# Have you ever held a job that doesn't exist anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 28, 2024, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218 "2024-09-28T22:05:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [September 29, 2024, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/21 "2024-09-29T01:57:59Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Would you say a word or two about memory in a machine like that compared to memory/ computing capacity in today’s smartphone? It is a meaningless question since there was no memory per se. The machine was set up to do a bunch of equations of the form dx\_i/dt = \sum a\_jx\_j+\sum b\_{jk}x\_jx\_k the variables representing concentrations of enzymes measured as variable voltages. The number of multipliers of variables was just 7 and there were even fewer variables. There were initial conditions set and the computations repeated 5000 times a second and the output displayed on an oscilloscope. It was all done in electronic circuitry and my main job was replacing burnt out tubes, subminiature diodes, triodes and pentodes, all soldered into place since they didn’t have plugs (just wires coming out). Now the Univac I I mentioned had a memory of exactly 1000 72 bit addressable double words, each consisting of 12 bytes, 6 bits each representing a single character. In those days a byte did not mean 8 bits but different architectures used bytes from 6 to 9 bits each. (I am curious how those bytes would have been described in French since the current French word for byte is octet, clearly not appropriate.) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/22 "2024-09-29T01:59:50Z")
When I was in college, I had a job as a photographic technician at the college planetarium. There were 27 remote controlled slide projectors around the perimeter of the dome that projected images synchronized with a prerecorded audio presentation. I created the slides for the slide projectors. It’s all digital projection now. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/23 "2024-09-29T02:00:03Z")
My summer job in 1969 was as a bookkeeping machine operator. The machine had a mylar punched tape that would race around a reader, and each account card had a magnetic stripe on it. I would load the card, wait a second for the stuff to get read, enter a new transaction, hit another key and wait for the card to be ejected. Repeat endlessly. Occasionally I would fail to wait long enough for the next step and bring the machine to a halt. I was too fast for a sort-of computer. I’m sure that job is completely automated by now. I spent 10 years total at two different newspapers taking classified ads over the phone. I would try to upsell people to a longer schedule, or a longer ad, or to run in the evening paper as well as the morning. I worked in a room with dozens of people taking incoming calls on the phone, and writing the ads on typewriters (later it was on specialized computer terminals). I’m not sure that job doesn’t exist anywhere, but it’s probably nearly gone. When I first moved out on my own, suddenly and unexpectedly, I was unprepared for a meaningful job, so I parked cars for a living for a little while. I’ll bet that’s still a job, at least until the self-driving cars take over. Ironic. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/24 "2024-09-29T02:11:44Z")
One Hour Photo Lab Operator - 1986-1993. I can’t remember when the stores closed, but they lasted into the 00s. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/25 "2024-09-29T06:02:04Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > Yes. I was a typesetter and a “paste-up artist.” Mrs. Bookkeeper did this as well for many years. She produced books and manuals using an IBM phototypsetter. Desktop publishing software pretty much finished that job. My first training when I joined a Signals Regiment in the Canadian militia about 1970 was as a teletype operator - I’m certain that technology is long gone. I also remember making slides for overhead projectors for office presentations. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/26 "2024-09-29T06:38:44Z")
I had a friend who made a good salary in the 70’s and 80’s as a typewriter mechanic. He could read a typed business letter and tell you which model of Smith-Corona it was typed on, and that certain keys needed to be replaced. The IBM Selectric (with the “golf ball” head instead of individual keys) was a game-changer in his profession, much easier to fix. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/27 "2024-09-29T06:42:14Z")
I graduated from high school in 1981, and was a keypunch operator during my first Gap Year. The card machine was 99% done by then, although I did occasionally use it, and in our department’s case, we would punch in information, someone else would verify it, and then a third person would pull it onto magnetic tape. I was never trained on that last job by the time I left. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/28 "2024-09-29T07:02:31Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > I had a friend who made a good salary in the 70’s and 80’s as a typewriter mechanic. I knew a guy who worked for IBM repairing typewriters in typing pools for companies who manually typed bills. This was many years ago and I don’t know when he worked that job. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/29 "2024-09-29T09:35:55Z")
Actually, before the stock broker’s, i was a “Computer Operator” at a “Film Processing Laboratory” ! 2 obsoletes for the price of 1. (Yes, i know you can still find places that develop films …) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/30 "2024-09-29T11:02:15Z")
I caused another person’s job to become obsolete. Back in the 90s, I was working in an import company and one guy spent all the time doing calculations using a calculator, a pencil and paper. I found that we had almost all the information in our computers in spreadsheets, and build a few macros to do the calculations. The amount of time required for that part of his job went from 25 hours a week to less than five. Within six months, he was let go. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/31 "2024-09-29T11:33:06Z")
I had a job hand painting geologic geomorphic maps. Oil on canvas. Very, very detailed with a tiny brush. Paint, paint paint. Take a Kleenex to blot it and get the color even. Paint, paint, paint… ONE map could take weeks to complete. They where sold for thousands of dollars. It was basically paint by number. Today a plotter can spit one out in about 30 seconds. It was kinda fun at first, but oh so boring after a while. The PTB understood this so we each had a key to the building. You could work whenever you wanted, just get your 40 hours in. It got my foot in the door to move onto other mapping jobs though, which was kinda the point. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/32 "2024-09-29T11:35:48Z")
Some interesting lines of work here. Mine were more mundane. I worked at a car wash as a teen. Are any of those still using human labor? Also worked as an assistant to a carpet cleaner. It was all done on hands and knees and was brutal labor, not to mention terribly inefficient. I did construction project planning before it was computerized. Every task was written out on small pieces of paper and then taped to large sheets of craft paper, then connected using magic markers. A large project could cover an entire wall. I rejoiced when Microsoft Project finally came along. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/33 "2024-09-29T11:43:28Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > I was a “runner” for Olan Mills Portrait Studios. When the local telemarketers made a sale I would be dispatched to the customer’s house to deliver the package coupon and collect payment. (The idea was to get to them before they could change their minds) Put a lot of miles on my VW Bug driving all over the Sunnyvale/Santa Clara/Mountain View area. I did the exact same thing! This was in the mid-seventies in a roughly triangular area from Annapolis to the DC suburbs to Waldorf, MD. My old VW bug got too many Olan Mills miles on it and I switched to a beat-up Toyota Corolla. I never had the impression that quick delivery of the discount certificate was so they wouldn’t change their minds, but that so many (most?) people didn’t have credit cards. When the day’s sales were in upscale areas I did a lot of sitting around and waiting because they all paid by credit card and the telemarketing ladies would mail them out to those customers. I only collected from cash customers. Some of those neighborhoods in the DC area were pretty scary for a teenaged country boy carrying a night’s receipts. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/34 "2024-09-29T12:24:17Z")
Grocery bagger. They’re all self-bag now (at least where I live) or the checker bags it up for you. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/35 "2024-09-29T12:28:43Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > Mrs. Bookkeeper did this as well for many years. She produced books and manuals using an IBM phototypsetter. Desktop publishing software pretty much finished that job. I used Compugraphic, Varityper, Mergenthaler, and Photon phototypesetting machines. Also did paste-up, page makeup, camera work and proofreading. I guess the last of those is the only job still in existence. I was in the trade from 1976 to 1999. Finally wised up and got a job with the state government. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/36 "2024-09-29T12:32:08Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > Varityper Whoa! There’s a word I haven’t heard in years! > [@Jaycat.again](#): > > …proofreading. I guess the last of those is the only job still in existence. Ha! Just barely. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![pipperroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@pipperroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pipperroo)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/37 "2024-09-29T13:09:21Z")
I delivered newspapers on my bicycle before school. Then went door to door collecting the money from people once a month. Do they let kids do that anymore? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/38 "2024-09-29T13:10:03Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > The IBM Selectric (with the “golf ball” head instead of individual keys) was a game-changer in his profession, much easier to fix. I absolutely adored the IBM Selectric. Every office where I’ve ever worked had them. I never owned one myself but if computers hadn’t taken over the world and typewriters were still a thing, I would definitely own one today. It was one of the most brilliant innovations to ever come out of IBM. Ironically, the whole idea including the “golf ball” head was probably copied from old ASR/KSR Model 33 and 35 Teletype machines. They didn’t need spherical heads because they had a very limited character set (all upper-case), so they had small cylindrical heads, but it was the same idea where the head moved across the paper rather than a carriage moving the paper, the head rotating and bobbing to position the right character at the right time in the print position just like the Selectric did. Every Old Fart like me who has been involved with computers since the distant past has probably spent a lot of time with something like an ASR 33 Teletype and its paper tape reader and punch! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/39 "2024-09-29T14:11:21Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I used to make presentations. It required a dedicated computer with special software. I’d create slides with bullet points. These were actual slides, using film. We’d create the slides, send them to a camera, and use that to shoot on film. Then it’d go into a processor. After they were done (about 45 minutes), we’d put them in slide mounts to deliver them to the customer to put in their Kodak carousels. It was once big business. I designed a system for designing 35mm slides on a PC in the 70s. The company patented the process of sending the data over the phone lines to a central system to print them and send them back to the customer (coincidentally the patent rights were cross licensed with GE). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2024, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218/40 "2024-09-29T14:17:03Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I graduated from high school in 1981, and was a keypunch operator during my first Gap Year. The card machine was 99% done by then, although I did occasionally use it, and in our department’s case, we would punch in information, someone else would verify it, and then a third person would pull it onto magnetic tape. I was never trained on that last job by the time I left. I worked computer operations and a lot of the related positions involving punched card machines, keypunches, sorters, duplicators, and a thing that would add the text on the top of the cards after being punched by the computer, can’t recall exactly what it was called. We did a weekly payroll for a fast food company with a couple of thousand employees. Started with keypunchers entering timesheet data, read into a mainframe, then we’d do a partial dupe of the cards to create a new set used the next week. I assume somewhere there’s also a punch board programmer for those machines. Printing was largely mechanical on multi-part forms requiring decollaters and a thing that would just separated the parts and rolled up the carbons. I started in computers as a 9-track tape librarian, there might be a couple of those somewhere still. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-held-a-job-that-doesnt-exist-anymore/1008218.md?page=3)