In my life I have never experienced having an unusual job, but I have had one that I really enjoyed. Two years ago me and my friend, Haley, decided we wanted to get a job at a ski resort close to our house called, Sno Mountain. We worked in the rental shop and made $8.00 per hour. The both of us became really close with all of the people who work there. It was never bad going to work because everyone was such good friends and got alone. A memory that is most memorable to me is involving my other friend, Brad, who also works there. Once every ski season the mountain hosts Coors Light Night. There are Coors Light girls working beer vendors and it is supposed to be fun if you are 21. You are only allowed in the restaurant bar area on this night if you are 21.Being that my friend is not 21, Haley and I dared him to sneak into the bar and get served. He somehow managed to get into the bar area, but right as he was walking up to the bar my supervisor stopped him and flipped out. He took him back to the rental shop and handcuffed him to a pole for the rest of the night so he did not have to worry what he was doing. That was probably my best memory of working at the mountain and we all still laugh about it to this day.
Well my first real job was pretty unusual. I worked as a party host at a indoor moon bounce place called Jump City. My wage was 7.40 an hour which was way too low but I was 15 so it was better than allowance. The thing I remember the most was being pretty good at hosting parties and always getting $10-20 tips per party I hosted and I did 3-5 parties a day, which was pretty decent. Other than that my boss at the time was horrible and made me do all the crappy work that on one else wanted to do cause I was the youngest person and the newest person that worked there at the time.
I've only had one real job during my life and it came the summer before entering college. I was a cook at an Irish restaurant/pub. I made 12 dollars an hour to start off then it went up to 14 after I worked there for a month. Since I was the youngest person working there I always had to do the dirtiest messiest jobs after cooking the food. When the dishwashers weren't there or were late they would make me wash the dishes, take out the trash and clean up after everyone. Although I liked cooking all the different foods on the menu, I was always given the worst hours possible. I always had to work till close which sometimes wasn't until two in the morning. The only thing that I remember the most from working there was when some guy ordered steak and he sent it back four times and the last time one of the other cooks spit in the food because the customer wanted to talk to the cooks and he yelled at the guy. My job was kind of interesting and unusual but nothing over the top.
For about three years I worked in a grocery store, which is pretty usual but my job there was rather peculiar. I was in charge of the newly added Grocery Valet service. When customers finished shopping and paid, they would take their carts to a fridge at the front of the store. From there they would get their car and me and my crew would load the groceries into their car. It was simple enough for $7.50 an hour. I also had to walk around and ask nearly every customer, of course targeting a certain few audiences (old, moms, fat..ya know), if they were interested in using the unnecessary service. I had a whole spiel that they taught me that I put in my own words above. This was probably and hopefully the weirdest and worst job I'll ever have.
I really haven’t had an odd job since I started working in high school, but I can recall the first job I had. The first real job I had been working at Walgreens. I absolutely hated it. I just hated the corporation feel to the job, but it was money and no one was really hiring. I worked the cash register most of the time; I stocked shelves and unloaded the trucks. I was always busy and deserved more then minimum wage at 7.25. One of the memories I have from that job is how every Sunday morning the store would be filled with very old people. They always had handfuls of coupons. After they were done shopping they came to the counter and I would ring them up. Then they would proceed to yell at me while I was scanning their coupons. They made sure I got every last one. Then they would pay with exact change to the penny. It was terrible because by that time the line would be 15 customers long and everyone would be angry. This was the worst job I ever had and I vowed I would never work for a corporation like that again.
I had only one unusual job in my life. I was very young for having a job, but my Aunt landed me my first job at a Polish Deli at my local Farmer Market. It came completely out of no where, and the next day I was working. I was 12-12 years old and they had me cut loaves of bread throughout the day with a bread slicing machine. It was very easy, all I had to do was put a loaf of bread in the machine, wait a few seconds, and then bag it up and put it out front for people to buy. It was bad for the first few days, but it slowly started to get weird around there. There were fishheads being cut off and it was very gruesome to see right in front of my face, also the place seemed to be a little unsanitary. On one of my last days there I was told to go out to a truck and pick up more loaves of bread to cut. I walked out back, and went into the truck where there were boxes of bread. The door was opened, and as I walked into the truck, 10-15 black crows were pecking at the loaves of bread. I screamed and waved my arms to get them out of there, but it did not work. I thought I was in the movie "Birds" and my eyes were going to be pecked out. When I went back inside I told them the situation, and they said to just grabbed the loaves that were pecked at by the birds. Gross. I soon started to never answer their calls to avoid working there, and it worked. Definetily a good experience to get me out in the working world though.
When I was about twelve years old, I worked as the cashier at a Chinese restaurant once or twice a week. Being that I was technically too young to be working there, I was paid under the table, earning $9.25 per hour. It was great. In retrospect, it is clear that the owner, John, was being extremely generous, possibly because I rarely worked more than 3 hours a night. It is also likely that he granted me this favor because John knew my family and me fairly well; we had been loyal customers for years and the majority of the kids in my big “family” (consisting of my actual family, our neighbors, the Cohens, and our very good family friends, the Baylors) held a position there at some point over the years. The job at the restaurant originally belonged to the youngest of the Baylors, Dave, when he was hired as a dishwasher there. Dave eventually became very busy with school and recruited my neighbor, Ben, to take his place. Ben eventually grew tired of the job and offered it to his younger sister, Liz. Liz had no interest whatsoever in taking the job. Thus, Ben sought out my responsible older sister, Leah, and Leah was happy to accept. However, because she was a girl and they did not want to make a girl wash dishes, she was automatically pushed up to cashier, and worked there for a fairly long time. Then Leah eventually had to leave, and offered me the position. It was summer and I went to day camp, but my house was boring and I was never willing to end my day when the bus dropped me off in the afternoon, so I was also happy to accept the job and earn a little extra money. My mom agreed to let me work solely because most of the things my friends wanted to do involved spending money, and she knew how much I didn’t like spending any money she gave me. Yet as a twelve year old with full-time working parents I did not have the means of transportation to get to work on a regular basis, so I mainly worked Sunday nights and maybe one or two other nights during the week if they needed someone and I could get a ride over. When school started in the fall, transportation became even more difficult and, as my exciting middle school life rose higher and higher on my priority list, I became much less motivated to exert extra effort to find it just so I could work in a restaurant. I eventually left the restaurant, and did not have any viable candidates to whom I could pass on the job. At that Chinese restaurant I received amazing pay and free rice, dumplings, soup, and anything else I could make for myself. Beyond that, though we seldom communicated successfully without John, the chefs were some of the sincerely nicest coworkers I’ve ever had, even if they did find my vegetarian diet silly, even trying a few times to convince me chicken doesn’t count as meat. Thinking about my short time there, I almost regret having picked up a job somewhere else when I was in high school!
One of my first jobs this will sound unusual compared to everyone else's most likely. But being a musician performing is a job. I get paid for little gigs both in and out of school. In high school we performed with a choir in a church but it was consisting of most string performers from our high school and another school. We all got paid about $60 each I believe. I have done other gigs that have paid more but to me it is always fun to do side gigs and get paid for it. Eventually that will become a career path. I remember just being really excited for it because it is always fun to perform in gigs especially when you get paid and it gives you something to do on the side if you don't have much to do after school. But also now making it a career I take as many opportunities as I can.
I worked as a lemonade vendor at Six Flags Great Adventure in high school. The pay wasnt that bad. I made 8 dollars an hour but would usually make more because I got commission when I pushed the cart around. I usually had to deal with rude rich people and it was always very hot. One day in particular was a little scary though. The day before the park closed down for the season was mischief night. For some reason, on mischief night, Six Flags would bus in the scummiest people from the tri-state area to come to the park and they called it "gang day". I don't know why Six Flags would do this but people were robbing my cart left and right. My boss told me to just come back to our stand if I felt uncomfotable out in the park. A minute after he told me that 5 really big, sketchy people came up to me to ask me for directions and blatently robbed a bunch of stuff off my cart. I was really glad that I wouldnt be working there as of the next day. Working at Six Flags really makes you not want to back there ever.
I've never had an unusual job, but I used to work at Blue Mountain ski resort in the rental shop and I loved it. I always looked forward to going to work. Even if I wasn't working I was usually out there snowboarding anyway. The first year I worked there I made $5.50 and the second year my pay went up $.10. The pay was terrible but I didn't care because I got a free season pass which normally costs over $500. The second year I was there, I got my best friend to come work with me too. I don't know a single person that didn't enjoy being there, especially since our managers were really cool. Even though I didn't work there this season, I still went back to the rental shop to see all of my friends. All of the same people that I'd worked with the previous years. I'll probably try to work there again sometime before i graduate
I have never had an unusual, but I did work at a summer camp for one summer. It was a pretty fun job and I looked forward to going there. I worked as a counselor and made 600 dollars for the summer. The pay wasn't great, but I was only a counselor and they don't usually get paid a lot. I enjoyed working there because two of my best friends worked there, and I became good friends with everyone I worked with. We all had a lot of fun together, especially when the kids in our bunk had pool time. All of the counselors would get in the pool with them too and we would just play a bunch of crazy games. I only worked there the one summer, but I still see everyone I worked with.
I haven't really had any unusual jobs but my most fun job is the one I currently have. I work at a bar on Penn's campus as a server. I only make usual waitresses salary, $2.85. But that's only because we make tips. I always have fun there and really look forward to going to work. The customers can be pretty crazy sometimes and dealing with drunk people is never really ideal but it is pretty entertaining and I love all of my coworkers. We always make work a fun time, even when things get hectic. I think the most fun I've had there was working beertub for Erin Express. Drinker's was packed but all I had to do was open beer and hand it to people so I got to have fun while doing an easy job that I love. Plus I ended up making really good tips that day.
Every summer, my family and I spend two months at our lake house in the Poconos. This past year, I worked at an ice cream shop called "Arrowhead Ice Cream". I earned $8.50 as a scoop-girl, and my friend Adam worked for an extra $.50 to stand out in the heat in order to attract customers while wearing this giant, smelly ice cream costume. For two weeks out of the summer, Adam had a leave of absence and took a trip to Tennessee. While Adam was off gallavanting in the beautiful state of Tennesee, my boss made me spend those two weeks clad in that heinous, cumbersome mascot costume for roughly three hours everyday. The most memorable aspect of those two weeks was the stench of the double scoop head piece. I would bet on my first born son that the costume had never been washed. It was also incredibly embarrassing. My gag reflex is now shot to hell and I plan to never work at Arrowhead Ice cream. Ever.
I've never really had an unusual job, but I work at a small family pharmacy back at home. It was the first real job I had, and i'm still working there when i go back home from school. Since it's a non-chain pharmacy, all the same people come in, and by now i basically know everyone that comes in by name. It's also basically all older people that come in, and they all are huge gossipers so i basically hear all the drama the these elderly people have. The worst part of my job is dealing with people who are obviously addicted to narcotics, and they come in and yell to get their pills early and such, and theirs nothing we can really do for them and it gets really uncomfortable. Seeing people that are like that daily, and seeing really elderly people that are on so many different medications for health issues gets you really depressed about getting old and it can be a downer. Overall it's a really easy job, and i feel very comfortable around all the people i work with. I get paid 8:50, which i love because its not a complicated job, and the hours are perfect for my schedule.
It seems the only job I can remember really is being a mechanic in the Army. There has been alot of both fun and challenging times there. My favorite time was going to Kuwait for the 3rd time. I went as a guard for some equipment and we actually got to spend some time in a few different countries. The best time was the Week-long layover in Rota, Spain. It was right on the Atlantic Ocean. Although I still had to do 8 hours of work, I had over 8 hours a day to just relax on the beach or go shopping. It was a very old city with lots of history. It was a major militsry installation and had a lot of forts and other old buildings from the Renaissance Period.
The most unusual job that i have ever had was last summer for a company called Vector. They came off as really official sounding business people and they called me for a job interview only about an hour after applying online. They were hiring people as sales people and the product being sold were knives,which actually were pretty good quality. This job was never what they lead people onto and was pretty much a disaster from the beginning. They scheduled me for an office building that was a little more than half an hour away from my house which did not work out because I needed this job strictly for money. They also did not pay me until about two weeks working and received nothing for the amount of training I went through. After training they still wanted me to come to the office twice a week which i never felt like doing. The way the gave out paychecks was based on the amount of houses you went out to and also how much products you sold for that week. If you don't sell basically anything at all you can get 17 dollars a house but much more goes into going to someone's house than meets the eye. One had to start off by going to people's houses they knew first and then work off of references and calling a lot which made me uncomfortable. Overall the experience made me realize that a sales job is not for me and that I should look a lot more into a job before I just take it.
I have never had an unusual job because I have never had a real job. The only jobs i ever did was working with my dad building sheds for my neighbors. Right now i am volunteering with my biology lab TA outing the pine barrens. Its actually pretty cool out there because it is on an army base where they practice dropping bombs from planes so there are dummy bombs all over the place and fake targets setup. to cachet he snakes we dig holes and then put fencing around the snake hole with a trap in it. Then when we catch them we bring them back to the building out there and put transmitters inside them and do surgeries. I have been going out there every weekend for a few weeks which is the longest i have ever done any work. I guess it is pretty unusual since I dig holes and then get to handle snakes while the TA does surgeries. There are not a lot of jobs out there where you get to work with snakes. Its not really a job though since I don't get paid it is more of an activity.
My first job started back in the summer of 2007 after I graduated from the 8th grade. I began working with my father as a mechanic at his auto sales shop and was also the wiz behind the computers and setting up a lot of the technological side of the business. Its been 5 years now and I still work with him in the business. Originally, I started off under the table at 10 dollars an hour, which wasn't bad. Now, my salary ranges due to the fact that profits from the cars we repair and resell are split evenly amongst us. It isn't really a set salary, it all just depends on how many cars I can finish in the week and sell. Usually though, we try to get as much done as possible and push as much work as we can. At the age of 14, there wasn't much I knew besides what I learned from reading in magazines so it was really strange at first considering the work was labor intensive and I was a pretty weak kid. Taking apart suspensions and removing rusted out old bolts seemed a lot simpler when I looked at it than when I actually attempted it. I was way to weak to even break bolts free. Right around this time, I also began playing lacrosse and had to start training and lifting weights in high school however so I started developing my physical strength. All the work really started taking it's toll on me but as the years progressed though, my knowledge and strength expanded and now it's just part of my lifestyle. It does however take out a lot of time from my education, which I learned the hard way in the past term at Drexel University. Realistically though, I need money, and this job pays for Drexel itself, so I don't really have much of a choice. I don't find the job unusual quite honestly, as it's a pretty common thing to do. I mean, auto mechanics are all over. Maybe at the age of 15, it was strange considering how I was just a kid and was putting together cars that people would drive around everyday and even speed in sometimes. Actually, the mere thought of that sounds dangerous. I would be afraid to have a child put together a car my family would drive around. That doesn't go to say that my work wasn't double checked and everything was always re-tightened by my father or the other guys who worked with us, but it is rather funny thinking this was happening at the time. Now, after 5 years though, I double check all the work myself due to the fact I am the second head of the business apart from my father and have more than enough experience. The automotive world has been a part of my family from before my fathers era, and although he was the first one to actually open a business from it and not just have it as a hobby, it is still something that has carried over generation to generation since the automobile was first introduced in Poland over 100 years ago, where my family originated.
I have only really had one job. It was the summer after my senior year of high school. During my work for that company, however, I did eventually change responsibilities, so technically I had two jobs. I worked for a landscaping business that was about a 3-minute drive from my house. My first “job” was to help install irrigation systems, which are the sprinklers that pop up out of the ground. I worked with one other guy. Since I was the new guy, I got to do the things that no one else wanted to do; so needless to say, it was not fun at all. We were able to use a trencher, which is a machine that had a giant chainsaw looking arm on it that would create a trench about 6”wide, and 1’ deep. Despite having this machine, there were still places that it could not be used, like places where there were power lines, or other pipes, so part of my job was to hand dig out those places. On my first day, the foreman told me to dig out a square of the ground to uncover a set of pipes. One of the pipes was a gas line, which was apparently a lot shallower than normal, and improperly marked. They knew this because a previous worker put a hole through it with a pickaxe. He very vaguely gave me these instructions and then left to go get something. Needless to say I was very nervous about hitting the gas line, and thankfully I did not, but this was nothing compared to another event that happened a couple days later. One of the days I was hand digging over a power line so that we could lay piping for the irrigation system. On that day, for some reason, there was a third man on the job. While I was digging, the two men were talking, and they told me that if I were to hit the wire, it would kill me. At first I thought they were joking, but they assured me that they were serious, telling me that they hit a wire like that before with a trencher and it melted three of the teeth off of it. Each tooth is about the size of both of your fists if you stacked them on top of each other, they are also made of solid metal. Once again, I was very nervous while digging. Thankfully, I did not hit the wire. Another one of my jobs was to fill in the trenches after the pipe had been laid. This sounds easy and pretty straightforward, but it isn’t. There is a specific method to filling in the trench depending on how long it is, and where it is. It could be on a hill, or close to a curb or sidewalk. The hardest part was that the foreman kept rushing me to get it done faster, but whenever I would think I was done, the foreman would tell me that it wasn’t good enough and I would have to take longer trying to figure out how to make it better. Sometimes I would get lucky and would have a different foreman on the job with me that was much less particular about how to fill in the trenches; he was much easier to work with. I only had this “job” for two weeks, but it was from 6:30am to 4:30pm every day, and many days I stayed for much longer. It was exhausting and easily the worst two weeks of my life. I still can’t imagine what it must be like for the other workers that have to do this year after year, and more than just two weeks at a time. These people work hard, and have every right to complain about their job. I also do not know how much they make, but I can guarantee it is not enough. My second “job” was much less intense. I would stay behind on the company property and just do odd jobs, or go pick up something that the company ordered. Instead of working 10+ hours a day, I would only work 5 hours, from 9:00am to 2:00pm, and would always get out on time. I would also work, at most, four days a week. This second “job” almost made the first “job” worth it. The key word there is almost. This is the only real job I have ever had, and it was quite a learning experience. Very often, I will walk around campus at Drexel and I will see irrigation sprinklers in the ground, and I remember why I’m in college and to work a little bit harder to get a degree so I will, hopefully, never have to do something like this again.
I should preface this anecdote by clarifying that I was an abnormal teenager who loved working. Granted, I had a fantastic job with unbridled freedom—a solo desk job at a high-end fitness center. This in itself separated me from my peers who were whoring themselves out for tips at the local Friendly’s or reeking of salami at the Italian deli.
I was living the dream, a dream that garnered eight dollars an hour.
Essentially getting paid anything higher than minimum wage is deemed the high-life for the young adult inhabitants of suburbia, and I was one of the lucky few.
I acquired the job my junior year in high school when the gas prices were rising and the inevitable move to the big bad city was in the not-so-distant future. I figured I could earn a hefty lump sum to bring to college with me, because realistically, I wasn’t so big on the “dining hall” notion. Also, doesn’t everyone think they’re going to live on cheese steaks and soft pretzels when they move to Philly?
Regardless, I fondly remember taking on absurdly long shifts (likely not legal) where I’d lug numerous books (because God forbid I got bored) in my backpack. I’d sit at the desk switching between something I should read, The Beautiful and the Damned, and something to cool my brain down, Dear Vodka, It’s me Chelsea. This is a very effective method to completing difficult books.
Reading is an excellent way to pass the time until your stomach starts growling. And anybody with a ravenous appetite like myself will attest to the fact that once the growling starts, it will not under any circumstance halt. Thus I would begin rampant mass text messages to everyone in my contact list begging them to bring me a sandwich.
An aside: Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of sandwiches, but when under such distress as my voracious hunger, sandwiches seem wildly practical.
At this time I would thank the high heavens for my extensive boasting about my job because usually a handful of people would respond, willing to bring me a sandwich in exchange for gym privileges.
Why the hell not?
So realistically, the job was a benefit for everyone. Somebody got to use the gym. I got a sandwich. And the owner had friendly labor.
MY first and only job I had so far was last year as a food runner at a restaurant. The restaurant was called Firestone's and isn't too far from my high school. It's a pretty upscale place, more of a sophisticated date night restaurant than somewhere for families to go for a weeknight dinner. I got the job through a work study course I was in during my senior year of high school. My teacher for the course regarded me pretty well so he had no trouble helping me get the job. The interview went fine and I was pretty excited about working in a real restaurant kitchen. During that time I very wanted to be a chef as a career and had great interest in anything culinary; I was enthused about the job yet very nervous probably even more so. When I started working the nervousness all but grew rather than disappearing. My title for my job was food runner so I was responsible for taking the hot food from the kitchen, which was in the basement, upstairs to give to the waiting staff and often serve to the customers myself. To do so you had to hold a tray. The other runners downstairs and the sous chef Jeff helped me out and taught me how to hold a tray, but practicing walking up a flight of stairs holding a tray with a large tin can on it was surprisingly difficult. The awkwardly oval-shaped didn't fit into the grip of my hands when I first tried it out. Trays are to be held in a way where one has a firm handle of it and also is able to maneuver around with it and such. If you lose your grip or bump into something or just clumsily fumble around with it, you'll drop the tray and pretty much destroy anything that was on it. So it being an upscale restaurant, there was some pretty expensive, high-quality foods on there that couldn't go to waste. The fear of dropping a tray full of delicious, expensive food some snobby people paid for in the middle of a busy and highly populated restaurant frightened me to a great extent. All this nervousness and anxiety I had even before I started really working there. On top of that, I was 20 minutes late to work on the first day of work there. My brother was supposed to give me a ride but he came late. Eventually from me working there long enough, I really became at ease in the work environment and became pretty good at my job. The long hours I had to work stank but the people I was working with in the kitchen were pretty cool and the hours would fly by sometimes. The pay wasn't so bad either $7.25 an hour isn't that great but working 30+ hours during school and 50+ during the summer it added up pretty quickly. Where the real good money came in were in the tips. I got about 2% of what the bar and wait staff got every day I worked and that usually came out to about an extra 80-100 dollars a week in my pocket. All in all, it was a great job I learned a lot about working and having a job and the gains made definitely beat the prices paid.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to work at The Home Depot. I worked as a Lot Associate, which meant that I was to clean the parking lot and complete other random tasks delegated to me. The work wasn't glorious; I pushed carts, swept, carried merchandise, that sort of thing. The customers were odd (a man asked me to reach into his pants once) which always made things interesting, but what struck me most was the employees. Most of them were incredibly bitter, and I guess I can't really blame them. Whenever I had a poor experience, I could always brush it off by telling myself "only two more months..." If I had no other option than to work a cash register for the rest of my life, I'm sure I'd be forced to reevaluate some things. But among the acrimonious bunch there were a select few that loved what they did, or at least appeared to. They knew their circumstances were poor, but in spite of this they refused to treat customers poorly and they always did more than what was expected of them. People like this always put things in perspective; I learned to appreciate not only the opportunity to work at Home Depot, but the fact that I had the ability to do more.
I had a wonderful time at my first on campus job as a server. It was great to be there, everyone was really good and treated me really well as i was 17 years, the youngest student working there. The moment which i consider as the best moment of that time is when all the crew members who were interested had a photograph with a Santa Claus.The Santa Claus gave us candies. I am an international student so this was my first experience of celebrating Christmas in United States. I never had such kind of experience before this. I remember every moment of that time. This was the memorable unusual and wonderful instance happened. The reason why it is that important is because this was the first time i was working in my life. This made a huge difference in my attitude toward my job.
I'm actually a construction worker for my fathers company. Everyone I work with considers me a lazy kid that only got the job because of my dad when I went through every screening and procedure they all did. I have to prove myself on every new job I end up working at because everyone that hears of who I am thinks I'm useless. I do get a decent amount more than all of my friends do, but I do ten times the work. My salary is 33 dollars an hour, and I think from all the lifting I do I say its a fair amount. I work for a company, which means I'll do anything to make sure the job gets done and the company looks good keeping me with a job, unlike the other half of my co-workers. They work with the union, and are just there to get a pay check and leave. They don't care how the job turns out, but still consider me a lazy worker while they're the ones that don't do anything. These are the people I prove myself to. I remember on the hottest day of the summer, it was 103 degrees out, I was working outside lifting 50 pounds of nail filled wood down three flights of stairs at a time, putting them in a container and wheeling over 200 pounds of wood at a time to our dumpster and organizing it accordingly. The reason I remember this so much is because I was working with three other men that were working with me. They were taking down one pice of wood at a quarter of the speed I was taking town 10 pieces of wood. I basically took down over 1,500 pounds of wood and moved it by myself that day, and that proved to everyone on that job that I'm there to make sure everything gets done right. It was the most fulfilling feeling of my life.
“Work” work is what we do to survive in today’s completive fast pass environment. Even at the early stages of our life we our programmed to learn hard, play hard, and work even harder to be the best you can be. Sometimes I believe that society should take some time to step back and and enjoy all the wonders that the world has to offer us we only live life once and it should be to the fullest, we shouldn’t become slaves to our jobs and end living life just to work we should work to live our life’s. I strongly believe in this because I have experienced this phenomenon myself, my father is actually very guilty of this he works hard and has become very successful because of it but the drawback for that is that he doesn’t really have any time to live his life and spend it with the people that he is working hard for. To give you a little back round about my father he came here from India with a degree in electrical engineering being a immigrant my dad had a hard time finding stable jobs he decided to open up a business. So now in the present he has a very successful because that causes him to spend most of his time with he works 6 days a week from 8 to 9 making it very hard for him to get some time to rest and or time to enjoy life to its fullest. Not to say that you shouldn’t work hard you should but always keep in mind that your not just living life to work your working to live a good life. As I said ever since a young age that mind set of working hard has also been programmed into me and I have worked many jobs and done a lot of different things to figure out what I really want to do in life which I also think will help me in the future to have a good balance between work and living my life. One of my biggest passion as a kid was trying to find out how things worked I would take anything apart if you let me get a hold of it, from TVs to computers to cars especially any type of electronics. So I took that passion that I had and decided to figure out what I wanted to do at a very young, I started to work for a company called PC Warehouse and because of my work ethic and the abilities that I had I was able to get the job skipping all the months of training that was actually needed. After 4 years working for that company and other IT related jobs I finally figured out what I wanted to go to school for electrical and computer engineering . IN the end I believe that knowing what you want to do in the future and having a very good interest in it will get you were you want to be in the future and while some people our just figuring things out you will be steps ahead of them and also you will have the ability to live life the way you want to.
I have had very bad luck when it came down to jobs. Before college, I had never actually had a real job. I’ve been applying since I was the age of 14 but still had no luck. I applied to gas stations, restaurants, pizza shops, you name it. It wasn’t’ until a month before college started when I got two job offers. One was at Ihop, and the other was a local grocery store. I was so furious that they waited this long to finally contact me, especially since I applied at the grocery store about 10 times! I figured it was all just a case of bad luck. This trend even continued during the first term of my experience at Drexel. I had applied for several work study jobs over the summer and most of them had already been taken. It wasn’t until the last weeks of the fall term when my curse was broken. I had finally received that special call I was looking forward to for the past four years of my life. I was now the new employee at the Drexel Recreation Center. Working at the Rec. has opened many different doors to what I wanted to pursue. I started off making minimum wage, 7.25 an hour which wasn’t bad for my first job. I worked my first shifts over winter break. During that period the job was very simple, all I had to do was clean the equipment and count how many people we’re using the facility every hour. As time went on, I found myself picking up more shifts to earn a little extra dough. These shifts also required extra tasks such as handing out sports equipment, monitoring the basketball courts, and monitoring the squash courts. On day while I was working the equipment window, I was approached by a guy by name of Matt Friend. Matt is the Club Sports Coordinator for the Drexel Recreation Center. He approached me and out of nowhere offered me 3 extra shifts during the week the supervisor to many of the club sports teams. At first I was a little hesitant to except because I would be working 24 hours a week on top of school, but after some careful consideration I accepted the position. After a couple of weeks working as the club sports supervisor, I got to meet some really down to earth people including players, coaches, and even some friends from the past who have joined the teams. My most memorable experience while working at the Rec. Center would have to be winning the Dragon award. During the winter term a select group of people were nominated by students and staff of the Drexel Rec. Center for demonstrating exceptional work etiquette. I was nominated by Matt Friend because he believed that I really made an impact on the club sports teams. This was a moment where I was really able to be proud of what I had earned and I can easily say that it was my most memorable experience there.
The first real job that I ever had was as a paper delivery boy for The Intelligencer. It was a very hard job to get as a kid because there was such a long waiting list for the job. Once I got my time of glory, I took over two routes. There were a some benefits of the job too, such as scholarship money, car insurance help, and more. I would have to wake up at 5 am everyday. There were no days off unless I went on vacation and got someone to cover for me. I worked the two routes for about 5 years from the time I was 12 to 17. There was no specific pay rate that I would get every paycheck. Instead, I would have to pay for the newspapers myself for a cheaper price, and my customers were charged extra. So I would make somewhere from 20 to 80 cents off each newspaper delivered plus the tips that the customers included in their bills. I made pretty good money doing this as a kid since I saved every dime I earned. I ended up buying my first car with the money I got from my jobs as a child. My favorite part about this job was Christmas time. Everyone would leave me a Christmas card with some cookies or a treat with a hefty tip on the inside, so I made very good money around this time. Overall, the paper boy job was hard and repetitive work, but was completely worth it in the end.
In my life I have never experienced having an unusual job, but I have had one that I really enjoyed. Two years ago me and my friend, Haley, decided we wanted to get a job at a ski resort close to our house called, Sno Mountain. We worked in the rental shop and made $8.00 per hour. The both of us became really close with all of the people who work there. It was never bad going to work because everyone was such good friends and got alone. A memory that is most memorable to me is involving my other friend, Brad, who also works there. Once every ski season the mountain hosts Coors Light Night. There are Coors Light girls working beer vendors and it is supposed to be fun if you are 21. You are only allowed in the restaurant bar area on this night if you are 21.Being that my friend is not 21, Haley and I dared him to sneak into the bar and get served. He somehow managed to get into the bar area, but right as he was walking up to the bar my supervisor stopped him and flipped out. He took him back to the rental shop and handcuffed him to a pole for the rest of the night so he did not have to worry what he was doing. That was probably my best memory of working at the mountain and we all still laugh about it to this day.
ReplyDeleteWell my first real job was pretty unusual. I worked as a party host at a indoor moon bounce place called Jump City. My wage was 7.40 an hour which was way too low but I was 15 so it was better than allowance. The thing I remember the most was being pretty good at hosting parties and always getting $10-20 tips per party I hosted and I did 3-5 parties a day, which was pretty decent. Other than that my boss at the time was horrible and made me do all the crappy work that on one else wanted to do cause I was the youngest person and the newest person that worked there at the time.
ReplyDeleteI've only had one real job during my life and it came the summer before entering college. I was a cook at an Irish restaurant/pub. I made 12 dollars an hour to start off then it went up to 14 after I worked there for a month. Since I was the youngest person working there I always had to do the dirtiest messiest jobs after cooking the food. When the dishwashers weren't there or were late they would make me wash the dishes, take out the trash and clean up after everyone. Although I liked cooking all the different foods on the menu, I was always given the worst hours possible. I always had to work till close which sometimes wasn't until two in the morning. The only thing that I remember the most from working there was when some guy ordered steak and he sent it back four times and the last time one of the other cooks spit in the food because the customer wanted to talk to the cooks and he yelled at the guy. My job was kind of interesting and unusual but nothing over the top.
ReplyDeleteFor about three years I worked in a grocery store, which is pretty usual but my job there was rather peculiar. I was in charge of the newly added Grocery Valet service. When customers finished shopping and paid, they would take their carts to a fridge at the front of the store. From there they would get their car and me and my crew would load the groceries into their car. It was simple enough for $7.50 an hour. I also had to walk around and ask nearly every customer, of course targeting a certain few audiences (old, moms, fat..ya know), if they were interested in using the unnecessary service. I had a whole spiel that they taught me that I put in my own words above. This was probably and hopefully the weirdest and worst job I'll ever have.
ReplyDeleteI really haven’t had an odd job since I started working in high school, but I can recall the first job I had. The first real job I had been working at Walgreens. I absolutely hated it. I just hated the corporation feel to the job, but it was money and no one was really hiring. I worked the cash register most of the time; I stocked shelves and unloaded the trucks. I was always busy and deserved more then minimum wage at 7.25. One of the memories I have from that job is how every Sunday morning the store would be filled with very old people. They always had handfuls of coupons. After they were done shopping they came to the counter and I would ring them up. Then they would proceed to yell at me while I was scanning their coupons. They made sure I got every last one. Then they would pay with exact change to the penny. It was terrible because by that time the line would be 15 customers long and everyone would be angry. This was the worst job I ever had and I vowed I would never work for a corporation like that again.
ReplyDeleteI had only one unusual job in my life. I was very young for having a job, but my Aunt landed me my first job at a Polish Deli at my local Farmer Market. It came completely out of no where, and the next day I was working. I was 12-12 years old and they had me cut loaves of bread throughout the day with a bread slicing machine. It was very easy, all I had to do was put a loaf of bread in the machine, wait a few seconds, and then bag it up and put it out front for people to buy. It was bad for the first few days, but it slowly started to get weird around there. There were fishheads being cut off and it was very gruesome to see right in front of my face, also the place seemed to be a little unsanitary. On one of my last days there I was told to go out to a truck and pick up more loaves of bread to cut. I walked out back, and went into the truck where there were boxes of bread. The door was opened, and as I walked into the truck, 10-15 black crows were pecking at the loaves of bread. I screamed and waved my arms to get them out of there, but it did not work. I thought I was in the movie "Birds" and my eyes were going to be pecked out. When I went back inside I told them the situation, and they said to just grabbed the loaves that were pecked at by the birds. Gross. I soon started to never answer their calls to avoid working there, and it worked. Definetily a good experience to get me out in the working world though.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about twelve years old, I worked as the cashier at a Chinese restaurant once or twice a week. Being that I was technically too young to be working there, I was paid under the table, earning $9.25 per hour. It was great. In retrospect, it is clear that the owner, John, was being extremely generous, possibly because I rarely worked more than 3 hours a night. It is also likely that he granted me this favor because John knew my family and me fairly well; we had been loyal customers for years and the majority of the kids in my big “family” (consisting of my actual family, our neighbors, the Cohens, and our very good family friends, the Baylors) held a position there at some point over the years.
ReplyDeleteThe job at the restaurant originally belonged to the youngest of the Baylors, Dave, when he was hired as a dishwasher there. Dave eventually became very busy with school and recruited my neighbor, Ben, to take his place. Ben eventually grew tired of the job and offered it to his younger sister, Liz. Liz had no interest whatsoever in taking the job. Thus, Ben sought out my responsible older sister, Leah, and Leah was happy to accept. However, because she was a girl and they did not want to make a girl wash dishes, she was automatically pushed up to cashier, and worked there for a fairly long time. Then Leah eventually had to leave, and offered me the position.
It was summer and I went to day camp, but my house was boring and I was never willing to end my day when the bus dropped me off in the afternoon, so I was also happy to accept the job and earn a little extra money. My mom agreed to let me work solely because most of the things my friends wanted to do involved spending money, and she knew how much I didn’t like spending any money she gave me. Yet as a twelve year old with full-time working parents I did not have the means of transportation to get to work on a regular basis, so I mainly worked Sunday nights and maybe one or two other nights during the week if they needed someone and I could get a ride over.
When school started in the fall, transportation became even more difficult and, as my exciting middle school life rose higher and higher on my priority list, I became much less motivated to exert extra effort to find it just so I could work in a restaurant. I eventually left the restaurant, and did not have any viable candidates to whom I could pass on the job.
At that Chinese restaurant I received amazing pay and free rice, dumplings, soup, and anything else I could make for myself. Beyond that, though we seldom communicated successfully without John, the chefs were some of the sincerely nicest coworkers I’ve ever had, even if they did find my vegetarian diet silly, even trying a few times to convince me chicken doesn’t count as meat. Thinking about my short time there, I almost regret having picked up a job somewhere else when I was in high school!
One of my first jobs this will sound unusual compared to everyone else's most likely. But being a musician performing is a job. I get paid for little gigs both in and out of school. In high school we performed with a choir in a church but it was consisting of most string performers from our high school and another school. We all got paid about $60 each I believe. I have done other gigs that have paid more but to me it is always fun to do side gigs and get paid for it. Eventually that will become a career path. I remember just being really excited for it because it is always fun to perform in gigs especially when you get paid and it gives you something to do on the side if you don't have much to do after school. But also now making it a career I take as many opportunities as I can.
ReplyDeleteI worked as a lemonade vendor at Six Flags Great Adventure in high school. The pay wasnt that bad. I made 8 dollars an hour but would usually make more because I got commission when I pushed the cart around. I usually had to deal with rude rich people and it was always very hot. One day in particular was a little scary though. The day before the park closed down for the season was mischief night. For some reason, on mischief night, Six Flags would bus in the scummiest people from the tri-state area to come to the park and they called it "gang day". I don't know why Six Flags would do this but people were robbing my cart left and right. My boss told me to just come back to our stand if I felt uncomfotable out in the park. A minute after he told me that 5 really big, sketchy people came up to me to ask me for directions and blatently robbed a bunch of stuff off my cart. I was really glad that I wouldnt be working there as of the next day. Working at Six Flags really makes you not want to back there ever.
ReplyDeleteI've never had an unusual job, but I used to work at Blue Mountain ski resort in the rental shop and I loved it. I always looked forward to going to work. Even if I wasn't working I was usually out there snowboarding anyway. The first year I worked there I made $5.50 and the second year my pay went up $.10. The pay was terrible but I didn't care because I got a free season pass which normally costs over $500. The second year I was there, I got my best friend to come work with me too. I don't know a single person that didn't enjoy being there, especially since our managers were really cool. Even though I didn't work there this season, I still went back to the rental shop to see all of my friends. All of the same people that I'd worked with the previous years. I'll probably try to work there again sometime before i graduate
ReplyDeleteI have never had an unusual, but I did work at a summer camp for one summer. It was a pretty fun job and I looked forward to going there. I worked as a counselor and made 600 dollars for the summer. The pay wasn't great, but I was only a counselor and they don't usually get paid a lot. I enjoyed working there because two of my best friends worked there, and I became good friends with everyone I worked with. We all had a lot of fun together, especially when the kids in our bunk had pool time. All of the counselors would get in the pool with them too and we would just play a bunch of crazy games. I only worked there the one summer, but I still see everyone I worked with.
ReplyDeleteI haven't really had any unusual jobs but my most fun job is the one I currently have. I work at a bar on Penn's campus as a server. I only make usual waitresses salary, $2.85. But that's only because we make tips. I always have fun there and really look forward to going to work. The customers can be pretty crazy sometimes and dealing with drunk people is never really ideal but it is pretty entertaining and I love all of my coworkers. We always make work a fun time, even when things get hectic. I think the most fun I've had there was working beertub for Erin Express. Drinker's was packed but all I had to do was open beer and hand it to people so I got to have fun while doing an easy job that I love. Plus I ended up making really good tips that day.
ReplyDeleteEvery summer, my family and I spend two months at our lake house in the Poconos. This past year, I worked at an ice cream shop called "Arrowhead Ice Cream". I earned $8.50 as a scoop-girl, and my friend Adam worked for an extra $.50 to stand out in the heat in order to attract customers while wearing this giant, smelly ice cream costume. For two weeks out of the summer, Adam had a leave of absence and took a trip to Tennessee. While Adam was off gallavanting in the beautiful state of Tennesee, my boss made me spend those two weeks clad in that heinous, cumbersome mascot costume for roughly three hours everyday. The most memorable aspect of those two weeks was the stench of the double scoop head piece. I would bet on my first born son that the costume had never been washed. It was also incredibly embarrassing. My gag reflex is now shot to hell and I plan to never work at Arrowhead Ice cream. Ever.
ReplyDeleteI've never really had an unusual job, but I work at a small family pharmacy back at home. It was the first real job I had, and i'm still working there when i go back home from school. Since it's a non-chain pharmacy, all the same people come in, and by now i basically know everyone that comes in by name. It's also basically all older people that come in, and they all are huge gossipers so i basically hear all the drama the these elderly people have. The worst part of my job is dealing with people who are obviously addicted to narcotics, and they come in and yell to get their pills early and such, and theirs nothing we can really do for them and it gets really uncomfortable. Seeing people that are like that daily, and seeing really elderly people that are on so many different medications for health issues gets you really depressed about getting old and it can be a downer. Overall it's a really easy job, and i feel very comfortable around all the people i work with. I get paid 8:50, which i love because its not a complicated job, and the hours are perfect for my schedule.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the only job I can remember really is being a mechanic in the Army. There has been alot of both fun and challenging times there. My favorite time was going to Kuwait for the 3rd time. I went as a guard for some equipment and we actually got to spend some time in a few different countries. The best time was the Week-long layover in Rota, Spain. It was right on the Atlantic Ocean. Although I still had to do 8 hours of work, I had over 8 hours a day to just relax on the beach or go shopping. It was a very old city with lots of history. It was a major militsry installation and had a lot of forts and other old buildings from the Renaissance Period.
ReplyDeleteThe most unusual job that i have ever had was last summer for a company called Vector. They came off as really official sounding business people and they called me for a job interview only about an hour after applying online. They were hiring people as sales people and the product being sold were knives,which actually were pretty good quality. This job was never what they lead people onto and was pretty much a disaster from the beginning. They scheduled me for an office building that was a little more than half an hour away from my house which did not work out because I needed this job strictly for money. They also did not pay me until about two weeks working and received nothing for the amount of training I went through. After training they still wanted me to come to the office twice a week which i never felt like doing. The way the gave out paychecks was based on the amount of houses you went out to and also how much products you sold for that week. If you don't sell basically anything at all you can get 17 dollars a house but much more goes into going to someone's house than meets the eye. One had to start off by going to people's houses they knew first and then work off of references and calling a lot which made me uncomfortable. Overall the experience made me realize that a sales job is not for me and that I should look a lot more into a job before I just take it.
ReplyDeleteI have never had an unusual job because I have never had a real job. The only jobs i ever did was working with my dad building sheds for my neighbors. Right now i am volunteering with my biology lab TA outing the pine barrens. Its actually pretty cool out there because it is on an army base where they practice dropping bombs from planes so there are dummy bombs all over the place and fake targets setup. to cachet he snakes we dig holes and then put fencing around the snake hole with a trap in it. Then when we catch them we bring them back to the building out there and put transmitters inside them and do surgeries. I have been going out there every weekend for a few weeks which is the longest i have ever done any work. I guess it is pretty unusual since I dig holes and then get to handle snakes while the TA does surgeries. There are not a lot of jobs out there where you get to work with snakes. Its not really a job though since I don't get paid it is more of an activity.
ReplyDeleteMy first job started back in the summer of 2007 after I graduated from the 8th grade. I began working with my father as a mechanic at his auto sales shop and was also the wiz behind the computers and setting up a lot of the technological side of the business. Its been 5 years now and I still work with him in the business. Originally, I started off under the table at 10 dollars an hour, which wasn't bad. Now, my salary ranges due to the fact that profits from the cars we repair and resell are split evenly amongst us. It isn't really a set salary, it all just depends on how many cars I can finish in the week and sell. Usually though, we try to get as much done as possible and push as much work as we can. At the age of 14, there wasn't much I knew besides what I learned from reading in magazines so it was really strange at first considering the work was labor intensive and I was a pretty weak kid. Taking apart suspensions and removing rusted out old bolts seemed a lot simpler when I looked at it than when I actually attempted it. I was way to weak to even break bolts free. Right around this time, I also began playing lacrosse and had to start training and lifting weights in high school however so I started developing my physical strength. All the work really started taking it's toll on me but as the years progressed though, my knowledge and strength expanded and now it's just part of my lifestyle. It does however take out a lot of time from my education, which I learned the hard way in the past term at Drexel University. Realistically though, I need money, and this job pays for Drexel itself, so I don't really have much of a choice. I don't find the job unusual quite honestly, as it's a pretty common thing to do. I mean, auto mechanics are all over. Maybe at the age of 15, it was strange considering how I was just a kid and was putting together cars that people would drive around everyday and even speed in sometimes. Actually, the mere thought of that sounds dangerous. I would be afraid to have a child put together a car my family would drive around. That doesn't go to say that my work wasn't double checked and everything was always re-tightened by my father or the other guys who worked with us, but it is rather funny thinking this was happening at the time. Now, after 5 years though, I double check all the work myself due to the fact I am the second head of the business apart from my father and have more than enough experience. The automotive world has been a part of my family from before my fathers era, and although he was the first one to actually open a business from it and not just have it as a hobby, it is still something that has carried over generation to generation since the automobile was first introduced in Poland over 100 years ago, where my family originated.
ReplyDeleteI have only really had one job. It was the summer after my senior year of high school. During my work for that company, however, I did eventually change responsibilities, so technically I had two jobs. I worked for a landscaping business that was about a 3-minute drive from my house. My first “job” was to help install irrigation systems, which are the sprinklers that pop up out of the ground. I worked with one other guy. Since I was the new guy, I got to do the things that no one else wanted to do; so needless to say, it was not fun at all. We were able to use a trencher, which is a machine that had a giant chainsaw looking arm on it that would create a trench about 6”wide, and 1’ deep. Despite having this machine, there were still places that it could not be used, like places where there were power lines, or other pipes, so part of my job was to hand dig out those places. On my first day, the foreman told me to dig out a square of the ground to uncover a set of pipes. One of the pipes was a gas line, which was apparently a lot shallower than normal, and improperly marked. They knew this because a previous worker put a hole through it with a pickaxe. He very vaguely gave me these instructions and then left to go get something. Needless to say I was very nervous about hitting the gas line, and thankfully I did not, but this was nothing compared to another event that happened a couple days later. One of the days I was hand digging over a power line so that we could lay piping for the irrigation system. On that day, for some reason, there was a third man on the job. While I was digging, the two men were talking, and they told me that if I were to hit the wire, it would kill me. At first I thought they were joking, but they assured me that they were serious, telling me that they hit a wire like that before with a trencher and it melted three of the teeth off of it. Each tooth is about the size of both of your fists if you stacked them on top of each other, they are also made of solid metal. Once again, I was very nervous while digging. Thankfully, I did not hit the wire. Another one of my jobs was to fill in the trenches after the pipe had been laid. This sounds easy and pretty straightforward, but it isn’t. There is a specific method to filling in the trench depending on how long it is, and where it is. It could be on a hill, or close to a curb or sidewalk. The hardest part was that the foreman kept rushing me to get it done faster, but whenever I would think I was done, the foreman would tell me that it wasn’t good enough and I would have to take longer trying to figure out how to make it better. Sometimes I would get lucky and would have a different foreman on the job with me that was much less particular about how to fill in the trenches; he was much easier to work with. I only had this “job” for two weeks, but it was from 6:30am to 4:30pm every day, and many days I stayed for much longer. It was exhausting and easily the worst two weeks of my life. I still can’t imagine what it must be like for the other workers that have to do this year after year, and more than just two weeks at a time. These people work hard, and have every right to complain about their job. I also do not know how much they make, but I can guarantee it is not enough. My second “job” was much less intense. I would stay behind on the company property and just do odd jobs, or go pick up something that the company ordered. Instead of working 10+ hours a day, I would only work 5 hours, from 9:00am to 2:00pm, and would always get out on time. I would also work, at most, four days a week. This second “job” almost made the first “job” worth it. The key word there is almost. This is the only real job I have ever had, and it was quite a learning experience. Very often, I will walk around campus at Drexel and I will see irrigation sprinklers in the ground, and I remember why I’m in college and to work a little bit harder to get a degree so I will, hopefully, never have to do something like this again.
ReplyDeleteI should preface this anecdote by clarifying that I was an abnormal teenager who loved working. Granted, I had a fantastic job with unbridled freedom—a solo desk job at a high-end fitness center. This in itself separated me from my peers who were whoring themselves out for tips at the local Friendly’s or reeking of salami at the Italian deli.
ReplyDeleteI was living the dream, a dream that garnered eight dollars an hour.
Essentially getting paid anything higher than minimum wage is deemed the high-life for the young adult inhabitants of suburbia, and I was one of the lucky few.
I acquired the job my junior year in high school when the gas prices were rising and the inevitable move to the big bad city was in the not-so-distant future. I figured I could earn a hefty lump sum to bring to college with me, because realistically, I wasn’t so big on the “dining hall” notion. Also, doesn’t everyone think they’re going to live on cheese steaks and soft pretzels when they move to Philly?
Regardless, I fondly remember taking on absurdly long shifts (likely not legal) where I’d lug numerous books (because God forbid I got bored) in my backpack. I’d sit at the desk switching between something I should read, The Beautiful and the Damned, and something to cool my brain down, Dear Vodka, It’s me Chelsea. This is a very effective method to completing difficult books.
Reading is an excellent way to pass the time until your stomach starts growling. And anybody with a ravenous appetite like myself will attest to the fact that once the growling starts, it will not under any circumstance halt. Thus I would begin rampant mass text messages to everyone in my contact list begging them to bring me a sandwich.
An aside: Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of sandwiches, but when under such distress as my voracious hunger, sandwiches seem wildly practical.
At this time I would thank the high heavens for my extensive boasting about my job because usually a handful of people would respond, willing to bring me a sandwich in exchange for gym privileges.
Why the hell not?
So realistically, the job was a benefit for everyone. Somebody got to use the gym. I got a sandwich. And the owner had friendly labor.
Win, win.
MY first and only job I had so far was last year as a food runner at a restaurant. The restaurant was called Firestone's and isn't too far from my high school. It's a pretty upscale place, more of a sophisticated date night restaurant than somewhere for families to go for a weeknight dinner. I got the job through a work study course I was in during my senior year of high school. My teacher for the course regarded me pretty well so he had no trouble helping me get the job. The interview went fine and I was pretty excited about working in a real restaurant kitchen. During that time I very wanted to be a chef as a career and had great interest in anything culinary; I was enthused about the job yet very nervous probably even more so. When I started working the nervousness all but grew rather than disappearing. My title for my job was food runner so I was responsible for taking the hot food from the kitchen, which was in the basement, upstairs to give to the waiting staff and often serve to the customers myself. To do so you had to hold a tray. The other runners downstairs and the sous chef Jeff helped me out and taught me how to hold a tray, but practicing walking up a flight of stairs holding a tray with a large tin can on it was surprisingly difficult. The awkwardly oval-shaped didn't fit into the grip of my hands when I first tried it out. Trays are to be held in a way where one has a firm handle of it and also is able to maneuver around with it and such. If you lose your grip or bump into something or just clumsily fumble around with it, you'll drop the tray and pretty much destroy anything that was on it. So it being an upscale restaurant, there was some pretty expensive, high-quality foods on there that couldn't go to waste. The fear of dropping a tray full of delicious, expensive food some snobby people paid for in the middle of a busy and highly populated restaurant frightened me to a great extent. All this nervousness and anxiety I had even before I started really working there. On top of that, I was 20 minutes late to work on the first day of work there. My brother was supposed to give me a ride but he came late. Eventually from me working there long enough, I really became at ease in the work environment and became pretty good at my job. The long hours I had to work stank but the people I was working with in the kitchen were pretty cool and the hours would fly by sometimes. The pay wasn't so bad either $7.25 an hour isn't that great but working 30+ hours during school and 50+ during the summer it added up pretty quickly. Where the real good money came in were in the tips. I got about 2% of what the bar and wait staff got every day I worked and that usually came out to about an extra 80-100 dollars a week in my pocket. All in all, it was a great job I learned a lot about working and having a job and the gains made definitely beat the prices paid.
ReplyDeleteLast summer, I had the opportunity to work at The Home Depot. I worked as a Lot Associate, which meant that I was to clean the parking lot and complete other random tasks delegated to me. The work wasn't glorious; I pushed carts, swept, carried merchandise, that sort of thing. The customers were odd (a man asked me to reach into his pants once) which always made things interesting, but what struck me most was the employees. Most of them were incredibly bitter, and I guess I can't really blame them. Whenever I had a poor experience, I could always brush it off by telling myself "only two more months..." If I had no other option than to work a cash register for the rest of my life, I'm sure I'd be forced to reevaluate some things. But among the acrimonious bunch there were a select few that loved what they did, or at least appeared to. They knew their circumstances were poor, but in spite of this they refused to treat customers poorly and they always did more than what was expected of them. People like this always put things in perspective; I learned to appreciate not only the opportunity to work at Home Depot, but the fact that I had the ability to do more.
ReplyDeleteI had a wonderful time at my first on campus job as a server. It was great to be there, everyone was really good and treated me really well as i was 17 years, the youngest student working there. The moment which i consider as the best moment of that time is when all the crew members who were interested had a photograph with a Santa Claus.The Santa Claus gave us candies. I am an international student so this was my first experience of celebrating Christmas in United States. I never had such kind of experience before this. I remember every moment of that time. This was the memorable unusual and wonderful instance happened. The reason why it is that important is because this was the first time i was working in my life. This made a huge difference in my attitude toward my job.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually a construction worker for my fathers company. Everyone I work with considers me a lazy kid that only got the job because of my dad when I went through every screening and procedure they all did. I have to prove myself on every new job I end up working at because everyone that hears of who I am thinks I'm useless. I do get a decent amount more than all of my friends do, but I do ten times the work. My salary is 33 dollars an hour, and I think from all the lifting I do I say its a fair amount. I work for a company, which means I'll do anything to make sure the job gets done and the company looks good keeping me with a job, unlike the other half of my co-workers. They work with the union, and are just there to get a pay check and leave. They don't care how the job turns out, but still consider me a lazy worker while they're the ones that don't do anything. These are the people I prove myself to. I remember on the hottest day of the summer, it was 103 degrees out, I was working outside lifting 50 pounds of nail filled wood down three flights of stairs at a time, putting them in a container and wheeling over 200 pounds of wood at a time to our dumpster and organizing it accordingly. The reason I remember this so much is because I was working with three other men that were working with me. They were taking down one pice of wood at a quarter of the speed I was taking town 10 pieces of wood. I basically took down over 1,500 pounds of wood and moved it by myself that day, and that proved to everyone on that job that I'm there to make sure everything gets done right. It was the most fulfilling feeling of my life.
ReplyDelete“Work” work is what we do to survive in today’s completive fast pass environment. Even at the early stages of our life we our programmed to learn hard, play hard, and work even harder to be the best you can be. Sometimes I believe that society should take some time to step back and and enjoy all the wonders that the world has to offer us we only live life once and it should be to the fullest, we shouldn’t become slaves to our jobs and end living life just to work we should work to live our life’s. I strongly believe in this because I have experienced this phenomenon myself, my father is actually very guilty of this he works hard and has become very successful because of it but the drawback for that is that he doesn’t really have any time to live his life and spend it with the people that he is working hard for. To give you a little back round about my father he came here from India with a degree in electrical engineering being a immigrant my dad had a hard time finding stable jobs he decided to open up a business. So now in the present he has a very successful because that causes him to spend most of his time with he works 6 days a week from 8 to 9 making it very hard for him to get some time to rest and or time to enjoy life to its fullest. Not to say that you shouldn’t work hard you should but always keep in mind that your not just living life to work your working to live a good life. As I said ever since a young age that mind set of working hard has also been programmed into me and I have worked many jobs and done a lot of different things to figure out what I really want to do in life which I also think will help me in the future to have a good balance between work and living my life. One of my biggest passion as a kid was trying to find out how things worked I would take anything apart if you let me get a hold of it, from TVs to computers to cars especially any type of electronics. So I took that passion that I had and decided to figure out what I wanted to do at a very young, I started to work for a company called PC Warehouse and because of my work ethic and the abilities that I had I was able to get the job skipping all the months of training that was actually needed. After 4 years working for that company and other IT related jobs I finally figured out what I wanted to go to school for electrical and computer engineering . IN the end I believe that knowing what you want to do in the future and having a very good interest in it will get you were you want to be in the future and while some people our just figuring things out you will be steps ahead of them and also you will have the ability to live life the way you want to.
ReplyDeleteI have had very bad luck when it came down to jobs. Before college, I had never actually had a real job. I’ve been applying since I was the age of 14 but still had no luck. I applied to gas stations, restaurants, pizza shops, you name it. It wasn’t’ until a month before college started when I got two job offers. One was at Ihop, and the other was a local grocery store. I was so furious that they waited this long to finally contact me, especially since I applied at the grocery store about 10 times! I figured it was all just a case of bad luck. This trend even continued during the first term of my experience at Drexel. I had applied for several work study jobs over the summer and most of them had already been taken. It wasn’t until the last weeks of the fall term when my curse was broken. I had finally received that special call I was looking forward to for the past four years of my life. I was now the new employee at the Drexel Recreation Center. Working at the Rec. has opened many different doors to what I wanted to pursue. I started off making minimum wage, 7.25 an hour which wasn’t bad for my first job. I worked my first shifts over winter break. During that period the job was very simple, all I had to do was clean the equipment and count how many people we’re using the facility every hour. As time went on, I found myself picking up more shifts to earn a little extra dough. These shifts also required extra tasks such as handing out sports equipment, monitoring the basketball courts, and monitoring the squash courts. On day while I was working the equipment window, I was approached by a guy by name of Matt Friend. Matt is the Club Sports Coordinator for the Drexel Recreation Center. He approached me and out of nowhere offered me 3 extra shifts during the week the supervisor to many of the club sports teams. At first I was a little hesitant to except because I would be working 24 hours a week on top of school, but after some careful consideration I accepted the position. After a couple of weeks working as the club sports supervisor, I got to meet some really down to earth people including players, coaches, and even some friends from the past who have joined the teams. My most memorable experience while working at the Rec. Center would have to be winning the Dragon award. During the winter term a select group of people were nominated by students and staff of the Drexel Rec. Center for demonstrating exceptional work etiquette. I was nominated by Matt Friend because he believed that I really made an impact on the club sports teams. This was a moment where I was really able to be proud of what I had earned and I can easily say that it was my most memorable experience there.
ReplyDeleteThe first real job that I ever had was as a paper delivery boy for The Intelligencer. It was a very hard job to get as a kid because there was such a long waiting list for the job. Once I got my time of glory, I took over two routes. There were a some benefits of the job too, such as scholarship money, car insurance help, and more. I would have to wake up at 5 am everyday. There were no days off unless I went on vacation and got someone to cover for me. I worked the two routes for about 5 years from the time I was 12 to 17. There was no specific pay rate that I would get every paycheck. Instead, I would have to pay for the newspapers myself for a cheaper price, and my customers were charged extra. So I would make somewhere from 20 to 80 cents off each newspaper delivered plus the tips that the customers included in their bills. I made pretty good money doing this as a kid since I saved every dime I earned. I ended up buying my first car with the money I got from my jobs as a child. My favorite part about this job was Christmas time. Everyone would leave me a Christmas card with some cookies or a treat with a hefty tip on the inside, so I made very good money around this time. Overall, the paper boy job was hard and repetitive work, but was completely worth it in the end.
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