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Jobs you've had


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#61 Pedro Cerrano

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 09:29 AM

Man I worked at the Snowden Square movie theater one summer (back when Snowden was THE theater in Howard County).  Did that job SUCK.  Like 14 hour shifts.  You'd come in at noon and you couldn't go home until they were done counting your register which could take until 130 AM after it closed down.  Ugh...what an awful job.  I think I got so angry working there one day I just stopped showing up lol.


There is baseball, and occasionally there are other things of note

"Now OPS sucks.  Got it."

"Making his own olive brine is peak Mackus."

"I'm too hungover to watch a loss." - McNulty

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#62 Oriole85

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 09:34 AM

If you are talking about the paper boy job, I don't recall there being any age restrictions.  There were a bunch of carriers that were kids.

I thought you had to be 12-13 to be employed with the exception of things like acting and family businesses (think farmers).


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#63 DuffMan

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 09:34 AM

Man I worked at the Snowden Square movie theater one summer (back when Snowden was THE theater in Howard County).  Did that job SUCK.  Like 14 hour shifts.  You'd come in at noon and you couldn't go home until they were done counting your register which could take until 130 AM after it closed down.  Ugh...what an awful job.  I think I got so angry working there one day I just stopped showing up lol.

Did they let you see movies for free?  That was the one perk that the theater I worked at offered.



#64 Pedro Cerrano

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 09:37 AM

Did they let you see movies for free?  That was the one perk that the theater I worked at offered.

 

Yea except on Fri-Sun.


There is baseball, and occasionally there are other things of note

"Now OPS sucks.  Got it."

"Making his own olive brine is peak Mackus."

"I'm too hungover to watch a loss." - McNulty

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#65 Bosibus

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 09:58 AM

My jobs have been pretty bland. Worked at Chartwell Country Club in high school but eventually took a job at Roy's Kwik Korner because I was working late hours and my parents were tired of picking me up. I quit Roy's because they would not give me off for a 2 week vacation so I was kind of not welcomed back when I did not show up. Then I took a job at Giant and worked there all throughout college. Giant treated me well, good raises and worked around all my school hours. I was there for about 5 years. Then got a job where I am at now as an engineer for a Test Lab in South Baltimore, been here for about 7 years. Out of all the jobs, Giant was fun and I had a bunch of friends there. Bunch of dumb shit we did but we were in college. Every Saturday night when the ends would change over for the sales we would kill a 30 pack during our shift then head out to party or whatever, it was like our pre game spot. I got 2 buddies jobs when we were still in HS and both of them are in management now.

glenn_Davis, what lab do you work for?

#66 Mackus

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 10:02 AM

I umpired youth baseball from the time I was about 12-13 all through HS.  Ended up becoming responsible for scheduling all the umpires for all of HCYP baseball and handling payroll and everything.  Was pretty time consuming, but I loved umpiring.  Refereed basketball as well for a few years, but didn't like that as much.

 

Also worked at the Bagel Bin in Ellicott City while in HS for a couple years.  That had it's fun moments, but being in at 6am to be there to open on the weekends was rough, especially after a night of drinking.  But the shifts after school on weekdays were better, because it was just two or three people like me without the managers around.

 

Worked at the front desk of my dorm building one year in college.  Basically got paid minimum wage to sit there and get my homework done.  Very easy job, and pulling two graveyard shifts a week wasn't hard at all in college, was usually up then anyways.

 

Had an internship for two plus years in college at the place I ended up getting hired fulltime at after graduation and have been here since.  I've worked on two projects here, one a pretty high profile NASA science mission, a project called MESSENGER that launched in '04 while I was an intern and entered into orbit around Mercury in '11 and we've still got about a year of life left.  The other is a smaller project that I've really enjoyed because it's so relatively low budget that I get my hands in just about every aspect of the design and operations, which has been both fun and a really good experience for future projects.



#67 Oriole85

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 10:03 AM

I worked at Wendy's in high school and most of the guys that worked there were on work release from Jessup. A van would drop them off at 8 in the morning then pick them up when we closed at 2 am. On break almost every day, I'd run a couple of these guys to the liquor store and we'd share a bottle in the parking lot.

Too bad this place closed (CBS Chicago) for your ex-colleagues. I remember seeing a report on it some years back, interesting to say the least. Not sure if it was revived or not as stated in the article.


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#68 Oriole85

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 10:09 AM

I umpired youth baseball from the time I was about 12-13 all through HS.  Ended up becoming responsible for scheduling all the umpires for all of HCYP baseball and handling payroll and everything.  Was pretty time consuming, but I loved umpiring.  Refereed basketball as well for a few years, but didn't like that as much.

 

Also worked at the Bagel Bin in Ellicott City while in HS for a couple years.  That had it's fun moments, but being in at 6am to be there to open on the weekends was rough, especially after a night of drinking.  But the shifts after school on weekdays were better, because it was just two or three people like me without the managers around.

 

Worked at the front desk of my dorm building one year in college.  Basically got paid minimum wage to sit there and get my homework done.  Very easy job, and pulling two graveyard shifts a week wasn't hard at all in college, was usually up then anyways.

 

Had an internship for two plus years in college at the place I ended up getting hired fulltime at after graduation and have been here since.  I've worked on two projects here, one a pretty high profile NASA science mission, a project called MESSENGER that launched in '04 while I was an intern and entered into orbit around Mercury in '11 and we've still got about a year of life left.  The other is a smaller project that I've really enjoyed because it's so relatively low budget that I get my hands in just about every aspect of the design and operations, which has been both fun and a really good experience for future projects.

I did that as well, similar experience. It's a great way to get paid (even if it isn't great) and do hw at the same time. The dorm offices weren't open 24/7, so there wasn't really a graveyard shift.


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#69 Pedro Cerrano

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 10:20 AM

I wish my buddy posted here -- he's had, literally, almost 30 jobs in his lifetime.


There is baseball, and occasionally there are other things of note

"Now OPS sucks.  Got it."

"Making his own olive brine is peak Mackus."

"I'm too hungover to watch a loss." - McNulty

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#70 KWebz

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 11:09 AM

The strangest job I've had was working for Lieberman Book Company during finals week. Basically they gave me $10,000 in cash in a purple bookbag and they keys to a creepy white van I drove all the way up to North Adams, Vermont. I spent a week inside my creep van buying back textbooks from college kids. The pay was very good. I got $100 a day plus $25 a day to spend on food and gas and hotel expenses were covered. I had to get to the campus kinda early and decorate my creep van with balloons and flyers to make it look less like a creep van. I had to be slightly off campus too otherwise security told me to move. At the end of the week I made $1000 dollars a drove back to their warehouse in Downtington with like 12 boxes full of textbooks and video games. 

 

Highlight of the week was when a homeless cat hopped in the van and chilled with me for the day and we shared some chicken wings. 


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#71 SammyBirdland

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 11:17 AM

For a while I was the commander of the armies of the North and General of the Felix Legions.  Things kind of went haywire and I was sold into slavery.  Later I ended up being forced into death matches.


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¡Hasta la vista, pelota!

#72 SBTarheel

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 11:17 AM

Tip to any 17-22 year old guys out there:

 

work at a card/gift store if they're still even around. It was the greatest job I ever had in terms of picking up girls, especially if the store has stuffed animals (not as special as a Jeter gift bag, mind you). Trust me. 

 

Your male friends will give you a hard time at first, but they won't for long. 


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#73 The Epic

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 01:58 PM

When I was an auditor, I had to do two inventory counts at a cemetery. I actually had to count graves.

 

To make matters worse, back in 2006, it was during that stretch where it was 104 degrees for two days. So I'm outside, counting graves, in hot-as-hell weather, for about six hours. The worker and I drank three gallons of water during the ordeal, and I didn't have to pee. I didn't even feel like I had to pee.

 

It was awful.

 

I also had an inquiry assignment at a client where the woman (about 50) would NOT stop staring at my crotch. it was obvious.

 

Finally, another funny story.

 

At a plasma client in Raleigh, I had a four-hour inquiry with a nice old Caucasian lady about her SOX process. We were just finishing up, and I grabbed some Hershey’s Kisses from her desk. I ate some, and asked her jokingly, “Did you bring these in just for me?”

 

She says, “No, my husband did. He’s a big chocolate man, too.”

 

She then looks at me…the overweight black person that I am, and immediately started backtracking and stammering, “Oh…no…I didn’t mean it like that…I meant he loves…uuuuuuuuuuuugh.”

 

I got a good laugh out of that.


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#74 Oriole85

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 02:25 PM

^ After one of my grandparents funerals, I just remember thinking how I would absolutely hate working in the "death business," although it can be quite lucrative (it's pretty recession proof). I was also thinking along the small talk lines of "How was your day," "oh we just had four funerals." Nonetheless, if it's something that I don't think I could really do, more credit to the people who do it.


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#75 DJ MC

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 02:38 PM

^ After one of my grandparents funerals, I just remember thinking how I would absolutely hate working in the "death business," although it can be quite lucrative (it's pretty recession proof). I was also thinking along the small talk lines of "How was your day," "oh we just had four funerals." Nonetheless, if it's something that I don't think I could really do, more credit to the people who do it.

 

When my grandmother died, the funeral was at Ruck's in Towson. After, as we left for the cemetary, my family got in the limo Ruck's provided. The driver: Chris Ely, who did the weekend sports for WJZ back in the '90s.

 

Considering the circumstances, I don't think I can say it made my dad's day, but it did help him get his mind off things an the way to and from the gravesite.


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#76 Markus

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 06:37 PM

I've got a couple of good anecdotes for here and a tip.  I'll start with a tip first.

 

Back in the day I had a seasonal job in retail working at Macy's.  Was on the floor-team that was in charge of just going around in all the sections and cleaning up all the messes shoppers leave behind.  Pretty much just always going from section to section re-folding clothes and restocking merchandise.  Was a whatever job but the tip is, always, always, wash your clothes after you buy them.  I never thought about it until I worked in this job, but as one who did, employees do not care about the clothes.  All the mess and clothes that get tossed on the floor or whatever, they just get refolded and put right back on the shelf.  Since then I've always made sure to wash any clothes I buy before I wear 'em.

 

At UMD I life-guarded during pretty much my entire tenure there, though not at the CRC.  Worked for a pool company that had contracts with mostly hotel pools in PG County (plus 1 in Arundel Co. and 1 in NE D.C.).  Was the best job because you had to be certified as both a lifeguard and pool operator so we got paid more than the ones at the CRC who were just certified as one or the other.  Though I will say I'm sure the lifeguards at the CRC probably had better eye candy to "life guard."  Though one of the pools I lifeguarded at was at the hotel that provided student-housing overflow, so that pool did have some nice eye-candy at times.  Was a fantastic job because, during the school months, barely anyone actually came to these pools (some of them were indoor and open year round) so you'd just sit there and get paid to do your school work.  And when I was done with my school work I'd break out one of those little like 4-inch antenna tv's and just watch tv or listen to music, read the paper, read books, etc., etc..

 

This job had countless other perks.  1 being, whenever it stormed (thunder/lightning) you had to close the pool and it had to stay closed for, I can't remember exactly, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-60 mins from the last clap of thunder/lightning strike.  Pretty obvious, but usually the owners/managers of the hotels wanted you to stick around just on the off-chance you could reopen the pool.  So, you're on the clock and the pool's closed so you don't have to worry about jack squat.  I remember 1 pool, in the guard-house/pump room, there was an actual tv and on the days I worked there and knew it was going to rain/storm I'd bring my playstation and just sit in there and play videogames.  Another perk was that it didn't take long before I was pretty much 2nd in command and the only person I had to answer to was the owner/boss.  So, I was able to set my own schedule and at times was in charge of scheduling, training, hiring, firing, all of which also resulted in a very nice increase in pay.

 

And, being that these were mostly hotel pools, there were all kinds of characters you did get to see and more often than you'd think you'd get invited back to some random traveling ladies room.  Now, being in a relationship and not being a douche, I'd always politely decline but it was still a good ego boost.  There were other times where people would invite you back to the room to just party and drink or smoke-up or whatever.  There were other times where women would actually want to go topless, and, hey I'd let 'em for a brief little while before having to go over and, unfortunately, ask them to put their tops back on.  And it wasn't uncommon to not have a single person come to the pool to swim during your entire shift.  Again, a pretty cake job.

 

Now one time, this lady came to the pool and was kinda being a, er, uh, well she was being a bitch.  I used to always say that "I didn't make the rules, I just enforced 'em," even though as a life guard/pool op you were aware of why all the rules were in place.  And so this lady came and the whole time she was there she was just always complaining about rule this and rule that and I would always, politely explain to her why the rule was and why I had to enforce it.  Still didn't stop her from whining and complaining.  So, at one point she goes and gets in the hot tub and I see my chance to get some revenge.  So she gets in, I give her a little bit to get settled and I go over and go, "Ma'am, uh, pregnant women aren't allowed in the hot tub because of the concerns about what the high water temperature could have on the baby.  Sorry."  And she gives me the most evil eyes imaginable and goes, "I'm not pregnant."  I, innocently reply, "Oh, I'm soooo sorry, enjoy the hot tub" and make my way back to my guard chair with a huge sh*t-eating grin on my face.  Probably one of the meaner things I've ever done but I swear this lady did pretty much everything to deserve it.


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Lemme get two claps and a Ric Flair





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