Jobs You Held That Are Now Obsolete

[artringwald]

Key punch operator…creating the paper cards used in early computers to program or enter data. Of course they were fed into an IBM computer that was huge but had less brainpower than my cellphone.

I also worked part time, entering data on a keypunch for a sociology researcher. I learned how to operate the keypunch in my programming class. I even learned how to make a drum card for automating parts of the punching process.

I worked one summer selling Fuller Brush door to door.

I worked for about a week selling vacuum cleaners in the home of people that just wanted the free gift.. I didn't sell any and quit.

The last job I got before the one that lasted 35 years, was breaking down empty cardboard boxes in an Avon Products Cosmetics warehouse.

 

[PigsDad]

I grew up about 20 miles east of there in Ada, MN. We worked on farms around the area, although not as far west as the ND border. We'd get loaded into the back of a truck and hauled out to the local farms—such a safe way to travel! Started early in the morning and quit about 1:00 before it got terribly hot and often spend the afternoon at the local pool. No sunscreen of course..is it any wonder I've had several cancerous spots on my face and legs!

I sent you a DM -- what a small world! I used to swim in that same local pool. Crazy!

Kurt

 

[easyrider]

So far, every job I ever had, other than the paper route, will never be obsolete. Thinking about it, I'm going to be obsolete before jobs I had, lol.

Bill

 

[Sandi Bo]

No, corn detasseling is still a summer job here in the Midwest. Kids as young as 14 can get hired.

That's good to know, I'll keep it on my resume (I have experience)!

I wonder if that should be above or below picking burnt potato chips off the conveyer belt (as they were being made at the Kitty Clover factory). Thankfully only one day of that (as a temp worker).

 

[jp10558]

One of my positions was advertising manager at the K-Mart in Tyson's Corner, VA. I was responsible for providing the departments with their ad and count sheets. They had to take pre-sale and post-sale inventory of items so I could then manual make the monetary inventory adjustments for the sale items in that week's flyer. It was all manual! The department employees had to place "sale" price tags over the regular price, so the cashier could ring up the sale price . . . and then after the sale all of the sale price tags were removed when items were back to the regular (non-sale) price. What an amazing amount of savings in store labor when automation occurred later in the 1980's.

Heck, now we have the e-ink price tags that update remotely / instantly.

 

[jp10558]

Oh, yeah. This reminded me of ANOTHER obscure job I had--I worked in the Fotomat lab in Edison, NJ in the early 1980s. The rolls of film got trucked in every night from the little kiosks all over central Jersey, and then they got processed during the night and the morning to go back to the kiosks the next day. I worked a lot of lobster shifts.

What in the heck is a "lobster shift"?

 

[DrQ]

What in the heck is a "lobster shift"?

Before I got married, I worked 2nd shift and really hated it. I was totally disconnected from the rest of the world. All my friends, outside of work, worked 1st shift, so I was totally disconnected from them until the weekend. This was before VCR's were available, so time shifting of TV was not an option and daytime entertainment during the week was limited. DW was finishing up college, so she was not in the area.

After we got married, it was a different story. It was wonderful. We had the entire day to spend together. We could do our shopping during the day when it was less crowded. She could spend the evenings with her girlfriends while I was working, so she had her independence and yet we had OUR time together too. When blockbuster movies were released (Star Wars) we were free to go to the matinee showing, which was cheaper and less crowded.

They briefly started a 3rd shift to increase production and when that push ended (6 mo) they moved me into general machine maintenance at an auxiliary site. It was where they would box the detectors. They had machines that would take a stack of collapsed boxes, put them on a conveyor track where the operator would stuff the components in the box and then the machine would close the ends and glue them shut. That and the auto-insertion machines were hypnotizing to watch them repetitively do their job. As a studying mechanical engineer, it was really great to watch how you could take theory and make something practical.

I worked there for about a year before I moved on to another job that was 1st shift, but it was a good start for us.

 

[Big Matt]

The one I have today (Management Consultant) may soon be obsolete with the advent of AI and Large Language Models.

 

[wackymother]

What in the heck is a "lobster shift"?

It's the shift that goes from late night into early morning. Like midnight to eight or something like that. Newspapers called it that--not sure where the expression came from.

 

[Panina]

I used a typewriter to address hundreds of envelopes for a doctor to announce his office was moving to a new location

 

[SusanRN]

Oh my, this made me remember the job I had the summer between HS graduation and starting college - I was a clerk in the Fabric and Notions department of a brand-new Sears store. I spent the summer cutting fabric and checking out customers in my department. Talk about jobs that don’t exist anymore, not to mention retailers!

I had some fabric cut at the local Joanne Fabrics 2 years ago, so maybe not obsolete.
On the other hand, that store closed last year, and it's my understanding that the entire chain is gone as of spring 2025....

 

[SusanRN]

How about obsolete employers? I worked 6 years with retail giant K-Mart in the 70's, in several in-store management roles at 3 different stores. I learned a lot in my early work life from those experiences.

4 summers as a waitress (now "server") at Howard Johnson's...learned *a lot* about people!

 

[SusanRN]

Before I got married, I worked 2nd shift and really hated it. I was totally disconnected from the rest of the world. All my friends, outside of work, worked 1st shift, so I was totally disconnected from them until the weekend. This was before VCR's were available, so time shifting of TV was not an option and daytime entertainment during the week was limited. DW was finishing up college, so she was not in the area.

After we got married, it was a different story. It was wonderful. We had the entire day to spend together. We could do our shopping during the day when it was less crowded. She could spend the evenings with her girlfriends while I was working, so she had her independence and yet we had OUR time together too. When blockbuster movies were released (Star Wars) we were free to go to the matinee showing, which was cheaper and less crowded.

They briefly started a 3rd shift to increase production and when that push ended (6 mo) they moved me into general machine maintenance at an auxiliary site. It was where they would box the detectors. They had machines that would take a stack of collapsed boxes, put them on a conveyor track where the operator would stuff the components in the box and then the machine would close the ends and glue them shut. That and the auto-insertion machines were hypnotizing to watch them repetitively do their job. As a studying mechanical engineer, it was really great to watch how you could take theory and make something practical.

I worked there for about a year before I moved on to another job that was 1st shift, but it was a good start for us.

Evening shift (3p-11p) was always my favorite as a floor nurse exactly for the reasons you state. Then everything went to 12 hour shifts. I wouldn't do days (get up at 5:30 to be at work at 7A? No thank you!), but nights could be a killer until you got used to it. Nice to work 3, be off 4, however.

 

[dioxide45]

I had some fabric cut at the local Joanne Fabrics 2 years ago, so maybe not obsolete.
On the other hand, that store closed last year, and it's my understanding that the entire chain is gone as of spring 2025....

My wife still buys fabric at Hobby Lobby and Michaels. So people are still cutting fabric.

 

[nomoretslt]

Started out as a secretary, used Gregg Shorthand to take dictation and then type out in letter form on an IBM selectric. Then the Vydec/Exxon Office Systems came around (one of the first word processing machines). Ended up working for a busy law firm and I was one of the first “work from home” employees before it became a thing. I moved further from the office and was going to resign, but they came up with this plan. Worked out great for a few years.
Drove a school bus for a while….I still see school busses on the road, I say a prayer for them. I don’t know how I did it!
Got a secretarial job again. Worked for a great company, had a great position working for a VP.
Have the best job now….retired. Obsolete and loving it.

 

[jeffox]

Drove a school bus for a while….I still see school busses on the road, I say a prayer for them. I don’t know how I did it!

There is a school district around here that is always advertising for bus drivers. It's always a no from me, couldn't envision a worse job.

 

[SusanRN]

My wife still buys fabric at Hobby Lobby and Michaels. So people are still cutting fabric.

Michaels will now feature a "Knit & Sew Shop" in every US and Canadian location, the chain announced on Wednesday, Sept. 24. The shops will carry Joann's name and products. Michaels purchased Joann's intellectual property in June, including its private label lines.

 

[b2bailey]

Ok, have to ask -- where did you do this? I grew up in that area. Although we never grew sugar beets, my grandfather and uncles did near Hillsboro, ND and I would stay with my cousins for a week every summer and often I earned a little money hoeing beets. I also had relatives that brought in migrant workers -- had an extra house on the farmstead where the family lived each summer.

Kurt

What are the chances we would have TWO former sugar beat hoe-ers
in our ranks?

 

[b2bailey]

A pie catcher for a major pie company on the East Coast.

Pie catcher?

 

[b2bailey]

No, corn detasseling is still a summer job here in the Midwest. Kids as young as 14 can get hired.

Who knew? That corn requires detasselling?

 

[dioxide45]

Who knew? That corn requires detasselling?

I think they only detassel corn when the corn is being grown to produce seed. I grew up on a farm growing corn, both sweet and feed corn and we never detasseled the corn.

 

[b2bailey]

Started out as a secretary, used Gregg Shorthand to take dictation and then type out in letter form on an IBM selectric. Then the Vydec/Exxon Office Systems came around (one of the first word processing machines). Ended up working for a busy law firm and I was one of the first “work from home” employees before it became a thing. I moved further from the office and was going to resign, but they came up with this plan. Worked out great for a few years.
Drove a school bus for a while….I still see school busses on the road, I say a prayer for them. I don’t know how I did it!
Got a secretarial job again. Worked for a great company, had a great position working for a VP.
Have the best job now….retired. Obsolete and loving it.

Regarding Gregg Shorthand -- I still have those series of symbols flash through my mind at time.

 

[b2bailey]

My first job. In the beautiful Santa Clara County. Before becoming Silicone Valley, there were acres and acres of apricot trees. My job at age 12, working outdoors with a dozen others -- slice open apricot, remove pit, lay open on large wood tray, to be dried in the sun.

I know we still enjoy dried apricots but I doubt anyone is slicing them open by hand -- at least not in the USA.