What jobs have you been employed at?

David777 said:
Fascinating read each reflecting decades of life.

Instead of entering college after HS it was decreed that was no longer a factor in being drafted. So my first job was a result of trying to avoid being drafted into the Viet Nam War that I expected would have had me carrying an M16 rifle through leach, poisonous snake, and mosquito infested MeKong Delta swamps dodging bullets. Instead took Navy and USAF tests that after scoring high resulted in a USAF electronic repairman career field and schooling that after discharge was able to leverage in rapidly growing Silicon Valley as an electronic tech where at a list of corps mainly worked as a non-degreed ET, test eng, and troubleshooter in hardware engineering support. Included 6 years at Cisco Systems Mid-range Router division engineering during the early Internet explosion until after the Dot Com implosion. Very technically difficult mental work requiring constant technical self studying. Between jobs I spent months to years each time enjoying myself without ever collecting unemployment until funds dwindled with the last time after the 2008 crash. Not one that ever had much a goal of accumulating money or material junk.
Click to expand...
I left out that even though I planned to go to "college" after High School, the decision was made to go to a 2-year community college to get a ticket out of the draft. Finding out that not only could I not afford a 4-year college, I did not qualify since my dislike of school did not make for grades that would get me into a 4-year college. I now very much wish I had just let them draft me. Not sure I would have passed a physical for the army. Maybe 50% chance of that. The army would have made me better, ruined me more, or killed me. It would have maybe accelerated my education and increased my appreciation of the important things in life. You can't go back, but regrets haunt you and maybe if things were different there may only be more regrets and not less?
 
Falcon said:
Theater usher
shoe salesman
USAF pilot
Medical photographer
car salesman
insurance salesman
teacher
tutor
investigator
YMCA greeter
Click to expand...
So Falcon, got your own plane? My dad flew in the U.S. Army Air Force in WWII. Met Rommel in the desert, of course, after his plane crashed. Would love to hear your stories of your time in the USAF. ;)
 
chrislind2 said:
I left out that even though I planned to go to "college" after High School, the decision was made to go to a 2-year community college to get a ticket out of the draft. Finding out that not only could I not afford a 4-year college, I did not qualify since my dislike of school did not make for grades that would get me into a 4-year college. I now very much wish I had just let them draft me. Not sure I would have passed a physical for the army. Maybe 50% chance of that. The army would have made me better, ruined me more, or killed me. It would have maybe accelerated my education and increased my appreciation of the important things in life. You can't go back, but regrets haunt you and maybe if things were different there may only be more regrets and not less?
Click to expand...
Don't feel bad. I always wanted to be a Madam or a spy. It just didn't quite work out. Bummer. Madam and spy would have been the best combo. I know, Mata Hari did not fair so well. I should consider myself lucky I guess.:ROFLMAO:
(P.S. Madams get all the best first picks.)
 
Was my mason contractor father's gofer/hodcarrier every summer at age 8 until I turned 17 (jointing at first to full time mason). Baked donuts in morn/cleaned bakery in the eves for 1 year. USAF spent 4 years on active duty as a non-combat Vietnam War vet. Data processor at 2 different banks 1967-1975. 35 years employed at a data center for a large Areo Space manufacturer, 1975-2010, Retired 2010 to a life of leisure while still enjoying my Golden Years.
 
Last edited:
I went to work at my neighbors Mink ranch when I was ten and worked there off and on till I graduated highschool. Also worked at other farms during those years.

After highschool worked two union jobs that I hated for a host of reasons. Then got a job as a machinist trainee and spent the next 38 years in that trade, eventually becoming part owner of a business.

I also worked a second job for a number of years during my twenties. One was a sawmill that a friend and his dad started. I liked that job a lot, good hard work!
 
Janitor/ helper at a carpet store
Main frame wiring for Pacific Telephone
Service station attendant (part time while in college)
Student technician (part time while in college)
7 years Test Engineer at North American Aviation
2 years active duty, US Navy
30 years Test, QA, Manufacturing engineer for a commercial electronics manufacturer
5 years managing a repair depot/warehouse.

I enjoyed them all.
 
First job, pearl diving at an Italian restaurant (that's slang for dishwashing)
Moving on up, selling books at a used book store (terrible pay but all the books you can read)
On to University, lab tech at an on-campus research facility (learned more there than in class)
Graduated, systems programmer of a company owned by Howard Hughes (i.e. kept the big iron computers running 24/7)
after that went back and forth between commercial software and electronics engineering (code and circuit boards)
finally retired, recently widowed, so to pass the time I...write programs.
 
Hmmm...this is an interesting topic. If my memory still works, I remember having done the following while also getting paid:
1. Garments manufacturer receptionist
2. Airline ticket office receptionist
3. Airline check-in and gate agent
4. Airline first class lounge concierge/attendant
5. Expat executive personal assistant
6. Handicrafts manufacturer marketing and export coordinator
7. Chamber of Commerce membership coordinator
8. Non-profit special events fundraising director
9. Primary care pharmaceutical sales
10. Specialty pharmaceutical sales (still doing this now, full-time)
 
Last edited:
After high school I went to nursing school and became an LPN.
Did some private duty,
Ended up working in a small nursing home for over 10 years.

After I got married I couldn't find a job in nursing that didn't require me to work some weekends and holidays.
Having done that for so many years I had no intention of missing anymore holidays and weekends with my family,

Worked for myself after that making wedding and all occasion cakes.
Grew flowers and made dried arrangements which I sold.

Went back to work for a short period of time in a factory that pirated tapes. I didn't know that until a few weeks after I was hired. Didn't last long, they shut the place down.
Cleaned houses. Really good pay but hard work.
Delivered newspapers for awhile. For some reason I thought I could run around in the middle of the night and then come home and go back to bed and sleep. I was so energized I couldn't sleep and dragged myself through the day.

Finally went back to work for a few years with a visiting nurse service until I retired.
 
Some was voluntary at schools, others paid after graduation:
1. Printing Shop: collating church bulletin and sheet music and songs for choir
2. Printing Shop 2: Calligraphy creating new prayer books and Redirect to publishing houses by reading future books in drafts from new authors
3. Postal sorter during Christmas rush
4. Various Fairs as engraver at jewellery/glass booths
5. Newspapers classified adds entry
6. Temporary secretary/typist and accounting clerk
7. PSAC member as document specialist in 4 languages
8. Report documents typist for husband's work
9. Freelance work helping other authors
10. PR & Research work (ongoing unpaid)
11. Home Engineer
12. Full-time carer
13. Indie Author
 
Shipping Departments
Warehouses
School janitors
Stripping, waxing, & buffing floors
Market research (surveys by phone)
Housekeeper
Leather cutter in a shoe factory
Order picker in a barber and beauty business
Order picker in an artist brush manufacturer
 
I may miss a few, but these are easy to recall...

Yard boy (lawn mowing, fence painting, etc)
Orchard fruit picker
Downtown window washer
Rental-house cleaner for a realtor
Lighting tech for dances
Food-specialty store (sales & finance arranger)
Photographer
Construction assistant (w. carpenter, brick mason & concrete)
Commercial vanilla bottler
Bookstore, clerk & system data-entry
Freelance magazine & newspaper journalist, plus trade-journal editor (22 years)
Regional business association manager (7 years)
Semi-retired (doing preliminary editing on manuscripts for publication)
- Now more completely retired -
 
The list is long so I'll reduce it to the one that I needed part time to pay for one son's special weighted shoes. Since we didn't have health insurance cash was all that was accepted.

This one that was the most difficult.
The job was to drive a tri axel 20 ton capacity dump truck delivering 2b sub base for road construction. Once on site lining up to drop the load into a Jersey spreader all that was needed was to be perfectly aligned then raise the bed to deliver the 2b evenly and slowly. @ $20.00 a load getting 7 loads a day was the max I had time for. The only tricky part was when on a slope to NOT raise the bed to high to quick so that tipping over didn't happen. It didn't.
 
Left school in 1959 and got a job as a filing clerk in a company that sold encyclopaedias. Taught myself to type and was offered a job as a Dictaphone typist in the same building. After 6 years I left and took up temp. work which was terrific as I met so many interesting people in different fields of office work. Met my husband and joined him in his cleaning business (crystal chandeliers was the speciality). Worked in the best hotels, theatres, historic houses and palatial homes of the rich and famous.
 
Clerk/typist - central heating company, bank, Australian Migration Centre
Secretary - Orthodontist
Policewoman
Self employed driving instructor
25+ yrs in NHS and Social Services as Social Work Assistant, Welfare Rights Officer, Staff Support and Anti-Bullying adviser - also two private hospitals (one general, one mental health)

Taking a break just now from volunteering with the homeless, ward visiting, working T bar in cancer hospital and a hospice, being a weekly phone friend for an elderly lady. Hopefully, will be back doing that or something different in the New Year.

Those are the main ones, the rest I won't list.... I'll be here all night!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top