Day Jobs

[ChildofOldLeech]

For the last 8 or so years I was involved in various forms of childcare (afterschool/summer program supervisor, reading tutor, classroom assistant, paraprofessional), and for the last two months, after submitting literally dozens of applications, I have been working as an assistant librarian.

[Cnev]

Veterinary assistant/pseudo-technician(do all the work, no official degree) for the last 10 years. Love it, but just quit to get my degree wrapped up so I can get the #### out of the states and work with wildlife in some capacity.

[Kevin]

"That sounds interesting and quite possibly gratifying. Did you go to school for this career or achieve it by other means, if you don't mind me asking?"

I don't mind your asking about it. I went to school, including a stint in architecture school at the graduate level. Being interested in historic architecture, I decided to work with it all I could, since when it's gone, it's gone.

I became familiar with U.S. environmental laws, including those pertaining to historic preservation. My business relates to that. It is indeed gratifying, though the salary can be feast or famine.

However, having experienced corporate horrors even worse than those imagined by our dear TL, I hope to stay independent as long as possible.

[Pharpetron]

I've been living on an inheritance for the last few years and have been working on a degree via online university courses, so at this moment I'm a 43 year-old university student and not much else.

[Revenant]

Real estate title insurance underwriter. It pays the bills. Nothing more.

Unemployed at the moment, but seriously contemplating working for my university's retail services to get by.

I want to stay away from the culinary sector as long as possible. It's degrading as ####.

[Frater_Tsalal]

I've been working at a Barnes & Noble bookstore since February 2004, originally as a full-time employee but now part-time for around the last 6 years or so. I HATE it (though the 30% employee discount isn't bad). One of the stories in my last collection kind of spoofed what it's like to work there, though I changed the name of the store.

[Souphead]

Work in the IT department of one of the big US car manufacturers. Specifically work with the big mainframe systems.

[Cnev]

Quote Originally Posted by Nirvana In Karma

Unemployed at the moment, but seriously contemplating working for my university's retail services to get by. I want to stay away from the culinary sector as long as possible. It's degrading as ####.

The closest I ever got to "culinary" work was a short, 3-week stint at Starbucks which made me hate people even more than I already do. I remember one dude coming in, getting a coffee and then yelling at my assistant manager(who was an absolute sweetheart of a lady) that he wanted a refund because it was not served at the exact temperature he requested. I quit a few days after and vowed to never return to that kind of work. Only job I've ever walked away from. Abysmal.

[Asterion]

Worked a lot of odd jobs. Funny that, I didn't think of it until now, but my loony old man caused some issues for me because he had this personal vendetta with the government, so always stood in the way of me getting a social security number -- which was unusual for my age group. (Old millenial.) Before that I ended up catering at civil war re-enactments because it was all off the books. Nowadays I churn out adverts for a weekly auto rag. Pays better and I don't have to lug fifty gallon drums of lemonade to sweaty Yanks/Confederates smoking cigars and pretending to be dead in hundred degree heat. Extra cash from fiction doesn't hurt. But I owe a lot more to keeping in good health and staying away from debt than anything else. My old man was crazy, but in some ways, his deep desire to avoid paper trails -- and thus forms of debt -- was oddly instructive on how to survive when you don't have much money in the first place.