Writing chum Anne Wayman had a fun post up last week on her blog about the jobs we writers have had over the years before this one. Since I’m trying to get a ton of work done before noon so I can enjoy maybe an hour of this fantastic weather, I’m going to shamelessly lift Anne’s idea.
What jobs preceded your writing career? Where were you before you were here in the trenches with the rest of us? Which one was your favorite? Least favorite?
My career path –
1. Fast food joint waitress (hated it)
2. Fast food fish joint waitress (still hated it, but not as badly)
3. Rawleigh products salesperson (Amway without the press coverage)
4. Licensed real estate salesperson
5. Stringer for one local paper, then another
6. Underpaid marketing person for an insurance agency (sorry Ted, you just didn’t pay well)
7. Data coordinator in the Job From Hell
8. Senior editor for a national trade magazine
9. Freelancer
Favorite was senior editor. LOVED my superiors and my work. Then all went south when the superiors left and new people with new ideas that didn’t include me came on board. Saw it three days into the new EIC’s tenure. Cleaned out the desk a month before the actual termination (yea, they thought I couldn’t see it coming – right!).
Worst job by far – the data coordinator job. I’m about to offend our gender, ladies, but working with a group of female managers is pure micro-management HELL. One woman, great! Two, pretty good. Five? Freakin’ nightmare. When you ask your boss how your job fits with the jobs of your office mates and she says “That’s not important”, you know there’s a disconnect. When you have to requisition the admin for a pen, that’s too tight a ship. When you have to join a WATER club because that’s the only way you can drink the water in the cooler, that’s just plain nuts. When all 32 in the office get a collective chewing out because we’re all leaving at 4:26 by the manager’s clock when we’re to be leaving at 4:30, you wonder why she didn’t simply adjust her clock to match ours instead of assuming we were a bunch of slackers.
How about you? Where have you been before this?
I’ve been writing since I was six years old; was first published when I was eight. Wrote for the local paper in high school.
I’ve worked professionally in the tech end of theatre, film, and television since I was eighteen. Alongside that, I often took temp jobs.
I spent three years (while still working in theatre) working for an art book publisher.
For ten years, I worked simultaneously fulltime in theatre and as a writer.
Now I’m writing fulltime, but still have to feed the theatre addiction with occasional returns backstage.
Worst temp jobs: One was typing insurance policies for jewelry, my first temp job at 16. They brought them to me on a handtruck. The other was stamping numbers on policies for Avon — 8 hours per day.
Best job: Working on MISS SAIGON on Broadway for 5 years.
I’ve been a freelancer my entire professional life.
Oh, and I was a part-time administrator for an arts foundation for five years.
Other Favorite temp jobs: working for the Guggenheim Museum and working for the Neuberger Museum.
Mine’s a little shorter 🙂
Bachelor of science
Bachelor of education
Teaching high school (HATE, HATE, HATE)
Working with the government scanning deeds, wills, etc. (Good money, but boring)
Freelancing
Here’s mine:
Waitress in training for HoJo’s–Crazy, but had to quit within weeks because the high school swim team had practices that conflicted with the work schedule.
Interpreter (read: tour guide) at Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village throughout college.–Idiotic management, but great co-workers, so we had lots of fun (but got into much trouble). Tourists could be dopey. Exceptionally.
Editor at national trade pub–not bad; really liked the place and people
Lawyer–HATED, HATED, HATED the people and the way the profession operates; practicing law was at times fascinating, at times tedius.
Freelancing–Ahhh, what a life. Hard work, no doubt. But today I’ll be meeting friends for lunch, doing grocery shopping (when few others are in the store!), and then taking the pooch to the beach in 80-degree weather. I’ll make up for the lost time by doing some weekend work, but the fact that I have the choice to do it suits me so well!
You know, Gabriella, my sister worked as an attorney in a corporate law office and she said the same thing – the way those people operate was shameful. She said the partners were hauling in millions of bucks per, but gave the admin staff a $30 a month raise and had to justify it because the price of cafeteria food went up. Cheap!
Devon, I want your career path. 🙂 Much more interesting than mine!
Krista, you haven’t known hatred until you’ve taught at an inner-city charter school. That was my sister’s last job – and she would rather live in her car than take that salary again! (Sister has two degrees – one teaching and one legal)
Lori,
I think teaching is one of those jobs that looks great on the outside, but your idealism soon disappears when you are faced with so much criticism and feel that nobody appreciates what you do. Honestly, I only lasted a year. Everyone thought I was a complete idiot to spend six! years in school and then leave so quickly, but I really felt like I was on the fast track towards a nervous breakdown before age 30. Freelancing is just as stressful, but in a different way…one I can (usually) handle. I still have the occasional meltdown 🙂
Now, I do a lot of educational writing, including standardized tests and reading passages, so I am still using my degree to a point, which is a bit of a consolation.
I too have a fairly short list:
-Grocery store check-out girl (1-2 years, met my hubby there)
-Mower for city recreation and parks department (2 summers, before my allergies got really bad)
-Video store clerk (6 months, HATED! It's still not clear to me whether I quit or got fired)
-Kid's book store clerk (a few years, LOVED!)
-Admin. Assistant->Office Coordinator (first "real" job after college, stayed there 5 years)
-Marketing Coordinator->Supervisor, Marketing Services (6.5 years)
-Freelancer (almost 2 years, and loving every minute of it)
1. Like Devon, writing since I was a kid, but without the publishing credits.
2. Preschool/after school program teacher from the time I was 16 until I was 23, with a few short breaks.
3. Shortest ever career at a circuit board manufacturing company. (Less than a month on one of those breaks from childcare.)
4. One year working in auto parts sales (for those of you who don’t know, I’m a bit of a grease monkey). That was another break from childcare.
5. Part-time nanny and babysitter during the last year or two of my undergrad. Still babysit for one family regularly.
6. Technical writer for the boss from he!l.
7. Freelance writer.
Before the adults and their advice got to me in high school, I always knew I wanted to be a writer. It took a while to come full circle, but I eventually came full circle. :o)
Katharine, me too! I’ve always wanted to restore a car. LOVE changing oil, tires, diagnosing car problems…. Hubby’s restoring his dad’s car. It’s been such fun for me, too. How many women can say they’ve spent quality time mulling over how to get a bolt off the drive shaft lying on the workbench? 🙂
as someone who hasn't reached the freelance part of my life yet, it's really great to see people who have such a diverse array of jobs before getting where they wanted to be.
each job i've had has contributed to my abilities in a different way, though, so here we go:
1) retail salesperson
2) undergrad student
3) tour guide in Quebec City
4) academic & career advisor for a large canadian university
5) recruitment officer for said university
5) orientation programming coordinator for the same university
6) leadership programs coordinator for (you guessed it) that same university.
as i go, i'm incorporating more and more professional writing into my portfolio, but i haven't quite reached my goal yet.
Steak House grunt 🙁
Student Worker 🙁
Caterer Assistant 🙁
Cooking from home 🙂
Nursery School Teacher 🙂
State Legal Secretary :/
Parish Atty’s Office :/
Cleaning Biz Owner 🙂
Freelance writer/editor 🙂
Special Ed Teacher 🙂
You guys have been in some great jobs! I mean, look at the stories you can tell everyone!
I’d love working in a bookstore too, Amie. 🙂
wunderbug, what fun to work as a tour guide!
Angie, you a steakhouse grunt? I’d think given your culinary tendencies, you could have your OWN restaurant!