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What careers/jobs have you had UM members


spartan max2

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2 hours ago, Wes4747 said:

I'll accept the challenge of remembering all the people I've been up to this point in my life at 33.

13, mowed grass in the summer,

14, started cooking/waiting at a mom/pop restaurant-made asst. Manager before I graduated highschool-also had a shadetree mechanic business on the side.

18 joined the air force open electronics-ended up in space command.

22, decided the air force wasn't my scene-left and started selling cars- learned a lot about people-

23, was offered a restaurant management position from a fellow I sold a car to, took it.

25, promoted to district manager and finally hit 6 figures.

29, stupidly quit and opened my own carpentry business-no insurance-had a skillsaw go through my hand, no can work-no pay, hit bottom. Rock bottom.

30-Healed up, used some cash I had invested that finally matured to put a down payment on a restaurant franchise. Turned out to be a shady deal, got half my cash back and walked away at almost 32.

33 Friend hires me at a machine shop, loved it,  but my kids need more than I could afford.

33 became general manager at a corporate restaurant chain with fast track promotion.

I did it!!

Wes you really need to fill in the blanks between 25 and 29. There's a leap in logic between making 6 figures at a restaurant at 25 to walking away to be a self employed carpenter at 29.

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2 minutes ago, F3SS said:

Wes you really need to fill in the blanks between 25 and 29. There's a leap in logic between making 6 figures at a restaurant at 25 to walking away to be a self employed carpenter at 29.

Well, from 25-29 i was doing great-had 5 restaurants under my command and ready to take over the region. Then, my now x-wife told me I could lose the job or her and the kids, too many hours she says.

I always had a love for carpentry, I thought about it for a week and turned in my notice at almost  29. Figured I had enough saved up to last while I built up my business.

I was doing remodels, add ons, repairs, contracted out cement and shingle work, personally installed metal roofs, off every Sunday and some Saturdays. I was doing great for about six months, was beginning to put money back in the bank.

About a year in, a shortcut on a porch add on- and my carelessness- put a skill saw through my right hand, thankfully it didn't cut it all the way off. Three still plates under a wicked scar. The job is never the problem, unless you're a stripper... Or prostitute.. Or unemployed lol

Live and learn

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  • 2 weeks later...

lets see... i started out delivering newspapers at age 10 (two routes) did that till i was 16 along with babysitting and working at a local auction house

at 16 i went to work at mcdonalds was promoted to manager... worked there till i was 21

DId rural route newspaper delivery (2 routes) for about a year and a half... was my favorite job ever

decided that i needed to go to college so i took my time and eventually graduated with a teaching degree in middle school math and science

did subsitute teaching for a few years but it didnt pay the bills.....and teaching jobs were and still are few and far between in my area

did some temp jobs for minimum wage. sucked but at least it was steady income that i could rely on and budget around

my mother invited me to put in an application at her place of work... i did and got hired on....after 6 months my teaching degree allowed me to get promoted up the ranks to a manager there...i now I work for the State of Ohio under the  Department of Developmental Disabilities. I have 14 people with mental and physical disabilities under my care... there is ALOT involved in my position...far too much to delve into here.  at times can be very stressful, but i love my job and the people under my care always brighten my day.

 

Edited by Overdueleaf
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And Leafy brightens my days hearing all about how she brightens her clients days :-) 

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When I was a kid I did odd jobs to get money. I mowed grass, worked at the school cafeteria, made crafts, ceramics and paintings, restored antiques to sell at auctions, raised fish and sold them to pet shops or at auctions in decorated fish bowls. Reluctantly, did taxidermy for a while but it was profitable. I graduated early so I took a few years to explore life with musicians, I could sing and compose but was a losy with musical instruments. I made pretty good money modelling. I started college with scholarships so I decided to do something more secure than trying to live life as an artist so I wanted to study medicine. 

I worked part time as a CNA while I was studying nursing and to be an x-ray technician. I didn't like seeing cancer patients die or what nurses went through for crappy pay to what I could make without a job! 

I studied business management, computer tech, law, political science, marketing, logistics, economics, accounting and finance while working at a bank. I graduated in business management and finance.  

I worked as teller and personal banker at first and it was fun but also a crappy pay but had good benefits and retirement plans. I went to data processing and compliance operations. I loved it, I was the operations lead for security and data operations. I was making good money too. 

Bank got bought out, I didn't want to move since I just built my dream house, so I took a lesser job being a personal community banker and lending person.  I was promoted to various management positions and was a  regional marketing assistant. I got to travel more  and even was using my art in marketing. I was with a large blue chip corporate bank now. Very different culture than a local bank or holding company. It was boiler room sales goals and people were just numbers. If you didn't meet goals or was older they fired you. I moved around in different positions to last that kept me from the fake sales end of things. I was a whistleblower to regulators because I saw the corruption from many different positions.  I made lots of money and killings on stock in my IRA, personal portfolios, 401 k and stock options. I didnt worry if I got fired since I had enough money all my life as an adult, I wanted to change things that were wrong. Later I became a regional intern and manager. I saw how they still had several computer systems to monkey sales results to shareholders. CEOs took credit of all sales even when they were fraudulent but on employee levels they were measured by retention or profitability. They would have sales removed at employee commission but the other systems would retain them for corporate results. Close out old account number and give a new one. Executive level as were reported as new but employees got no credit for a change they had to get new accounts with lots of funding. 

During the too big to fail events we merged again to another new  "ethical" bank culture. I was a branch/ office manager again then I declined a promotion to become a personal and business banker again doing new accounts and lending. I saw this blue chip company worked the same as all others like Wells Fargo today. I knew I cut my own throat not to play their games because they all worked the same way in the same cycles of hire and fire but executives and CEOs made millions or even billions and cross planning with the other banks to give false numbers on stock reports and only the corporations paid fines not the planners at the top. I retired early and I lost all my health and life insurance.

I'm politically active to this day trying to get laws to change to go back on the guys who really planned to ruin our economy in 2008 for their own huge profits. Go Elizabeth Warren! Large complex crimes need  to have no time limitations of law just like murder so federal investigators have enough time to persecute them and recover the money that they tax sheltered from the schemes.

My jobs and career, enabled me to travel and know many different kinds of people from all walks of life for which I'm grateful. Wall Street banking gave me a mission to change things there and in other corporate industries that do the same to their low level employees to achieve bottom lines. 

I'm just taking time off now and would like to do a community service type of job in my later years and some how work art into it. I probably would have been more secure than now if I just stayed along with the art and music world. 

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21 hours ago, Overdueleaf said:

lets see... i started out delivering newspapers at age 10 (two routes) did that till i was 16 along with babysitting and working at a local auction house

at 16 i went to work at mcdonalds was promoted to manager... worked there till i was 21

DId rural route newspaper delivery (2 routes) for about a year and a half... was my favorite job ever

decided that i needed to go to college so i took my time and eventually graduated with a teaching degree in middle school math and science

did subsitute teaching for a few years but it didnt pay the bills.....and teaching jobs were and still are few and far between in my area

did some temp jobs for minimum wage. sucked but at least it was steady income that i could rely on and budget around

my mother invited me to put in an application at her place of work... i did and got hired on....after 6 months my teaching degree allowed me to get promoted up the ranks to a manager there...i now I work for the State of Ohio under the  Department of Developmental Disabilities. I have 14 people with mental and physical disabilities under my care... there is ALOT involved in my position...far too much to delve into here.  at times can be very stressful, but i love my job and the people under my care always brighten my day.

 

I know a bit about what you guys have to do in that department.

I appreciate the work you do 

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On 9/2/2016 at 3:02 AM, seaturtlehorsesnake said:

i've been a dishwasher, a delivery driver, a busser, a waitress, a prep cook, a hostess, a line cook... if it's in a restaurant, i've probably done it. i've also been a janitor and a full-time babysitter. but mainly i've been a dishwasher. i've held so many dishwashing jobs that i've lost count. well, it's a job that keeps you active and busy and that you can stop caring about the moment you leave.

but what that means in the long term is that i'm 30 and have no savings and my knees and back are starting to give me problems.

I like  that you can leave that dishwasher job at work, that is a blessing in itself. 

No savings would have scared the crap out of me at your age. Look at the bright side you don't owe college debt for a degree where you end up washing dishes any way! 

I was lucky I only used scholarships for school and owed nothing. My grandmother told me to save half my pay while living at home which I did until I was 20. I always paid myself first just like any other bill even if it was only a small portion like  $2.00,, after I didn't live at home.  I was lucky to listened to her, even a little adds up and you pretend you don't have it until a real emergency comes up. Keep another store of cash and coins at home  for monthly stuff that comes up happens. You can cut out one cup of coffee or like I did I made my own tea instead of bottled, whatever I saved by doing it, I put in the cash can. If someione bought me dinner, I would put the price I would have paid in the can or bank. I learned how my grandmother kept accumulating wealth even when on a small pension. She lived through the depression and taught us well, if only all her children and  grandchildren listened to her on how to do it. No jobs or careers are secure anymore. You can be secure or rich at any given point in time and lose it all to a crisis. 

By seeing how much we have all learned about  life jobs and careers on the forum. I realize that maybe we start another thread to help others with what we all learned from the roads of hard knox! We really have a wealth of expertise with all our members on UM.

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On 8/14/2016 at 5:44 PM, Ryu said:

Heh, so many special people.

Worked for about two years at a place that manufactured fuses for medical devices (or something) then went to college, got a degree in computer graphics but there were no entry jobs (the so-called 'entry' jobs wanted two years experience. Go figure)

So I worked at a smattering of part time jobs here and there and have been working as a "heath aide" for a neighbor for the past six years. So basically I had no "career" just jobs (which is basically all a career is). That's it.

It's sad that so many get degrees in a field they can't use after graduation. The only way I know is freelance for experience or get a job with company in lesser job in the department then bid on it. Entry jobs are usually for the current employees to move up, or donating your time in an apprenticeship for the experience, it's weird and a rippoff for sure.

We need more unions and apprenticeships like the old days! People got paid while working their way up in on the job experience. 

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There seems to be a prevailing mindset in society that everyone is supposed to want to be a professional in some capacity or another; that we are all supposed to just CRAVE a job that is ten to fifteen hours long with tons of stress heaped on us leaving us little to no time for our actual lives.

Those who do not have these "cravings" are looked down on as lazy and/or unambitious and/or lacking in intellect.

I guess I happen to be one of those people, I do not want to be a professional or have at least three degrees under my name and I certainly do not want my life to be taken over by a job. I simply viewed a job as something I must do in order to pay for the rapidly rising costs of existing. The idea that we have to spend the better part of our day and lives working just so we might have some meager retirement just fails to elicit that tingly feel that one might get when you shove a wad of stinging nettles in your undies; it's exciting at first but quickly loses its appeal.

I often thought it odd how society tries to make us believe that our identity and meaning must absolutely come from our job, that our whole reason for being is to be a workhorse and if you don't want that then you are just no good at all. You are looked at as a lazy person who just doesn't want to "be" anything.  There is that idea that anyone who isn't a professional is somehow a third-class person. So be it. I am a useless third-class person. I don't find identity or meaning in my work, I recognize the service I provide but I do not see it as my "identity" nor do I find fulfillment in it. It is a job, I happen to be there to do it so..I do it.

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50 minutes ago, Ryu said:

There seems to be a prevailing mindset in society that everyone is supposed to want to be a professional in some capacity or another; that we are all supposed to just CRAVE a job that is ten to fifteen hours long with tons of stress heaped on us leaving us little to no time for our actual lives.

Those who do not have these "cravings" are looked down on as lazy and/or unambitious and/or lacking in intellect.

I guess I happen to be one of those people, I do not want to be a professional or have at least three degrees under my name and I certainly do not want my life to be taken over by a job. I simply viewed a job as something I must do in order to pay for the rapidly rising costs of existing. The idea that we have to spend the better part of our day and lives working just so we might have some meager retirement just fails to elicit that tingly feel that one might get when you shove a wad of stinging nettles in your undies; it's exciting at first but quickly loses its appeal.

I often thought it odd how society tries to make us believe that our identity and meaning must absolutely come from our job, that our whole reason for being is to be a workhorse and if you don't want that then you are just no good at all. You are looked at as a lazy person who just doesn't want to "be" anything.  There is that idea that anyone who isn't a professional is somehow a third-class person. So be it. I am a useless third-class person. I don't find identity or meaning in my work, I recognize the service I provide but I do not see it as my "identity" nor do I find fulfillment in it. It is a job, I happen to be there to do it so..I do it.

Boy you summed it up in a nutshell for it is. Most  people learn more too late in life after burn out that they missed out on the important things in life in many ways. I just feel sorry for the students who really want a career in something because they really enjoy what they studied.

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Just now, White Unicorn said:

Boy you summed it up in a nutshell for it is. Most  people learn more too late in life after burn out that they missed out on the important things in life in many ways. I just feel sorry for the students who really want a career in something because they really enjoy what they studied.

What I feel bad for is these students spending all that money and time for a degree then not finding anything in the field they studied for. I have come across people who had advanced degrees in music, for example, and ended up working in customer service in hardware stores because they couldn't find anything related to their degrees.

I find that many colleges will advertise certain courses simply because they need to fill up empty classrooms so they make adverts claiming that there is this desperate demand for such and such then the student finds that all their work was for nothing.

BUT..fear not! says the industry, all you have to do is keep going back to college to get more training. All at your own expense of course which means taking on more and more student debt which will never be paid off.

For myself, it is not a case of being burned out but rather just jaded and perhaps disenchanted, as it were, that our main concern in life is to always be worrying about a job and whether or not one will even have a job by the end of the day.

I am glad for those who like their work, don't misunderstand and I am glad for those who liked their courses and look forward to their careers; I just hope the new graduates from college will find a job before their position gets exported.

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On 9/14/2016 at 4:49 PM, Wes4747 said:

stupidly quit and opened my own carpentry business-no insurance-had a skillsaw go through my hand, no can work-no pay, hit bottom. Rock bottom.

evil-dead-ash-with-chainsaw-arm.jpg

Never heard of a chainsaw arm? To be serious, that suck.

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14 hours ago, Ryu said:

What I feel bad for is these students spending all that money and time for a degree then not finding anything in the field they studied for. I have come across people who had advanced degrees in music, for example, and ended up working in customer service in hardware stores because they couldn't find anything related to their degrees.

I find that many colleges will advertise certain courses simply because they need to fill up empty classrooms so they make adverts claiming that there is this desperate demand for such and such then the student finds that all their work was for nothing.

BUT..fear not! says the industry, all you have to do is keep going back to college to get more training. All at your own expense of course which means taking on more and more student debt which will never be paid off.

For myself, it is not a case of being burned out but rather just jaded and perhaps disenchanted, as it were, that our main concern in life is to always be worrying about a job and whether or not one will even have a job by the end of the day.

I am glad for those who like their work, don't misunderstand and I am glad for those who liked their courses and look forward to their careers; I just hope the new graduates from college will find a job before their position gets exported.

The college and even the military recruiters are still after me now to obtain other degrees,  only the military promises a paycheck in health or IT fields. But  really,  I'm to old now for this now, but they just keep calling :(

Fear not the big corporations that end jobs in your area will also let you bid on positions in other states or countries too. They will be able to say in press releases how much they expanded and created new jobs and new clients but not mention the thousands of displaced workers of original state. Myself, I was even offered a lesser position earning more salary in the six figures a year to work out of country. oo so enticing, I could be a banker at a new branch for military personnel in Iraq during the Bush administration era! LOL. 

College is not a waste to me because I liked learning about things I liked or needed to keep a job in my career of 36 years. I only took what I could get on scholarship funding from employer or colleges though. I loved my college and worked job fairs for my employer. I enjoyed the kids that thought banking was boring. It contains opportunity in many different fields and you end up networking with many different businesses and types of people in the community. Life is never boring believe me and if you don't like it you can switch to other positions but keep your time with same company or take outside job offers with your new experience. 

My spouse used military educational funding for several degrees.  Criminology, history, paleontology, and archaeology. But you need a Doctorate to get a good job with museums etc. If you go on as a team member and make a find on your own the head of the team with the Doctorate gets all the credit on finds.  You are Doctor so and so's team of the dig but discovering team members don't get recognized by name. 

Oh well,  as one wise old lady told me if you get an education they never can take away from you what you learned even if you don't use it as a career. You will have an opportunity to use it the rest of your life in unexpected ways. I found that especially true in the studies that I did but didn't desire to obtain a degree, only self enrichment not necessarily as  a goal to for profit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 10 months later...

I have worked for Super8 cleaning rooms,Six Flags Great Escape as a Game Attendant,Mcdonalds as a Grill person,and Dollar General as a Sales Associate.Dollar General was my least favorite job.

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My first job was while at school and was Saturdays at Woolworths (UK version).  Then started an apprenticeship in the drawing room of Phillips the Map makers, working on a light table with Indian ink and old fashioned metal nibbed pens.  Was good at art at school.  Found that not to my taste and was a long commute so the better money and high life in banking beckoned.  Didn't much care for that either so was quite pleased when could stop work to bring up my children.  Went back into General practice as a medical secretary, ending up as a practice manager/business manager, before moving house in my mid 50s and downgrading myself to admin assistant in my new local hospital for a few years.  Then I retired.  Best career move I have ever made!

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I'm currently a grocery store clerk, my 9th job in my adult life (I'm 37 now). I had 8 other short-lived jobs, the longest one before this one (since 2009) was with the Home Depot as garden associate in the 2000s for almost 7 years.

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Honestly, I haven't had many jobs...I got pregnant when I was 17 and I worked in a cafe for a cpl mths..when my first daughter was a lil older I went to work building grain bins. Cpl yrs later I got a job at a factory making Jeep hard tops...then my grandparents got pretty sick so i moved back home to take care of them (which counts as like 3 jobs!)  Now I sell firewood...I know, exciting, right? 

 

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