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Chit Chat
What jobs have you had?
Mostly all of mine were high school & college because I've only been in my field since graduating college. Any scandalous work stories?
- babysitter- my scandalous story: I was 15 and the kids were 7. One time their 22 year old half brother stopped by to see his mom. Instead he met me and continued to come over on Tuesdays to make out with me. He wanted to do more one time but I was innocent at that age and told him no. So he kinda stopped coming after that but it was fun while it lasted haha
- camp counselor- 1 year pretend lifeguard in the 3 foot pool, 2 years general set shit up and walk kids to the bathroom
- waitress- family owned diner, and national chain
- title examiner assistant- look up people's deeds and property lines at the house of deeds & probate for my aunt
- bank teller
- CVS cashier
- retail at the mall- quit after one month, fuck that shit
- public accounting auditor- semi scandalous: I hated this job so I used to sneak to the unused conference room and nap under the table for an hour or two. I think people wondered where I was but I never got caught.
- staff accountant (current)
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Re: What jobs have you had?
No scandalous work stories (involving me anyway) and very few jobs. I get jobs and stick with them, regardless if I hate them. Luckily I have a job now that I love.
- Newspaper carrier from age 11 through 16
- Cashier at a grocery store from 17 through college - two different stores, one being Wegmans
- Work study job in college where I was an assistant to the administrative assistants for the sociology department
- customer service support for an insurance broker
- client account manager for a different broker - this is my current job
ETA - forgot about one job - I was a field organizer for a NY State Senate race. Loved the job but the candidate lost so I didn't get to continue working for him.
H on the other hand has had a million different jobs and definitely has some scandalous stories of his own.
- Building sets for a college theater program
- Interned in the C-suite of an auto part manufacturing company in Austria. I spoke zero German when I started, and I didn't know anything about car parts. I loved being in Austria but hated every day of that job.
- Old man sitting. This was by far my most interesting job. I got paid to hang out with a 85 year old man while his wife (55 years old) was at work. He was incredibly intelligent (had numerous degrees and academic accomplishments) but he had some memory loss. He could tell all these crazy stories from 60 years ago, but he couldn't remember if he had already taken his meds. Sometimes I would run errands for his wife, and he would hand me $20 and tell me to bring him back starbucks and keep the change. Oh, and he never wore pants.
- Client service at a non-profit marketing agency. We've had some crazy stuff happen, but nothing scandalous per se.
Babysitter
Softball Umpire (ASA, NSA, and IHSA)- At 16, I was officiating high school softball games and women's leagues. I have many stories of middle aged men getting in my face and screaming and trying to intimidate me. It never worked. I was also the umpire sent to officiate a team and report back whether the coach was drunk on the field with his 12 &under team. He was.
Guest Services (code for Front Desk) rep for a couple major hotel chains
Ice cream shop employee
Clerk for a federal judge
Attorney at a big law firm in Chicago
Sales Manager at a hotel
Call center employee
Internal Help Desk Rep
Collector- I hated this job more than anything and it gave me nightmares until I told my HR dept to transfer me or I was going to quit. They didn't want to because I met goal every month
Administrative services specialist
Payroll Specialist- my current and one of my top two favorite jobs I have ever had.
ETA: Retail Cashier- forgot about this one. I only did it during the holidays as a second job. They hired me on permanent right when I met DH. He lived an hour away and I could only see him on the weekend, so I quit a couple weeks later. Best decision ever.
Hostess at Applebee's
Lifeguard at the Y
College:
Various pool jobs varying from coordinator for swimming lessons and lifeguard trainer and pool manager.
Adult jobs:
Aquatics Director for the Y
Retail at the Gap (second job)
Retail for Sprint (lasted 8 months. Hated my life.)
Software quality assurance
Quality assurance for IT (current) love being a nerd
Then I got a job at the local SEARS... they put me in the children's department. Yuck. I also did one winter of seasonal help at a Things Remembered and the summer before college I also worked at music store. Retail blows. At SEARS we had this thing called the Kid-vantage program where people could exchange items that were worn out for the exact same size / "model." I had one woman who would always bring in her kids underwear. At 8:59... when I wanted to go home because I still had 2 hours of homework ahead of me.
Worked there my first year of college too, then I temped for a summer at the Arbitration Center for the county I lived in- easy and interesting.
Took a job in a hotel in my college town and it was awful. Horrible hours and manning the desk all alone...
I also worked in a paid internship for my college in the Marketing / Advertising group, which was kind of fun. Did a lot of weird research projects.
After graduation I went into my field- HR and haven't looked back. I had the most rewarding time as a generalist (also the most interesting since I got to deal with lots of areas of HR), and now I'm specializing in recruiting. It'd be fun if my company weren't so 1950's mentality / work culture.
- secretary at my city's public works office
- secretary at my dad's office
- hostess at a local restaurant
- computer lab assistant at college
- research assistant at college
- engineer at my company since my senior year of college (I interned and was hired on full time)
You can't get any more boring than that!
College: -associate at UPS store. Which meant spending my days doing sudoku puzzles in between the morning and evening rushes. Nothing scandalous but I did once pack and ship a tree.
-office assistant for the English Department. Seriously did nothing, except when we were hiring, and all I did then was make photocopies of CVs and portfolios.
-old lady sitter. She was hilarious. I loved working with her. When I first started, she had just gotten over a major surgery and wouldn't do anything (would not pour milk on her own cereal because the milk was "too heavy"). By the end of the summer she was helping me make meals. I like to think I put some life back into her, because she was on the verge of giving up. Also she taught me a bunch of card games.
-restaurant hostess. I could write pages of ranting but suffice to say, the owner was a dick and a moron who didn't understand how profit margins and staffing worked.
post-college: -associate at TJ Maxx. I was the service desk girl and the jewelry girl, which meant I spent most of the day getting yelled at, but I mostly liked it. I'm good at calming people down.
-front desk at a medical office. LOVED my patients
-front desk at a dance studio.
-costume designer at a dance studio. got paid in free classes and it was awesome.
-leads program at a very very large corporation that makes medical devices. got to spend all day listening to music and doing Excel spreadsheets and was the happiest camper. I would still work there if the contract had not ended, because it was the best job in the world.
-trade show coordinator. HATE. this was just a crappy crappy situation and getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to me because by the end, I was throwing up from stress every day.
Now I work at the library part time and spend the rest of my time writing. I need a full-time job but I am happy doing what I love.
Depends on whether volunteering/not getting paid counts ha.
High school
I was a camp counselor for two weeks. I didn't work much in high school
College
I worked as a radio dj for a year. I loved it but they couldn't pay me really and I always had night shifts. This started to affect my school work plus I felt uncomfortable walking alone at night so I decided it would be best to quit.
Work study: I was an assistant to the assistant for the geology/physics/anthropology department. Then I was promoted to an other work study position and I helped grade, set up labs, ran errands, ect. Just this year I was promoted again to the student manager position for our museum and I was really happy! I love my job!
Summer: I've volunteered at a children's museum and a natural history museum. The children's museum was fun but I didn't really like my co-workers. A lot of them had a bad attitude, were combative, ect. I had to roll my eyes at a few of them particularly the guy who told me my plans were stupid. Of course you know best pony-tail paper boy hat douche. I only volunteer there that summer and won't do it again. My natural history museum is awesome though. I learned a lot and all my coworkers are/were awesome! I'm going back this summer and hopefully they can pay me!
And in a month. Full time artist? Oh god, I am so nervous about that.
--- Fun story from teaching... I decided it was time to look for a new profession when the undergrads in my class (a 24 year old senior and a freshman in college) decided that in chemistry lab it was ok to squirt 1 molar hydrochloric acid on each other and at each other across the lab benches. Granted the acid was dilute and would likely only cause irritation to the skin until it was properly washed off. But still... For the love of all things holy, what 20-something adult thinks its ok and a game to squirt acid on people? And during a lab class of all places? Smh
So I now have the rather quiet desk job of legal oversight at a bank. I basically just monitor to make sure their standard operating procedures are in line with state and federal regulations.