How many jobs have YOU had?

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nossmf
nossmf Posts: 8,993 Member
in Chit-Chat
A coworker hits 30 years on the job tomorrow, the only job he's ever had. Meanwhile, my son is 22 and has had over a dozen different jobs already in his short life. Got me thinking about how many paying jobs I've had.

Mowing lawns
High school cafeteria
Tutor
Camp counsellor
College cafeteria
Fast food delivery
College TA
US Air Force
Satellite engineer

Total: 9

How many different paying jobs have you had?
«1

Replies

  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,983 Member
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    I've been at my current job for 25 years...the only job I've had post-college outside of a few freelance gigs along the way.

    During high school and college, I think I had about 5 different jobs.
  • Hiawassee88
    Hiawassee88 Posts: 35,754 Member
    edited March 2023
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    I started babysitting - 12 years old
    Maintaining seismographs, changing the paper, age 12-14
    Caregiver of a disabled veteran with 2 tiny children at age 14 - summer job
    Sidenote: This job taught me how to cook perfect eggs, he demanded they be just like in the military. He was a very unhappy man, but I tried and cried, every single day. He kept cookies in the freezer. He could hear me open that freezer door, on the daily. At the end of the summer, he docked my pay for every cookie. It really added UP. I combed his hair, did things he could not do. Props to all of the nurses and caregivers out there.
    Entered the workforce at age 15, telecom radio/telephone operator - This is 700 Adam, what's your 10-20.
    Not bragging if it's true, I have a radio voice. Law enforcement dudes used to come into the comm center to check me out, but they I found out I was just a kid. B)
    After college, a real job with benefits
  • Mewpasaurus
    Mewpasaurus Posts: 62 Member
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    Nude Art Model - 4 years and some change
    Hotel Desk Clerk - 2 years
    Mail Clerk/Desk Clerk - 2 years
    Subway "Sandwich Artist" - 8 months
    Illustrator/Commissioned Artist/Crafter - 20+ years

    I wasn't allowed to have a job until I went to college; had no car and things in my town at the time were spaced out way too far to walk to maintain an after-school job. In college, I still had no job, but there was enough nearby to walk to and find employment.
  • Alinouveau2
    Alinouveau2 Posts: 6,192 Member
    edited March 2023
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    A high ole 3 for me.
    Figure skating coach
    Legal assistant
    Realtor (which is about to be my next one)
  • StaciInGa
    StaciInGa Posts: 65 Member
    edited March 2023
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    Oh, let's see...

    Started at a fast food place, then a grocery store, then a casual restaurant, then a different restaurant, then an office job in a leasing office of an apartment complex. Did a stint working in a collection agency office -that did NOT suit me. Moved departments to work on the backend for the corporate side. Back to property management, and then to a management company's corporate office doing accounts payable. Another grocery store job and delivering newspapers in the middle of the night while also working during the day. Some various temp style jobs here & there thrown in. And been with my current employer (desk job, handling all the back office business for a small company) for almost 17 years now. And for 10 years of that also did part time pizza delivery. Some overlap, working 2 jobs at once...
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,365 Member
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    Since completing my professional degrees? just one, 35 years in May. Although I've had a number of different roles within the organization.

    Prior to that I had the usual hodgepodge of teenage jobs:
    Babysitting
    School lab assistant
    Playground supervisor
    Drycleaner's - mainly customer service, also checking garments
    Bar server, bartender, short order cook
    University library shelver and circulation desk clerk
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,592 Member
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    This is kind of interesting.

    I can't tell you in years....

    The requisite babysitting gigs in last year of jr high/beginning of high school

    Took phone orders for a food distributor in high school

    Office assistant in a private jewish day school in high school (1/2 owned by same person I babysat for actually)

    Went off to college and worked during christmas time in a Crown Books

    Left college and did data entry and other administrative stuff in a cpa firm

    That firm broke up into two separate firms while I was out with a fractured ankle and basically did the same thing in firm #2 who got got me in the divorce :)). I think I was there for 10 years or so.

    Admin stuff in a property management firm (that didn't last long)

    But I left because the female partner in the 2nd cpa firm wanted me to come work for her (another 10ish years I think)

    I apparently got too expensive for them and ended up in another cpa firm doing my usual thing
    They slowly made my job obsolete

    ANOTHER cpa firm doing payroll and admin stuff and been here (surprisingly) for 18 years
  • OpheliaCooter
    OpheliaCooter Posts: 1,635 Member
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    Hairstylist
    Pharmacy tech
    Cashier
    Hairstylist again twice
    Personal shopper
    Uh worked at lowes as mst (building and tearing down displays and any manual labor aspects of the store)
    Now I’m at the airport and have worked in two different sections but it’s under the same job title.

    Longest I ever stayed anywhere was like 3 years. Average 1.
  • R3d_butt3rfly_
    R3d_butt3rfly_ Posts: 1,506 Member
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    I've worked at Kmart, Ames, Macy's, Marshall's and as a dispatcher for a trucking company. I haven't worked in about 20 years though because I decided to become a mom and I've been a full time mom since then. Now my youngest is starting school in the fall so I'm looking forward to getting back out there in the world and start working again.
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,310 Member
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    🤔 200

    Since Im doing everyones job currently..😂

    Irl 4.. 2 real jobs..2 part time (younger years)
  • honey_honey_12
    honey_honey_12 Posts: 13,510 Member
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    I had 4 or 5 jobs as a teenager that always lasted about a week.
    Pizza Hut, Taco Bueno, etc.
    As an adult, 2.
    11yrs as a draftsman for a geologist.
    11yrs working for my ex’s oil company, AP, AR and whatever else he asked me to accomplish.
  • amorfati601070
    amorfati601070 Posts: 2,862 Member
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    Grocery Store Clerk
    Gas Station Attendant
    Bicycle Mechanic
    Bicycle Salesperson
    Cleaner
    Orderly
    Nursing Assistant
    Bicycle Courier
    EMT/Paramedic
    Patient Transport Officer
    Electrician Trade Assistant


    Probably some others... somehow managed to avoid fast food.
  • Cat0703a
    Cat0703a Posts: 17,421 Member
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    Interesting question:

    ~27 years working
    Teen years: Baby sitting and grocery store check out clerk
    Late teens / adult years:
    Hotels - 20+ years (3 hotels but ~12 roles)
    Universities - 3+ years (2 universities and 3 roles)

    I’m fairly sure I’m in my forever workplace now but likely will have 1-2 more roles before I one day retire.

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    When I was 10 I was living in a small town in Nebraska and had a small paper route that consisted largely of the assisted living facility that my dad was the administrator of and a handful of SFH on one street. I also mowed lawns in the summer.

    When I was 15 I was living in New Mexico and had a part time job at a roller skating rink as a DJ and floor referee. When I was 16 I started working at a movie theater, which was my favorite teen job. I graduated high school at 18 and joined the USMC.

    After I was discharged I bounced around as a security guard, worked at a pizza joint, waited tables and then started working at a local liquor retailer where I worked for about 6 years until I graduated university. It was a lot of fun as it was very near my university campus and the football and basketball stadiums so the crowd was largely college students and the people working there were mostly college students. It was also nice to be able to be without a vehicle and just walk or ride my bike everywhere. For a few summers I also did landscape construction work full time during the week and part time at the liquor store.

    For my actual post college career I've only been in two places. I started with a CPA firm after I graduated and was a staff associate then promoted to senior associate for which I performed those duties for three years. I gave me a ton of experience, but the work-life balance in an accounting firm is pretty non-existent as everything is about billable hours, but I was there for almost 6 years.

    I started looking for other opportunities when my wife became pregnant with our first child because the whole 60-80 hours per week and 25 weeks of travel weren't going to work for her nor myself. I landed in the NM Judiciary and was hired as the Court Financial Administrator/CFO for my district. I recently applied and interviewed for our open Deputy Director position for which I'm hoping to hear something either way shortly.

    All in all, 12 or 13 different jobs.

  • honey_honey_12
    honey_honey_12 Posts: 13,510 Member
    edited March 2023
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    honey_honey_12 wrote: »
    I had 4 or 5 jobs as a teenager that always lasted about a week.
    Pizza Hut, Taco Bueno, etc.
    As an adult, 2.
    11yrs as a draftsman for a geologist.
    11yrs working for my ex’s oil company, AP, AR and whatever else he asked me to accomplish.

    I’d like to add that I would have worked longer as a draftsman for the geologist.
    It was awesome money, I worked from home the whole time my son was little, great job, but computers stole it from me.
    Everything I did by hand was replaced with the first drafting programs and a color printer.



  • J_NY_Z
    J_NY_Z Posts: 2,537 Member
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    Interesting thread. I too work in a place where there are "lifers", 25+ years, only job.
  • Thewonderofitall
    Thewonderofitall Posts: 97 Member
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    Never worked in High School. After graduating:

    Factory Worker - 5 years (Relocated)

    Furniture Manufacturer-Draftsman - 7 Months (Relocated)

    Electrical Component Manufacturer-Draftsman - 6 Months (Company downsized)

    Wastewater Treatment Equipment Manufacturer-Draftsman/Designer/Engineering Manager - 11 years (Company was Sold)

    Aircraft Galley Equipment Manufacturer-Designer - 3 years (Company was sold)

    Greenhouse Manufacturer-Designer - 16 years (Company was sold)

    PVC Railing Manufacturer-Sales/Designer - 10 years and counting....
  • angf0679
    angf0679 Posts: 1,120 Member
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    From starting after college (not counting what I did in my teen years or in college)

    First grade teacher - 3 years
    Call Centers (two different locations) 6 years
    Different Retail locations (part time while working full time at the call center) - 5 years
    Paralegal - going on 11 1/2 years and counting
  • nsk1951
    nsk1951 Posts: 1,295 Member
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    I have a niece who started a job right after 'junior college' with an Associate Degree. She's been with the same company for the past 39 years, actually even in the same department as where she started. Me, I've been retired for the past 13 years, but during my 48 working years, I had many jobs in 13 different 'fields' ... The longest I worked for any employer was 25 years. The shortest? 3 months.

  • ilfaith
    ilfaith Posts: 16,770 Member
    edited March 2023
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    High School & College jobs
    1. Babysitter
    2. Camp Counselor
    3. Restaurant Hostess
    4. Retail (clothing)
    5. Various office temp jobs (switchboard operator, receptionist, data entry)

    “Career” jobs
    6. Staff Writer/Advertising Coordinator (Real Estate magazine)
    7. Promotions Coordinator (trade magazine publisher)
    8. Creative Services Coordinator/Assistant to Publisher (bridal magazine)
    9. Marketing Coordinator (non-profit scientific organization)
    10. Marketing Communications Manager/Trade Show Manager (trade magazine publisher)

    Part-time jobs while mostly being a SAHM
    11. Retail (gift shop)
    12. Marketing consultant
    13. Freelance writer/editor
    14. Retail (clothing)

    Currently I work part time as a stylist at Banana Republic. On a good month, my paycheck exceeds my BR credit card bill.

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