Of course, one cannot just start with those deductions, one must work for them. Not only that, one must go through a steady succession of jobs in life to really appreciate that point when all that crap is taken out! You can't just expect to come out of high school with the dream job of working the McDonald's counter on a plumber's crack salary! Looking back at my humble job beginnings, the minor wealth that could only come from minimum wage has certainly crossed my path a few times!
At the age of 12, I scored the preteen job of a lifetime: delivering the Merchandiser ad paper around my neighborhood once a week. If you are scratching your head on this, the Merchandiser was (or is) equivalent to the Nifty Nickel papers I often use to light the charcoal. I did this for about a year for $20 a week. It was ok and gave good exercise, but it was more employment than a 12 year old like me wanted, so I reverted back to the $5 a week allowance I got for home trash-hauling.
This lasted until high school when the idea of making more substantial dough was becoming more attractive. After all, there were sessions at Friendly's or Ranch House or Pizza Hut after a school dance to pay for! Carnations for a girl who didn't want them, at least from me, on Valentine's Day! Gas money for a car I did not have! At first I tried the local Burger King, but they put me off too many times. The McDonald's across the way was a lot quicker. Within a few weeks of intense training, I was ably getting customers' change wrong, oversalting the fries, and on occasion mopping the lobby and bathrooms. For some reason the one thing I did not get trained on was drive thru...which makes me think there's a reason I have not risen faster on the teacher pay scale...a misisng skill set!
The McJob lasted me about 6 months before I realized that I could not possibly build a career with a dental plan on a job where the uniform needed to be de-greased daily. After a few months of renewed unemployment, I got a job at the Ponderosa Steakhouse in Wyomissing, serving customers their dinners and refilling their drinks. The salary was low but the tips were pretty good. I did this job until nearly the end of senior year.
Almost immediately following, I caught a break at my dad's workplace. Well, a DIVISION of his workplace, I wasn't exactly assisting engineers in designing nuclear missile silos. No, I was doing maintenance on their massive outdoor landscaping. That was actually one of my best gigs, if only for a summer. The mornings were early, and the shift ran to mid afternoon, but I didn't care. Mowing lawns, pulling weeds, watering the flowers, and getting stung by yellow jackets made for a lively summer, by the end of which I had made roughly a thousand bucks!
Looking back, I wish I had kept that job for a few more months instead of going right off to college. If I had known my parents were going to relocate to San Diego the following January, I would have done just that. I didn't really have a job in my 2 semesters at West Virginia University, though the weekly plasma donations made for good snack money.
Entering the San Diego phase of my life...one could call it the lowest in terms of job growth...I had an odd variety of employment.
First, I worked a week stint at Ticketmaster with my mom for a baseball fan convention for an unheard of (to me) score of $300. That was a quick steal, probably the easiest gig ever. A bonus was that I met legendary Oscar-winning dramatic thespian Robert Wuhl, who looked on that day like he'd just learned he was't playing Knox again in the new Batman movie.
Then came the vacuum job! There are almost no words to describe this debacle, except to say BLEECCHH! While the training made it seem easy, actually selling a vacuum cleaner, even with something as revolutionary (at the time) as cyclonic action, is not easy when you try to convince someone to shell out $1700 in cash or credit. After being sent to many different neighborhoods in the San Diego area for 2 weeks, I called it quits. I had not made dime one off of it and it was getting discouraging. After that, I did another Nifty Nickel delivery gig for a few weeks. It was weekly and didn't pay much, but it got me out of the house.
Next up was a job as a demonstrater at the new Price Club (now Costco). It was actually a good gig for a few weeks, but you know how it goes with new places, they weed out the ones who don't meet their rigid criteria...the ones who didn't answer the call to come in at the right moment. Oh well! A similar opportunity came with a new dollar store months later. I spent several days stocking the store and one actual shift after the store opened.
Luckily, I had just achieved a year of residency in California and could cheaply return to college. It is amazing what a year of bad jobs and lots of down time can do to raise the old GPA! I went from a 2.3 at West Virginia to a 3.7 at Miramar College pretty quick! I didn't really work at a job for some time...that is unless you count a tutoring gig where I helped some women (one of whom I devleoped a nice crush on) learn the fine points of chemistry. Another easy $300!
The only other job I had in San Diego was a different gig at Ticketmaster, this time in the call center, during the summer of 1995. That was a good summer job.
At Sonoma State, there was one semester where I had a lot of free time on my hands, so I took a job as a dishwasher in the commons dining hall. If one can withstand high pressure hot water with rubber gloves on, it's a good way to make money. The following summer, I worked on the painting crew, repainting the dormitory rooms. I remember that job quite fondly! I briefly worked one more time in the dining hall months later, but it wasn't doing much once a week, so I quit after a month.
Following graduation in 1997, I had a few months of inertia, which didn't do my body or spirit well...I actually credit that time as the start of my path to losing m yneck to high weight due to eating like crap. It was probably a depression.
In September of that year, however, I got into the world of temp work! It was an interesitng array of jobs I had. I started at a rubber stamp company for a bit, then a slightly longer bit at a plush toy company. The only pain of that was the commute between Santa Rosa and Petaluma! There was also a scrip company, a 1 day stint delivering Pepsi products to stores, filling new phone antenna orders, even a stint at the Sonoma State bookstore! It was fairly steady work, but the in between times could get bad.
Thank heaven, I applied to be a substitute teacher that fall, and began that era of life the following winter. Well, what can you say about being a sub? You know you're not the real teacher and so do the kids! Luckily, I got to be a semi-regular at several schools all around Sonoma County for about 4 years, temping during the summers of 1999 and 2000 at an optical coating factory (the final summer of that had me working 6pm to 6am, hell on sleep patterns!). There were districts I'd end up working at more than others. Some teachers requested me (always a good feeling) and a few didn't like my style....most others just put in blind requests and I'd show up. It is a much under-appreciated job to be sure, something I have tried to be better at in my current status in life.
I was juggling subbing and the teaching program at Sonoma State for a year, then when the schooling was over, I hit another depression bout. This one required me (on my own initiative) to seek some professional help). After a rough period, I continued to sub while seeking teaching jobs. The timing was bad, since the Enron energy scandal had California spending money for power instead of new teachers. I was also a newbie and probably needed some better interviewing skills.
In the spring of 2002, I went to a recruiting fair for the Clark County School District, held in Fresno. As I was used to traveling all around for interviews, I figured why not? After the interview, I went back home and kept what I was doing. Then, 3 weeks later, I got a big packet from CCSD saying I was hired and gave a lot of information on what I needed to do before the school year started.
I really do believe that the depression begun the prior year was lifting in a big way from the moment I got that packet. Before long, I was enjoying that wonderful feeling of,you guessed it, those paychecks with the deductions and taxes!
I probably have more varied work experience than some, less than others. One thing it has taught me is the easy expendability of people with a low skill set, be it professional or interpersonal.
So, for those of you looking to broaden your working horizons, just make sure to take something you honestly believe you can handle....and try not to slip on the floor grease!
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