What's your work history?

stoney · Oct 17, 2023

Starting at 16:
- restaurant cashier/bus boy
- pizza shop
- sporting goods store
College:
- bouncer
- bike shop everything
- house boy for sorority
Post-college:
- retail analyst/trader for an advisor
- bike shop mechanic
- trader/sales rep for Ultra High net worth wealth mgmt team
- tri/bike shop mechanic
- Bloomberg - customer service, systems analytics, sales, product development
- investment bank institutional sales
- investment advisor - internal/call center
- investment advisor - external/field

Finance, then bikes are where I have spent most of my working time.

Toshi · Oct 17, 2023

as a kid: paper route. and lawn care for my parents.

as a high schooler: YMCA assistant camp counselor for a bike trip

as a college student: tech support in the psychiatry + animal research building. also briefly taught for Kaplan. didn't like that.

before med school: IT Director for a boutique hotel group (that owned the Stanley among other places)

since med school: doing my thing for the university. will be 10 years here come June.

stevew · Oct 17, 2023

file under never professional.

Adventurous · Oct 17, 2023

Hmm. Let's see, a catalogue of my paid work in roughly chronological order:

- grocery store clerk
- custom golf club builder
- golf caddy
- machine shop assistant
- design lab proctor
- aircraft engines engineer
- sustaining/manufacturing/mechanical engineering roles within the medical device space

eric strt6 · Oct 17, 2023

Starting at age 12
Went to work in Families beach restaurant started with mopping floors ended with being the grill cook
18 City of Santa Monica Beach parking lot attendant during the summer College in the winter
20 Beach Maintenance driving garbage trucks
78-80 Humbolt State U (flunked out too much weed) Night time security at the lumber mills, (call me Hayduke)
Summer of 80 West bank of Israel medical/dental on little kids (assistant)
81-86 Sales Manager, Naui Scuba Instructor at Scubaventures in Santa Cruz
Went back to school Cabrillo College and San Jose state Human Physiology and Immunology
87-92 Managed Pizza My Heart in Capitola at night while going to college
93-94 Electronics sales at Graffix
95-97 Casio Systems division Western Region sales manager
98-99 Future Electronics, Distributor Sales Executive
2000-2001 Grau Data, Sales Executive Data Storage systems
2002-3 REI
2001 2013 Santa Cruz County Fire Department, Fire Fighter (on Call Dept)
2005 to present Arcadia Ambulance, Operations Manager

I Are Baboon · Oct 17, 2023

Three paper routes when I was a kid.
Got a job at a grocery store when I was 15 and the law was changed to allow 15 years to work such jobs.
Moved on from the grocery store to working a job assembling yard and garden tools.
College came and I worked at a baseball card store/indoor batting cages. This was a great job.
Graduated from college in 1996 and got a job doing payroll in Corporate America and have been doing it ever since. I don't hate it and it pays well.

boostindoubles · Oct 17, 2023

Around 12 I started working in the commercial fruit tree orchard doing all the menial farm labor jobs you can imagine. That continued until I was 14 where I started doing menial labor in old fruit warehouses.

At 16 I worked construction for a company that built concrete tilt-up warehouses. I did that job again the next summer.

At 18 I scraped codling moth out of glue traps all summer. I worked 80 hrs a week, rallying a 4 wheeler and Ford Ranger through 100 different fruit tree farms. Rolled the 4 wheeler twice that summer.

In college I worked in the dining hall, cleaning and serving food. I worked in the creamery, making cheese - flipping and salted curd, sealing tins of cheese, and cleaning.

I worked for the USDA in a pea and lentil breeding program. What a bunch of GS level chasing jerks - it was fun visiting all the satelite plots though.

I did touch up/prep work for a commercial painter.

I spent two years working on a 100 share CSA organic veggie farm. All the armpit hair and patchouli you can imagine.

Interned on a 200 acre organic apple/cherry/blueberry farm in Chelan, WA. Such a beautiful place that has been over run by tourists and retiring west siders.

Took money and conducted historical research on an obscure flour mill, putting it's history into chronological order and compiling it into a book of sorts.

Spent a summer/fall doing field archeology in Wyoming. That was the funnest, most rewarding job I've ever had. It was $20/hr and I rummaged the hills for artifacts. Spent 2 months in the back country of YNP, trying not to get eaten by bears or run over by bison, tracing the Nez Perce Flight Trail through the park.

Two years I spent selling hops to breweries.

10 years were spent on the commercial tree fruit orchard playing "keep the wheels on the bus"

10 years spent in old fruit warehouses playing "keep the wheels on the bus"

5 years as production manager in a hop processing operation. I was building and operating complex mechanical systems that process hops. I taught myself how to run a 3 story industrial pellet mill, capable of processing 40k lbs of hops every 8 hours.

I spent a year working on a commercial cannabis farm, "keeping the wheels on the bus" Those cannabis people think theyre making drugs but I tried to get them to realize they are farmers. All I did was facilitate communication between employees and take cuttings.

Now I manufacture and maintain industrial grade ammonia vapor detection systems, used commonly in fruit warehouses. Ammonia is the refrigeration gas of choice around here!

boostindoubles · Oct 17, 2023

Almost forgot - me and my friends started a non-profit trail building org that has over 30 miles of singletrack under its belt. We are currently seeking funding for a 40k sq ft velosolutions pumptrack. Its designed and has a location. We just need cash money.

jimmydean · Oct 17, 2023

At 14 I started in the skate shop inside the local sporting goods store.
Pizza shop dishwasher
Stereo installer (my brother was a god, I was just his little brother)
18 months at Modesto Junior College that was going nowhere
2 years active Navy
ITT San Diego
Transfered to ITT Portland
Intel as a manufacturing technician (building motherboards)
Graduate AAS Electronic Engineering
Discovery Zone as regional game technician for all of Oregon and Washington
UNIX tech support at Netscape
QA Engineer at Intel on Video Phone
"" Rational Software
"" Network Computing Devices
"" McAfee
"" Flatrock
Tow truck driver Anderson Towing
Signal Officer Army National Guard
BSCS from University of Phoenix
QA Engineer Intel
"" Chockstone
"" NCube > Arris
"" Tarot.com
"" Arris
"" MTI
Katrina Relief
QA Engineer at WebMD
Moved to Medford
QA at Plexis
Moved back to Portland
QA Engineer at Huron
"" BiAmp
"" Playhaven
"" Umpqua Bank
"" Leviton
"" Portland General Electric
"" US Bank
"" MTI
"" TenAsys

I'm sure I missed at least one contract. Roughly half those companies have either failed or have been bought.

Flatrock was epic, then 9/11 happened.

Playhaven was a dream job, then donglegate happened. :rofl:

Donglegate: How One Brogrammer’s Sexist Joke Led to Death Threats and Firings

Adria Richards tweeted about a guy who she said made a sexist joke at a tech conference. He was fired. Then she was, too.

www.motherjones.com

I went back to Arris after 6 months at tarot.com but it wasn't the same.

boogenman · Oct 17, 2023

Delivered newspapers for about 3 years.

Grocery store cashier.

Bike builder/Mechanic at local shop in summer.

Cart boy at another grocery store.

Back to the bike shop, more mechanic than builder now.

Dairy/Frozen at 1st grocery store.

Somehow graduated high school......

3rd summer at the shop, wrenching on fancy bikes.

Rough framer/laborer building houses.

Sales at a big box bike shop.

Ski instructor (full time for 2 winters).

Ski shop, tuning and selling.

Another run at framing for what they call a "butcher" in the house business.

3rd bike shop, hired to wrench. Ended up managing 2nd shop location for a few years.

Sold and delivered used appliances for a shady guy.

New York State Unemployment for 4 months :headbang:

Selling automobiles.

junkyard · Oct 17, 2023

Started around the junk yards maybe 8-10 pulling spare tires, jacks, loose rear seat cushions, trash pickup. Then around 12 started outside the yards and the truck storage yards. Digging post holes, installing chain link fencing, digging ditches, irrigation, picking up trash and many other tasks.

Around 14 I had begged enough and my dad let me start pulling parts in the wrecking yard.

At 16 I started having to drive a water truck to keep the dust down at the truck yards and for compaction at the new truck site.

This was everyday there wasn’t school and not a weekend.

last summer of high school I was 18 and worked for a buddies dad building concrete block houses. Blocks, rebar, forming, pouring the concrete.

did that after high school for a bit too.

went to my mothers home land Australia. Mostly didn’t work but got a gig for a couple months installing glass fencing around pools. Helped out at a few hostels too.

Back home worked driving water trucks again. Also fixing them and flat tires. Loading and driving dump trucks, setting grade and as boostindoubles put it “keeping the wheels on the bus”.

then I worked framing houses.
Then I was a handyman and sold metal art I made. I also scrapped and sold junk and antiques. Parted out cars.

then my dad and his sister split the business and I went back to working at the junkyards but in the office.

we sold the truck yards then the junkyards. Bought more buildings and now I don’t do much but manage that.

jonKranked · Oct 17, 2023

all employment is slavery.

SkaredShtles · Oct 17, 2023

junkyard said:
<snip>

went to my mothers home land Australia.

Is it possible that you and @HardtailHack are perhaps related?

SkaredShtles · Oct 17, 2023

jonKranked said:
all employment is slavery.

Poignant, @johnbryanpeters.

junkyard · Oct 17, 2023

SkaredShtles said:
Is it possible that you and @HardtailHack are perhaps related?

Of course is possible, just unlikely.

Nick · Oct 17, 2023

paper route, snow shoveling for the babushkas in the old country
retail, neighborhood video store
(multiple stints in bike shops overlapping the next 3-4 jobs)
machinist apprentice
cabinet maker
gearbox repair (steel mills)
buyer, IT
sales guy, IT
business owner
industrial, first PM job
PM, energy
supervisor, energy
leadership, energy

chuffer · Oct 17, 2023

Huh. Interesting answers. Also interesting is “how” some folks answer.

Had a paper route and did some farm work as a kid. Was a ymca camp counselor in high school for a year or two.

Started out “real work” in big corporate finance in the 90s via undergrad Internships in Asia Pacific mostly. There may have been some DoD $$$ thrown in at some point…

In the late 90s I moved to academia and spent a few years in Europe and N America trying to become a Professor. Mostly rode my bike a lot, drank a lot and enjoyed myself.

In the mid 2000s I gave up on academia and got involved in high-end metrology equipment. All aspects - design, manufacturing, administration, sales, marketing, service, etc. and, finally, leadership.

Wound up in Oregon somehow and in 2013 the wife and I made a few hundred cases of wine. Since then I’ve been ramping up the wine business and (trying my best to) wind down the metrology work.

binary visions · Oct 17, 2023

Split a paper route with a friend when I was 14 - he didn't really care about the money and two of us got it done faster which gave us more time to goof off.

Series of blue collar jobs through the end of high school and a little afterwards: worked at a greenhouse, then clearing trees under power lines, did some general contracting work (mainly roofing).

Went to work for an internet service provider as my first IT job. Boss was an alcoholic (literally drank a 12 pack during every work day) and never seemed to like me; wrote me up for something I suspect was made up, because I was then fired a month later for something that was provably false. Guy was subsequently arrested for trafficking steroids, and then went on the run for failing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in employment taxes. Asshole.

Needed money, so I got a temp job as a filing clerk and then wormed my way into computer system validation at a medical device company. Got promoted until my boss told me I couldn't get any more promotions without a degree.

Had a few part time jobs while getting my degree - mostly a bankruptcy trustee clerk, and then an IT job at a manged service provider.

Graduated and took the first temp job I could find in the new city where Jenn and I moved, so she could pursue graduate school. That temp job blossomed into the rest of my career: I've worked in tech support, then hardware engineering, then network engineering, then security.

HardtailHack · Oct 17, 2023

SkaredShtles said:
Is it possible that you and @HardtailHack are perhaps related?

Nah, I'm sadly from NZ blood.

SkaredShtles · Oct 17, 2023

HardtailHack said:
Nah, I'm sadly from NZ blood.

I mean... that's pretty much the same, innit? :homer:

Fool · Oct 17, 2023

Killed a man when I was 8 for a wheel of parmesan, it kept my family of 16 fed for a month
Kidnapped at 9, hooked on opium and forced to work in an illicit shirt factory, changing out bobbins with my tiny child hands until i lost 2 fingers, and was drown for it
Found work in a brothel, changing sheets and dumping OD'd prostitutes and johns in the river
Rose to fame as a bare knuckle boxer until an eye popped out when I got hit with a shelighlegh during a melee
At 16 went to sea as a whaler, lost a leg
Wildcat coal miner until 22 when the black lung took me
Studied the Dark Arts, went underground to vanquish indescribable evils for coin, died again
Came to NYC, became the moneyman behind the enormous real estate growth over the past 100 years
Now I do IT / technology stuff for media, sort of, it's kinda hard to explain

SkaredShtles · Oct 17, 2023

Fool said:
Killed a man when I was 8 for a wheel of parmesan, it kept my family of 16 fed for a month
Kidnapped at 9, hooked on opium and forced to work in an illicit shirt factory, changing out bobbins with my tiny child hands until i lost 2 fingers, and was drown for it
Found work in a brothel, changing sheets and dumping OD'd prostitutes and johns in the river
Rose to fame as a bare knuckle boxer until an eye popped out when I got hit with a shelighlegh during a melee
At 16 went to sea as a whaler, lost a leg
Wildcat coal miner until 22 when the black lung took me
Studied the Dark Arts, went underground to vanquish indescribable evils for coin, died again
Came to NYC, became the moneyman behind the enormous real estate growth over the past 20 years
Now I do IT / technology stuff for media, sort of, it's kinda hard to explain

You seemed such a normal bloke when I met you... :think:

Fool · Oct 17, 2023

SkaredShtles said:
You seemed such a normal bloke when I met you...

What, that's a pretty fuckin' well-rounded CV, I'd say

Colonel Angus · Oct 17, 2023

Post college:

3 years teaching chemistry and physics at a community college
2 years working odd jobs while getting a masters degree
3 years as an environmental scientist
3 years as Regional Safety Manager
21 years as Senior Industrial Hygienist
4 years as Beryllium Program Manager
2 year and counting, retired but busy as hell
62 years and counting, complete fucking asshole

SkaredShtles · Oct 17, 2023

Colonel Angus said:
Post college:

3 years teaching chemistry and physics at a community college
2 years working odd jobs while getting a masters degree
3 years as an environmental scientist
3 years as Regional Safety Manager
21 years as Senior Industrial Hygienist
4 years as Beryllium Program Manager
2 year and counting, retired but busy as hell
62 years and counting, complete fucking asshole

I had no idea you were so fucking old.

:homer:

Jozz · Oct 17, 2023

High school, Newspapers/babysitter/lawn mowing
College summers, Truss Factory/Water bottling company

Degree in Architecture
worked 5 years for a large contractor, mostly doing custom house plans.
First company, custom house plans
Degree in mechanical drafting, specialized in Tech Pubs
Worked at NovaBus, Spar Aerospace, Bell Helicopter, Wabtec
Second company, freelance work for Bell Helicopter and Wabtec since 2004
Lost Bell as a client because Texas
Lost Wabtec as a client because India
Third company, trailbuilding
Second year of professional trailbuilding
53

kidwoo · Oct 17, 2023

Male prostitute for the National Baptist Convention

1987-present

Good to see so many of you in Kansas City this year!

HardtailHack · Oct 17, 2023

SkaredShtles said:
I mean... that's pretty much the same, innit?

I think they took the prisoners to NZ first, but being Brits they whinged that it was too windy, too cold and too wet so they came here.
Our speech is a bit lazier but are otherwise similar people, NZers seem to be nicer to the native inhabitants, us Aussies are Cuntish humans in that regard.

jstuhlman · Oct 17, 2023

i'll bite

middle and high school (1986-1992)
dishwasher, snow shoveler, store worker, ice cream scooper...

college (1992-1996):
museum assistant, fitness center attendant, paid summer internships at museums, stockperson at banana republic, assistant teacher for summer programs for gifted kids

grad school part 1 (1996-1998)
teaching assistant, research assistant at the art institute of chicago

in between grad school (1998-2000):
curatorial assistant, american art and modern and contemporary art, virginia museum of fine arts; assistant director, second street gallery, charlottesville; waiter, wild greens restaurant

grad school part 2 (2000-2003):
kept on at second street gallery; kept on as waiter; curatorial fellow, university of virginia art museum

2003-2006: curator of american art, norton
museum of art

2006-present, senior curator of american art, the mint museum (with 7 years also overseeing modern and contemporary art from 2012-2019)

2013-2023: stanley creek massacre 5k/10k road race axe trophy woodburner, paid in beer

AngryMetalsmith · Oct 17, 2023

I think my first job was in a wood-shop that only lasted two weeks and I'm not sure if I was even paid.

From High School through art school and after I mostly worked in Restaurants with the exception of a summer as a bag boy in a grocery store. Been a busboy, dishwasher, bar-back, pizza cook, back line cook, front line cook, prep cook and short order cook.

After that I worked in a dental lab building bridges and crowns and then a bike shop as a mechanic.

In 1995, after four plus years of practice, I decided to go pro with the jewelry thing. Still at it.

Have had a few part time jobs since '95 including, bouncer, professional reader, and personal chef.

28 years of slinging rings and still counting.

jdcamb · Oct 17, 2023

Fool said:
Killed a man when I was 8 for a wheel of parmesan, it kept my family of 16 fed for a month
Kidnapped at 9, hooked on opium and forced to work in an illicit shirt factory, changing out bobbins with my tiny child hands until i lost 2 fingers, and was drown for it
Found work in a brothel, changing sheets and dumping OD'd prostitutes and johns in the river
Rose to fame as a bare knuckle boxer until an eye popped out when I got hit with a shelighlegh during a melee
At 16 went to sea as a whaler, lost a leg
Wildcat coal miner until 22 when the black lung took me
Studied the Dark Arts, went underground to vanquish indescribable evils for coin, died again
Came to NYC, became the moneyman behind the enormous real estate growth over the past 100 years
Now I do IT / technology stuff for media, sort of, it's kinda hard to explain

Stange parallels between yours and mine. I kept my leg somehow. I practice riding wheelies now. I suppose you can actually ride one. I am hopeful atleast.

Westy · Oct 18, 2023

-Clerk at a department store, only value to that job as a teenage boy were all the teenage girls that worked there.
-Construction worker: worked for a small contractor, went from roofing houses to running whole projects in 1 summer.
-Animal Shelter: Walked a lot of dogs and had to assist in putting down hundreds of animals, each one stole a bit of my soul

Professional:
-Wrenched on some pretty bad-ass CNC machines in hundreds of factories all over the world
-Designed control systems for some pretty bad-ass CNC machines
-Designed and built vibration test equipment
-Repackaged large volumes of drugs into single use packages (Intravenous Antibiotics)
-System Integrator: designed controls systems to make composite airplane wings, HVAC systems on server farms, french fry factories, saw mills
-Equipment Engineer: Purchase and implement large scale industrial automation projects
-Systems Engineer: Philosophize on academic concepts of how to purchase and implement large scale industrial automation projects

kidwoo · Oct 18, 2023

Westy said:
went from roofing houses to running whole projects in 1 summer.

scrublover · Oct 18, 2023

worked for the family office supply/copies/custom signs/letterheads/stationary (think if kinkos and office depot had a baby) as a kid and through high school.

a few bike shop part time stints here and there, but mostly as a CNA/home health aide while going to school and trying to figure out what to do with myself. knew i wanted nothing to do with retail or food service stuff.

out of nursing school in 97. 2 years on a neuro-surg floor, then have been in various ICUs ever since. did the travel nurse thing a few years here and there. which is how the OR->CO->MA->CO->CT shuffle happened.

Westy · Oct 18, 2023

kidwoo said:
View attachment 202179

Only say it as I learned more real world skills in that summer than in the following 20 years as a corporate slave.

kidwoo · Oct 18, 2023

Westy said:
Only say it as I learned more real world skills in that summer than in the following 20 years as a corporate slave.

bro.....

Westy said:
french fry factories

boostindoubles · Oct 18, 2023

Fool said:
Killed a man when I was 8 for a wheel of parmesan, it kept my family of 16 fed for a month
Kidnapped at 9, hooked on opium and forced to work in an illicit shirt factory, changing out bobbins with my tiny child hands until i lost 2 fingers, and was drown for it
Found work in a brothel, changing sheets and dumping OD'd prostitutes and johns in the river
Rose to fame as a bare knuckle boxer until an eye popped out when I got hit with a shelighlegh during a melee
At 16 went to sea as a whaler, lost a leg
Wildcat coal miner until 22 when the black lung took me
Studied the Dark Arts, went underground to vanquish indescribable evils for coin, died again
Came to NYC, became the moneyman behind the enormous real estate growth over the past 100 years
Now I do IT / technology stuff for media, sort of, it's kinda hard to explain

Sounds like a Shel Silverstein story.

jdcamb · Oct 18, 2023

boostindoubles said:
Sounds like a Shel Silverstein story.

Clearly you do not have access to wheels of parmesan. If properly aged his story stands up.

boostindoubles · Oct 18, 2023

jdcamb said:
Clearly you do not have access to wheels of parmesan. If properly aged his story stands up.

my parmesan shakes out of a can, I know not of this glory being spoken of.

What's your work history?

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