So I jut informed my boss that I have accepted a job elsewhere. I am done at my current job on June 15.
That will mean I worked there for nine years, two months, and one week. As it happens, that is the longest I will ever have been employed in one place. Indeed, every job I’ve held so far has set the new record:
Current employer: 2007-2016 (9.2 years)
Previous employer: 2000-2007 (6.9 years)
Previous to that: 1994-2000 (5.8 years)
Previous to that: 1989-1994 (5 years)
Before that I held kid jobs so I don’t count those. I am 44, and got my first real job when I was 17. (Soldier.)
What is your longest-held job?
What is your shortest-held job? Bonus points if the story is funny.
If it is different from #2, what was your shortest REAL job? That is, eliminating jobs like you worked at a convenience store for 2 days when you were 15 and left when a robber hit you with a bat or some other kid-job story.
Age would be a good thing for context if you don’t mind sharing it.
I’ve been working at my own company since about 1999. We got paperwork and started paying taxes in 2000 I think. So, 17 years. I am 37.
Before that it was “kid jobs” - a supermarket for a year, a movie theater for a summer, the family catering/restaurant business for several years, an internship for a summer. I guess the movie theater was the shortest job.
My longest job is my current one, as a computer programmer which I’ve been working at for 15 years, minus a six-month layoff in the middle of 2003.
I’ve had numerous summer jobs as a teenager, and also during the above-mentioned layoff as an adult. But the shortest “real” job I held was the one immediately prior to my current position, also as a programmer, which lasted for about five months, until the company in question ran out of funding and shut down entirely.
25 years at a private school (until I retired) teaching chess, roleplaying and computer games.
What is your shortest-held job? Bonus points if the story is funny.
One week, just as a temp (during the sales) at Harrods
If it is different from #2, what was your shortest REAL job? That is, eliminating jobs like you worked at a convenience store for 2 days when you were 15 and left when a robber hit you with a bat or some other kid-job story.
Age would be a good thing for context if you don’t mind sharing it.
Longest job - The one I have now. I’ve taught at this school (multiple subjects over the years) since 1987.
Shortest job - Working for Pinkerton’s in college. All it took was one night of training to make me realize that guarding a quarry all night wasn’t worth what they were paying me.
My current job- I’ll have been here 8 years as of this coming Thursday
What is your shortest-held job? Bonus points if the story is funny.
I got bait-and-switched into spending a night as a dishwasher in a restaurant under the tale that I’d get a free meal and $40 in cash to work the one night as a favor to a friend (who was a waiter), and the managers decided not to honor that, and to try and enroll me as an actual employee and pay me via paycheck. I filled it out to get the paycheck, and never showed back up.
If it is different from #2, what was your shortest REAL job? That is, eliminating jobs like you worked at a convenience store for 2 days when you were 15 and left when a robber hit you with a bat or some other kid-job story.
Probably the month or so I worked for the online dating site True.com before they laid off 60% of the workforce.
Age would be a good thing for context if you don’t mind sharing it.
Shortest job was my first one at a drive-in theater snack bar. They hired me knowing I was 14 because the entire crew had left. They found a few experienced people, added whoever new they could find including me, then a few days later told me I was fired because I was too young.
Shortest after that was a couple of years later when I was 16, started in June as a dishwasher at a Woolworths’ lunch counter. I quit in August after saving up a little money.
Longest at one company was just over 15 years, but in that time I moved around and held five progressively more senior jobs.
The shortest was the job before the one I have now and lasted 2 years before the company was purchased and I got laid off. Nothing funny about that story getting laid off a day before Christmas at the beginning of the recession in 2008.
Worked my first job out of college for 17 years (big corporation, Silicon Valley). Did another after that for 4 years. Started my own consulting gig after that and have done that ever since, although it has evolved into something completely different now than what it was when I originally started. Did a couple small company start-ups in parallel with the consulting. Very small, like 3 people.
I now work for myself with no boss* and no employees. Nirvana!
What is your shortest-held job? Bonus points if the story is funny. 1 night
If it is different from #2, what was your shortest REAL job? That is, eliminating jobs like you worked at a convenience store for 2 days when you were 15 and left when a robber hit you with a bat or some other kid-job story. The one night job was washing dishes at a TGI Friday’s. I have done a lot of physical labor for a living and this was the hardest thing I ever did for money.
Age would be a good thing for context if you don’t mind sharing it. I am old enough to remember Nixon resigning on TV.
All same field, no out-of-work
16y 1m current
10y 9m retired,loafed 4 m
15y 9.5m laid off
6y 6m
2y 0m USN
2y 9m
0y 2.5m summer job
0y 2.5m summer job (same place)
(you can do the math)
I’m old enough to remember Elizabeth II’s Coronation on TV.
Longest: I’ve been a self-employed artist since 1994.
Shortest: A few hours. When I was in college I got a part-time job in a bakery. My job was to operate a machine the size of a bus, that made dinner rolls. At one point the machine wouldn’t turn off, and the rolls were dropping all over the floor. The manager, a huge scary woman, came over, and rather than turning the machine off, stood there and cursed me out for being so fucking stupid for not knowing every little thing about the machine. I walked out and never went back.
Current workplace:
July 1, 2010- (5 years, 11 months)
Previous workplaces:
2007-2010
2004-2007
(grad school gap, major career change)
2000-2002
1996-2000
College and summer jobs not listed.
Every day at my current workplace is a new personal best in job longevity for me.
What is your longest-held job? 5 years, 11 months
What is your shortest-held job? Bonus points if the story is funny. Probably a summer job. No funny stories
If it is different from #2, what was your shortest REAL job? That is, eliminating jobs like you worked at a convenience store for 2 days when you were 15 and left when a robber hit you with a bat or some other kid-job story.
Age would be a good thing for context if you don’t mind sharing it. Early 40s
Almost 20 years. This actually two companies, since my current one acquired my old one, but there was no change in location or job function, and my vacation accrual counts the old job.
I’m 64.
15 months which was about 14 months too long in that hellhole. (Big Silicon Valley company.) I had agreement to transfer to a more sane group from the director of that group, but the transfer got shot down. When I announced I was leaving my boss said “You can transfer now.” No way, chumps.
I’ve been at my current job for 28 years, including 2 years as a temp before I was officially hired.
Before that I had a job that I quit after 8 months.
Not counting temp work and summer jobs during school, that’s my entire work history.
My shortest was probably a 2-month summer job at a cafeteria. The only amusing thing about it was that my father helped get me the job, but then regretted it, because he ordered donuts there every morning that my Mom didn’t know about. He realized too late that I would now see him getting his donut fix. It became our little secret, and I never told my Mom.
I have been primarily self-employed for 20 years now. To be fair, I did work a few part-time side jobs during that time, and I did change the focus of my business twice and changed the name once. The last change was 2005, so that’s at least 11 years in the same job by any definition.
My longest job was my last job. I had been working for twenty-seven years when I retired.
My shortest job was one day back when I was around nineteen. But I knew that going in. Another guy and I had been hired to clear all the stuff out a garage.
