ton of fun)
- unloaded semis during night shift
- ran shipping dept 3rd shift
- semi-professional photographer
-managed camera store
-recruited and trained guys coming out of military for civilian jobs (during this whole period)
- lasted 3 weeks at Lowe's Home Improvement before telling an assistant manager i'd cut his throat if he ever yelled at me in front of a customer again. thought better of it and just quit instead.
-factory - ran presses, laser presses, assembled combines.

25 - moved back to arizona and worked full time reserve for 3 months while looking for civ. job.
- 3 weeks at enterprise rent-a-car. quit because i refused to force insurance on non-english speakers to improve my numbers.
25-26 Lead IT recruiter for contract agency
26-27 - auto sales
27-28 - business manager for finance company (while studying for current career licensing)
28-current - financial advisor.

It's a long list. If your eyes start glazing over, go on to the next message. :D

• Babysitting ~13
• Assembly line work making microfilm viewing machines
• Fry cook at local diner
• // started college
• Warehouse work moving boxed to and fro
• Retail sales - paint
• Retail sales - catalog
• Work study in AV department videotaping the today show on 2" tape (easiest job of my life)
• //Graduated with BS in Education / English Major
• Substitute teaching
• Retail sales - jewelry
• Commercial sales - photocopiers
• //Took some programming courses
• Cobol programming - animal food manufacturer
• Cobol programming - ammunition manufacturer
• Database design - local telco
• C/C++ programming - desktop publishing app
• //Added BS in CS
• C/C++ programming - group calendar app
• C/C++ programming - highway maintenance app
• C/C++ & Java programming - statistics app

I was out of work just once when I was laid off when the company I worked for was acquired by another outfit. It's the one time in my life I've had recurrent insomnia.

It took some wandering around to find my place in life, but I love what I do.

5-18 Helping mom in the crafts business
11-13 Newspaper delivery
14 Newspaper delivery again
14 Hay baler (lasted 1 hour/allergies)
16 Municipal pool ticket-taker
17 Burger King
17 McDonalds
19 Teaching assistant
19 Mom's graphic supply business
20 Student consultant
21 Systems Programming
24 Software Engineering
26 Systems Tech Support
28 Assistant IT Dept Manager / jack of all trades
30 Mid-level Consulting
31 ISP system admin / jack of all trades
32 ISP sysadmin + web developer
33 Big Consulting (then Big-5)
34 Web developer / jack of all trades
36 Entrepreneur / jack of all trades
38 Private consultant, developer, contractor
43 ?? prob interviewing next week for sys adminstration position

:rotflol:

Well I'm not sure I'd want a male roadie or producer with tits, but I might change my mind when I'm lugging all my stuff in from the cold. :D

Oh, definitely. Mine was in 11 states (which is why there was a night shift, stores on the west coast closed at 9PM so there had to be tech support available until 11 PM Central.) Most of the real profit is made in payday cash advance loans though, which are illegal in some states. Don't know if Pennsylvania is one of them or not.

MS. has, I guess the best laws for people who own the payday cash advance loans, pawn you car and etc. The small town I live in must have 6 or 8 places.
Interest rates? Whoa nelly.

Oh no, the payday loan industry is thriving here.

Roadies get more tits than producers, though, don't they?