Here is a list of all the jobs I've ever had. I feel like this is an interesting exercise and it tells you a lot about a person.
High school:
- I babysat.
- I tutored students in math.
- I worked at a Family Fun Park. I mostly cashiered and worked the arcade, although occasionally I fixed the batting cages, weeded the golf course, or helped with the go-karts, although the go-karts were loud and stinky and I hated them.
College:
- I tutored student athletes, mostly in math, but occasionally in other subjects.
- I went back to the fun park to work during a summer where I was promoted to manager. That was terrible because supervising teenagers is no fun and I realized management was not for me.
- I worked at a grocery store as a cashier for two summers and during winter/spring breaks.
- I had some internships including at a lobbying organization in Washington, DC for a semester and working for a US Senator in their Toledo office.
- One summer I worked as an orientation and registration leader on campus.
- One summer I taught arts and crafts to kids through the local Parks & Rec near campus. Because of this job, I still regularly get mail about my "retirement" through the state of Ohio.
Post-College, Pre-Grad School:
- I worked as a domestic violence advocate for a non-profit in southeastern Michigan.
Grad School:
- I was a TA.
- I worked at The Princeton Review as a teacher for test preparation classes.
- I worked at a performing arts high school as a math teacher. I was the most unpopular teacher of the entire school. Brutal.
Post-Grad School:
- I continued working at The Princeton Review, but eventually was promoted and started doing teacher training, research & development work, and was a general dogsbody.
- I taught classes at the institution where I currently work.
- I worked as a project manager for a federal grant on a cybersecurity apprenticeship program.
- My current gig is as an academic advisor. I also get to teach occasional classes.
And that's a wrap on jobs that have paid me money.
What was your first job? Your favorite job?
You’ve had some very cool and interesting jobs! I started babysitting when I was 12. Seriously?! I shudder to think of it now! I can’t imagine leaving children with a 12 year old! But, I was quite responsible and became such a popular babysitter from 6th to 9th grades that I never had a free weekend. I’d get booked way in advance. I got so burned out from it. In 10th grade I got a job at a fast food restaurant just so I could stop babysitting! I swear it’s one of the main reasons I never had children! 🤣
ReplyDeleteI babysat when I was 12, too!!! Not a baby, but a 4-year-old. Imagine! My BIL and SIL won't even leave their 14-year-old home alone today!! (I also do not have children. I'm not saying early babysitting was a cause, but...)
DeleteMe too! My friends and I created our own "Kid's Club" ala the Babysitter's Club and even created our own Kid Kits to bring with us, and we were absolutely THE people to go to if you needed someone to watch your child in our neighborhood. Because I had a 2 year old sister and 3 month old brother, I got all of the baby baby jobs. Crazy to think of now though!
DeleteMy neighbour and I were talking after he took on a new job -- another new job of the various ones he has had in the ten years that I have known him. As I looked back, I have only really had three although I guess the teaching gig could be separated into segments, but it was always with the same board of ed.
ReplyDeleteMy last three jobs have been with the same employer, but they've been radically different jobs. I can't imagine only having had three jobs my whole life!
DeleteI was also a babysitter, I think I sat for the kids next door, while my mom was home, at age 11. ELEVEN. One of the kids was an infant! I babysat lots of kids in the neighbourhood and at my church, and like Michelle, I can't believe people left their tiny kids with me! I babysat some babies that were so small they needed to be burped after feeding. When I was in grade 10 I worked as a page at the library, then worked at Pizza Hut through high school. I waitressed all through university, except for one dreadful summer when I worked as a beer sample girl. DO NOT RECOMMEND. I also was a TA in grad school, and then I worked in the corporate world after that, right up until 2004 when my son was born.
ReplyDeleteI tried so hard to get library jobs and it was always very competitive and I never got one, so I'm envious about your library page job. Did you shelve a lot of books?
DeleteI cannot imagine what the work conditions were like as a beer sample girl. That sounds....sexual harassment-y.
Yes, that's all I did was shelve books. I think? It's fuzzy. But I am sure I got the job because I had volunteered as a candy striper at a nursing home for a few years prior to that.
DeleteThe work conditions were 100% sexual harrassment-y. So were my years as a waitress! It got so that it didn't even faze me after a while, having gross guys constantly all over me. Ugh.
What a cool list! Say more about the classes you teach, Engie! I love hearing about people's classes...
ReplyDeleteI've been in academia all my life--I've never had a job that wasn't teaching (TA, adjunct, instructor, lecturer, professor). I edit and write, but I think that's folded into the academic gig, right? I love volunteering, and my work as a child advocate and in the food pantry are very meaningful to me. At some point, I'm going to need to find other stuff to do if I want to make more money.
Hmm...I've taught a lot of classes. Maybe I'll talk a bit more about my CV on a later post.
DeleteI have considered whether or not I want to get back into volunteering a bit (this list does not include the volunteer work I've done over the years). My last volunteer gig was quite stressful, though, so I've been shying away from it. I do feel like I should do something in my community, though.
This is an interesting post. I've not had nearly as many jobs as you've had, but I will say that one of my favourite jobs before I became an English teacher was a clerk in the pet department of a large discount store. I got to visit with all the birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, and fish. And when customers bought a pet, I was the one to get it for them. Sometimes, I'd carry around a little furry friend in the pocket of my smock. That's how I adopted my first guinea pig, Eric, who was ill and not thriving.
ReplyDeleteHa ha. You're the second person to say this is a lot of jobs and I didn't think it was, but now I'm questioning all of my life choices.
DeleteI LOVE the idea of you at work with a little tiny friend in your pocket. That's a perfect work environment.
That's a lot of jobs! I also did a lot of babysitting in high school (and middle school) and during summers I worked as a parking lot attendant for a concert venue. That may have been my favorite job, strange as that may sound- I had so much fun with my co-workers. My least favorite job was doing telephone surveys, in college. That one was AWFUL. To this day I still hate talking on the phone, thanks to that job.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite job was the orientation leader. We had so much fun that summer!
DeleteAnything that involves cold calling folks on the phone is my worst nightmare. I am proud of you that you stuck with that job for more than one shift.
My first job was...drumroll...babysitting. I was also about 10 and taking care of YOUNG CHILDREN. It feels bizarre now. My daughter is 13 and I still don't feel like it makes sense to having someone that young babysit (and she has an official babysitting course under her belt).
ReplyDeleteI also used to have a baking business (from the ages of 10-12) for some people in my church. I had a little price sheet and everything. The first thing I baked was a dozen biscuits and I put baking SODA in instead of baking powder and they tasted awful. Thank goodness I had baked 13 and tried one...
I have never - ever - had a traditional job. No retail. No set 9-5. Mostly research and then being an entrepreneur and now I work from home part-time.
My favourite job was likely my first summer internship (I was 18) as a research technician (ecology/intertidal research). It was hard, physical work but I ended up in the best shape of my life, it was intellectually stimulating, I made great friends, and it was just SO MUCH FUN. Goodness, I loved that summer. If I look back on it, it was probably the happiest 3-month stretch of my entire life?
So many girls doing babysitting as a way into working. It does seem crazy that adults were letting tiny children watch other tiny children.
DeleteLook at your budding entrepreneurship with that baking business. I bet you learned so many skills!
The Princeton Review! I haven't thought about them in ages, but I worked for them while I was in college. I did much better with one on one tutoring than teaching the classes because I'm shy and standing up there at a chalkboard in front of a bunch of teenagers was a nightmare for me. I did get to go on the only work-related trip of my life thus far though, when our office sent me and another teacher to New Orleans to learn about how to teach to the new fangled essay portion of the SAT (dating myself here). I also got to have a triumph when I was tasked to private tutor a 'hard case' kid who had fired/driven away two other tutors. I was paid twice my normal rate, which was awesome, especially since I actually really liked him and didn't find it a hardship. I suspect my purple hair and tattoos played a part in him thinking I was "cool" (fooled him!) and being willing to work with me, but we managed to get him to pass the SAT and I was very proud.
ReplyDeleteI liked classroom teaching far more than one-on-one. I'm basically a clown who likes to perform in front of large groups of people. I did tutoring for TPR, but I would much rather have had classroom courses. I did a lot of R&D, too, including going into to spec actual tests to make sure our practice tests were in alignment. It's been more than five years, but I had some pretty good official scores for the GRE and GMAT. LOL.
DeleteMath teacher at a performing arts school!!!! That sounds so hard. I taught poetry in grad school and then Comp 101 at a community college for a year, and I was so bad at it. Good teachers are treasures.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a huge number of jobs. Worst was probably the job I had shredding old medical charts in the basement of a hospital, right down the hall from the morgue. I had to stand all day in a windowless room filled with only endless stacks of ancient charts, the massive industrial shredder, and spirits of the dead (I'm assuming). I was able to bring a radio in the room with me, at least, so I could jam out to country music and DJ chatter all day.
The students did not care for the math teacher. LOL. I didn't care for them banging drums in the hall and constantly dancing in my classroom, either, though, so it was sort of a tit for tat situation. I am actually a pretty good teacher, but I honestly work best with adults because I do not understand child development at all.
DeleteAs you were describing shredding papers in a basement I thought it wouldn't be so bad if I could have listened to podcasts, but that wasn't a thing probably when you were doing that job! Relying on traditional radio! Imagine!
Oh, goodness, I just flashed back to a temp job I had in 1991, right out of college, where the company was preparing for a lawsuit by microfiche-ing all the related files. I wasn't doing the actual scanning, but went through file cabinets writing down what was on each label, for categorization purposes. We had to write down EXACTLY what was on the label, which meant all the files that were labeled "incomming correspondence" had to say that. It made me crazy!
DeleteIt also bugged me that I had to wear "grown-up" office clothes when part of the time I was sitting on the floor to read the file labels in the bottom drawer. I need stockings and heels for this?
Jobby jobs! The first money I ever earned was $5 from watering our neighbor's plants while they were on vacation. My first "paycheck" job was McDonald's.
ReplyDeleteLeast fav job: a temp gig that I had in 2009 during my year of recession underemployment. It was boring and the supervisor was a screamer.
Fav job: my long time gig that ended in 2021. The company was really great (before it got acquired by Big Corporate) and the work was perfect for me.
If I ever finish recapping my vacay I might do my own version of this post.
I am sort of hoping everyone does a version of this post. It's so fascinating because most of us don't talk about our day jobs very much. I mean, it makes sense that we don't, but it's endlessly fascinating because this is how you spend so much of your time.
DeleteThis is very interesting and tells us a lot about you - there is a strong theme of math and teaching! My first job was babysitting but I also taught piano lessons in HS. I lived in a tiny town so it was not out of the ordinary for a teen to teach piano given the lack of teachers in the area. So I taught from 10th-12th grade and had 10 students at most. It was not the most lucrative thing to do but it was a fun job and made me extra responsible. My piano teacher also taught in HS and then she went on to pursue a degree in music and she was my piano teacher until I quit at age 16 to focus on teaching.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite job in college was waitressing. I thought it was so much fun and it has impacted how I behave at restaurants. I mean I would have always been a very good dining guest but after working in restaurants for years, you know how little is in the control of the waiter/waitress. Like if the kitchen is slow or your steak isn't cooked to your liking, it's not the waitress's fault and yet I would get screwed on tips for those reasons! My current job is my favorite professional job since it's a good match for my skills and interests. I had a management job similar to your fun park promotion when I worked for a large mortgage company. It was like babysitting teens and I hated it. So after that, I vowed to only be an individual contributor but here I am with a direct report. But he's great and there is no micromanagement. When I conducted interviews I told the people interviewing that I never aspired to be a manager and that I hope to have more of a mentor role in their career which is much more enjoyable!
Ha! I thought tutoring in high school was going to make me rich. (It did not.) I suppose teaching piano wasn't crazy lucrative, but if you liked it, why not?
DeleteYou thought waitressing was fun? Like, what was fun about it? Meeting new people? Each shift bringing a new challenge? I'm curious because most people say they don't like waiting tables.
I wouldn't want to waitress outside of college but it was a fun college gig. I worked with really fun people and I loved the fast-paced environment. It made the shifts go by so fast and I loved it when we were slammed and I was just going from one thing to the next - there was kind of a high associated with being so busy. And I just loved having all of that cash!! I remember waiting in line at WF to deposit my huge rolls of bills + cup of change and feeling like I had SO MUCH MONEY!!
DeleteMy first job was a baby-sitter, too! I was 11 and it was mostly just helping out my grandma because she was taking care of my 4-year-old twin cousins + a neighbor kid who was a few years younger than me. But she paid me for it!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite job is what I'm doing now because I can do it from home and if I need to take a mid-day siesta, I can! Plus, I like what I do and think I'm good at it, which is good for my self-esteem, haha.
A mid-day siesta is definitely a lovely work perk! I'm envious of that for sure. I haven't had a job I felt really confident in for quite some time, to be honest. I need to channel my inner Stephany and feel more confident in my skills at my day job.
DeleteMy first jobs were not for money. My friend and I would go to Pizza Hut and fold pizza boxes for them. We folded all of the boxes they needed for that day, and they sent us home with a pizza and a cooler full of Pepsi. Next job, a few years later, another friend and I would walk over to a nearby horse stables, where they rented out horses to ride by the hour. We would clean out stalls in exchange for time riding the horses. I loved that job, except when it was really hot the smell was gross. I babysat some kids when I was young, but my mom was right across the street, so if anything had gone wrong I could have called her. That was for money. My first W-2 job was as a hostess, and then a waitress. I worked there through high school, and then I got a job at a restaurant in a hotel. Went from there to the Front Desk, and then when I moved away, I got another Front Desk hotel job. That got me through grad school. Ever since then it's been office jobs, which are easier, but not as much fun.
ReplyDeleteHey, barter counts as payment in book! Especially if you get to hang out with horses!
DeleteIsn't it crazy how hard manual labor jobs, but how we get paid so much better for our office jobs? Capitalism, man.
This is a good idea for a blog post! My employment history would look like the Family Circus cartoons that show the little kid going over and under and around and through, never a straight line.
ReplyDeleteHa. I get that. I didn't actually think this was a tremendous number of jobs until people started saying it was. I'd love for everyone to write a blog post like this.
DeleteMath teacher in a performing arts school sounds like a tough gig!
ReplyDeleteMy first job other than babysitting was cleaning hotel rooms. I was a naive early high school student and there were strippers at this hotel. It was an education.
My favourite job is probably my current one - both because it's a great job and I am finally a little more comfortable in my skin, although progress could still be made (I hope).
What a fun idea for a post! I will do this if I ever get back to blogging regularly again.
The students at the performing arts high school hated math. I tried to make it fun, but solving an equation is solving an equation, you know?
DeleteI want everyone to write a post about their jobs. And I really want you to talk to me about the strippers at the hotel where you worked and what you learned while on the job!
So fun! Let's see... I babysat A LOT from age 10-14 (yes, 10! I babysat for 2 little boys where the dad worked out of his home shop in the garage so technically he was "around" but he couldn't watch the kids). At 14 I promptly got a job at McDonald's. Worked there all through high school minus a short stint when I thought I was "tired of it" and briefly worked at the GAP. (BORING.) In college I worked a semester or two at the UW Foundation calling alumni and asking for donations to UW. Oh that was a good time. lol. But it paid well. I had a couple other student jobs- another boring one doing some data entry stuff for the School of Agriculture. By I think end of sophomore year I started waitressing on State St and did that through the end. I also got a job as a Student Nursing Assistant at UW Hospital during nursing school eventually, but kept waitressing on the side. I also worked per diem at the Community Health Center in Madison as an OB intake nurse with the Hispanic patients. When I graduated, I got a fulltime job as a Transplant Nurse at UW and also kept picking up some per diem shifts at the Community Health Center too on the side (they wanted me to work fulltime since I spoke Spanish and offered me a job but the pay was dismal compared to the big hospital...) AND I actually kept waitressing Friday and Saturday nights for a bit longer just because it was fun and good money! I paid off my $25k of student loans in a flash! I remember sending $1,000+ checks in even way back then. lol.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot- I also worked at the Rec Center for a year or so in college too! I liked that when I could just sit at the front desk and study and check people in. But then they wanted me to become a Facility Supervisor and do actual work. HAHA.
DeleteOH! And about the babysitting thing... I have a story.
DeleteMy sister and I were out once selling Christmas wreaths for girl scouts door to door. (Remember when kids used to do that all the time?) After this one house, a (very pregnant) woman came running out after us and asking, actually, do you girls babysit?? We were probably 11 and 13, or maybe 12 and 14 at the time (I'm the younger one). We said yes, we did... (eyeing her belly suspiciously... was there an actual child outside the womb at this house yet?) She said she was due soon and was trying to line up some babysitters for after the baby was born. WE WERE SO YOUNG! But apparently this woman and her husband did bowling league and typically went out THREE nights per week: Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. So she was looking for a line up of girls to sit for them. I am not joking, she had us start babysitting when the baby was 3 weeks old. I swear to you, I am not exaggerating this. It was insane. I think my mom stopped over the first few times because she was basically terrified. We ended up having a whole schedule rotation between me and my friends to cover their 3x/week "babysitting needs". It was actually really fun because they were cool with it if like my friend was sitting, I could bike over and hang out too. Obviously the baby slept a lot and even later on when she got bigger, she'd go to bed by 7-8 and then
I could just hang with my girlfriends until 11! Sometimes we'd have 3 or 4 of us over there! But now in hindsight... WTF. lol. (The baby was also super colicky and cried so much!!) I know I was so young too because I know I sat for them for at least a couple years, but I only babysat until I turned 14 and started at McDonald's, which means I was <14 when I was doing all that babysitting!!
Kae!! So many things to say about this.
Delete1) I definitely should have gone into nursing. LOL. I had about $2500 in student loan debt and it took me an entire year to pay it off when I left college. I was making about $13,000 a year at a full-time job.
2) I have a friend who has worked a clothing store (not Gap, but a similarish store) for decades and I sometimes wonder how she doesn't keel over from boredom and frustration with working with a constant rotating cast of teenagers.
3) I grew up in a cornfield, so I honestly have no idea about selling Christmas wreaths. I honestly thought kids selling stuff door-to-door was a made-up thing for television shows until we moved into our neighborhood. I've bought all sorts of things from kids at my door now. I have only said no once because it was a church group raising money for a trip and I have a firm stance against proselytizing.
4) You were babysitting a NEWBORN?! Wow. Those people had a lot of faith and might have wanted to consider changing their lifestyle for a brief period of time when they had a NEWBORN. Sheesh!! That does sound terrifying.
You had some very interesting, but also intense jobs... a domestic violence advocat? That must have been quite the experience.
ReplyDeleteI had quite a few jobs before my career. My first job was babysitting, too (and looking back I am also amazed that someone left their kid in my care at such a young age. I must have been around 12 as well.) I worked as a tutor through high school and college, a waitress at an Italian gelato place, a receptionist at a practice for physical therapy, and as a mail carrier for many summers (and some winters). We delivered mail by bike, so that was a workout too.
I guess I should have written a domestic violence *victim* advocate. I ran a hotline and went with victims to court and helped them obtain protection orders. I was only there for a year and it was stressful and I'm not convinced I helped a single soul when I was there.
DeleteYou delivered mail by bike?! That sounds...sort of old school and sweet. I'm sure it was hard work, but it seems more like a scene from the 1960s than the 80s!!
I think my first job was ironing dress shirts. And baybsitting. And english tutoring. And the list goes on. I started rather late with jobs I earned money at through. Maybe I need to sit down and write it all out too.
ReplyDeleteIroning dress shirts? Like at a dry cleaners? That's interesting - I've never heard of anyone having that job.
DeleteYou've had a lot of interesting jobs---I loved reading your list.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know if I could remember every single job I've had; there have been a few. My first paying gig was when I was 14 and I worked at Baskin Robbins in the mall; I was paid a whopping $2.50 and hour and the owners were horrible people to work for.
$2.50/hour!!! Imagine!!! Did you at least get some unlimited ice cream?!
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