I actually saw this prompt on Twitter but I thought it would make a fun post.
So.
1. Babysitter
I did a lot of babysitting when I was a teenager, and this was probably my first paid work. I babysat for my neighbor, for families at church, for Bible studies, and so on.
2. In-Ground Sprinkler Work
My dad started a company installing in-ground sprinkler systems and I had an extremely short stint as a helper with his company.
(My other three siblings all worked with my dad for years, and my one brother now owns the company!)
I just did not take to the whole sweaty, dirty work thing the way my siblings did.
Also, I was having some weird health problems at the time where I would randomly feel like I was going to faint during physical exertion, and that caused problems in this line of work.
3. Piano teacher
Luckily, I started teaching piano lessons when I was 14, and that job suited me much better what with the air-conditioning and all.
And I stuck with piano teaching for 20 years, so, it worked out pretty well for me!
(Honorable mention that fits in at this spot in my timeline: I did some very part-time tutoring for fellow students at college.)
4. Nordstrom Gift Gallery sales associate
I got this job the summer that I got married and I kept it for about a year and a half, in addition to piano teaching.
I liked working with customers but I hated the hours (lots of evenings and always a Saturday shift) and I hated the pressure to sell, sell, sell.
So, I added a bunch of piano students to my list and quit Nordstrom in 1998.
5. Blogger
I started blogging in 2008, and I was still teaching piano lessons at the time.
(Blogging was not very profitable at all for me for the first couple of years!)
I kept the two jobs up concurrently until about 2011-2012, at which point I was homeschooling all four of my kids.
That combo was really getting to be too much, so I dropped the piano teaching and stuck solely with blogging.
Blogging: WAY more flexible than piano-teaching.
Oh, wait. I have another one to add that I started at the same time as my blog:
5b. Church musician
In 2008, I started playing the piano every week at church for a small stipend. A few years later, we were at another church, and I was the worship team coordinator there, scheduling the band, choosing the songs, coordinating rehearsals, and so on.
Those two jobs together cover 10 years, from 2008-2018.
And that brings us up to the present, where my paid work is really all blog-related.
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An interesting thing as I look back is that I have almost always had several concurrent jobs. I babysat and taught piano lessons during highschool.
Then my piano teaching and my Nordstrom job happened together.
And after that, I spent some years doing piano teaching, blogging, and church music all at the same time.
So, the fact that I am only doing one job right now is sort of unusual!
1. Babysitting. Of course.
2. Verifying phone numbers from a client list for my neighbor, an insurance agent. This was in the phone book and 411 days. Remember 411? (For anyone who is not old enough to remember: That was the number for Directory Assistance.) I had this long list from my neighbor and I would check the phone book first to try to find the person and make sure their number was correct. If they weren’t there, I would call 411 and check there. I think I was 13 when I did this.
3. Library page. I loved this job.
4. Two summers in college, cabin cleaner/waitress/office worker at a dude ranch (meaning a guest ranch, not a working ranch) in Colorado. Amusing, given my current location.
5. During college, media intern at a small non-profit dedicated to conservation and environmental advocacy.
After that were my “professional” jobs–Arizona State Senate intern, then staff member, and then proofreader. There were many years of no paid work at all as I started having children. And now I’ve been conscripted into the school job. Plus the lady who runs our post office asked if I could be one of her substitutes, although I haven’t had training or anything for that yet.
Gopher for my Dad in his drywall business. Helped put up plastic, sand walls, run and get things when my Dad was on his stilts. Nice pocket money and also I felt good helping the family business.
Concession stand worker at the local race track. Noisy but exciting as a 15 year old.
Dishwasher at a small, family run restaurant. Very short stint! Such hard, yucky work.
Housekeeping aide at a hospital. This money helped me go to Europe as a 16 year old.
Nursing Assistant at the same hospital. This money helped me afford my undergraduate studies. It also helped teach me that being a nurse or doctor was NOT FOR ME!
1. Babysitting, though not very much once I reached high school
2. Cleaning the church with my grandma
3. Working in the dining room at a conference center that also had a summer camp
4. Keeping stats (we decided the title of Head Statistician was more fun) for my college’s volleyball team, which morphed into Student Assistant Coach my senior year… I learned that I don’t enjoy coaching at that level!
5. Summer #1 after I started college was spent working in the kitchen at a summer camp, summer #2 was being a camp counselor at that same camp
Job #6 was what launched me into the professional world and sometimes I’m still a little surprised that they took a chance on me, but so grateful they did.
1. A friend’s mom ran a catering business, and a few of us would waitress or her at weddings and other functions.
2. My neighbour ran a Kumon maths centre, and I worked for her two afternoons a week. First I marked worksheets, and later prepared work packs.
3. After hours pharmacy sales assistant (while still at highschool).
4. Dispensary assistant at the same pharmacy (after leaving school). I started the official pharmacy assistant training program, but gave it up after a year. Realised I did NOT want to do that forever!
5. Ambulance assistant (the lowest level of EMT). I completed the training course, and took on many, many volunteer shifts to accumulate the hours needed to qualify for the next level of training. I also did a few paid shifts for a private service, so I suppose it counts.
The combination of pharmacy and ambulance work led me into nursing, almost by elimination (being certain of what I DID NOT want to carry on doing). While saving money for university, I supervised homework at an afterschool centre in the afternoons, and worked evenings as a bar lady at a local pub. I’ve been in my current nursing job for 12 and half years!
1. Babysitter
2. I helped my mother fold water bills for the county water system, stuff them in envelopes, put labels on the envelopes, lick the envelopes shut, and put stamps on them. I was paid in Barbies.
3. I worked the morning shift at Arby’s.
4. I built sets at my college’s theater.
5. I was a tour guide at a cavern.
My first job was when I was 11, working in my daddy’s packing shed packing zucchini squash. It was hot but fun. My main job was to “make” the boxes- fold and put together – then send them down a chute to the packing floor. I figured out if I made up a whole bunch, I could have some time to read until I had to make more. Only problem was it was very hot in the loft where I was, so I sweated and read in front of a fan.
I also picked peas and butter beans for my granddaddy to sell- he “truck farmed” and would take them to town to sell. In later years, I truck farmed to buy my furniture for my first apartment in college, then my husband and I continued the tradition when we were first married and again with okra when our boys were younger. We paid for our beach vacations with okra money.
I also worked retail briefly, then at the age of 15, I started working as secretary of my church. I loved the job, and often came home from college to help with it and do it during the summer. I kept that job, also while teaching part time and writing for a local newspaper part time, until I had my oldest son.
I quite the church hub, always hoping God would lead me back to do it at some point. I thought it would be after I graduated my last homeschooler. But God had other plans, and I started it back again January 2020! The best part is my two younger sons can go with me and do their schoolwork there. I love it!
1. Custom harvest hired hand. I worked full time for my parents in the summer and part time in the winter from the summer after eighth grade through the summer and fall after graduating from college.
2. Pianist for church. I am a terrible accompanist and thus did this rarely, but I was paid, so there’s that.
3. Work study in college. I worked a semester in admissions and six semesters in communications.
4. College newspaper for three years, various positions including editor.
5. Temp agency for a week.
I hadn’t thought about this in so long. After temping I worked two and a half days at a meat plant’s lab ( zero stars, do not recommend) (but which Kristin could do in her sleep at this point, probably, lol).
Interestingly, this does not bring me up to present. That would take three more jobs. And I’m not going to rule out a major career change before it’s over with. At this point we will be working until we die, somewhat literally, so why not try everything?
I actually skipped one between 4 and 5 which would bump the temp agency off the list — teaching and tutoring college algebra while in my one semester of grad school. A lot of commentary could be generated from this one experience, but I’m glad I had it and I’m glad also that stage is past.
Algebra tutoring is never something I would sign up to do. lol I have had my fill of teaching math after homeschooling all of my kids!
If I had stuck with grad school, this job would have paid for my degree. But it turned out I hate teaching. Quit grad school after the semester. Still wish I had the math masters, but not if I have to teach to get it.
1. Babysitting, which I sucked at because I do not like children until they are about 10.
2. Waitressing while in high school.
3. Housekeeper for a place that housed Alaska Airlines cargo pilots when they were in town on a layover. They got fabulous packed lunches every day and gave me any leftover lunches which really helped with feeding me while I was in college.
4. Library helper on work/study while working on my undergrad degree.
5. Night guard at our city jail, which was so underutilized that I also had time to make desserts (mostly cookies, since they last longer) for the day shift and breakfast for the few inmates (how small was it? Each shift had only one guard on duty). I was still in college and so it was a nice side benefit that I to eat breakfast for free, plus all the cookies I could eat.
1. I deliver newspapers before I was eligible to work someplace. Never made any money because people never paid on time.
2. Babysat
3. First real paying job was a busgirl in a famous restaurant, clearing tables and stocking dishes and silverware for the waiters. It was every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and that interfered with life!
4. So I got a job part time after school, as a secretary at an insurance firm. The guy like to yell at his customers!
5, Then I went to secretarial school and found an evening job as a secretary at a local college. I basically sat there and did my homework as nobody ever came in!
And I just have to tell you that next month will be my 30th anniversary at my current company. That was started approx 17 years after my last job list above. During that time, I did a lot of growing and moving!
1. Greenhouse worker. My mom was a manager so she got me the job when I was technically a little younger than they usually hired. I went back to this each summer for a while
2. Pet shop worker. This one was a good position, I was the only employee besides the owner so I got great experience!
3. Coffee Barista. This one was pretty short lived, because I was offered a better job as a…
4. HR Admin Assistant.
5. Benefits Specialist (my current job!). Typing them out made me realize I haven’t had very many jobs! But the ones I have had I’ve stayed at for a long time or gone back to each season.
1. Co-op job my Senior year of H.S. – Secretary to a local lawyer.
2. Worked as a cashier in a Great American grocery store.
3. Secretary to Vice Principal and Music Director at Binghamton NY High School.
4. Worked as cashier and then in the cash office at Wegmans.
5. Worked for USPS as a rural carrier substitute, city carrier, clerk, and eventually as a Postmaster for 12 years. RETIRED in February 2021 after 20 years and 3 months!!!!!
1) Weekly cleaning at a family friends rooming house;
2) Training new horse and pony owners how to work with their animal and how to show their animals particularly for new 4-H classes for horses and ponies;
3) Raising sheep and selling their wool yearly;
4) Waitress at Oasis Howard Johnson’s; and
5) Supervising and assisting lady who was on heavy blood thinners and needed someone with her during the day.
Some of these are a bit different and yes, I am that old….rooming house and one of the founder of the first horse and pony 4-H club in our county.
1. Babysitting-mostly for a set of twins and their older sister, which was fun.
2. Production line at a vegetable processing plant—basically picked out the junk and occasional dead toad or other animal as the peas went past on a conveyor belt. Interesting, and taught me a lot about factory work/hourly wage work.
3. Ticket seller and concessions worker at a theater. This was fun and I worked with friends from high school so we always had a good time and could watch parts of the movies if we weren’t too busy.
4. Children’s activity director at a luxury resort. Very fun and I got nice tips from parents who were grateful that I kept their kids busy all day so they could go golfing, shopping, etc.
5. Preschool assistant teacher, which preceded me becoming a special education teacher for 35 years. Now retired….I did work as an administrative assistant in a nursing home for the first 4 years of retirement (part time)….Now fully retired!
1. Babysitting, but only for our across the street neighbors
2. Olan Mills telephone sales. Was the worst job I’ve ever had!
3. Gas station attendant at a self serve station.
4 Co-op student with NASA for most of my college years
5. First professional job as a software developer for CSC.
Ohhhh, Olan Mills. What a flashback. We had so many family photos taken there when I was a kid!
I remember wen I was really small my daddy decided that my twin brothers and I should know what it was like to pick cotton. So my mother took the three of us to a nearby cotton field and we picked cotton for part of a day. We each had real cotton bags. Mine didn’t have very much cotton in it at the end of our “work day.” I was glad that I never had to pick cotton again…very hot and very hard work…but I did get paid!
I think my next paying job was washing dishes at home. My two brothers and I took turns washing dinner dishes in the evening. Then when they were old enough to get “real” jobs, my dad decided I would be the dishwasher and my brothers would pay me out of their paycheck and that would be my allowance. I didn’t like washing dishes but, in retrospect, I think that was a good solution because I think our household money for things like allowances was scarce.
My next memory is working at Ben Franklin (our dime store). I think I worked there on Saturdays and during the summer. I’m not sure how long this lasted, but I learned a lot…how to count money, make change, sell, help customers make decisions about purchases, customer service, inventory, etc. I especially remember Christmas time and helping customers with gift ideas and lots of gift wrapping.
Then when I was in college I was the secretary of one of the professors. My strongest memory of that was running off tests on a mimeograph machine and the boys would sneak in and try to get me to give them a copy of the tests. Nope!…no matter how cute they were.
Then when I got married I dropped out of college to support us while my spouse continued in college. I held a clerical position at a local carpet mill. (30 years and a second marriage later I went back to university and got a BS in Psychology.)
After that my jobs included becoming a legal secretary at three different law firms in three different states, then a computer programmer, then a programmer/analyst. Next I was a co-partner in our own pool building company and our pool plastering company. This was quite an experience and different than anything I’ve ever done. Then after closing down the pool companies and going back to get my college degree, I worked under a grant at our state university as a computer software trainer. I retired from that, and I LOVE being retired!
Wow, you’ve had a lot of jobs!
Ive had a lot of years…lol!
The usual baby-sitting, of course, and doing some light cleaning for pay. At fifteen I got my work permit and waitressed at a country club- that was fun and weird. I served some of my wealthier classmates, which was awkward, but I learned how wonderful co-worker camaraderie can be and enjoyed the big bucks and independence! After that, I worked in the hospital kitchen off and on for about 5 years- like you, I usually had multiple part-time things going on simultaneously. Next a brief and awful retail job in the toy department at K-Mart where I learned that was NOT for me! The next several were all waitressing jobs, which I liked except the hours.