My cat* is much less ambitious than I am:
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/funny-pictures-your-cat-will-sleep-for-food.jpg

*This is not really my cat

Yeah, the US are in a recession too. Anyway it seems that it’s a bit easier for the American youths than the Italian ones. When we get out of University we’re being told that we are “too skilled” and offered a temporary job a call centers… Or other kinds of shitty jobs which won’t last.
I don’t hear about people having good jobs at 25 here.

Marketing and research are my thing and now I do online publishing.

Every now and then for friends I’ll do film gigs like AD’ing, writing, FX and photography and I actually say no a lot. I should broker these jobs out!

My plan is to never have another job. So far it’s been nine years!

Well, I have been working since I was 10. Not that I want to, but I need to. Being born in a very poor family, I was forced by life to earn a living instead of enjoying my childhood.

They were odd jobs such as selling street foods, washing taxicabs, getting clams at seaside at 5am to catch up with the morning market rush, fetching water for neighbors and the worst job I had – selling cigarettes in the bust streets of Manila at the age of 15.

Oh well, I cannot help but wonder where my earnings went, as they did not seem to help my family live normal.

Anyway, I became an engineer after all that hard work, and has worked in different electronic companies locally.

But now that I am in my early 40s, I found the real career that I wanted – to communicate with others through blogging.

Just sharing though.

Thanks!

Here’s my list:

Jr. High/High School/1st two years of college:

1. Worked as a page at my local library, and I consider it the best part-time job I ever had. The head librarians, my co-workers, and the patrons were nice, interesting people, and I remember having a blast virtually every day I was there. Since I wanted to go to school to be a graphic designer, I was always called upon to make posters, signs and brochures for library events, which made working there even more fun.

College:

1. Worked for a summer as a laborer in a hat factory. By contrast, this was the worst part-time job I ever held. It was hot and dirty, with the bosses and supervisors very demeaning to the workers. I felt very sorry for the women who had to work there on a permanent basis – no one should have to put up with those kinds of attitudes on any job, no matter how humble. The only thing I gained from working there (besides never wanting to see the place again) was weight on my 98-lb. skinny frame from being constantly on the go running the machinery and delivering boxes of the partly assembled products elsewhere in the factory.

2. Tutored remedial English (my major) to freshmen who were failing the course, with mixed results. Only one of my students cared enough to bring her grades up from an F to a C; the other two thought that since they were in other fields of study (business and – incredibly – journalism), they didn’t really need to bother with freshman English. “You have to pass this course to graduate.” I told them. That pretty much fell on deaf ears and I never saw either of them again.

Post college/art school:

1. Worked as a cashier in a grocery store while I attended art school during the day. This was definitely the best paying part-time job I had thus far, and it was OK, for the most part. The best part was getting to work on the express lane – I was committed to getting people out of the store as fast and as efficiently as possible. Later on, I was always asked to train new cashiers. The worst part was the four-month stint working in the deli department – the sight of lunch meat would make me retch for years afterward.

Post art school graduation:

1. My first real art job out of school was nothing to write home about. It was in a family owned screen shop/lettering outfit that manufactured lettering on jackets and t-shirts for high school sports teams. My job was to illustrate and prepare the lettering – sometimes script, sometimes block – for the patternmakers and seamstresses. One of the better things about the job was that I was the only artist there, I got along very well with my boss, and I could set my own pace. The lousy thing about it was that it was a proverbial dead end job, which did nothing to increase my art skills. I discovered just how lousy that was when I was laid off and the place went out of business.

2. Talked my way into the art department of my local newspaper, knowing absolutely nothing about newspaper advertising and was hired part time. I’m still working at that same newspaper, having had three different jobs within it.

2a. Eventually was hired full time and worked as a designer in the advertising services department for about eight years. I enjoyed many aspects of it – got to exercise my creativity and design ads for the various merchants in the circulation area and the sales reps would bring them back with only minor modifications. One of the bad aspects was trying to cram reams of used car copy, photos of new cars with descriptions and other assorted paragraphs into one full-page ad. Most of my coworkers in my department were cool and fun to work with, but there were the occasional few who were memorable because they were very irritating personalities. Fortunately, our interactions with each other didn’t last long, and none of them were my bosses.

2b. Transferred to the pre-press department as a photo technician for about four years. This job was my first experience getting used to a swing shift, as the newspaper became a 24/7 operation. But I found many things to like about that job, in addition to gaining valuable experience in print production.

2c. Transferred once again to the editorial graphics department, and that’s where I work today. I really enjoy this job – its capacity for creativity and learning and its laid-back atmosphere. Recently, I was hired to teach part-time at the art school I attended, which will be a new experience for me. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share my love for graphic design in a classroom environment.

but that changes this year (coincidentally, turned 30). am off to go to field research in a country i’ve always wanted to visit and will be paid a modest sum. am also looking to start a new venture that, while not bringing in big bucks, should at least pay for itself and then some.

My first “real” job was as a Radio Shack sales guy pushing “TSPs” (Tandy Service Plans) with every purchase.

I worked for my mother in her office (university) and for my father in his office (as a helper to the tech guy, but I never really did much of anything there).

In college I worked in the music library, I worked with local high schools teaching music and marching, and I was a “consultant” for university departments and professors who wanted to build their own websites (in 1995-1998).

I’ve worked as a teacher in middle school and high school, worked for a non-profit arts organization, and eventually found myself in accounting and finance. Now I do mostly financial reporting and performance metrics.

Also, my blog brings in about twice my day-job salary.

Store clerk
Cafe cook/cashier
Receptionist
Resident Assistant
Bank Teller
Bank Manager
Bookkeeper
Accountant
Volunteer Farmer
Accountant

Best, by far, was the three months I spent farming for room and board on various organic farms. I came home hoping to make it the new reality and am instead working as an accountant again. I don’t mind this work, but I am still working towards farming. With a little luck I’ll have my farm within the 10 year time frame.

Writing about money is my passion! and it only took me 33 yrs to accomplish it.

i also worked as a temp for a warehouse where they made wine bottles.. our job was to pack literally thousands of wine bottles into large boxes daily.. it was boring as hell.. but it helped me get rims for my car =D

i delivered pizzas as my 3rd job.. i always had money in my pocket from tips which i liked.. the guy paid me under the table for a while too

fourth job was for bank of america.. i was a proof operator (10 key).. i basically typed the amount of the check on a machine and ran it through.. i would do thousands of checks daily.. yes.. very boring!

fifth job is where i’m at now.. it will be 9 years in october.. i work for the phone company doing customer service / database / analyst stuff.. i really can’t see myself doing this forever.. but i can’t complain either.. it’s a steady income..

i’m happy where i’m at.. but i’m always keeping an eye out for other opportunities and/or streams of income

even though most of these jobs were pretty redundant.. all of them taught me discipline and self-control.. sort of like learning a martial art or something.. at least that’s the way i see it

I noticed some common aspects with my ” past” story..comics terrific spending, insurance sales, never been satisfied with jobs…seems that US is not different from us in Italy!!
I hope you are making good money with your websites..to us your experiences and advices are very helpful!!

thanks again!

enrico

Pre-high school:
1) Paper Routes X 2

High School:
1) Dishwasher at a nursing home (barf)
2) Grocery store X 2 (pretty good)
3) Cook at Pizza Hut (stunk, but ate well)
4) Warehouse stocker (not terrible)
5) Enlisted in the Navy (sweep, sweep)

Post-College:
1) Back to the Navy (now I told people to sweep)
2) Financial advisor (anxiety)

I would really like the financial adivising biz if it weren’t so hard to find clients. No wonder there is such a high attrition rate!

10 years… Microbrewery, baby!

Worst jobs: Not the blood/mud/animal shit of the farm! For extra spending money in high school I cleaned the grocery store’s milk & dairy & veggie cases on weekends. It was totally gross, wiping up spoiled milk and rotten vegetables. One college summer I was a Rent-a-place guy, and we had to set up and clean up port-a-johns. Ugh.

Best jobs: The Rent-a-place also had giant party tents that I learned to set up. They were always going for weddings or fun events, and people were happy to see them go up. Lots of beer offered to me that summer. Worked as a carpenter for several years, and the combination of hands-on work plus thinking of structure and form was wonderful. Also wonderful to occasionally play with sledgehammers and crowbars, like an earlier poster noted.

Current job: also the best paid, a federal planner. I get to travel a lot, to some amazing places. Not much physical activity involved, but at this pay rate I can join the rock-climbing gym and buy gear.

I once told my boss that I’d never stay at a job I didn’t enjoy. He told me I’d eat the words, but so far so good!

The jobs that were hands-down the most fun were the two magazine editorial positions. Journalists drink a lot, laugh a lot, and party a lot. The best of them all is my current job, in which I earn a living wage for a fraction of the amount of work I did in any of the earlier incarnations.

Worst job was working as a secretary for a demented market research guy. What a creep! The final straw was an insulting note he left on my typewriter, which I found the following morning when I arrived (as usual) before he did. I dropped the keys in the middle of the floor, pulled the door shut behind me, and never looked back. Except for the complaint I filed with the labor department to get the pay the SOB owed me.

In ten years? Hope to be retired. And still living.

After high school, I moved right in to an office assistant job with an HVAC company that the owners ran out of their basement. Boring job, but my real regret is not walking out the day the boss decided to give me a really nasty tongue-lashing over the way I answered the phone. (Which was the way his wife had told me to answer it!) After that, I had a series of temp jobs – receptionist, stock clerk, etc. – until I started at the local community college, going after my AA degree and an ATA in Horticulture. During that time, I spent two years in retail, pulling down $5.85 an hour and hating every minute of it. But, it paid for school.

Then I transferred out of state to complete my 1st B.A. (and paid a year of out-of-state tuition…BIG mistake!) THE PLAN was to move back home afterwards and complete my 2nd B.A. …but half-way through my last semester, I met my husband. Bye-bye plan! My last few jobs – phone survey taker (worst job ever!!!), collection agency clerk, receptionist, marketing assistant, and investment coordinator – have all been taken with an eye toward getting my husband through school and then paying off some of the debts we acquired for ourselves during those lean student years.

BUT…I finally start back to school tomorrow. Night classes, since I’m still holding down the investment job from 8 to 5. I’m getting back into Horticulture (since my previous classes are all 15 years out of date), and hopefully by the spring hiring season, my current classes and my older classes will be enough for me to get my foot in the door at one of the local greenhouses or garden centers.

I’m sure the people here at the financial planning firm I work for will all think I’ve lost my mind…leaving their elite company for a lowly blue-collar job. But I know that working with plants will make me a lot happier than what I do now.

I was a photographer at JC Penneys for about a half a year. It was fine until Christmas came and half the staff quit. We were so busy and most of the customers were just terrible no matter how hard we tried. I’m also not a big kid person and thought I would have problems dealing with them. I was suprised to find that the kids were the easier and the parents were the worst. On the flipside, I got very familiar with child development and found it fascinating how a week ot two could make a difference in how well a baby could sit up, smile and react to different things.

I spent a summer after college working for an aviation insurance company. They had just centralized their operations, switched to a new database AND raised their premiums across the board. Most of the customers were disgruntled because on top of paying more money, they lost the agent they had been working with, they didn’t have a local office and no one really knew what the hell they were doing. On the other hand I got to do some really cool things – I got a ride in a B-17 and an old Ford Tri-Motor, met a few aviation type celebs like Chuck Yeager and Paul Tibbets (pilot of the Enola Gay). I also got a ride with Gene Soucy in his open-cockpit bi-plane (basically a souped up Ag-Cat). Ride included a few barrel rolls which is way way cooler than any roller coaster I ever rode.

I worked as a revenue management analyst at a now defunct airline. Pay wasn’t very good, and the whole job was a HUGE bore but I could hop on a flight like I was hailing a cab. I flew me and my Mum first class out to San Francisico for my cousin’s wedding. I flew to Michigan to make a New Year’s Eve party some of my friends were throwing. I went to San Diego and Martha’s Vineyard for the heck of it. I saw a lot of America that year.

The job I now hold is the longest full-time job I’ve ever held – 5 years. I’m a trade show manager. The job is stressful, but can be energizing too. I work with some great people and again I get to travel a lot which allows me to rack up a lot of miles for free travel.

Always restless, I’m thinking about going back to school at the ripe old age of 42. I’m leaning towards something in law.

Worse/Funniest:
Answering the phone for a personal ad service. I learned a lot about the depths of human depravity which was miserable at the time, but makes for some hilarious stories now.

Best job:
My current situation as a librarian at a university.

My next job was with Swiss Chalet at 16 as a hostess. I was good at this job and i enjoyed it but i butt heads with one server and when she got promoted i got fired.

the summer after that i worked at a local burger joint for about a month got paid terribly and left to enjoy the rest of my summer.

I then began working at a grocery store. I worked there for a year from the are of 17 until nearly 19. I began working for my mom in the summer when i was 16 two days a week to cover for the receptionist who had a three day work week. I continued to work there each summer and in the summer i turned 18 i was working at the grocery store, the airport with my mom and a golf course working 7 days a week often 14-16 hour days.

When I left the grocery store i kind of scrambled for a good job to do while attending university. I put in my resume everywhere and the first to respond was Harvey’s so i worked there for about a month when i got a call from Shoppers Drug Mart offering me a cashier position there.

So i did that for about a month and then got fired. I had left University for college and my mother offered me a full time position with her company and the airport so I did that for 6 months, at that point my mother left that company and I stayed on there for another month before joining her at a different company at the airport, this is where i am now.

So at 20, and in 5 years, I have had 9 different jobs.

And i am only now beginning to save money.

My job list was marked as spam!

Rachel211

1) lifeguard during summers in college
2) 1st job out of college. Been there 5 years. Plan to be there till I retire. Maybe in 10 years?

I disagree with the idea that kids need to work in HS and during college to learn responsibility. I think it’s much better to focus on your studies, assuming that you have other ways of paying for school.

Paper route when I was 12 (lasted about a year, I decided I liked sleeping)

Various work around house paid by Dad (he paid me the then exhorbitant rate of $5.00 an hour, I was the envy of all my friends)

Stock room boy at Nordstrom during my junior year in high school (for less than the $5.00 an hour my dad would pay me for odd jobs). I did meet a girl that worked there that worked for a modeling agency, which led to…:

Being a small-time fashion model who did some small amount of work (it did pay, but most of the money I made never recouped the money I spent on pictures and promotion).

Ran a grill at a combination restaurant and ice cream parlor while I should have been focusing on school.

Started driving and delivering pizza’s when I was 18 for Dominos. This was the job that helped me start funding my “music career”, i.e .as a singer in various rock bands over a ten year period.

After two years of delivering pizza’s and running two cars into the ground, I cleaned houses for a few years along qwith being a musician.

Decided that perhaps a temp agency might be able to help me get better work, so I went with one that sent me to a small networking company in 1991. Decided any company that hired long haired freaks like me by the dozens had to be a place I’d love to work, so I did all in my power to tget hired on full time. I worked in the manufacturing groups, and ultimately got hired on as a lab admin/cable monkey.

Worked my way up from cable monkey to tester to quality assurance engineer over a ten year period. Left that company at the beginning of 2001.

Took a chance and a big pay raise by moving to a smaller company in 2001. Worked there for a year until I expereinced my first ever layoff.

Landed another job a few months later that also lasted about a year. However, both my manager and I determined that what they wanted to have me do and what I could actually deliver on didn’t quite match.

Took that opportunity to go back to college, and while I was a full time student with a wife and three kids, took a job as a video game tester. Fun job, lousy pay, but the pay was helping to slow down the burn rate on my savings, as that was the intention for while I was in school.

Finished school and went to work for my current company, first as a technical support specialist and then back into QA again.

So that accounts for my work life between age 12 and age 40