What jobs have you had?
Today’s prompt asks what jobs have I had. For the last 31 years, I was a college professor, teaching a variety of courses in Theatre, Mass Communication, Speech Communication, and English Literature. Not to mention creating a certificate program in Arts Entrepreneurship.
But before the PhD—and even during my pursuit of that degree—I had some not-so-academic jobs. Early on there was gas station attendant (when people did not pump their own gas), busboy, and shoe salesman. Eventually I made it to my first real and long-term full time job: janitor.
During the time period between starting college and then finally graduating with the doctorate, I also had a work study job in the Temple U library, and also work study and assistantships doing tech theatre. I much preferred the assistantships as Teaching Assistant, both at OSU (Intro to Theatre) and Berkeley (Stagecraft).
Between degrees, I worked as a seasonal employee at Toys ‘R’ Us and as an arts camp counselor. And between Berkeley assistantships, I also worked as a Kelly Services employee, doing xeroxing and data entry. One summer I served as Box Office manager for Shakespeare Santa Cruz
My CV also lists “multimedia consultant,” planning some product videos as well as “free-lance writer,” which was writing PSAs for a local historic organization. While I actually did these things, they serve more to show I had no time gaps in my work history, even while earning little money.
But what did I earn overall? I should say rather, Learn. Many of these positions provided knowledge and experience for my time as a professor. I need to design and build the set? Okay! I need to set up a box office and sell tickets? No problem! I need to design a course? Done!
I often say no experience is ever wasted, though other than a few anecdotes, the data entry job was just a job—though I was working in Emeryville, California, close to where Pixar was as the time.
How about your favorite or least favorite job? Put it in the comments, and please like and follow!
MUSOFYR 
I loved how you shared your experiences of learning. I agree that each experience we have whether or not it is “career” related, touches us in a way that impacts us in some way for ourselves, or to others. My favorite job was being a lifeguard. Every day, I asked myself, I get paid for this? Same really goes for my first job in academia as an off-campus job coordinator at Stevens Insitute of Technology. When I became director of career services, it became more of a chore, because of the responsibilities it carried. My least favorite? Oh my, it was working for an employment agency. I suffered there for one year. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
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