I started out working in Junior High years in the summer. I was a stocker in a large grocery store, then I worked as a dishwasher and all around cleanup guy at a cafe that had a sign opposite the counter. It read: If your wife can't cook, keep her for a pet, and eat here. One year I hopped a freight car and rode it two hundred and twenty-five miles with a hobo. I got off in New Mexico, found a job working with iterate migrant works from Mexico, jerking broomcorn, digging sweet potatoes, pulling cotton. I worked for Ben E. Keith. Since Growing up I have worked for Manufacturing Companies, Texas Electric Service Company, Halliburton, Gifford-Hill & Company, and a bolt and nut company. It hard to name much I haven't done.
I started baby sitting at age 14, usually the occupation for young girls, I was sought after because the father wouldn't have to drive me home late at night....I'd ride my bike. I caddied at a nearby country club the summers I was 15 and 16. Was promoted to life guard at the country club pool the summer I was 17. I drove a school bus in NYC when I was 18. Throughout college I washed dishes at a nearby woman's college...that was a great job. During graduate school I worked at the trade I learned in the Army - teletype repair. After graduate school I joined IBM and worked there until I was 40. The second half of my life I taught computer science at a community college and then my wife and I became antiquarian booksellers, a vocation I still follow.
I think our generation have all worked at many professions. We grew up knowing survival came first, and the rest was gravy. And I think we were much more willing to apprentice out to learn a way to support ourselves, unlike today's youths. My nine grandchildren, who range in age from 31 to 15, all automatically expected a college education. My husband and I help provide the college tuitions for them, and set up college funds for three great-grandchildren. I did learn something surprising though. Our school systems are setting us up. They educate our children to think that parents are obligated to provide these expensive years of education, and if they don't, they are bad parents. I do believe that the educational system along with today's media and society are why the youth of today believe they are entitled to being served.
I have only had two jobs; domestic engineer and librarian. My most important job was stay at home Mom. When my children left home, I got a job as librarian. I retired from that job last December 31.
I've been lucky in that the one and only truly rubbish job I've ever had was one that I took after I was made redundant from an IT job. It (the new one) was at an insurance company. I got precisely no training and was expected to answer all sorts of technical questions from financial advisors. The company that I worked for was one of the big insurance companies in the UK and was an utter shambles. You could guarantee that just about every day, we'd get an email asking if anyone had seen a cheque from one of our customers. The cheques were usually for pretty big sums, as well. I made a mental note never to use that company for anything (though I bet most of the others were little better). Mercifully, I found some better to do a few months later.
Started out delivering newspapers, became an usher in our movie house, bagged groceries then advanced to produced mgr., then asst. store manager. Worked in Ford garage for a short time, only job I was ever fired from, on to office supply salesman, became a bread delivery person for the next 29 years and retired from bread delivery supervisor in 1999. Where I worked as an usher. Spent many a night changing that marquee.
One of my best and worst jobs was when I started to clean houses. In the early '70's, I was making $150. to $225. a day, depending on the size of the home. I liked that when cleaning, I could turn the radio on, and dance around as I went about setting a family's home right. But, when the home had someone that stayed there while I cleaned, it would take me twice as long to clean. A lot of the time the person wanted to carry on a conversation, and that cost me money. Now I understand that those people were just lonely.
Before I married, I worked as a Kinder and preschool teacher. For 29 years, I have been unemployed as the Homemaker, Home manager and Home-school teacher. I worked at a Christian Camp, occasionally as a kitchen help. I do a little bit of freelance writing and editing.
I don't even remember ALL the jobs I've had! LOL I remember the days when you could pick and choose which ones you wanted, and if you didn't like the one you had, you just went out and got another. I have been a fast food worker, an apprentice machinist (BEST JOB!), a carney with the Great Eastern Fair, a Census Bureau employee, and I've been in several managerial positions. I even took a hiatus to home-school my kids through High School. Now I work in a big retail store, and I hate it. LOL
Being the restless type, I've had lots of jobs in lots of places. Farmhand, Grocery bagger/stocker, restaurant dishwasher/handy man, worked on loading docks in several places, machine operator in a tractor plant, sheet metal worker, cement work, truck driver, toll collector, taxi driver, DOT, ground man for a tree service, rent-a-cop, and slaughter houses.