Flashback Friday: A Little Job History

Well readers, it’s been an interesting week. I’ve been debating how much I wanted to say about this, but I started a new job this week. I also quit said new job, just three days later. Ah well. I feel a little guilty about it, especially because we do need the money, but I also knew immediately that it wasn’t going to work for me. I was already miserable. The worst problem was a very lengthy commute: anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours, in bumper-to-bumper traffic. It felt like a gigantic waste of time, and would just get in the way of the many big goals I set for myself for 2016.

Speaking of jobs, one of the writing groups I’m in on Facebook started a discussion about previous jobs we’ve all had that were not related to writing. This group contains an amazing number of truly fascinating women writers, all over the age of 40 (yes, I’m that old), and we’ve all lived some incredible experiences. I’m not going to share any of theirs, of course, as they’re not mine to share, but I enjoyed adding my own list. As I’ve said here before, it’s fun to take stock of your accomplishments.

So for a little Flashback Friday, I thought I’d list some of my previous jobs.

By the way, I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m bragging. … though it may be, a little. I’ve been writing a lot about my accomplishments of late, and sometimes I’m concerned that I’m blowing my own horn too much. But first of all, no one else is going to blow my horn for me! And secondly, it’s all in my continuing search for self confidence, which has always been sorely lacking.

So here goes. I’ve done some pretty interesting things, I think. 🙂

Just Some of My Previous Job History (in no particular order)

• My previous career was (and kind of still is) as a dancer, dance teacher, scholar, and historian, which includes
  • Researching
  • Reconstructing
  • Writing
  • Performing
  • Busking
  • Organizing and running events
  • There’s more to it than that, of course, but we’ll leave it there
• Assistant (was that my title?) for the Dance Heritage Coalition
• Performed as a singer for a few events too, including at a church in Baroque garb
• Taught some musical theatre, including at a camp for kids
  
• Temp jobs, including
  • Marketing assistant for law firm
  • Payroll data entry for a male dominated cement company, where my boss called all the men Bubba, so he called me Bubbarette
• Sales associate for SKR Classical (record store) in Michigan, and at two different Tower Records locations (one in New York near Lincoln Center, one in Cambridge, MA)
  • Eventually became buyer for vocals, jazz, and spoken record at the Cambridge Tower, but they wouldn’t let me have musical theatre because my boss wanted to keep it for herself
• Janitor at the dental school at University of Michigan
• Potwasher, dishwasher, and bathroom cleaner at Pinewoods dance camp (not all at the same time)
• Music librarian for Dad’s symphonic band
  • I also played percussion in the band
• Ticket taker and setter-upper at Mom’s string quartet concerts
• Archivist in the Martha Graham collection at the Library of Congress
• Archivist at MIT’s Musical Theatre Guild
• Office assistant at MIT’s AI lab
• Booth Babe for Looney Labs game company, and for Alex‘s art business
  
• “Actor” at Police Academy training facility (that was weird! It’s also Alex’s favorite) 

It’s neat to see all these various tasks laid out like this. Some of these are fairly unique, I suspect, and it’s fun to relive it. They were interesting and meaningful experiences.

So what about you, readers? What odd or unique jobs outside of your current career have you worked?