Longest: Almost 32 years at my current job at a big airplane company. 2½ years to go.
Shortest. 3 days on two different occasions. The first was at a state mental institution. After 3 days realized being around those with mental issues was not for me. The second was at a 24 hour gas station/mini mart. The hours were 10 pm to 6 am. Didn’t like having to deal with drunks, underage kids trying to buy beer and cigarettes and people stealing stuff. After my 3rd day, told the owner I was quitting. She offered 25 cents more an hour. I just walked away.
(Age 43) Current job at Japanese publishing company. 15 years this September.
2. What is your shortest-held job?
(Age 19) Working as stock boy at university student store in the early 90s. I lasted about a week. Can’t hack manual labor.
3. If it is different from #2, what was your shortest REAL job?
(Age 25) Door-to-door sales. While in college in the Seattle area, answered an ad for work selling educational materials to families with children. Got trained a couple days. Then the company took us out to an upper class neighborhood to sell our products. I knocked on doors getting the usual “not interested”. But I did manage one “presentation” to a family with 3 young kids. I didn’t get a sale and left the house only to see a co-worker standing on the street with a squad car behind him. Officers told us they got neighbor complaints and warned us to stop and leave the area. I quit the next day. I hate sales.
Worked for The Emporium stores for 17 years until bought out by Macy’s then 3 more years so a total of 20 years.
What is your shortest-held job? Bonus points if the story is funny.
6 months. Boiler Engineer in a hospital. Chief was something else I quit and moved because I was afraid one morning when he walked it would be too much and I would quit on the spot with no new job.
Longest: My current job. I was grandfathered from my previous position so in total I’ll be entering my 26th year in the business come this fall.
Shortest: Probably coat check girl at my extended family’s restaurant. I only worked during the winter, on Saturday nights, and during school vacations. Very claustrophobic as the “closet” itself was long, narrow, and the coats so bulky that I’d sometimes would have to crawl to get from one end to the other. I’d usually sit on the floor near the counter and do homework. Graduated to busboy when I turned 16, BOH when I turned 18.
Shortest Real Job: Took a job as a “data analyst” for a financial services company. Had to go through 4 weeks of FT training before actually starting the job. “Data analyst” turned out to be a receptionist position for a very disorganized mid-level manager where 3/4ths of the job consisted of cleaning up his messes. I was there maybe a month before I walked out never to return.
Since many people have had to make similar disclaimers, I guess I should have specified that no, I don’t count this stuff as being different jobs. If you are promoted within the same company, or the company has to move its HQ down the road because it needed more space, that’s a continuous job for the purpose of this discussion.
I just finished my 18 year anniversary with my current employer.
I had an “appointment setting” (AKA telemarketer) job for about an hour and half. I quit during the break between my training and actually getting on the phones. I told them not to bother paying me but they insisted, so a few weeks later I got a check in the mail for something around 8 bucks after taxes.
That was less time than my short stints doing modelling for a brochure, a political commercial, or as a featured extra in a TV show.
If second jobs count, I lasted about 2 weeks at the IRS as data entry during tax season. I had done it the year before for a few months to save up cash for the house, so I went back the next year and couldn’t stomach it with nothing to strive for.
I think it’s real hard to differentiate between a “real” job and one that isn’t, because there are always people working that non-real job as their real job. That said, I wouldn’t count working at a temp agency for the purposes of this thread because even if you had work every week, the assignments are meant to be temporary and the actual company you are working for would likely change week to week.
I’m also discounting one-off jobs such as helping someone start out their moving business.
Shortest job:
Selling plants over summer at a farmer’s market in FLORIDA. I absolutely hated it because of having to move around in the heat. Also the owner of the stand bought me Mello Yello instead of Mountain Dew to “quench” my thirst :mad:
He asked if I wanted to do it again next summer and I said I would as a favor only if he couldn’t find anyone else.
Longest job:
Current one. 12 years including all permutations.
Well, I worked 9 years at one place and 17 at the other, teaching high school science. The retirement package was from the Georgia Teacher Retirement System, so it was kind of the same job for 26 years.
The shortest job was four days as a painter’s helper. It was hot, fussy, and boring. I didn’t need it, so I quit.
I forgot one that was technically shorter: clockmeister for a middle school basketball league. I only got 5 bucks a game though, which would have been worth it if I didn’t feel like I was making a lot of mistakes. I only got called out on it once and it wasn’t really a reaming but I was still afraid that I would make a huge mistake and a coach or parent would get all pissed and that stress wasn’t worth 5 bucks, so I also declined when they offered it to me the next year.
Not even close to Social Security age.