What do you do?

[rida]

I work in a small IFA office and handle clients (a lot of hand holding in the past 9 months or so), business contacts and paperwork.

Before that I taught Italian and also worked as a saleswoman in department stores (Imported Italian fashion) while studying for my Japanese proficiency test.

Before that I also did some interpreter work for my mother export company and her buyers in Japan.

My very first paid job was a week stint as a blue-collar worker in my uncle's tights factory at 16.

My major was Astronomy, although I never graduated (I probably took enough exams to have the equivalent of a US college degree).

 

[Etoile]

Absolutely nowt. Nobody seems to want to give me a job.

What have you gone to school for?

 

[MisterSir]

What have you gone to school for?

Economics and finance. I'm applying for everything under the sun, but getting nowhere.

 

[Ladythunder]

Well so far at least, I am the only one like me! Such interesting jobs you guys have, I would be jealous if I didn't like my own so much.

I am a meatcutter, though I don't have my certification yet. I am going to school in September to get that and make my job a career.

 

[cf23430]

own a landscaping company

 

[Etoile]

Ladythunder, I'm a vegetarian, so please forgive me...what is a meatcutter? Is that like a butcher?

 

[Ladythunder]

Like a butcher yes, but meatcutters do the finer cuts, usually in a retail setting getting the meat ready for sale to a customer

Butchers generally do the big stuff gettign it ready for the meatcutters. (kind of like calling a wolf a dog, same general thing, yet totally different)

 

[Etoile]

(kind of like calling a wolf a dog, same general thing, yet totally different)

Like I said, I'm a vegetarian...thanks for the clarification!

 

[Netzach]

I'm an independent designer/crafter and periodically still do some phone stuff, (domination, phone sex, listening for hours, whatever you want to consider it) but I'd say it's about 90 percent the former at this point. That means etsy, ebay, my sites, and going to shows.

I've got an interesting resume. Interior faux finish painter, gallery assistant, sales bitch, assistant to commodities brokers for way longer than I should have been (2 yrs) temp, long-term temp at Big Ag, ProDomme, illustrtation paid gigs along the way, writing paid gigs along the way.

 

[Cattypuss]

I'm a staff writer/editor for a multi-national publisher. I used to write books and do a bit of editing on the side but as time went on I got to enjoy the editing more, so now I only do that. Not saying I'll never write again but for now I'm finding editing more satisfying.

 

[midwestyankee]

Like Sir W and Keroin, my resumé looks a bit like the Yellow Pages: cooking instructor, dishwasher, garbage man, street cleaner, factory worker, poultry processing plant worker (yuck a thousand times over!), teacher at four different levels, insurance salesman, stock broker, road construction worker, lifeguard, editor, proofreader,radio announcer, freelance writer, voice-over artist, and stay-at-home dad. I'm still not precisely sure what I want to do when I grow up (which needs to happen next week, I think).

Beyond these things, for which I've been paid, I've learned another three or four dozen jobs in order to write training programs on those jobs. This would include such things as servicing high-performance race-car tires, selling mortgages, collecting on credit card debt, programming proprietary inventory-management software, programming computerized switches for large-scale factory circuits (try to imagine a switch that would turn on a 200 foot long paper making machine), blending motor oil, running a Christian bookstore, running any number of different automotive service franchises, and being a customer-service operator at WorldCom.

Currently I write courses for an online university and present workshops on how to improve learning in the workplace. I'm also available as an emcee for public events.

 

[jockdom]

I've worked loads of different jobs, forestry worker, chef, warehouse man, forklift driver, youth hostel warden(great job) green keeper and general dogsbody. Now I'm a Gardener/handyman in a shopping mall. It keeps the wolf from the door.

 

[Keroin]

I used to be a nurse (RGN, A/E and then Renal) but left due to a number of reasons, some of them my own health issues. I could always go back but I'd need some re-training as I've been out of the loop.

Now I co-own a mobile vegan cafe (soon to become a chain!) that is currently off on the summer festival circuit. My role in the company used to be more hands on but now I handle the accounting, marketing and the logistics of sending my baby 1967 Routemaster double-deck bus all over the UK. After the summer we'll be back in central London and by then we should have another 2 buses converted and ready to roll.

That is awesome!! Do you make house calls to small Pacific islands?

Also, about the book, don't feel bad. Most writers have a stack of rejection letters that, if properly bound, would make War and Peace look like a dime store novel in volume.

 

[Keroin]

Like Keroin, my actual resumé would read like an abbreviated section of the Yellow Pages.

Like Sir W and Keroin, my resumé looks a bit like the Yellow Pages.

Sorry, mini-hijack...

I'm curious about those who have the Yellow Page resumes, what are your feelings about this and have they changed over the years?

I ask this because almost into my late twenties I felt like a dismal failure many times. I watched my peers complete their degrees and/or move into steady jobs and careers, while I drifted from place to place and job to job. It took awhile for me to realize that there is no right or wrong and that I am not cut out for what most people consider "normal" - i.e. steady job, pension, house, etc. And it wasn't until my 20 year reunion that I realized not only was I OK with my meandering career path but the peers I had once envied now wished they could be more like me.

What has your experience been?

 

[00Syd]

I am currently a professional student who does nothing to earn money since it magically appears in my checking account every month.

I am becoming less and less sure everyday that I'll one day be a succesfull adult. All my attempts at finding a job more "real" than babysitting has lead either nowhere or to disaster. I know that I have two more years to figure it out, but I'm terrified that I'll end up a bum without any real career. Fingers crossed that my degree gets me somewhere.

 

[MisterSir]

I am becoming less and less sure everyday that I'll one day be a succesfull adult. All my attempts at finding a job more "real" than babysitting has lead either nowhere or to disaster. I know that I have two more years to figure it out, but I'm terrified that I'll end up a bum without any real career. Fingers crossed that my degree gets me somewhere.

What are you doing?

 

[midwestyankee]

Sorry, mini-hijack...

I'm curious about those who have the Yellow Page resumes, what are your feelings about this and have they changed over the years?

<snip>

What has your experience been?

I've had most of the same feelings that you described in your post. However, I now use my varied career an important to help establish credibility. I can help people learn better on the job in part because I have learned so many different jobs during my life of work. For me, it's a big plus to be able to say that I've been both a garbage man and a stock broker (not that there's much difference between the two jobs. They both involve being able to stomach things that would nauseate more sensitive souls.

 

[00Syd]

What are you doing?

Visual and Media Arts major with a specialization in Screenwriting. Seb jokes that I'm majoring in waitressing.

 

[midwestyankee]

Visual and Media Arts major with a specialization in Screenwriting. Seb jokes that I'm majoring in waitressing.

You're also preparing yourself for any number of jobs that require creative thinking and expression. While the idea might curdle the idealistic side of your brain at the moment, these skills are highly valued in the worlds of advertising, public relations, and marketing.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

.... being a customer-service operator at WorldCoN....

Fixed that.

Sorry, mini-hijack...

I'm curious about those who have the Yellow Page resumes, what are your feelings about this and have they changed over the years?

I ask this because almost into my late twenties I felt like a dismal failure many times. I watched my peers complete their degrees and/or move into steady jobs and careers, while I drifted from place to place and job to job. It took awhile for me to realize that there is no right or wrong and that I am not cut out for what most people consider "normal" - i.e. steady job, pension, house, etc. And it wasn't until my 20 year reunion that I realized not only was I OK with my meandering career path but the peers I had once envied now wished they could be more like me.

What has your experience been?

I've had most of the same feelings that you described in your post. However, I now use my varied career an important to help establish credibility. I can help people learn better on the job in part because I have learned so many different jobs during my life of work. For me, it's a big plus to be able to say that I've been both a garbage man and a stock broker (not that there's much difference between the two jobs. They both involve being able to stomach things that would nauseate more sensitive souls.

At times, I felt like a failure - particularly when I retired from teaching after 11 years, because helping people improve their lives was something I really really like to do. After a couple of years, I realized that classroom teaching was not the only way to do that, and for me being a classroom teacher had become too much less than that, and too much more of being a babysitter, statistic counter, and report writer.

In my current incarnation as a legal transcriptionist, much of what I learned in those other jobs and careers is now surprisingly useful to me because of the myriad of things that I learned and can now apply to transcription: terminologies, etc., particularly. So I have few regrets about my "career path." If nothing else --

it's been educational, and I love to learn;
it's been varied, and I love variety, the spice of life;
and it's led me to people and places and experiences I might not have otherwise had the opportunity to have.​

BTW, the reason I spell that company's name that way is no slur at you, Yank. It's just the way I feel about an organization that swallowed so many good places to work (including mine), stole their business, and hurt their thousands upon thousands of employees (AND customers), all for the sake of Bernie's (and others') personal gain. In my universe, there's a special circle of hell for people like Bernie Ebbers and his cohorts.

 

[Keroin]

I've had most of the same feelings that you described in your post. However, I now use my varied career an important to help establish credibility. I can help people learn better on the job in part because I have learned so many different jobs during my life of work. For me, it's a big plus to be able to say that I've been both a garbage man and a stock broker (not that there's much difference between the two jobs. They both involve being able to stomach things that would nauseate more sensitive souls.

LOL. There's probably more pride in being a garbage man.

At times, I felt like a failure - particularly when I retired from teaching after 11 years, because helping people improve their lives was something I really really like to do. After a couple of years, I realized that classroom teaching was not the only way to do that, and for me being a classroom teacher had become too much less than that, and too much more of being a babysitter, statistic counter, and report writer.

In my current incarnation as a legal transcriptionist, much of what I learned in those other jobs and careers is now surprisingly useful to me because of the myriad of things that I learned and can now apply to transcription: terminologies, etc., particularly. So I have few regrets about my "career path." If nothing else --

it's been educational, and I love to learn;
it's been varied, and I love variety, the spice of life;
and it's led me to people and places and experiences I might not have otherwise had the opportunity to have.​

Yes, exactly. It's amazing how beneficial having a multitude of skills can be, this is something that I was never taught as a kid but back then the model was life long employment with the same company. Also, I think when you are flexible and have a large skill set and the willingness to learn, the loss of a job does not hit nearly as hard as it might otherwise. I've never been without work and I never will be. If I can't find a job I want, I create one for myself.

 

[DVS]

All of these jobs seem very interesting. This is an interesting thread.

 

[Bi_Kitty]

I am currently a professional student who does nothing to earn money since it magically appears in my checking account every month.

How do you do it? Tell me your secret.

 

[MisterSir]

How do you do it? Tell me your secret.

I did it by selling my blood. Wonderful thing, blood, the body never seems to run out. I did get a bit light-headed at times, and after that incident in the second year I don't think so good no more, but my doctor says that high-pitched ringing sound should fade away in three or four years.

Moral of the story? Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star and they give you them for free!

 

[ownedsubgal]

i'm a homemaker, and once or twice a week i do sex work. to my surprise i have thoroughly enjoyed the sex work for the most part, especially as my clients are very specially selected. they must be within a certain age group and they must have a real need in their lives for the kind of service i have to offer them. it goes so far beyond the physical that it amazes me sometimes, and it's awesome to see the positive difference i've made in the lives of many.