Jobs you have had?

I've been a

waitress
hospital messenger
research assistant--my name was Shitwork
doctor

Below is a list of jobs I have performed, bottom to top chronologically, from age 9 on:

>Dentist (this may be the last attempt at finding my 'inner self')
^Union journeyman electrician
^Lumber yard salesman
^Newspaper bulk dropoff truck route driver
^Professional 'Exterminator', US Government (USMC)
^Department store stocker
^Soda jerk/short order cook
^Pet and feed shop cleanup
^Food server, drive-in hot dog restaurant
^Bicycle repair shop
^Newspaper delivery routes (several)

Cute thread!!! I've been a...

Conference Support Specialist
Volunteer Recruiter for the Department on Aging
Front Desk Assistant for my school's Technology & Computing Services dept
Salvation Army Bell Ringer (did you know bell ringers make $6 an hour?)
Market Research Interviewer
Computer Lab Assistant
Archery and Craft Instructor @ a summer camp
Telemarketer
Skating Rink worker (snack bar, skate rental, & cleaning)
Motel Housekeeper

I have had three jobs in my life:

Heart cath tech
X-ray tech
grocery store checker (during high school)

Let's see:

-Scout camp instructor/counselor
-Grocery store bagger
-'User Assistant' - GaTech campus computer labs (OIT)
-Desktop Mac and Windows tech support - College of Computing, GaTech
-Web development engineer (also dba and Sun systems administrator)
-Systems Administrator (sun/solaris) - CNN (which was part of Time Warner, then merged with AOL while I was there, now back to Time Warner (TWX))
-Systems Administrator (sun/solaris) - BellSouth
-Systems Analyst, Fault Management (nervecenter, netcool, various EMSes) - Bellsouth (we just got bought by AT&T)

Cook at a pizza place
Transported medicine and medical suppies
Dietary Assistant at a local hospital
Now I deal with financing and accounts at a large company that suppies furniture/office suppies/appliances/electronics

I changed my mind. I am a very private person.

newspaper subscription salesman (my first job)
busboy
bowling alley clerk
pet food salesman
pet food store stock boy
tool company merchandiser
feed/farm supply hand
retail clothing salesman
party store clerk
party supply store stockboy
flower shop packager
painter
drug store stock/clerk
movie store clerk
resturaunt host
bartender
taxi driver
real estate agent
financial services representative (my current job)

wow! I'm only 26 and I feel like I've got quite a broad work history. Hopefully I'll get rich now!

Burger King
Store Clerk
Custodian
Bouncer
Tutor
Teacher's Aide
Teacher

I'll pick out a couple and add in a bit a colour behind them (slightly different theme - I know)

First job - selling fabric on a market stall ('Oh yes love, electric blue is really in this year, and that silky finish suits you'). Minus points - the wages, having to wear three layers of thermal long johns during winter. Plus points - I can fold anything, having to 'come out of my shell' (you can't be shy when you are haggling over the price of velveteen off-cuts), being part of the market community (top people).

Worst job - making containers and packaging for cosmetics and fragrance (oh the irony). It was a factory job over one summer. You sat on an assembly line putting plastic screw tops into gold caps, for eight hours a day, on split shifts, plus overtime. Minus points - the smell of hot glue all day, the sense that your brain was melting (I turned up in week one with a novella to read in my lunch break, by week ten I was staring at the wall), the mixed feelings - you knew that you would back to the balm of college within weeks, the others workers had been there years and stayed sane and cheerful.

Best job - it's not felt like it this week but, my current job. I'm a law lecturer at a university. When I was a student I mentioned to my personal tutor that I was considering the academic life and all he said was 'It's civilised, you'd like it'. After dealing with the bureaucracy and the bullsh*t, I have to remind myself that my job mainly involves reading and writing about subjects that I have chosen because I'm very interested in them, and then trying to pass on some of that interest to my students - mustn't grumble.

Sorry this is 'off-style' - I like back stories

-volunteer at a local nursing home during high school
-volunteer as an usher and various other capacities at my church, which I still do
-assistant to the director of undergraduate admissions while in college
-bookseller at one of my local chain bookstores for six years
-student

Carnival booth operator
Cook
Accountant
Bartender
Cagefighter

So far, my only true job has been a photographer for Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana during my brief stint there. It was a fun job, but there were a lot of other conflicts in my university life, so I had to leave both the job and AU early.

This past fall, I was close to volunteering for a candidate for the U.S. House. However, I could never get ahold of the people running the campaign, and not surprisingly, the candidate I wanted to volunteer for lost. (As the discussion of politics isn't allowed here, I won't name names.)

However, I just applied a few days ago for a part-time fragrance sales job at Macy's. This is my third time applying for this job (the first one was in June 2006 when the store was still L.S. Ayres, and the second one was in November 2006). I hope that I get it this time... as they say, "the third time's the charm".

early on: changed tires at my dad's tire shop

high school/college: besides restaurant jobs, worked in record shops, a paint factory for a few months, and the coolest job ever: working for a think tank that claimed as affiliates the likes of Ralph Abraham, Rianne Eisler, Morris Berman, Bill Viola, William Irwin Thompson, James Lovelock, and others I can't think of.

post college: technical manager for a hi-end audio manufacturer; did some freelance design and modification of audio equipment; front-end web programmer

currently: quality assurance engineer for the web commerce site of a 750 billion USD home furnishings company. basically means i get paid to a) write code that tests other code; b) bitch and moan about stuff that doesn't work.

future: healthcare. not sure what exactly, but sonography would be a nice marriage of my sound and medicine interests....

From most recent down;

Neuropsychologist
Post Doctoral Fellow
Crisis Outreach Clinician
Psychology Intern
Psychotherapist
Grad Student
Research Assistant
Mental Health Specialist
Hardee's Supervisor
Hotel Bellhop
Golf Course Greenskeeper
Dishwasher
Office Cleaner
Perfume Factory Worker (Halston! I used to get factory seconds for 10% of cost!)
Porter for a landscaping retailer
Vegetable Picker for a farm market

A Public Servant for most of my life, but recently we were reclassified as public employees.
Renato

werewolf - doesn't pay well--but excellent fringe benefits
accountant for a resort software company
accountant for the founder of a major credit card..this one was priceless!!
studio musician - guitar
yacht club manager
restaurant manager-twice...once was NOT enough
hospital technician
supermarket worker

Let's see....from the age of 8 I have been:
- Child labor for my parents and their friends, yardwork, painting, general crap they didn't want to do. Thanks dad!
- Stall mucker at a polo club. 1 day. Thanks for that one dad!
- Roofer in FL in the summer. Again, thanks dad!
- Fast food cook then manager. I blame myself for this one.
- Production worker in a high tech manufacturing plant.
- Computer lab technical support.
- Systems Analyst/Programmer
- Project Manager
- Performance Consultant
- Procurement associate now a procurement category manager with staff.
- who knows what I'll do next....

....Note: I give my dad grief over the crappy jobs I had in my youth...but I'd like to believe it was purely intended to show me how good I actually had it and how bad things could be. It got me to go to school and not settle with being unhappy at what I do....so, Thanks dad!

cleaning and sweeping a laundry
delivering and picking up laundry
auto mechanic
printer
photographer
darkroom added to photography
printing some more
customer service for printer
middle management for printer
desktop publishing
web design and maintenance
photo retoucher
retired on disability at 50

My list is longer than I had really thought it would be:


Camp counselor
gardener/groundskeeper at a historic mansion
dishwasher at several places
Cook at several places
Worked for the city housing authority one summer, cleaning windows and painting
telemarketer
Foodservice worker at the hospital
Customer technical support for a local ISP
Foundryman/welder/metalsmith
Aircraft painter
Aircraft Mechanic
Currently working for the Man in the USAF as a military aircraft mechanic, which frankly I prefer to working on civilian aircraft.

There's also some volunteer work in there, some misc. jobs that the miltary throws at me, and some sidework, but I won't count those.

-ben

Some of my occupations, current first:

Writer/Artist - fledging, stay tuned for more...

Massage Therapist, Reflexologist - I have a limited private practice and work in the hospital as part of the Integrative Cardiac Wellness team, providing pre and post surgical reflexology to open heart surgery patients. Highly rewarding.

Patient Advocate Emergency Dept. - High stress, High excitement and at times fascinating. Deal with Bereavement issues, conflict resolution, patient comfort and serve as a staff liason. Sometimes thankless, but can be highly rewarding. Pays the bills, thank god.
Keeps one on the edge and appreciative of life itself.

Art Therapy intern at a Pediatric Hematology Oncology Clinic. Facilitated art projects in groups and individually primarily with kids with cancer and their siblings. Loved it. Loved it.

Special Education Aide (Poor pay)
Montessori Preschool teacher (Loved it, though danger of brain turning into oatmeal, as any mom with a preschooler/toddler can attest to)
Miscellaneous office and accounting work (least favorite, bleh)
Door to door sales in the pacific northwest (four years) Great Adventure!and What was I thinking?)
"Missionary" in South Korea (13 months) (What was I thinking?)
Live in Nanny (2years Great training for having my own children)
Sold flowers at stoplights in Manhattan (High adventure...especially at Times Square and Central Park south)
Store clerk in Oriental Gift shop (High school job - God bless Mr. Yoh!)
Babysitter (junior high)

Male prostitute -- BUT "CLASSY". In fact, that was my street name: BUTT CLASSY.

Then i got fired from being a male prostitute. Why? Caring too much, i guess.


(hahahaha!)

CoTHukoB... you can't expect me to that... the 'classy' part, I mean :P


Jobs, in the order that I first took them on (several I still do):
dollmaker's assistant
model
groom
babysitter (just once, then I courteously explained that I disliked children, and the couple stopped bothering me)
waitress
dishwasher
graphics lab assistant
free lance graphic artist
stripper (along with my 200+ lbs. supervisor, Rob, and wee, spotty collegue, Greg; figure this one out correctly and I'll be impressed )
roadie
home health aide
freelance copywriter
freelance copyeditor/proofreader
licensed massage therapist
TA for a highschool biology class
office manager
nanny

I think I missed a few.

P.S. (14 May, 2007) if you didn't think of this straight off, "stripper" was the title given to those who "stripped together" (with red tranparent tape) the pieces of film used to burn plates in the printing industry.
I have a feeling that this job no longer exists, since most of the printing process is now computerised.
But I'm still glad I can claim to have been a stripper, because when I mention this, people alway have questions, and of course, my answers make no sense, and they look more and more confused ("...you quit because you developed chest pains from the printing ink fumes?!"), until I elaborate and give them the entire picture

Oooh, dem's fightin' words!

I'm sorry, i just can't believe that... the 'stripper part', i mean

NOT at 5'2" YOU WEREN'T!

I know these things, woman.

Oh wait ... were you stripping hardwood floors, maybe?

'scuse me sir, but even at 5'2" I'm fully capable of getting nekkid (I've known "exotic dancers" who were shorter than me); but in the sense that that wasn't what was involved (I'm certain most people would have cheerfully stuffed $100s into Rob's or Greg's... hands to keep their clothing on), you're moving in the right direction. I didn't strip floors, though. Not then.

What does "stripping" have to do with "getting nekkid"?



So? Were they any good at it? Patronized?

See, i've spent a significant part of my time in such places. Other than the obvious entertainment value, my friends used to drag me out and wouldn't hear "no" on account of the fact that they were virtually guaranteed to suffer a personal reaction like sitting stunned and stammering: "I have NEVER seen them do THAT before!" at some point in the evening.

PS: Thanks for helping me whittle down the post count, i knew i could count on you.

Yeh... I know what you mean When they began to do interpretive dance accompanied by a recitative of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" in the Esperanto, right?


<shakes head, assumes expression of late aunt Rose> "Boys..."

So, what jobs have you held (apart from rent boy)?

Well, there are supposed to be "rules" in most places depending on locale. First thing you ought to know is -- there ARE no rules. You make your own. If i wrote about things here, i'd have to charge by the word.


... will be boys.


Well, when i was younger, they used to call me "loose cannon". When i got a little older, they used to call me "a force of nature". Nowadays ... well, they just call me. (hahahaha!)

present or past jobs don't really matter, i am just saying, i am going to come back here inten years and if i don't reply to this thread with "historian" or at least "grad student" i think my parents will kill me

And if you can't make a claim to either of those ... well then, just remind them that you are NOT your job. That'll fix 'em. Tell them to be nice, or they'll be changing their own diapers down the road.

So, Mongoose, were you stripping electrons then?

Nooo... Keep going; in say, 6, 7 tries more you may get it

Hehe, i don't HAVE 6 or 7 tries. Look at the post count.

Fine, be that way, play hard-to-guess why don't ya ...

Ahem. Have we researched this? Checked dictionary.com? wikipedia? Thought not :P

Oh my god! You're Jack the Stripper!

Wait ... that makes you a bit older than i thought you'd be. And more hairy. Hmmm ...

-Working in a private kindergarden
-working at three different homes for elderly as an nursing-assistent.(still do)
.......Still studying,wanna work with refugees and/or human rights issues or organisations that deals with religious or cultural issues....Really bad at explaining this I see ...

OK, Ill play...

In chronological order from top to bottom:

- A lolly-bagger
- Burgler-Alarm installer's apprentice
- Telemarketer
- Hansard reporter in the West Australian House of Parliament
- Telegraphist on a Naval Destroyer (Greek Army)
- Graphic Designer for an Ad firm
- Snr Graphic Designer / Chief Webmaster for an online adult retailer (adultshop.com)
- Fine Fragrance SA
- Snr Graphic Designer / Art Director for a design bureau

... and Im going to be quitting that job in a matter of weeks
Anyone have any suggestions what I can try next??

well, really the problem is that until i am able to lay claim to one of these two things my parents will be paying for my health insurance, and probably a lot more . . . i mean unless the guilt of being such a financial burden wears me into a 9-5 w/benefits. . . which might happen

what's a lolly bagger?
and which of these is your favorite?