Working

[DanaC]

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.

[footfootfoot]

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?

[Happy Monkey]

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

boring old me...

[Griff]

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...


HM- how's your 401K looking though?

[Happy Monkey]

That's a plus, indeed.

[breakingnews]

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?

[John Adams]

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).

[zippyt]

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 .

[Clodfobble]

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.

[Pie]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Except I never want to see another fucking Gant chart as long as I live.

[fargon]

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

[SteveDallas]

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

[glatt]

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

[Stormieweather]

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