Something Creative

The last couple days while sitting at my desk I started thinking about all the jobs I’ve had.  There have been many across a wide range of fields.  From the time I was a teenager I’ve had a job in some way.  My first jobs were babysitting jobs naturally.  I was good at it (still am) and had a regular group of people who called on me often for my services.  During the summers I would often do a full-time nanny gig for a couple.

During high school I also worked part-time at the local grocery store, did home health care for a severely disabled girl at night so her parents could go to the casino, worked as a waitress in a cafe’ (mostly elderly people who wouldn’t tip more than a dollar….except my grandma–she was always good for a fiver or more even for coffee).

When I went to college I didn’t work during my first year.  I did secure a nanny job for 2 little girls that summer after freshman year though (it was an okay job but I lived in the ‘hood…drive-bys etc night & day.  Told my parents it wasn’t so bad because I didn’t want them to worry.  Small town farm girl comes to the big city).  I was a nanny for two other families in the course of my college career.  Of course I went to a private college so I had several other jobs as well.  I worked as a janitor cleaning the athletic building (the men’s soccer & football teams took great delight in creating disasters for me to clean up), I worked in admissions calling high school students who were interested in learning more about the college.

Then too there was the summer after my sophomore year…I worked as a line worker in a meat packing plant. That was an interesting if disgusting job…(No we didn’t slaughter the animals.  They came to us looking like proper food.) I mostly worked on packaging frozen hamburger patties on the evening shift (4-11:30 or so).  Mind-numbing work if you can get it.

Of course no mention of my job history would be complete without some mention of the many offices where I’ve worked.  I’ve been a temp in more places than I can remember.  In fact I have even worked myself out of a job by being too efficient & meticulous. (Only I could do this…my OCD & upbringing force me to work hard at whatever job I am given).

My first job out of college was working for a New Age/Health publishing company.  There is was introduced to Tai Chi, Qi Gong and many other things.  I quit there though when I discovered the owner (my boss) was having an affair & wanted me to lie for him.

After that I worked for a computer training company that taught classes for IT certification in Cisco CCNA, CCIE, Linux, routing/switching and much more. I learned a lot there…of course I remember none of it now since I didn’t use the knowledge.  I did get introduced to some interesting people because of that job…and it led to my next office job.

I did just under a year at an online promotional items company.  I was the only employee & my job was to enter product information into the website database.  It wasn’t terribly exciting but I could show up in jeans, sweatshirt & baseball cap if I so chose.  And I chose to do that a lot!  Of course being a small business in a booming online world we didn’t last a year.  Soon it was on to a totally different office (one that required dress clothes) and a different field to study & embrace.

Working for a company that designs & sells eyeglass frames was a dream come true to this nerdy girl with the coke-bottle lenses.  Finally I got to learn about something I’ve had to wear most of my life (I had glasses at 5, bifocals in junior high, and back to super thick single-vision lenses now).  Not only did I get to watch new styles of frames emerge but I also got to be pretty good at helping people find the perfect pair of glasses.  One of the best things was all the fun frames I got for myself (free of charge…BOO-YAH!  I certainly miss that perk because I’m in desperate need of new ones right now).

Now I am working in insurance…I find some of the job interesting but mostly it’s just me shuffling papers around a desk & answering phone calls in a quiet, efficient manner (yes I said quiet. In fact people seem to love my phone voice). I know my job & do it by rote.  I get the feeling that something bigger is in store for me in the future though…another job, possibly another office.  I’m curious where I’ll end up next.