Who does what for a living?

[HitchHiker71]

OK I'll play too.

If you’re retired, what did you do for a living pre-retirement?

I'm not retired, in my early 50s and don't anticipate retiring any time soon. Mrs. HitchHiker is the same age as me (a few months younger).

For those of you with multiple careers, what were/are they?

What jobs did you hold to get by while you were learning/in school?

I'll answer these questions in sequence from oldest to newest jobs.

During my school age years I started out with a paper route way back when - age 12-14. My first "real job" as a teenager was at Wendy's in my home town at age 15. Then I moved to a movie rental store (age 16), then to a frozen food truck loader part time job for a friend of my father (age 17), then to a Honda dealership as a part time service attendant (full time in the summers -0 ages 18-19). By then I was in college and I switched over to a "corporate" job working for MBNA America Bank part time (really good pay back in those days - ages 20-22), then tried my hand a commercial collections (age 22) - wasn't a good fit for my personality.

Finished college and then tried my hand at my profession (business/finance) and didn't really like it all that much, so I took a job at a local computer sales and service shop since my hobby as a geek was always computers (age 23). That started my actual career in IT. Got canned from that job - didn't make my sales numbers - and moved to another computer sales position - stayed there for about six months (age 24)- and then took an entry level computer support job with one of my clients (age 25). Never looked back and have been working in IT in one form or another since 1995 - wow that's coming up on 30 years in 2025! I am getting old LOL. Finance has been and still is my hobby since I swapped my former hobby - computers - into a career in IT.

I went where the money was early in my career - switching jobs quite a bit between 1995 and 2002 - mostly in the IT consulting space. Then I settled into a corporate IT job from 2002-2016 after the dot com bust. Then I switched back into IT software sales/consulting/services in 2016 and have been in this area ever since - and have recently focused primarily on IT success management the past few years. I count myself very fortunate as IT experienced explosive growth in the late 1990's when I entered this field so I had a ton of options and was able to move up the pay scale and management ranks without much effort - at least that's how I feel now looking back - very fortunate. IT has been very good to myself and my family over the past 23 years and counting.

My side gig is speculative investments, given my finance background (securities analysis in particular), and in 1996 I started a part time real estate investment business - primarily long term property rentals (just a few at present). We bought a condo in 1994 and lived in it for two years before purchasing a townhome in 1996 and when we moved into our current single family home in 2008 we converted the townhome into a rental unit. This is an area I intend to focus more on in the future to create a more substantial income stream heading into retirement.

 

[Passepartout]

This seemed appropriate to the thread. . . .

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

This seemed appropriate to the thread. . . .
View attachment 74360

Sometimes the best thing about the work is the people you meet. And sometimes the worst thing about the work is the people you meet.

But there's always someone who wants to use you as a discardable tool. . . and they expect you to say "thank you" for their privilege!

 

[HitchHiker71]

This seemed appropriate to the thread. . . .
View attachment 74360

I've always told my children (now adults) to try to pick something for their career that they truly enjoy - because then it feels a bit less like work. I suppose I was very fortunate that I switched over my career early on to my childhood hobby - computers - as opposed to my formal education in finance and economics (lots of number crunching and forecasting really). For the majority of my career to date - I've really enjoyed what I do - not so sure that would have been the case had I continued in the finance arena in comparison - though I cannot say for sure really. That said - there are aspects of every job that feel more like work - and are inherently less enjoyable for me. I've never come across a job that feels entirely like fun in other words. But I still enjoy a lot of what I do today - and therefore am fairly satisfied with my career choices as a result. No such thing as a perfect career path though - there are pros and cons to every job out there without a doubt - even when working for yourself as an entrepreneur.

 

[frytard]

Sometimes the best thing about the work is the people you meet. And sometimes the worst thing about the work is the people you meet.

But there's always someone who wants to use you as a discardable tool. . . and they expect you to say "thank you" for their privilege!

One reason I dont really like HR Employee Relations. You see people at their worst more often that not whether it is work related or a personal issue affecting their work. also you truly do not make any friends in HR - friendly but not friends but it can be grass is greener type situation.

 

[EZ-ED]

For me... after high school the draft was calling so I joined the Marine Corp in early '66. I went to Air Traffic Control school and spent the next 4 years at various Marine/Navy air bases. After four years of telling officers where to go the FAA was calling so off to FAA ATC school to to learn the government way to move tin. PHX TRACON (radar) and then on to LAS TOWER/TRACON where I was medically retired at 32. Messed around with real estate for a couple of years while deciding what to do going forward. Moved to Idaho and went ISU and got a degree in Computer Science and spent the next 28 years as a programmer on IBM mainframes followed by Wang mini computers then Novel Network followed by Windows networks then moving everything to the WEB. Been retired now for 13 years and we spend our time traveling, mostly cruises. Our last big trip was a cruise out Denmark with stops in Norway followed by 2 weeks in London. After 4 days in London the Queen passed away and blew up our planned tour but was replaced by much history which was very interesting. We can always go back but seeing history was exciting. Upcoming trip to Athens and a 14 day MED cruise to Rome followed by a 14 day Caribbean early next year. We fill in with timeshare stays in Arizona and Florida but the last two or three years have been much cooler than we like so we try to go to warmer cruise locations. Now starting to slow down and down size, mountain cabin is gone, our winter home in Sun City West is now gone, down to 1 vehicle... getting old is not for sissies.

 

[Icc5]

Retired in 2013 after working for Safeway for 44 years starting as a courtesy clerk (bagger) then checker,3rd person,assistant,manager then stepped down to an ICC (inventory control clerk) for my last 20 years before retiring.

 

[clifffaith]

I have wanted to work since about age ten. Started out with the occasional baby sitting job. By age 14 I was desperate to work at our local library, however that never panned out. First real job was weekends at Naha’s, a local department store, when I turned 16. I continued there through freshman year of college. Graduated to the ready made drapery department at Montgomery Ward’s on weekends at home from UCLA, while serving food or washing dishes in the dorm during the week.

My degrees in anthropology and geography paved the way to the MW back room accounting department for two years. Then it was back to junior college for accounting classes, followed by stints in bank and aerospace accounting offices.

In 1989 Cliff and I decided we wanted to run our own business. I really wanted to open a Hallmark store, but after exploring franchise opportunities ultimately decided on a custom window coverings business. We were the number one Window Works franchise in the system for 1990, our first full year in business. At the end of 1994 we closed the storefront, left the franchise and moved our operations into our home, and suddenly we were making twice as much money for half the hours!

Cliff became our full time installer (he did all the accounting for years) after retiring from Boeing in 2006. Also in 2006 we bought a retiring competitor’s business. We put an additional $200K in our pockets that year from the best $50K investment we’ve ever made. That was truly a gift! We continued the window coverings business until retiring in 2018 — sadly the two worthy competitors we approached chose not to take over our client list so we just disconnected our phones and faded away.

 

[frytard]

I have wanted to work since about age ten. Started out with the occasional baby sitting job. By age 14 I was desperate to work at our local library, however that never panned out. First real job was weekends at Naha’s, a local department store, when I turned 16. I continued there through freshman year of college. Graduated to the ready made drapery department at Montgomery Ward’s on weekends at home from UCLA, while serving food or washing dishes in the dorm during the week.

My degrees in anthropology and geography paved the way to the MW back room accounting department for two years. Then it was back to junior college for accounting classes, followed by stints in bank and aerospace accounting offices.

In 1989 Cliff and I decided we wanted to run our own business. I really wanted to open a Hallmark store, but after exploring franchise opportunities ultimately decided on a custom window coverings business. We were the number one Window Works franchise in the system for 1990, our first full year in business. At the end of 1994 we closed the storefront, left the franchise and moved our operations into our home, and suddenly we were making twice as much money for half the hours!

Cliff became our full time installer (he did all the accounting for years) after retiring from Boeing in 2006. Also in 2006 we bought a retiring competitor’s business. We put an additional $200K in our pockets that year from the best $50K investment we’ve ever made. That was truly a gift! We continued the window coverings business until retiring in 2018 — sadly the two worthy competitors we approached chose not to take over our client list so we just disconnected our phones and faded away.

Very cool. We want to open a business for tax advantages - how do you search for a franchise opportunity? Currently i do some consulting for small medical offices but would like to transition into having employees and such to have "money work for us" type situation.

 

[noreenkate]

Retired at 42. I have been medically retired now for almost a decade from law enforcement. Although during the majority of my "career" I held one job I bounced around internally quite a bit. Did my 20- and thought I had moved on to greener pastures and learned the hardware that patrol is better left to the younger kids

I honestly didn't do much of anything beforehand besides various retail jobs and waited till my 21st birthday so that I would be old enough to start the academy.

 

[Cornell]

My brother worked at an executive level at AC Neilson, IRI, etc. Pretty well known in the industry.

His name is Bob Tomei. Did you hear of or know him? He’s retired now. He’s 64 years old.

Mary Ann, Love seeing your comment here! I am not familiar w/Bob . Thank you for sharing. It's actually a big, yet small industry.

 

[clifffaith]

Very cool. We want to open a business for tax advantages - how do you search for a franchise opportunity? Currently i do some consulting for small medical offices but would like to transition into having employees and such to have "money work for us" type situation.

35 years ago there were franchise magazines and conventions. Today I bet Google can help. We found Window Works at a convention and the rest is history!

 

[frytard]

Retired at 42. I have been medically retired now for almost a decade from law enforcement. Although during the majority of my "career" I held one job I bounced around internally quite a bit. Did my 20- and thought I had moved on to greener pastures and learned the hardware that patrol is better left to the younger kids

I honestly didn't do much of anything beforehand besides various retail jobs and waited till my 21st birthday so that I would be old enough to start the academy.

My friend is retiring too in a couple years. Was able to have added time since he was in military. how did you keep busy after the academy?

 

[JudyH]

I always wanted to be a veterinarian. However I was terrible in math and chemistry probably due to undiagnosed learning disabilities.
I ended up as an English major in college, knowing I could easily get a job at the Welfare Dept that advertised weekly for college graduates. Worked in foster care two years, they offered to pay our way to grad school, which accepted Miller Analogy Test instead of GRE.
Graduated with my MSW, got a job with the State which included part time at the University Medical School teaching and training residents in child development. Eventually the State paid my way to get my Ph.D in Social Work.
One of the medical residents became our son’s pediatrician and he wanted me to work in his office doing family counseling.
I spent the next 25 years working two days a week in special education schools and 3-4 days a week in the pediatric office. I participated in all the health insurances as a provider, I made no money cause they paid terrible, but I improved the situation and/or educational services of thousands of children.
I retired in 2013 after most of my caseload graduated high school. Honestly I feel guilty but I would not want to be doing mental health work today. Things are so much worse now.
I got my animal fix with lots of horses, dogs, and cats. I still wish I could have been a vet.

 

[ScoopKona]

Just the usual career path of Sports Editor, Brew Master/Timeshare Salesman*, Chef, Farmer.

* Being a brew master is fun. It's a fulfilling career. It doesn't pay diddly-squat. Thank goodness I could sling timeshares on the side and make enough to live.

 

[noreenkate]

My friend is retiring too in a couple years. Was able to have added time since he was in military. how did you keep busy after the academy?

After probation, and my fair share of patrol I got picked up by a unit in S.O.D. than 9/11 happened and the world changed. That kept us, at least me learning new ways to keep busy...

 

[lorenmd]

wow, you all sound so amazingly accomplished. i did all kinds of odd jobs growing up and always thought i would become a lawyer but a personal tragedy lead me to the place i spent the last 40 years of my life. i started college at age 25 knowing i wanted to become a doctor. i worked hard and it did seem easier being "older" at the Univ. of Washington. i didn't party like those 18 year old pre-meds. i got into med school at the UW and followed with a surgical internship and then decided surgery was where i wanted to be but not the surgeon. i trained the rest of my residency as an anesthesiologist and spent my whole career at a small rural hospital taking care of my patients and i loved it always. right before covid i had an infection in my new total knee and took a couple years off and then right when i could go back covid happened, most surgeries where put on hold and i decided to take a sabbatical. i'm still on sabbatical and not sure if i'll go back. loving retirement. we bought a winter home while we were timesharing in arizona during covid. we stayed almost 5 months at SDO and when we left we were the only ones there. we spend winters here mountain biking which is our love. i think i'll probably go back to general medicine but as a volunteer anywhere that needs me. my husband can build houses while i do medicine. we love traveling but we now have 3 little grandkids that are pulling me to stay close.

 

[kanerf]

Security Engineer who works on Federal contracts at various agencies in the D.C. area.

 

[rapmarks]

I feel so boring.
I always planned to go to college, so took one year of typing and shorthand so I could get a summer job. took the train into the Chicago loop for seven summers doing secretarial jobs and earned enough to pay for college and buy my first car.
when I bought the car, the dealer invited me to test drive it, but I had to take my drivers Ed class first, they came to my house, picked me up,taught me to drive in seven days,and I was ready to go.
I taught high school English, I also was an history double major, and when some of the teachers decided to take masters classes at the university, i joined them. Got the first masters as a high school reading specialist and switched jobs,
meantime I met my future husband, finished the masters , graduated Friday night, married Sunday afternoon, off to boundary water canoe area and around Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, into new apartment, and. started teaching a college prep reading class and English.
eventually, had babies ,took maternity leave, and never went back to that wonderful job. Tried a junior college and junior high, but went back to high school again.
got another job a few years later, now I taught English and remedial reading, mostly to special Ed, ESL, , and uninterested kids. Continued to take classes, got the equivalent of two or three more masters. Worked harder than I ever had At that school for 18 more years.
retired at 55 , my husband had 35 years in and wanted us to retire together, Took me a long time to let go of my teaching materials. For a long time, I would have gone back in a heartbeat.
it was an exhausting job, as I realized when I subbed six weeks for someone. The amount of prep and grading papers is unbelievable. Would no longer have the energy to do it.

 

[pittle]

I am retired and have been since January 1, 2002, just before my 55th birthday.

When I graduated college, University of Central Arkansas in 1968, we got married right after graduation and moved to Kansas City where we both had jobs as teachers. I was a Foods and Nutrition teacher at a High School and hubs was an Industrial Arts (shop) and Math teach at a nearby Jr. High.

When I got pregnant, I had to take a leave of absence - heaven forbid that a married teacher would work while pregnant. So since 1/2 our income was going to be gone for the next school year, hubs started looking for other jobs and got a supervisory job at Hallmark Cards Production Center in Lawrence KS (home of the Jayhawks). After we had our 2nd son, I was ready to go back to work, but teaching jobs are hard to get in a college town, so I also started working for Hallmark in 1973. In 1974, I learned that the Topeka Production Center had an opening as the Manager of the Employee Cafeteria and told my boss that I was interested. She told me that she would tell our HR Manager, but not to get my hopes up because Topeka was planning to hire someone with a degree in Foods & Nutrition. She was shocked that I had a Home Ec degree that included quantity cookery. So, within a week, I was the new manager of the Topeka Employee Cafeteria - aka Crown Room. We fed 300-400 employees for lunch and another 100+ for dinner on the 2nd shift. Hallmark transferred Mike to Topeka too. He eventually became the Systems Manager.

In 1978, they added to my responsibilities by having me manage the Employee Card Shop (like one of the mall card shops, but we sold products at 1/2 price). That was fun as I got to go to gift marts to purchase additional items to sell in the card shop. I got to go to Atlanta once a year and the to the Kansas City one a few other times each year.

With the cafeteria, I learned about using computers as in 1984, Hallmark decided to computerize our recipes and contracted with the CBORD group in Ithaca, NY. Those folks were terrific and taught me the importance of backing everything up and that if I messed up something, it could be restored and re-done. I had tons of the big floppy disks to back data up on every night before I left work. Anyway, I got to go up to Ithaca every August for their users conference and the last 4 years before I retired I was on the User Advisory Council representing the Business & Industry group.

In my last 10 years at Hallmark, I was on the Community Affairs Committee and chair for the last 5 years. We gave support to the various non-profit agencies in town. We implemented a VIP program (Volunteer Involvement Pays) where our employees could volunteer at various agencies in their community and if they volunteered at least 50 hours ever 6 months, Hallmark gave a cash donation to that organization.

I worked at Hallmark for 29 years and had a job that I loved and told hubby that when I retired I would never work for money again. I do lots of volunteer work for church and in our community. Right now I am helping a group home nearby revamp their menus and go over to help show the cooks some new ways to prepare more nutritious meals for the residents.

 

[joestein]

I did have lots of interesting jobs before I started my professional careers. Multiple paper routes and CIT jobs between age 10 - 12. As soon as I was able to get working papers at age 13, I started working as a supermarket cashier - not a fun job - got fired because my cash drawer was off 3 times in 6 months (like a couple of dollars).

I started working for a temp agency in NYC - got sent to some interesting jobs. I had a job working for black and decker pasting and assembling advertising packs for some power tools. I had office copy and filing jobs. I spent an entire summer at a company cafeteria taking the place of each lunch lady as they took vacations one week after another. Worst job was working a week at storage facility moving boxes with no air conditioning. All these jobs paid around $4/hr give or take 50 cents. I had to travel to NYC and it was a 2 fare trip (today you can transfer between train and bus - but not back then). After taxes and lunch ($5) - I took home around $22 a day.

My best job was a runner for Solomon Brothers in the year between high school and college. I was just 16 and walking all over wall street checking out the young ladies. Probably why I wasn't invited back the next summer. It paid a massive $5.50/hr - I was RICH! The CFO of my firm who is 6 years older than me also did that job while in school.

While in college I answered a want ad in the accounting department for a "lawyer looking for someone to cash checks" for $8/hr - turned out be Gramercy Check Cashing and Pawnbrokers. I worked there for 2 years. It was a wild job. There were SRO apartments above the store in the building, which was owned by the store owners. We were behind bullet proof glass - I saw people robbed within the store multiple times with their faces contorted against the glass. I saw some crazy welfare recipients/street people who seems to hang around all day long. There was one man with breast implants who would show them to us all the time and call them 'jewels of the nile'. I saw one guy who always had a big roll of cash on him who live upstair in the SRO get attacked and robbed. He came into the store with his skull cracked open and blood everywhere. I was physically accosted by Gene Anthony Ray from the fame movie and TV show. It was crazy.

 

[Sandy VDH]

For me... after high school the draft was calling so I joined the Marine Corp in early '66. I went to Air Traffic Control school and spent the next 4 years at various Marine/Navy air bases. After four years of telling officers where to go the FAA was calling so off to FAA ATC school to to learn the government way to move tin. PHX TRACON (radar) and then on to LAS TOWER/TRACON where I was medically retired at 32. Messed around with real estate for a couple of years while deciding what to do going forward. Moved to Idaho and went ISU and got a degree in Computer Science and spent the next 28 years as a programmer on IBM mainframes followed by Wang mini computers then Novel Network followed by Windows networks then moving everything to the WEB. Been retired now for 13 years and we spend our time traveling, mostly cruises. Our last big trip was a cruise out Denmark with stops in Norway followed by 2 weeks in London. After 4 days in London the Queen passed away and blew up our planned tour but was replaced by much history which was very interesting. We can always go back but seeing history was exciting. Upcoming trip to Athens and a 14 day MED cruise to Rome followed by a 14 day Caribbean early next year. We fill in with timeshare stays in Arizona and Florida but the last two or three years have been much cooler than we like so we try to go to warmer cruise locations. Now starting to slow down and down size, mountain cabin is gone, our winter home in Sun City West is now gone, down to 1 vehicle... getting old is not for sissies.

Hey Ed, how are you and Buddy doing?

 

[Patri]

Some jobs overlap:
dime store clerk/lifeguard
stay-at-home mom 23 years
journalist 14 years
adjunct communications professor 11 years

 

[PcflEZFlng]

High school: Delivered newspapers for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Called 'paperboy' in those days. Then I worked for three years at Big Bear Markets in San Diego (any locals remember that chain?), starting out as a boxboy (yup, called that then), then cashier. I made enough $ to pay for college and a car.

My first career was as a research meteorologist, with an undergraduate degree from San Jose State and my graduate degree from Colorado State, working at the U.S. Dept. of Commerce (NOAA). I was there for seven years. The work was fascinating and I loved it, but my wife and I missed California, and our families, tremendously. Much of what I did was computer programming, so it was easy to transition to my next and final career.

I was in IT for more than 30 years, doing programming, database design, business analysis, resource management, and project management. Worked for a number of companies in aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing, and healthcare. I retired from Sharp Healthcare in San Diego six years ago at age 60, but was called back the following year to work part-time on a project. Sharp was a great company to work for.

It's been four and-a-half years now in retirement, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Was grateful not to be working during the pandemic.

 

[EZ-ED]

Hey Ed, how are you and Buddy doing?

We are doing fine, although I recently realized that (for me) I have more doctors than I do friends. I need to work on that.