As seen at Steves, and as requested by Blork and Martine: 12 Monkeys, the list of the jobs/employments/freaky positions I have held over the years.
Lifeguard/Swim Instructor at the local “Y”: Perks pool time, anytime. Downside: waking up at the crack of dawn, donning a mildly wet suit that did not have time enough to dry from the night before.
Lifeguard/Camp Counsellor. The only downsides to this little gem of a job: Friday lunches which usually consisted of mush made of leftover from the week before and fire drills at 3:00 in the morning. Someone in the higher-ups had a rather warped sense of humour.
Retail Salesperson, Clothing store. My only stint in the schmattes business. Interesting experience, though I am not sure if it is one that I will want to repeat soon.
Retail Salesperson, Greeting Cards in a quaint little store located in a very dead mall. Lots of hours spent sorting out cards, ordering paper, and reading books behind the counter.
Science Demonstrator, two consecutive summers, two different places. One underpaid with a rather disgruntled manager. The other, well the other just rocked. Mad science, snakes, tarantulas and various other creep crawlies, microscopes, telescopes, Rube Goldberg devices, rockets, pyrotechnics, slime, liquid nitrogen and dry ice. A true geeks dream.
Assistant Facilities/Building Manager. Where are I learnt the value of a good floor plan, teamwork, and never getting involved in office politics, especially if HR found itself in the mix.
Bookstore/Stationary clerk. One of my favourite jobs; Hours spent in the company of delightfully eccentric people who are completely endearing. And. Books, books and more books, with handfuls of stationary thrown in to sweeten the deal, all for the yummy discounted price of 30% off.
Data Entry Clerk/Process Creation/Lost Package Tracker/Girl Friday.
Two summers spent sorting through data, entering data, fixing databases and tracking merchandise that mysteriously never made it into the buyers’ hands, answering phones, filing documents, wading through stacks of papers and coffee runs.
Data Entry Clerk/ Database designer/AutoCAD Draftsperson
An 8 months stint that lasted past its initial summer job status. Once again buried neck deep in data, inventory and databases with architectural drawings thrown in to add little bit of spice.
Technical Trainer: travelled to those mostly unknown places that you only hear about in urban legends to train clients on company software. Learnt a lot about my own abilities, people, and how to get through US customs.
Engineering consultant/Technical trainer/Tech writer/Your general replacement cog for the big cooperate machine.
“Need one, we got one, just stick her in and watch your company run. Needs no lunch hour or bathroom breaks. Will work 8 hours straight and then ask for more. Does not need any pertinent information, will sort things out through divination alone. All this for a cheap, cheap price that we the company will charge you an arm and a leg for.” Truth be told, I really do love my job, stress, underpay et al. The people are great. The work is challenging, the hours are mostly reasonable and I get to learn a heck of a lot