# Does your first "real" job even exist anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 16, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303 "2014-07-16T21:30:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/41 "2014-07-17T04:40:31Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > However, there are a lot fewer of them than there were in your day. > > At corporate-owed (i.e. Clear Channel) stations in medium markets on up, a DJ will typically appear on the airwaves of at least two or three different stations under different names. > > He or she can “track” a four-hour air shift in about a half hour by reading their pre-determined song intros and outros one after the other, then letting a computer stitch everything together and spit it back out. > > Just about the only “live” DJs in all but the largest markets are heard on morning shows. Everything else is canned. > > In my market, the last and only station that actually had a real human being who gathered local news and reported it on the air fired that person a few weeks ago. It’s a Clear Channel station, of course. > > Welcome to “radio” in the 21st century…what a joke. > > ETA: I didn’t realize that jtur88 had already told essentially the same story. Is Sacramento a large market? The only station I listen to has full time DJs on every daytime and early evening shift. They don’t have news readers, though. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/42 "2014-07-17T05:21:15Z")
You mean Draftsman? Don’t think so. Even in 1973, we were shown a 16mm film about a GM (world’s largest company, the definition of "Blue Chip) computer which could rotate a part on any axis, adjust dimensions, and print out the blueprints. CAD-CAM preceded micro computers by many years. I still (40+ yrs later) have a copy of a 50-part steering gear I drew. Yes, every part is shown and labelled. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/43 "2014-07-17T05:21:52Z")
My first ever job was shelving books in a public library, so people are still needed to do that. But I’d be surprised if my next job, as a ledger clerk, exists to any appreciable extent if at all. I worked for a magazine distribution firm entering all the wholesaler returns in a big book, using a red pencil. Obviously both these were part time jobs. My first full-time professional job, with a required university degree, was as a subject indexer in insurance law. I imagine some publishers still use human indexers for this work; all the nuances of the job can’t be programmed, at least not yet. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/44 "2014-07-17T05:37:06Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Is Sacramento a large market? The only station I listen to has full time DJs on every daytime and early evening shift. They don’t have news readers, though. I would say “yes” to your question. A quick search revealed a source that lists 286 radio markets in the U.S. Sacramento is ranked #27. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/45 "2014-07-17T07:00:19Z")
Sales associate at a southern department store chain which is still in existence. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/46 "2014-07-17T07:59:46Z")
For my first ‘here’s a paycheck’ job I worked for two years at university as an hourly grader. Not quite a TA, as I was still an undergraduate, but grad students and the occasional undergrad were assigned to the big survey classes to do all of the essay-exam marking. I think I did Western Civ a couple of times, a survey on the History of England to 1715, a US Women in History class, and my fave, Roman Sports and Entertainment (partly because I like the topic, and partly because the professor was awesome. He was my bridesmaid years later. Funny old world.) Right around the same time I was also placed as a work-study student in the library (assistant to the head of library’s PA, so effectively a gopher, file clerk, write-up-the-head-librarian’s-love-letters-to-the-guy-she-was-seeing-at-conferences, &c.) Graders/TAs still exist as I have such minions currently assisting me. I’m sure there are still work-study gophers/transcriptionists in the library. First real full time job was university lecturing. I’m not at that university anymore, but most of the classes I taught are still on the books and taught by other staff. Strangely, I designed and wrote a number of modules currently on the books at my now-uni about three years or so before I started to teach here (as an outside contractor; they were in the process of creating a new major, I knew the head of department, and he asked if I could knock together some modules dedicated to this new pathway so that they’d have something to present in the validation process. Couple years later when the programme was about to launch, they realised they had all of these fab modules on the books, students signed up to take them, but no one to teach them. That was an interesting email to get at 5am one morning…) ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/47 "2014-07-17T08:37:05Z")
My first job was a school holiday shop assistant job in a deli and that job still exists. My first job after leaving school, however, was a Girl Friday. I’m pretty sure that job and its successor, stenographer, have been confined to the occupational dustbin of history. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/48 "2014-07-17T12:02:36Z")
Yes - they still have admins at Prudential in the group insurance area. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/49 "2014-07-17T12:14:54Z")
> [@Missy2U](#): > > Yes - they still have admins at Prudential in the group insurance area. One of my first actuarial roles was in the group life area at Prudential (the UK-based one, not the American one). ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/50 "2014-07-17T12:48:17Z")
No. My first real job was as a clerk in the Texas Department of Public Safety Driver’s License division. I had to take fax or phone requests for DL records lookup, soundex the person’s name, then go find their record folder in a massive room full of paper files. It has all been computerized now and that room has been turned into a bunch of offices. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/51 "2014-07-17T13:24:42Z")
Computer salesman? Yep. Computer salesman at a privately-owned store, rather than a big-box chain? Not so much. ---
**Author:** ![jerseymule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jerseymule/32/3155_2.png) [@jerseymule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerseymule)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/52 "2014-07-17T13:49:20Z")
My first full-time job was working in a factory that made resistors and capacitors. I am pretty sure that the company, Mepco, is either out of business or absorbed long ago by another company. I don’t know whether or not there are products that still use resistors and capacitors. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/53 "2014-07-17T13:54:47Z")
Yes. I worked counter in a wrecking yard. The wrecking yard is still there, umpty-mumble years later. Owner was an asshole (fired me after a month for not having the entire yard’s inventory in my memory), brother was insane (routinely drove around/through rail crossing arms with the train in sight - did it once and once only with me in the truck). However, my entire middle career is with phantom companies. Spent a couple of years in “desktop publishing” - which no longer exists as an industry. Spent almost ten years in an IT industry that grew from 50 to 500 players while I was in it, dropped to about 20 the year after, then 3, and now is an integral part of Cisco, 3Com et al. - basically no longer exists as a separate industry. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/54 "2014-07-17T14:22:11Z")
I was a soda jerk in a drugstore sixty years ago. I haven’t seen a drug store with a soda fountain in decades. My next job was a stock boy in an auto parts store and I am sure that job still exists. Then I was a lab tech in a biochem research lab and that sort of thing has doubtless multiplied. After that, TA, then instructor, asst prof., assoc. prof., full prof., named prof., all teaching math at all levels and those certainly exist. Now I am retired and that job still exists too. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/55 "2014-07-17T15:16:43Z")
If we define ‘real job’ as one where you received a paycheck with withholdings, then my first ‘real job’ was as a bottle boy at the local market. That was when we had bottles of Coke or other such products that were reusable. My job was to take the empty bottles from the front of the store to a shed out back. I cleaned them and them packed them into amazingly dangerous high stacks of crates of glass bottles. So, no. This isn’t 1974. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/56 "2014-07-17T16:07:36Z")
Waitress so yes, although I’m fairly sure the restaurant is gone. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/57 "2014-07-17T16:39:56Z")
As careers, yes, they all exist. But as jobs they don’t. All 4 companies I’ve worked for before going freelance have ceased to exist. ---
**Author:** ![Tiktaalik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@Tiktaalik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiktaalik)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/58 "2014-07-17T16:43:01Z")
Worked at a pet store cleaning out cages and feeding the animals. As long as gerbils still eat and poop, I think the job will be there. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/59 "2014-07-17T16:49:44Z")
Babysitting - yes, and it pays a lot better now too. But I don’t think they still let 12-year-olds do it. Newspaper delivery - going the way of the milkman. My current neighborhood does not have any, but I have friends who still do. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303/60 "2014-07-17T17:03:29Z")
Well, I did get paid hourly to mow grass when I was around 10. No withholding or anything. Worked in a TV repair shop. That’s pretty much gone I’m sure. Gas station attendant. Won’t see that in Colorado anymore. I hand painted oil and gas maps. Some of them took weeks to do. Now a plotter can spit 'em out in about 20 seconds. Ink on mylar draftsman for a couple of different companies. That’s long gone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-first-real-job-even-exist-anymore/693303.md?page=4)