Thursday, June 27, 2013

I Used To Be........


I have been sort of retired for a year at the end of this month. Even though I still work a few hours most weeks I think being mostly retired is pretty much the best "job" I have ever had. Thinking about that reminded me of some past jobs I have had.....not exactly a career path, but some fun along the way. (Some of this is from a post I wrote a long time ago about the pain of writing a resume.)




My first job, other than babysitting, was when I was 14. I opened mail for a newspaper columnist. He wrote a humor column for the Tulsa World, so he, in turn, got some pretty funny mail. Not a bad first job.

When I was 16 I worked after school in the stationery department of a fancy department store. My favorite part of that job was eating in the store's hoity-toity tea room on my breaks.

Then came college and a journalism degree. That got me a job at a newspaper with stellar assignments like writing obituaries and covering school board meetings in Norman, OK.

Next  came Motherhood, my most important and most lasting job, but not exactly a resume filler. Over the next 15 or so years, I had several part-time jobs in several cities. I taught pre-school (loved it) for a few years. I did some free lance writing for local publications. I worked as an assistant producer for a radio talk show, which was one of the most fun jobs I ever had. I did some modeling and taught a class at a junior college called "Poise for the Professional Woman". (I hated that name). I wrote feature stories and a weekly column for the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City.

After some life changes (divorce) and some additional schooling, I went to work full-time for the first time in years as a paralegal. After a few years I decided I needed something more lucrative and worked for a factory rep firm that sold furniture to hotels and hospitals. I was a dismal failure at that job, but to this day I can identify the manufacturer of the fabric on a chair in a hotel room.

A couple of zigs and zags after that  I spent 15 years in the job I still do part time in financial services. I will be more fully retired with time, but for now I like being able to work if I want to and not work if I don't.


What is your favorite of the jobs you have had?



11 comments:

  1. Wow, you've had many a job in your day. I love this post. I think I'll copy you and do this too. Maybe it's something my kids would be interested in someday. I started counting up my jobs in this comment and realized it were too many. So stay tuned.... :)

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  2. I love your first job.

    I think my favorite job was landscape design. I worked for a big nursery and that was always really fabulous!

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  3. If you only work if you want to it is not work and you are retired.

    When people ask me how is my retirement going I tell them it is not working.

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  4. I love your different jobs -- especially some of your early ones! I didn't know you had a journalism degree -- no wonder you're such a good writer!

    I'm just looking forward to retirement so much! I want to look back and yes, maybe pick and choose just the right job for me! Just a little one!

    I suppose my favorite job was really the one I have now before it got to be the way it is now. It was a different time, lots of fun, a different kind of team, personalities that just gelled. I didn't want to go home. Maybe that's why I want retirement so much -- I don't want to forget what I loved or become the things I saw others become at some point.

    Lovely post!

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  5. I am so impressed with your "resume!" And, I am amazed at the interests and jobs that we have in common! I may follow Betty and post my resume, as well! Thanks for sharing...great idea for a post!

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  6. Great jobs you had, Jeanie. I, too, was a writer -- for the local newspapers, the radio, and I also wrote 3 books. I love to write.

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  7. I love all the variety in the jobs you've held. For most of my career I did public relations and publications for colleges and universities. I did a two-year stint in PR with a big insurance and finance company, and hated that. So glad I had the chance to get back into education.

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  8. It was fun to get to know you better through your job descriptions, Jeanie! My most unusual job was as an editor at large for Family Circle Magazine - all I did was suggest story lines to them from my region which was the northeast at that time. I've mostly been a teacher. I taught all grade levels from elementary through graduate school. I like being retired best of all!

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  9. Wow! You have had a varied and interesting career life. I'm sure each one gave you more skills and knowledge to grow and mature. I think working in a pineapple factory made me work harder at college to make sure I didn't end up smelling cooked pineapples for the rest of my life. Teaching became my passion and has given me lovely memories and friends. Motherhood, of course is always most precious.

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  10. I love this post. For me a career is what you have done to this point, not some sort of well planned progression from A to Z.

    My favorite job was a pipeline engineer on the gulf coast for a small company. I designed and built all sorts of stuff from Mississippi to California and loved it even though it was hard work and long hours.

    I had a great sense of accomplishment.

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  11. That was such a fun post! I loved reading of the jobs you've had - great variety, and many sound quite fun & interesting!!

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