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What jobs have you had in your life?
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Frank
Happy Gardening
 Administrator
Joined: 25 Jan 2005
Location: Malmö, Sweden
Posts: 8712
PlantStew: 456 |
| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:46 pm Post subject: What jobs have you had in your life? |
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I'm guessing almost every member here has been through more than one job throughout their lifetime and I'm sure some of them vary wildly. What have you worked at in the past and what have you learned from each job?
I'm still pretty young but I'll start (not chronological):
Job: Web Developer for a company in Malta
Lessons learned: Separate work from fun
Job: Cornershop assistant
Lessons learned: A job can destroy your soul
Job: Worked with my brother maintaining an estate's grounds
Lessons learned: I love nature
Job: Toy store (looked after boy's toys section)
Lessons learned: A lot of kids are spoilt and fickle. Also remember to stack boxes on top shelf carefully, very carefully.
Care to add?
_________________
Happy Gardening
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Capt Kirk
Thank a Veteran today!
Joined: 10 Sep 2005
Location: Ohio, USA
Posts: 1291
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 2:16 pm Post subject: |
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Let's see:
As a kid I hired out to help bale hay! Lesson, a dollar an hour was definately not enough money for that type of work!
Aircraft Mechanic for 22 years in the Navy.
Building maintenance person, made good bucks as supervisor.
Customer service trainer. Good bucks and a lot of fun. Was really a good company to work for !
Then I had to retire for health reasons.
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pondlady
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Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Location: New Orleans, La
Posts: 1829
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 2:48 pm Post subject: |
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My first job for money was cutting lawns in the neighborhood for $4.00 a lawn. I was 10 years old. I soon learned that I could hire other kids, pay them $3.00 per lawn. Hmmmm.....
Got through years and years of school with more jobs than I can count. Became a psychologist because philosophers don't earn much. After 20 years of that, I started playing in the mud for money.
Never worked for another person after I left school. That was probably the most important thing I learned. Being self employed means you have an SOB for a boss and you stay poor, but you never have to answer to anyone. I sold my pond business about this time last year.
I love retirement. I have started my third full time career as a free lance writer and love every minute of it.[/i]
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wannabe
Knows Their Stuff
Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Location: Springfield, Illinois (Map)
Posts: 1376
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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I baby sit, was a clerk at Kresge's,worked on the line in a factory, was clerktypist for a pharmaceutical company, and was/am a registered nurse. Each job showed me what I didn't want to do and moved me on. I worked as a nurse for 43 years before I retired. I like this "job" the best. Wannabe
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Desert Rat
The Dusty Blogger
Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Location: Arizona
Posts: 644
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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Started with the usual kid jobs-paper routes, lawn mowing etc. Learned you can't please everyone
Short order cook and pizza maker at E.M. club in West Point. Learned how to cook and make a pretty good pizza
Worked in a deli. slicing cold cuts and cheese etc. Learned about the many uses of chicken fat.
Worked in New York City for Norcross Greeting Cards Learned not to live in New York City
Joined the Navy- worked 4 years as a psychiatric Technician. Really tough school but likely set the course of the rest of my life. Learned in order to understand what makes others tick, you have to understand yourself. That is hardest of all.
Worked as a Bank Teller in Philadelphia Learned you can't please everyone but you have to try.
Worked as a truck dispatcher for a concrete company. learned not to do that.
Worked in the auto industry becoming a manufacturing engineer with additional mostly night time schooling.
A satisfying and challenging job, but glad I no longer do it.
Also ran several side business ventures with my best friend Dooley, including several antique shops and a wholesale and retail coffee tea and spice shop along with kitchen supplies. Ran a produce business also.
Worked several security jobs after retirement. Dooley and I published a small literary magazine for several years with pretty good results.
It has been a good run so far, but I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
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toni
Mistress of Garden Junque
Moderator
Joined: 07 Jan 2006
Location: North Texas (Map)
Posts: 4514
PlantStew: 466 |
| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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I think I have had almost as many jobs as places I have lived....
Babysat when I was in high school, whopping $1.00 an hour. Only had one major scare when someone tried to break into the house I was sitting in.
Secretary at the Texas Highway Dept in Lubbock.
Had my first daughter, that was a truly scary job.
File Clerk at an insurance company regional office in Dallas.
Then worked up to secretary for the Homeowners Claims adjusters at the company, in Dallas
Tried to be an assistant to an insurance agent in Denver, learned I couldn't do that job. He was nice tho, he was going to put up with me until I realized I couldn't do the job...he said he never fired anyone without giving them the chance to try.
Secretary to the Registrar of an automotive school in Denver.
Drove a school bus for a private school in West Palm Beach, Florida.....that would have been a scary job but I was allowed to have control of the kids being a private school.
Lab assistant (fancy name for secretarial work) for an optometrist in WPB.
Cost Accountants assistant for an electronics manufacturing firm when Lisa and I moved back to Dallas. I really liked that job....it's where I met Randy. 
Stay at home Mom for a while, then secretary for a small contruction firm...hated that one.
Stay at home Mom, then had Amanda - nuther episode of a truly scary job.
Worked parttime as night/weekend manager at a fabric store.
Then for the last 17.5 years have been a stay at home Mom....the best job and actually the only job I ever really wanted.
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EJ
Allotmenteer Extraordinaire
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Location: Essex
Posts: 1184
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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Saturday girl in a hairdressers. Learnt to smile and chat up the ladies, earnt great tips!
Office Junior in a film company. Learnt to use the photocopier and shredder!!
Account clerk in a music video company. Started meeting celebs and enjoying work.
Secretary in Film company. Discovered how great a social life a girl could have in London. 
PA to the President of Film and Record company. The most amazing job ever. Met celebs, drank champagne, travelled all over - however, had to work long, hard hours, get shouted at a lot by my French Boss and do a lot of typing.
Chief homemaker - learnt to be a mum, taxi driver, cook and cleaner.
Now I am a gardener working only school hours. I do everything from garden clearances, to maintenance, to landscaping. Loving it!
_________________
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http://allotmentnews.blogspot.com/
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http://photoart.myfreeforum.org/index.php
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glendann
Official Garden Angel
Joined: 19 May 2006
Location: Texas (Map)
Posts: 6112
PlantStew: 182 |
| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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I was 6 yrs old picked cotton mom made my cotton sack from a 25 # flour sack.made 50 cents the
entire time.That was lots of money then.Lesson learned -I would have to do more later.
Worked for my uncle at 10 years old -chopped cotton ,hoed corn,pulled corn,pulled cotton,shook peanuts - Lesson learned - This is dang hard hot work learned to cook and get to go home and cook lunch and dinner to get out of the field as much as possile .next lesson - never intend to do this again.When I grew up.
Baby sat for a neighbor -Didn't like it.
Gift wrapped at Perry Bros.- Lesson learned never enough boxes and a way to wrap without one
Waitressed - hard work -
Worked in Laundry -Hot work and hard
Worked in sewing room - It could be fun didn't learn much I did it again later.
Apartment manager -I hate town.
Managed a cafe
Owned and operated a Bar-B -Que House - How to cook good Bar-B-Que and make really good sauce.
Worked as a super club waitress -Learned it was fun.
Worked as a Florist
Clerk at a clothing store -
Sold jewelery
Sold Avon
Bartender - Learned to put up with drunks.
Worked in a Service Station
Telemarket Supervisor
Threw Papers
I'm sure there is more but am tired
Security
The lesson I learned from each of these jobs
I will work about anywhere that is morally fit
to make a living.
You Ask For It.
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reggaefan
Official Poet Laureate
Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Location: Zone 8b Louisiana (Map)
Posts: 2520
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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Ok here goes:
Sold grit newspapers
Sold Peanuts From a red wagon
Shined Shoes
Stood lookout and Got food for the Card game in back of the pool hall
Made popcorn and took up tickets in local theater.
Then I turned 12 and got real jobs
Worked in service station 4pm-8pm schooldays and in the summer 5am -8pm made .50 cent an hour worked 7 days a week made 56 dollars a week good money in 1960
Joined Air Force 1965
Left AF worked steel Mill, chemical plants, drove trucks, worked offshore as a geologist {no I don't have a diploma but I know dirt} , drove trucks again , blew out back, learned to live on nothing, raise two girls, and know that I made the best decision in my life when I married Sharon. 
_________________
Richard
"We have met the enemy,and it is us." POGO
Last edited by reggaefan on Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
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eileen
Moderator & Resident Taxonomist
Moderator
Joined: 07 Feb 2005
Location: Scotland (Map)
Posts: 10355
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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I worked as a shop assistant when I left school then moved into office work while studying at night school. Eventually got a job as a veterinary nurse and stayed with them until I had my kids. Since then I've worked as an office cleaner, a recorder in a biscuit factory and ran night school classes to show people how to make soft toys.
Finally had to give up working altogether as I suffered from chronic arthritis in my knees. Since having them replaced I've worked only in the house and garden but still do voluntary work for our countryside ranger and treat injured wild animals if, and when, the need arises. Nothing very exciting I'm afraid.
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Netty
Chaotic Gardener
Joined: 04 Nov 2006
Location: Southern Ontario zone 5
Posts: 3944
PlantStew: 934 |
| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:21 pm Post subject: |
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I had a paper route when I was a kid. Then I got a job as a cashier, then I ran a sandwich shop. As I grew older, I had a few different cashier jobs and started waitressing. I managed a Bulk food store for a friend. I drove a ferry boat for 3 years, worked at a car dealership, farm hand, painter, and then waitressed again. I had my kids and was a stay at home mom for a few years. Then I got a job "helping out a friend" roofing which turned into 3 years! I got some more education and then got my first job as a gardener. I still work there 7 years later and LOVE it!!
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dooley
Official Garden Turtle
Joined: 03 Jul 2005
Location: Arizona, U.S.A (Map)
Posts: 3102
PlantStew: 2 |
| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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The very first job that I got paid for was walking corn rows and picking up corn that the mechanical picker missed. Wannabe must have forgotten that one. Then, I had a paper route and then I baby sit the kids down the block. Five of them, from 3 to midnight. That was only during the summer. More paper routes. More babysitting. I learned when you babysit you miss out on the summer fun the other kids have. I worked at Kresge's Dimestore, too. Then I work as a wardclerk in a VA Hospital. Did some more babysitting when we were in Philadelphia. Back in Wisconsin I didn't work until my youngest was in second grade. Went to work as a volunteer in the school Title One program, helping kids with reading problems. A job came open in Special Education and I then worked as an aide in preschool programs for 12 years. We opened an antique shop and I worked in it and then the spice, tea, kitchen shop. When we moved to Arizona we opened the shop in Phoenix for a year but going to Phoenix everyday wasn't fun so we quit that and started operating out of the flea market. After a few years I went to work as a Preschool Teacher until the preschool closed. More daycare work from home. Became a volunteer children's librarian and did that for 12 yrs. now, I work at the Prescott Valley Library shelving books, check in, check out and general staff work. Dooley
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Desert Rat
The Dusty Blogger
Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Location: Arizona
Posts: 644
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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Richard, did you bring back a memory. Grit newspaper (Grit, The Family Weekly). Boy did I carry a ton of those door to door. Never sold enough to get that free bicycle, but I tried. Guess I forgot my latest job as a free lance writer for several newspapers including the Bradshaw Mountain News column, "Ninth Street Notes."
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reggaefan
Official Poet Laureate
Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Location: Zone 8b Louisiana (Map)
Posts: 2520
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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Never got the bicyle either dr. Another thing my 5600 a wk service station job , each friday the owner gave his son me and my cousin 10.00 the other 46.00 went straight to my mother, Ten dollars and a saturday night was enough for me though
_________________
Richard
"We have met the enemy,and it is us." POGO
Last edited by reggaefan on Sat Jan 20, 2007 12:01 am; edited 1 time in total
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Polly
Thumb Gardener
Joined: 26 Jun 2006
Location: Michigan
Posts: 2235
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| Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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Pizza maker in high school - learned never to touch an anchovy again.
Day care for 6 years when first married - learned you can love others children as much as you could your own.
Part time library aid - learned that I can never read all of the books that look interesting.
Inccome tax preparer - a lot of people make a lot of money and a lot of people want to cheat on their income tax
Payroll clerk for 7 years - learned sometimes it's better not to know how much the other guy makes.
I was working the income tax preparer and payroll clerk jobs at the same time. Sometimes 80 hours a week between the two - learned that one job is enough even when the other was only seasonal.
Municipal finance clerk for the past 11 years - I've signed a lot of checks over the years, spent a lot of taxpayers money. Love it for the most part. Can't afford to retire - so will probably be there until they carry me out.
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