lovelyladykatie asked: What are all the jobs you have had?(including small jobs in high school & college)
wow. really. I hope I can remember them all.
Lets start at the beginning.
1. As soon as I got my license: Waitress at a Country Club. I think that lasted about 8 months. I liked the free food.
2. Worked in the photo lab of a Kerr Drug Store. Once was forced to wear a giant roll of film costume and wave at passing cars. Tried on different nail polishes between customers. Ate my body weight in Nerds candy.
Other photo lab memories: had to count out photos in front of a customer who took sexy lingerie photos wearing her boyfriend’s military outfit. kind of horrified/hysterically funny.
Once printed an extra picture of a friend’s exboyfriend with his new college girlfriend. The ex-boyfriend’s mom had brought the film in. I recognized him immediately and made a copy to take to my friend so that she could see what new girlfriend looked like. Probably could have gotten fired and also was breaking some sort of privacy law - but I was seventeen and I knew she was dying to see what the new girl looked like. I presented the picture with the mandatory “You are like WAY prettier than her!”
3. Sales associate at Body Shop in the mall. Not the smell good store, the cheap, kinda slutty clothing store. It was one step up from RAVE and one step down from Forever21. I once chased down a shoplifter who had stolen a leather coat. She weighed four times as much as I did and later learned she had a rap sheet. But I was like “DON’T TRY TO STEAL FROM MY CHEAP KINDA SLUTTY STORE WHILE I’M ON WATCH!” Leave me alone, I was 19 and didn’t know any better.
4. Waitress at the Flying Saucer. It’s a draught house with 200+ beers. At one time, I could tell you where almost all of them were from and what they tasted like. Practically paid for my college education. 4 whole years. Met my husband and three of my best friends there. Late nights, smokey as all get out, but I loved it.
5. One summer I worked as a one-on-one tutor for a little boy with autism. His name was Jack, he had the bluest eyes in the whole world and he was my buddy. When I first started, he’d barely acknowledge me - but by the end of the summer, he greeted me with a giant hug as soon as I entered his classroom. Created in me a lifelong interest autism awareness and therapies.
6. Modeling. I hesitate to write that because I don’t consider myself ever having been a real model. I wasn’t really - but it was a source of income for me in college so I guess it technically makes the list. As the Flight of the Conchords put it “You could be a part time model. But you probably have to keep your day job” and I did.
7. Carolina Hurricanes Storm Squad. Yes North Carolina’s hockey team has cheerleaders. I was one of them and lucky enough to be on the squad the year we won the Stanley cup. It was a lot of fun, but after Brent and I got married - I didn’t try out for the next season.
7. Bartender at Raleigh Downtown Live. Basically a big, free concert series that doesn’t happen in Raleigh anymore. I poured draft beer on 101 degree days with one of my best girlfriends. It was a lucrative, fun summer gig for a fresh out of college girl.
8. Artist relations rep for a Music Industry company. My first job out of college. Paid nothing. I was still waitressing at the Saucer just to pay my car payment and my $245 rent in the house I shared with my girlfriends. I once had to drive Miranda Lambert around Raleigh with her friend while they went to the gym and the mall and I had to listen to her talk about how fine some nascar driver was while she continued to call me “honey” despite telling her my name 6 different times. Other fun adventures included confirming music riders to venues, putting concert ads in local indy papers, and making coffee for my boss.
9. My current role - working in field marketing for an open source software company. I’ve been here 4 and half years now. I somehow, miraculously, managed to land a job here despite not even knowing what Open Source was before interviewing. I just had such a hunger to learn and a willingness to do whatever they wanted me to do. And thank goodness they saw that in me. I started off managing a big, boring database and little by little took on new job responsibilities. Now I manage all of our marketing efforts in the North East and Canada. I’m happy here. I work on a great team with a great boss and I do so many different things that the job never gets old. Something new every day.
What’s next for me? I don’t know - while I enjoy my work - I’m pretty certain that Corporate America is not my last stop. If only there was a way to make money and pay for health insurance while spending every day just being in love with my family.
sigh. let me know if any of you come across a job posting for that role.
M
