working for a living
As you may know, I have plenty of time to think. And most of the time I´m obsessing about finding a job for when I get back...and also trying to make the most of this current one. Which leads me to asking, in the interest of getting to know each other again...
What was your best job yet? And your worst? And what are you looking forward to doing in the future, in terms of work?
My worst was this Office Space kinda job at Allen Press in Lawrence. I lasted 3 months, measuring graphs and weather maps to put in academic journals. I spent a lot of time at the xerox machine. There were no windows and my coworkers were an assortment of bitter resigned people who lived for either bowling night or the monthly office potlucks. I got written up for not working 45 hours a week one time, AFTER I´d given my two week notice. Bleh. I went to work for this company that hired temp workers to grade standardized essay tests, written by eighth graders. It was much better.
The best...well, working on the farm in Illinois was hard, but really cool, ultimately. I got to be outside a lot, I was in charge of the running of the kitchen, almost everyone I worked with was really cool. I think the time I had it the best, though, was when I was working at a farm near lawrence every morning, at the produce department in the afternoons, and doing illustration work on the weekends. Didn´t make that much money, but the work was rewarding.
And...I´m looking forward to being a textile artist. And working with kids part time, in some capacity. Also, maybe, my own small organic farm. Thats the dream. Now I want to hear about yours.
What was your best job yet? And your worst? And what are you looking forward to doing in the future, in terms of work?
My worst was this Office Space kinda job at Allen Press in Lawrence. I lasted 3 months, measuring graphs and weather maps to put in academic journals. I spent a lot of time at the xerox machine. There were no windows and my coworkers were an assortment of bitter resigned people who lived for either bowling night or the monthly office potlucks. I got written up for not working 45 hours a week one time, AFTER I´d given my two week notice. Bleh. I went to work for this company that hired temp workers to grade standardized essay tests, written by eighth graders. It was much better.
The best...well, working on the farm in Illinois was hard, but really cool, ultimately. I got to be outside a lot, I was in charge of the running of the kitchen, almost everyone I worked with was really cool. I think the time I had it the best, though, was when I was working at a farm near lawrence every morning, at the produce department in the afternoons, and doing illustration work on the weekends. Didn´t make that much money, but the work was rewarding.
And...I´m looking forward to being a textile artist. And working with kids part time, in some capacity. Also, maybe, my own small organic farm. Thats the dream. Now I want to hear about yours.
posted by Hannah at 10:35 AM
7 Comments:
My worst job was bussing tables at Owl Car Cafe. They assumed I knew how to work in a restaurant, and I was super shy, and knew nothing. That lasted for one miserable summer. That may have been our golden summer.
Favorite? That's a toss-up between this one and working in a cafe when I first moved to Chicago. The cafe job was part-time, mostly just so I could meet people. It was so much fun. I only worked there for about 6 months.
This one, well, currently it's stressful as hell and I really need a vacation, but most times I love it beyond reason. I've never gotten such personal satisfaction from a job before.
My dream job might be working with adolescent girls in a group therapy setting, maybe for depression, eating disorders, sexual assault survivors. I'd love to run a creative arts camp for at-risk girls.
This is a weird question for me. Most people assume that because I am a graduate teaching assistant/ Ph.D. student, I don't have actual employment. In fact, for a few months, I endured a friend of mine who would constantly say things like "Oh, you would understand if you had a real job." She was trying to be funny -- but whatever.
Truth be told, I am still working toward the degree that will allow me to apply for English professorships at universities. That's when my "real" job market will kick in. But right now, I keep pretty dang busy with the teaching job I have. And ever since I started teaching college 6 years ago, I've loved it. The academic calendar is a luxury -- no 9-5, long breaks, etc. And my pay right now at the UI is only a bit less than what I made as a full time teacher at Marion. So no complaints there. But it really is the students that makes my job worth it. Today, my lit students took their final, and several asked what classes I would be teaching in the future, if they could take them, etc. I've received feedback that actually lets me know I'm doing a good job for them.
And my job is not just teaching. I love going to conferences, presenting papers, and (okay, maybe love is a strong word here) writing my dissertation. Too, I'm getting my first article published next year -- so that will be exciting (even if, oh, 3 people in the field care enough to read it! ha!).
My dream is to teach in my own field! As a gta, it's hard to get a class all your own in your own specialization area. So I am eager to teach medieval texts soon and increase student interest in them.
Okay, my worst job?? IDELMAN Telemarketing, baby. I did that for a semester at ESU --yuck! But then, I got to work as a student secretary in the English department -- and that rocked. Pretty much contributed to me doing what I'm doing now.
Aw, I LOVED working in the English department; I forgot about that! My senior year, I ran Bluestem Press, which probably contributed to me going into publishing rather than teaching.
Oh my gosh, Idelman was my worst too, Lesley. And Jason's, and everyone else who has ever lived in Emporia and been desperate for money.
I would like to tell about my best job, but my kid just woke up and he's not happy. :)
I think it's wonderful we all have/ want/dream of jobs where we help people in some capacity, whether it's through social work, activism, therapy, parenting, teaching, educating, etc. Of course, none of this is surprising to me. It just seems in keeping with what I understand and have known about everyone here. Nice to reflect on.
OOPS, hey, I forgot to mention my summer job at Marion's library back-in-the-day. That was cool.... I like the new location for the library in the train station, but I still only picture the other place when I think of that library.
Ok, I obviously really enjoy what I'm doing now, although some would argue that it is not a job. Nevertheless, I think this is my best one because it's what I know I'm supposed to be doing right now. My other best job was the one that I left last year when the baby was born. It was so much fun! I worked at the soybean processing plant in Emporia (who would EVER have thought??) and I did accounting/logistics type stuff along with some administrative things as well. I was kinda in charge of sending out the rail cars of product to their various destinations, and also keeping track of how much product the plant was taking in and making each day. Bunge is a huge company so there was actually quite a bit of responsibility involved, which I loved, and there was always an opportunity to express your ideas about how to do things better. My boss was like that...most of the time it was very empowering. Everyone who worked in that office (at least this is how I saw it) had the feeling that they were genuinely an integral part of the company's success. So that was cool. Plus I got to go to New Orleans for a training session one year.
I don't really think most days about that other job or how it compares to my current one, since they are so different. Obviously it would be nice still to have a paycheck...other than that I have no regrets.
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