What's your profession?

Eek

Before and during college (about 1974 - 1983)
babysitter
walked around wearing a sandwich board sign (I also handed out leaflets, I was in advertising!)
camp counselor
read to the blind (volunteer)
receptionist/file clerk

During law school (1983 - 1986)
receptionist/file clerk
political campaign volunteer/researcher (1984 Senate campaign for Joe Biden)
researcher
law clerk

1986 - 1994
legal assistant
lawyer
paralegal professor
senior claims examiner
personal injury protection (PIP) claims adjuster

1995 - 2000
legal auditor
desk auditor
auditing instructor
business analyst

2001 - present
senior quality assurance engineer
forum administrator (volunteer, A2K)
voice recognition engineer (I am also a notary public)

Blimey:

cleaner (a lot)

Waitress:

coffee lounge
chinese restaurant
various pubs

Tutor:

biology
english (high school and university level)

Lecturer:

social work crap
family therapy crap
other crap

Probation and parole officer!!!

Rape and sexual assault therapist.

Hospital social worker -
stuff like psychiatry, obstetrics, neo-natal unit, plastic surgery and suchlike stuff.

Ministerial liaison officer and senior bureaucrat (for a brief contract period - bleccchhh)

Child and family therapist -
specialising in trauma and such - but, if someone between 0 and 18 has it, I am supposed to fix it!

After school:
- conscript in the navy (and then, since 'alarm reserve', each year execises [including sailing at the Kiel Week, editoring the Navy Magazine]

- worked at/in a concrete firm (before starting university inside, during university holidays assembling e.g. shower-units in student houses, hospitals etc)
- started studying law,
- studied history, journalism, political sciences
- different jobs (from knife factory to seed factory) during my time of strong alcoholism
- studied again: social work
- worked in nearly all fields of social work (including lecturing it at univeristy)
- studied history again (at the German and British Distance/Open Unibversity)
- take care of my mother and aunt
- do this and that in-between

age 8 & 10 - "child actress" in commercials my father was director of (Toni and Hallmark); nepotism at large... Well, in the Toni commercial I was just part of a faux classroom of children.

age 16 - 21 - through junior and senior years of high school and five university years - various jobs after school and on weekends at a local hospital. These included taking xrays (we took minifilm photofluorographs of every inpatient on a hunt to track down tuberculosis), hospital cashier clerk, admitting clerk, and, to me then, the tip top part time job, reservations (bed assignment) clerk. Collected data in medical records for a med student doing a survey on minifilm patients re finding any tb, or other chest disease.

17 - "script girl" on a film trip with my dad and crew photographing stockyards and cattle ranches; I see now that this was an overt effort of my mother and father to distract me from entering the convent the next fall. It worked.. since I didn't really want to but had been convinced by the sisters of Notre Dame that I had a vocation. My crush on one of the film crew took care of that.

age 19 - 21 - part time med assistant in an internist's office (still also worked at hospital and went to university, was always tired).

22 - intern in clinical med technology

23 - 39 - clinical and research med tech; took four years of studio art classes in the evenings. At 32 moved to Venice in a loft building; shortly thereafter moved in with a friend to a large loft where we had a studio and gallery and sublet part time to a theater group. (I still worked in the lab.) Then lived with and married the playwright of the group. Remodeled house, garden.

40 - 43 - took landscape architecture classes at night; quit the lab (weary of lab work after the last lab job). Got new jobs in landarch during the years of study: short lasting job for a landscape architect - I quit when I found out he meant half pay since I would be training, quite under minimum wage); coordinator of a bicentennial land-use exhibit at a Los Angeles museum; part time work in exciting firm, from which I was let go with eight others during a recession; part time and then full-time work with a small landarch office.

44 - present - project manager at landarch office; passed boards; started my own practice; consulted for a local contractor; remodeled house again. Moved north after divorce; started new practice and co-own art gallery.

Oh, I've kept painting all these years, and presently hope to do more of it.

Wow, so interesting to know what folks have done!

I started as a doorknob-bag-stuffer at 14, after school. Worked in college P/T in a photo lab, as a student assistant in the College of Engineering, then F/T as a night-shift computer operator.

After 2 yrs. of college, became a payment processor for a large mortgage company, then an "Institutional Accounts Representative" for the same co., helping to analyze portfolios of mortage loans (and yes, a coin-toss IS used in some cases!)

Went on to do technical writing, computer instruction, database analysis, report creation, 2nd-level help desk (that was fun, meaning I worked on any problems the help desk gave up on after 20 minutes). Then on to further computer support/business analysis/report writing positions.

Lately been doing bookkeeping just because it's much easier to find this sort of job in a small town. Worked for 2 years as a P/T bookkeeper/secretary for a miniscule local business, quit when they moved the business into the house, where the screaming 2-yr-old & her Very Stinky Diapers sorta detracted from the professional work environment.

Now looking for new P/T bookkeeping job... there are always lots of ads in the newspaper, as long as I'm not looking for a job!

After dropping out of university at 21, I've been:

Trainee accounts clerk
Trainee taxation clerk
Payroll clerk
Payroll supervisor
Assistant civil engineering project planner

And since 16, I've also worked pretty much right through part-time as a dishwasher/starter chef in a variety of pubs, restaurants & hotels, including Pizza Hut most recently.

You got that right! My life looks positively boring by comparison. Bravo people!

got any pics of you in your frozen yogurt wench outfit?? :wink:



mine's real dull --
at age 20 i made my first $100 taking a photo of 2 guys tossing a frisbee for Games Magazine.
for the last 20 years i've been a drafter/CAD operator/designer for various engineering firms in NY & bahstin... yawn.

-Paperboy.

-Grocery store, 3 yrs in high school: cashier, produce, then deli.

-Summer during college going door to door sales, learned how to speak.

-2 summers during college as rental car agent. Ripping people off big time.

-4.5 years, car sales.

-1 year, current...DM/outside software sales. Psyched I'm not dealing with retail customers anymore. You're all a pain in the ass.

-Currently also part time Chippendale's stripper, male whore, crack dealer and porn star.

1955 to 1959 - US Air Force. Worked with conventional and nukes.
- worked and played in Chicago
- started going to community colleges while working various jobs. joined teamsters to work as teletype biller for trucking firms while attending school.
- married in 1963
- eventually transferred to Cal State Hayward and earned a degree in accounting with minor in philosophy
- worked as field auditor for Florsheim Shoe Company in the seven western states
- after 3.5 years, was promoted to audit manager, moved to Naperville, IL, and built a beautiful brick and cedar home.
- returned to California three years later
- controller for a couple of companies, then did consulting work
- found work with a nonprofit agency providing services to developmentally disabled clients.
- dropped all my consulting work to work full time at agency promoted from consultant to director of administrative services
- resigned after ten years, then went to work for another nonprofit with developmentally disabled clients
1998 - while on sabbatical to England, came down with shingles. Resigned from job and retired early
I have traveled to 37 countries and to four states in the US since 1998.

Mostly I've been a Technical Writer developing computer jargon reports for the State Patrol, the State Lottery, the financial arm of the Legislature, Microsoft, & some other places -- developing online-documentation, retrospective analysis, security planning, large acquisitions, strategic planning, programmer documentation, & user manuals... You need it, I'll write it.

Systems analysis & computer programming

Real Estate Sales for my dad's RE office

Library staff technician -- Reference-Help Desk, Cataloging Copies & Editions, Ephemera and Media, card filing, book finding, shelf-shifting. If it's a job in a library, I've probably done it.

also:
Campaign Manager
Trail Riding Wrangler
Really bad waitress
oops -- edited to add...
Evening desk clerk at a hotel
"Elf" at a Christmas photography set -- Dayton's

Volunteer Work:
Started & Still Running a Series of Film Programs
City Outdoor Cinema Film "consultant" on Public performance licenses & film selections
Library Programs Chairperson
Manager Library Donated Book Sales
Secretary High School Scholarship Committee
President Children's Preschool Co-Op
Museum Docent for Children's Museum, Art Museum
Juvenile Court Special Advocate
Soccer Team Mom
Brownie Scout Leader "Consultant"
Girl Scout Camping Leader
etc.

Yay, Piffka, left's hear it for the volunteers! The most interesting work, by far! Done for love!

Hi Olga.... as my attorney sister (also a wild volunteer) says, "They can't pay you enough to do this."

Goodness, you've all had very interesting careers. Since we're giving our Curriculum Vitae (as opposed to just a resume), this is all I've done, which really isn't that much:

Assistant Bookeeper (ages 5 - 10 -- my father desperately wanted me to be an accountant. I had other ideas. But I can still do my own taxes, thank you very much. Well, until this year, anyways...)

Drug Store Counter Girl (age 16) -- my first paying job. I was not allowed to work until then, as my parents wanted me to put school first.

Discount Store Clerk (age 17 - 18) -- moving up in the world. I still have a t-shirt and dress from the discount store where I worked, that I wear as "home clothes" now.

College Radio DJ
Entertainment Reporter/Editor for University Newspaper (Glendon College, York University, class of 1992)

Over the summers, I worked for my dad at his business, doing reception and bookeeping and the like. I took a year off after my undergrad degree (in Linguistics) and worked full-time as a bookkeeper and A/P Clerk until I got my big break in the entertainment industry.

I worked at SOCAN (Canada's ASCAP/BMI/SESAC) for almost four years, and completed one year of my Master's Degree. Then due to personal reasons, I could not finish my Master's. Will I go back? Maybe. I'm not sure now. I might just wait until Mezzie has his PhD, and then maybe he can be my MA Thesis professor, or at least recommend a good one :wink: .

Then I moved up in the world. I worked for the music publishing division of Canada's major film production company (at the time) for three years. From there, I went over to film and television production at another company which has since been absorbed into one of Canada's largest multimedia companies. I don't want to give names, because I'll just tell you now...no I cannot get you a job in Television, so please don't send me your head shot, unless you want me to have way too much fun with Photoshop. :wink:

I now work in the legal department, as a Legal Ass(as I like to abbreviate it)istant. I must say though that right now I have a wonderful boss who has been nothing but spectacular with me for the past month and a half. I might not like the actual work that we have to do, but I do like my job and I love the people I work with. Will I get a Law Degree? Sure, if you're buying...

Oh yes, and I'm also the wee Cav's mum, and I did do my service hours and some courses en route to becoming a sommelier. I do not have my designation (if you have the cash for me to take the course and fail the exam -- it has a 2% pass rate -- I'll take that from you, too ), so I'm just your run of the mill wine enthusiast. Or I can be, on a moment's notice.

And I am an historian, as guardian of Cav's legacy. That's definitely the most important job I have now, aside from being the wee Cav's mum.

I DJ on campus radio too - that's four of so far that have mentioned college or community radio - is A2K fulfilling some sort of broadcasting urge?

hinge, Most folks are hams when it comes to 'playing' to an audience.

bm

bank manager?
bridge maker?
book mender?

how 'bout a hint, husker...

boogey man

beats me...