My December 7 post (“Working Hard at Not Making Money”) reminded me of all the jobs I’ve had over the years:
Summer camp counselor assistant-My first job and the only one I was ever fired from. This wasn’t a good start to my future employment. For a large sum of unmarked bills sent to me in a brown paper bag, I will divulge what my crime was.
Summer camp assistant assistant (no typo)-Scored after I was fired from the first job. Luckily they didn’t check my references.
Summer day camp assistant coordinator-My main job was to organize and distribute food to the campers, thereby leaving me no time to write graffiti all over the walls, so I kept my job.
Lingerie salesperson in a discount department store-Job procured after I falsified my birth certificate to make it look like I was 18 and eligible to work.
Assistant librarian-This was in the romantic days of card catalogs
Hosiery salesperson in the basement of a department store-This was in pre-pantyhose days. I spent most of the day refolding stockings in boxes.
After-Christmas-Sale Christmas card salesperson in a major department store-After this experience, I developed skills that would enable me to effectively quell a prison riot.
Art class model-I’ll let you think I languished nude in front of a room filled with virile young male students. It was actually an adult ed class and I was a portrait model.
Assistant librarian on campus
Page Girl at the Federal Reserve Bank-This job was like something out of a 1930s musical, without the music or dancing or my being discovered by a Hollywood producer.
Waitress-When I left, the owner turned to her husband and said, “That was the worst waitress I’ve ever seen.”
Assistant bookkeeper for a small, family-run mayonnaise company-I learned the term “bill of lading” and heard the story about the owner of the company having invented “Cream Whip,” then having had his invention stolen by the makers of “Dream Whip.” Hiss boo.
Assistant researcher Head Start-Thanks to my classroom observations and reports of the first Head Start programs, changes were implemented. Or else I just spent my time trying to figure out how to operate the tape recorder.
Tupperware dealer-I won’t even make a joke about this. Oh wait. Yes I will. My favorite game to play with the women was the paper bag game, in which people had to take their clothes off. Hey, this was Indiana in 1970. There wasn’t much else going on.
Others: Special Ed teacher, artist, Realtor, operator of a speed dating company, file clerk, author, speaker, workshop leader, Indian chief, pole dancer. OK, the last two aren’t true.
I’d love to hear what others of you have done.
sunshineinlondon
December 10, 2010
I love this list, Renee – quite a range of jobs you’ve had. I love the progress you made at summer camp from assistant assistant. Page girl? I thought those were only at weddings? Hilarious.
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
I could write an entire post about my job as a page girl. It was, of course, back in the Dark Ages, when everything was written on paper and had to be hand-carried.
duke1959
December 10, 2010
The thing about it is your list is like many. When we are young we think that our life will have a nice straight path.
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
I know. One of the amazing things about life is that we are constantly presented with choices, even though it may seem that we have none. And there is always an opportunity for reinvention.
Snippets & Yarns
December 10, 2010
Wow – my list is definitely boring compared to yours. Actually it’s pretty boring compared to anything. But I’m glad you shared your list and some stories with us! You certainly made me smile 🙂
~ Meagan
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
Thanks, Meagan. Two factors that contribute to my eclectic work experience: 1. My family had very little money, and I was pretty creative at coming up with ways to earn it 2. My advanced years on earth 🙂 But I always enjoyed every job I had.
carldagostino
December 10, 2010
My first job was for 8 weeks for the City of North Miami during summer school break . I ran behind those garbage trucks for $40 a week. No I did not leave out any zeros! I was 14 years old. The hardest job I ever had was being a father. I refer to them as Suspect#1 and Suspect#2. I’ll allow you to speculate what that means.
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
Another great comment, Carl. My first teaching job (Indiana, 1973) earned me $7300 a year. I thought I was rich, sinch the year I went to college, my dad made $3000.
carldagostino
December 10, 2010
Wow. My first teaching job was in 1972 and I got $5,400 from Catholic school but matched you in 1973 at $7,300 also in the public schools. So it looks like we are both 39 years old, right?
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
Correct! And here I thought I was the only two year old teacher.
Gayane
December 10, 2010
Great post as always Renee! I had one job w a firm in Dupont Circle way back in the ’70s. It started to go downhill the first day when I was “interviewing” with the director I was to assist. As he calmly clipped his nails all over his desk, he told me there would be no hanky panky, “I don’t do that”…..then I was told to go fire one of the managers. I quit by 3:00.
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
Yikes!
Gayane
December 10, 2010
oh, to clarify, I didn’t quit because I was looking forward to hanky panky and was disappointed! 🙂
Debbie
December 10, 2010
Your list started me thinking about my own eclectic job history. I’ve done everything from advertising to writing to drug sales (the legal kind, haha!); perhaps variety truly IS the spice of life?? That, or maybe it only serves as good fodder for my novel!
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
I go with the good-fodder-for-the-novel thing. Don’t you think all of our experiences somehow work their way into our writing, even when we aren’t aware of it?
TexasTrailerParkTrash
December 10, 2010
I don’t know if this really qualifies as a first job or not, but I was part owner in a “head shop” (you know, black light posters, psychedelia, etc.) with some college friends in the suburbs of L.A. in 1967-69. I was 19 or 20, married and the mother of an 18 month-old child, so I only worked there a couple of times a week. It was an experience from which I learned this truth: if you want to lose some friends, go into the retail business with them.
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
I think that story needs its own post!
TexasTrailerParkTrash
December 10, 2010
Funny you should ask! It just so happens there is one:
http://youcallthatart.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/i-didnt-go-to-woodstock-and-all-i-got-was-a-lousy-t-shirt/
writerwoman61
December 10, 2010
Hi Renée…interesting jobs you’ve had! I’ve never been a waitress…I’m sure I’d rival you for the “worst waitress” title! Here’s one of my early blog posts about jobs I had as a kid:
http://writerwoman61.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/pickin-and-grinnin/
Wendy
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
See below!
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
Great story. Wow, aside from babysitting, I didn’t become gainfully employed until I was 15. Waitressing was a nightmare for me. I could only carry one item at a time and I kept forgetting things like putting a plate under the soup bowl. But I smiled a lot and so I made decent tips. It wouldn’t have been a good career path for me.
V.V. Denman
December 10, 2010
Quite a list. You’ve got me thinking back on my daycare worker years. Ugh.
lifeintheboomerlane
December 10, 2010
As in small children? Wow, I’m sorry to have brought up unpleasant memories. 🙂
Joyce
December 13, 2010
Things I never knew about you! So funny. As you know I was a door-to-door Bible salesperson (salesman in those days) one summer. I have been Director of Girl Scout day camps (having never been a Brownie or Girl Scout and not knowing how to start a camp fire by rubbing sticks together), and I scrubbed white marble steps in Baltimore for elderly ladies. That actually was my first “paid” job at about 8 or 9 years old. I sold shoes at a discount department store, and makeup at Kresge’s downtown. Woohoo, that was prestigious of course because it was downtown! And of course now I’m a cook (slave) for a famous person on this island where I live.
lifeintheboomerlane
December 13, 2010
Don’t you think it’s so interesting to see what kinds of things people have done in their lives? Tell the famous person you will not scrub her floors or anything else. Famous people can be bitches if you don’t keep them under control..
Suzanne Armstrong
December 17, 2010
This is too funny! I saw myself in several of the jobs!
lifeintheboomerlane
December 17, 2010
Thanks for reading, Suzanne. Glad you enjoyed it. Job histories are always so amusing.
Jean
December 18, 2010
I have been fortunate to apply both of my degrees, directly as a librarian (Master of Library Science at one of the Canadian universities. That is what a real librarian is.) and my English degree for writing when I had to …business writing and blogging for my dearie’s business at http://www.thirdwavecyclingblog.wordpress.com
Jobs I’ve known:
*Prior to completing my university degrees, as a cashier and clerk for national department stores at Simpson’s, Kmart and at bookstore chain. For 10 yrs.
Then was a librarian and library manager for:
*library specializing in geriatric medicine and gerontology (sociology of aging)
*library specializing in rehabiliation medicine for the spinal cord injured (this was a medical library)
*engineering library focused on fire protection engineering, firefighting, disaster planning and emergency medicine.
*law library that served exclusively for just the judges in a province
*tax and business law library for an international accounting firm
*law library for a legal aid non-profit agency
*national law firm library
*document manager for a large construction engineering project (highway bridge and 5 highway approaches in 5 municipalities)
*blogmaster for cycling infrastructure consulting firm
*knowledge management specialist for govn’t engineering division
I have never regretted my choice of degrees and jobs. I have learned tons from contrasting subjects, diverse workplace cultures and people from all walks of life. I would have never dreamt working with doctors, physiotherapists, lawyers, judges, firefighters, ex-police officers (they were arson investigators), engineers, accountants, paramedics, etc. It’s been a pleasure…having a career in managing information/content management and serve such clients.
Let’s see I’ll be visiting a sewage treatment plant to understand the staff’s information needs. 🙂 Hey, bring on..more knowledge and information to learn! 🙂
lifeintheboomerlane
December 19, 2010
What a great job history. I love your attitude. I agree. All jobs provide an opportunity for growth, for insight, for communicating with people we might otherwise not have come into contact with. I have never understoon people who work for years/decades in a field or for a company or government agency they dislike. Work is part of life, a huge part. If we mark time at a job, we are marking time at life.