There was this guy on a messageboard who used to annoy me by doing one thing (well, he did dozens of things that annoyed me, but this one in particular): whatever topic was under discussion, he used to say “I did that for a living.” Didn’t matter what we were talking about. If we were talking about political campaigns, he used to do polling for McCain’s 2008 campaign. If we were talking about cars, he used to sell cars for a Chevy dealership. If we were talking about pets, he had a degree from Veterinary School.
I didn’t think he was lying, but I suspected how one person could claim expertise in so many different fields.
But then I realized that I could have (didn’t but I could have) claimed to have been a reporter, a teacher, a fiction-writer, a graphic artist, a copy-editor, an installer of air-conditioning units, a chauffeur, and maybe a half dozen other jobs that I’d gotten paid to do and knew at least something, and often a lot, about.
So while I resented this guy for using his jobs to support his authority, I had to acknowledge that it’s not that strange to have worked in a half-dozen different fields, maybe a dozen or more. How many jobs have you done that you got paid for and that you did perfectly competently?
Well not that many.
I might add food service worker back in college but after that it would be:
Grocery cashier/stocker - 2nd job needed for a few years
Budget analyst. for 30 years. Through those years within the two companies I work at I was doing a combination of budget analyst, pricer, subcontractor admin, procurement analysis and forecasting.
I kind of wish I had more different jobs but there is no way I am starting over anywhere else.
I have to keep making this kind of money until I retire.
I’ve had over 100 jobs, so I can hardly say. Even just in the “educator” category, I’ve taught numerous ages and topics. Even in just one of those educational positions, I’ve usually taught classes with distinctly different content–I stopped counting when I hit my 35th new course development. I’ve also run academic programs, written state and national exam content and analyzed the outcome stats, supervised other instructors and grad students, run hiring committees, conducted program reviews, written curricula, peer reviewed for professional journals, conducted research, run and presented at conferences, run related professional organizations, written books, advised theses, led student trips to other countries, etc. Is that one job? 15? When I worked in 4 programs was that one area of expertise or 4? I simultaneously taught and ran groups at a community college, and was a counselor and creative writer. So I can’t really answer.
Most Americans have at least 5 distinct jobs/types of employment over the course of their lifetime.
How about jobs you could honestly assert “I used to do that for a living, so let me tell you about being a …” without being a boastful, self-aggrandizing dick?
One.
I mean, every job, especially supervisory jobs, required knowledge and ability of several subordinate jobs. I had a job as a carpenter once, but I could scarcely describe that as a “screwer-inner” and a “screwer-outer” and a “woodcutter” and a “wood-sander” and so on, could I?
PBX operator
Mail clerk
Messenger
Avionics Technician
Naval Officer
Veterans’ advisor
Algebra teacher in junior college
Mechanical Engineer
Aerospace Structural Engineer
Mechanical Drafter
Electrical Drafter
The first three were part of my first job as a teen back in the early 70s. The Advisor and teaching gigs were in the interim between active duty and going to work for the Navy as a civilian. I retired from the engineering jobs in 2011, then held various drafter positions till I retired for reals at the end of 2019. I pretty much spent 45 years working in or for the Navy in one way or another. Now I just wrangle my grandkids.
Cashier
Pharmacy Tech
Assistant Store Manager
Programmer (SAS)
Financial Analyst/Manager
Application Developer (SAP)
Systems Development Manager
Systems Manager
But 75% of the time has been Financial Manager. Cashier, Pharmacy Tech and Assistant Store Manager was during college. The IT jobs were when my employers asked me to take on interim roles for various reasons. I consider myself to be, at best, a talented amateur despite holding a graduate degree in CompSci.
In order (roughly, some overlapped)
Paper route
Landscaper ( for a company, not local lawns)
Fast food
Bread truck route
Crash boat crew (local yacht club races)
Airport linecrew/tug
EMT
School bus driver
UPS box monkey
UPS driver
Roughneck (offshore rigs)
Anchor operator (offshore)
Crane operator (offshore still)
Flight instructor
Software (independent, contracted separate jobs w Boeing, Lockheed, Sperry, General Dynamics, Honeywell, etc. Total 7 different jobs)
Minor sideline ferrying airplanes, paid, but mostly for fun.
Carpet cleaner (teen job, part time)
Car wash (teen, part time)
Survey crew for state of Alaska (summers)
Electrician, project planner, project manager, crew leader, etc. (US Navy, 23 years)
Electrician (private contractor, 2 years)
Facilities Manager (State Department, 6 years)
Construction contract manager, 5 years
Chief Operating Officer for a construction company, 6 months
RV sales, 3 months
Facilities manager, 2 years
Project quality control manager, 1 year
Retirement expert: 2009 to present
Messenger boy for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Advertising clerk
Stockbroker
Timekeeper in a cannery and a machine shop
Stevedore
Wartime ambulance driver
Pinkerton detective
Crime novelist
Those are actually jobs that Dashiell Hammett held. Makes a cool CV.