Jobs you had before you found your place in the world

[dan_pdx]

Quality thread! Lots of fascinating life stories, and here I'd just been assuming that everyone here started out as a dental hygienist and then went to med/dental school.

[liv2ski]

I had a bunch of part time jobs in middle and high school. First year of college, mom got promoted again, we had to move again and I said fuck it, moved out and started a career as Al Bundy. Meet my Peg about 3 years later, got married 4 years after that and decided I needed a real job where there was income and freedom of time potential. I came across the mortgage industry and the rest is history. Likely in my last year now unless business hangs in there for a bit of 2021. Looking forward to a lot of surfing, hopefully skiing and then traveling again someday.

[hutash]

Good thread, should help gets us thru to real snow (I see Denver just got some.

My only shit job was my first job as a dishwasher, bus boy and general restaurant schelp. After that I worked in various jobs in sciences, research, governments, vet hospitals until graduating vet school and my first real job. I held the same job from graduation until retirement. I did a summer on a fire crew while in vet school, so that was my only other none sciency sort of job.

So yeah, I was on the dental hygienist/dentist tract so to speak.

[Diamond Joe]

My place in the world doesn’t exist. All there is for me is a Sisyphean nightmare struggling to roll the giant frozen turd of my life up the lowest levels of maslow’s pyramid of needs for a few months before it melts and slips away and rolls over my nutsack again for the 80th time.

IAS, man, lol.. You have a gift. If you wrote a book, I would buy it in a second.

My jobs:
Gas Station Attendant (at a self-service station that sold ONLY gas LOL started my working life on a strong footing of complete laziness)
Cemetery & Parks worker
Ski Instructor
Outside Sales
Bartender/Bar Manager
Ski Patroller

[smartyiak]

After my stint in meat-packing industry, I joined the Marines, which led to my favoritist job: I was qualified as a Combat Swim Instructor. So I had to administer swim qual to all Marines on base....but they also needed a “head lifeguard.” For two summers, I was assigned, from mid-May to after Labor Day, to the base pool. I didn’t not enjoi it.

My MOS was NBCD, so in the summers, I got to drown Marines and the rest of the year choke them with CS...I had some great jobs! (I was also a machine gunner, so I got to take the M-60s, SAW, and .50 calls out to the range a shoot. I’m not a guns guy...but that was pretty fun!)


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[Brownski]

Stocker at a Fay’s Drugs (Out of business) 6 months
McDonalds cook 2-3 years
McDonalds overnight maintenance man 1 summer
Subway sandwich maker off and on for maybe 4 years
Movie Theater Usher 1 year
Security Guard off and on for maybe 2 years (maybe my least favorite)
HORSE WRANGLER in ALASKA (my favorite) 2 summers
Liftie (2nd favorite) 1 winter
Retail Electronics Sales at a Lechmere (out of business) 3-4 months
Marketing Firm Office drone (can’t remember my actual title) 6-10 months
Snowmaker- :Mountain Operations Dispatch 1 winter
Retail Liquor Store manager 3 years
B2B sales for the last 20 years so I guess that could be said to be my place in the world but it wouldn’t break my heart to move on to something more exciting at some point.

[riser4]

for the last 20 years so I guess that could be said to be my place in the world but it wouldn’t break my heart to move on to something more exciting at some point.

Sage.

[wooley12]

Summer jobs.
Amusement park arcade worker. Too Young for the shooting gallery so, spin paint booth.
Gas only station gas jockey. Learned how to pump 1/4 of a cent short for extra pay at the end of a day.
Sewer Dept. Night shift emergency call responder. Developed a mean game of Ping Pong.
Rail Road sales office gofer. Learned I couldn't stand an office job.

Had a career going selling clothing for rubenesque women. Then Nixon went to China and the $9.99 shirt was born.
After that I sold all kinds of stuff. Anything to keep from having a real job.

[highangle]

My first paying gig was cleaning up the flight room for a FBO. Then I lied about my age and worked at a skateboard park. Then I played musical instruments in a variety of settings. Then I shucked and jived for The Man. Then I decided entrepreneurship was the way forward. Now I have to sell or expand.

[bennymac]

Most of my early jobs were the heavy lifting construction laborer type (cement work etc)

But I was for a time the front desk receptionist in an otherwise all female staffed business in a high rise office tower. My unofficial job duties included wearing tight pants and making coffee runs. Easy money.

[papapoopski]

Dishwasher at 14, led to prep cook by 15, by 17 I was running the kitchen.

The waitresses would take me out with them to bars after work. I was 15 when this began. To roll into a bar with 8 hot older women at 15 was heaven. I went with them at every opportunity. One morning I missed my school bus for final exams because I was hung over. I took my dads road bike and pedaled 12 miles through the rain to get to the exam. I puked on myself on the way but I passed.

Lost my virginity in the restaurant parking lot with one of the hot older waitresses while listening to slayer in my car. By older waitress I mean like 27.

The kitchen always had pitchers of beer, hunting rifles and ammo on the kitchen counters, dead game animals hanging somewhere, the bosses baby crawling around and many, many black labs. The place was wild but the food was really fucking good. They let me cook whatever I wanted. I worked my ass off for them. Those were great years. And holy fuck there are soooo many stories to tell. Tractor jousting with potato guns at 3am with the crazy dairy farmer down the road, hanging out with a pig in a hot tub and cooking said pig a few weeks later, driving a deuce and a half around with me grilling in the back of it on the highway and on and on

After high school the owners helped me pay my way through cooking school. Worked for them all through cooking school and stayed with them for a year after graduating to pay off my debt to them.
moved to Hilton Head to cook

moved to aspen to cook

moved to nyc to cook

moved north of nyc, bought a place to cook at

still cooking at that same place, was managing a few others as well until covid

My current place is the place that I began at when i was 14. Bought it from the owners that I worked for.

I am the only one here at the moment. I make all the food and cook whatever I want, making everything from scratch. I set up a fermentation room where I experiment with god knows what at times - charcuterie, LAB fermentation, koji, , beer etc. I forage in the woods on my property and the surrounding farmland. I am working on the building solo as well, painting, carpets, fixin shit. This is my happy place. I ended my night last night mopping floors, just like I did when I was 14. The tiles were put down by me in high school. Some of this may sound shitty to some but I find it to be satisfying work. I take pride in every task in this building. I get a few panic attacks at what I am undertaking but fuck it, onward I go.

I'm looking forward to rebuilding after this covid mess. I miss mentoring young chefs. When they come back to talk about what they've been up to, the food discoveries they've had, the insane chefs they've worked for, the Michelin stars they won, that lights me up on the inside. This place has been a springboard for many young chefs. It's been here for over 250 years, over 70 years as a restaurant. I'm only the fourth owner in those 70 years. I'm doing my best to hold the place until the next right person comes along.

[JimmyCarter]

Dishwasher at 14, led to prep cook by 15, by 17 I was running the kitchen.

The waitresses would take me out with them to bars after work. I was 15 when this began. To roll into a bar with 8 hot older women at 15 was heaven. I went with them at every opportunity. One morning I missed my school bus for final exams because I was hung over. I took my dads road bike and pedaled 12 miles through the rain to get to the exam. I puked on myself on the way but I passed.

Lost my virginity in the restaurant parking lot with one of the hot older waitresses while listening to slayer in my car. By older waitress I mean like 27.

The kitchen always had pitchers of beer, hunting rifles and ammo on the kitchen counters, dead game animals hanging somewhere, the bosses baby crawling around and many, many black labs. The place was wild but the food was really fucking good. They let me cook whatever I wanted. I worked my ass off for them. Those were great years. And holy fuck there are soooo many stories to tell. Tractor jousting with potato guns at 3am with the crazy dairy farmer down the road, hanging out with a pig in a hot tub and cooking said pig a few weeks later, driving a deuce and a half around with me grilling in the back of it on the highway and on and on

After high school the owners helped me pay my way through cooking school. Worked for them all through cooking school and stayed with them for a year after graduating to pay off my debt to them.
moved to Hilton Head to cook

moved to aspen to cook

moved to nyc to cook

moved north of nyc, bought a place to cook at

still cooking at that same place, was managing a few others as well until covid

My current place is the place that I began at when i was 14. Bought it from the owners that I worked for.

I am the only one here at the moment. I make all the food and cook whatever I want, making everything from scratch. I set up a fermentation room where I experiment with god knows what at times - charcuterie, LAB fermentation, koji, , beer etc. I forage in the woods on my property and the surrounding farmland. I am working on the building solo as well, painting, carpets, fixin shit. This is my happy place. I ended my night last night mopping floors, just like I did when I was 14. The tiles were put down by me in high school. Some of this may sound shitty to some but I find it to be satisfying work. I take pride in every task in this building. I get a few panic attacks at what I am undertaking but fuck it, onward I go.

I'm looking forward to rebuilding after this covid mess. I miss mentoring young chefs. When they come back to talk about what they've been up to, the food discoveries they've had, the insane chefs they've worked for, the Michelin stars they won, that lights me up on the inside. This place has been a springboard for many young chefs. It's been here for over 250 years, over 70 years as a restaurant. I'm only the fourth owner in those 70 years. I'm doing my best to hold the place until the next right person comes along.

This is fucking awesome.

[Lone Star]

I ended my night last night mopping floors, just like I did when I was 14. The tiles were put down by me in high school. Some of this may sound shitty to some but I find it to be satisfying work. I take pride in every task in this building. I get a few panic attacks at what I am undertaking but fuck it, onward I go.
.

I bet none of those panic attacks were from stress over mopping the floors. Sure, that's the shit work, but I imagine once you have taken on such responsibility, some of those tasks are enviable compared to the back office work of trying to stay afloat in trying times. Thank you for sharing!!!!

[bennymac]

Papapoopski’s post and some of the others from earlier (writing code for the Star Wars missiles?! etc) are just crazy, hall of fame type posts that makes this place so fascinating to visit.

[Diamond Joe]

Agreed, this has the makings of a 5 star thread, only 3 pages in

[Meadow Skipper]

FKNA papapoopski! Good story.

[seano732]

I had a lot of the usual first time gigs, waiter, bartender, worked at a gym for a while.....But my best gig BY FAR were my first two years of college.......I lived on campus in the dorms, and just happened to see an ad for a “front desk attendant “.....for the only all female dorm on campus....During the interview, the lady tells me that if I got the job, I’d have to work the 8p-4a shift at least twice a week...No problem, says I, and like BMills said, the rest is history....And pappooski wins this thread.

[Flyoverland Captive]

While in college, I once worked at a waterbed factory for four hours. They put me in the paint booth, where I had to spray stain on frames. They gave me a mask that plugged up immediately. It was hot and filthy work. I went to lunch and just didn’t come back.

They called me the next day asking for the mask back, but by that time my dog had chewed it up, so I hung up.

[JimmyCarter]

Paper route?
Spent some time working at a lobster co-op in Maine unloading boats and pitch forking redfish into barrels for bait.

Parlayed that into work at a marina south of Boston where the owners kept the dock stocked with cute girls in short shorts. That was a fun couple of summers before reality and the office internships hit. And here I am decades later still trying to find my place.

[papapoopski]

I bet none of those panic attacks were from stress over mopping the floors. Sure, that's the shit work, but I imagine once you have taken on such responsibility, some of those tasks are enviable compared to the back office work of trying to stay afloat in trying times. Thank you for sharing!!!!

For sure the panic attacks are from the viewpoint of running the business as well as wanting a better life for my kids during covid. My wife and I have been through harder times than this - fire, flood, some harder years in our marriage. We have persevered through it all so far.

Mopping the floors is a zen moment for me. I take pride in it and treat it like a core value. I don't look at it as shit work. That first family treated me like their own blood. I grew up under their wing and learned not just how to work but to create beauty from the chaos. I had some dark shit to deal with that noone should ever experience but growing up in this restaurant helped me to see the beauty in regular things and tasks. I learned how to work like a badass motherfucker because that's what I was surrounded by - loving, caring badass motherfuckers. I held that pride close to me everywhere I went and proved myself through my work, because of that first family that took me in. I like to think that I am a reflection of what they taught me and that I can best honor that by carrying that on to others.

When I was helping my boss clear trees on the property and I got cut with his chainsaw on my kneecap, blood everywhere, bone exposed, lots o stitches. I still went to work that night because that's what I thought people did. That was a painful night of work. They wanted me to go home but I worked as long as I could.

There is work time and then there is play time.

One night after work we took GHB, spray painted my car silver and cut the roof off with a sawzall, then drove to NYC, met some friends, got roofied by a hot bartender that was way out of my league, woke up sleeping on a sewer grate at 10am and had to get back to work by noon. I didn't sleep that weekend.

[Viva]

One night after work we took GHB, spray painted my car silver and cut the roof off with a sawzall, then drove to NYC, met some friends, got roofied by a hot bartender that was way out of my league, woke up sleeping on a sewer grate at 10am and had to get back to work by noon. I didn't sleep that weekend.

How much do you want for the movie rights to your life?

[Harvey44]

Attachment 344807

We’re gonna need more info...

My sisters went to LCF.

[JimmyCarter]

My sisters went to LCF.

[Brownski]

I get the zen aspect of mopping. I felt the same way about it the summer I worked as an overnight maintenance guy. Everything had to get cleaned but the biggest part of that was mopping every inch of floor. Doing it right wasn’t easy but it was satisfying once I’d learned how. I’m still a harsh judge of restaurant cleanliness. I hate walking into a place and feeling a greasy or sticky floor under my feet. It makes me question everything else about a place.

[margotron]

Prior jobs:

Sharper Image
Library Clerk
Tennis Instructor
Corporate Lawyer
Fly Fishing Guide
Forester

Current:

CEO of tech startup