April's Life Adventures

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Stolen from Sariah

The other day Sariah wrote a post about her previous job experiences along with her current position as a wife and mother. I had to steal the idea so here we go on April's journey through employment.

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At the ripe age of 11, I became a paper delivery specialist. I had to arise at 4:30 each morning to fold horrible papers that turned my hands completely black. An hour after beginning to fold my papers, I would be headed out the door on my trusty bike to deliver these horrible things to people's homes. One man whom I actually liked, gave me a $20 tip every month if I would put the paper between his storm door and front door. So worth the time. I was lucky that my mom would drive me on Sundays because lets face it people, Sunday papers have WAY too many adds for the poor paper delivery service!

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In the 9th grade, some of the students in orchestra noticed that I could play better than they could. They asked me to teach them what I had learned from my private teachers. I was happy to oblige and thus I began to teach. I charged $5 for a half hour lesson. Not bad for a 14 year old kid.

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At the age of 16, I decided to go get a real job. McDonalds here we come! I walked in and was hired on the spot. I worked every Friday and Saturday night till 2 am. I worked every day after school. I worked during most dances because my boss would "forget" to schedule me off as I requested. I hated every second of my 9 months there.

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Because I was so turned off by the food service profession, a friend of mine got me a job at a place called "Unabase Technologies". To this day, I have no idea what they really did. All I know is that I had a little pass to hang around my neck, which allowed me inside the building, and into my little cubicle. Do any of you remember when Snapple had that national campaign to give a friend a free snaple. All you had to do was call this 1-800 number and leave your friend's address. They would get a coupon for a free snapple. Ever wonder who had to listen to all of those messages? ME. That's right folks, I had to listen to all of you giving your addresses far to fast and sometimes just leaving obscenities. Occasionally however, I would have a "hang up" at which point I would input my own address into the blank form for that file. Heh, I had quite the collection of free snapples.

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One of my all time favorite jobs was dropped into my lap by yet another friend. You see, my school district lost some funding and had to cut the elementary school music program. The parents were outraged. Thus the district made a compromise. They hired high school seniors like myself to teach elementary school music classes before and after school. They paid $13.00 an hour. I took on two schools, one before and one after. Not to mention the district would pay me for an hour of prep time per school. I wonder if they realized that I would use the same lesson plan for each school and thus get paid for two prep hours when I only needed one. So, I got paid for four hours a day when I was only doing the work of three hours. I made a lot of money that year and at the end of it all, I traded in my old viola and put all the rest of my hard earned money towards my new beautiful viola which was exactly what I needed as a music major! Unfortunately that job ended with the school year, and I was forced to find other employment for the summer.

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I knew that the change in my employment would come, so I planned ahead. My sister was involved in cosmetology school and the owner had been complaining for a while that she needed a personal assistant. Knowing that my teaching would end soon, I applied for the position in March. Therefore I worked two jobs for a while, loving every minute of each. I did all of the computer work and answered phones on occasion. I shared my office with the owner and became friends with her. She would come to me for advice on things that a high school senior really shouldn't have known. Things about life in general. The funny thing was that I usually seemed to be able to answer her questions fully and to her satisfaction. I loved my job again.

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The first year of college I did not look for a job. My parents did their best to support me, but I found that my bank account was often empty. It never even occurred to me to look for work... I was having way too much fun! I was on a scholarship and the remains of my summer employment covered much of my rent. Food was the only problem... And I would "home shop" whenever I visited so my kitchen was usually stocked.

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As I returned home for the summer months, I knew that I needed to find a job again. I decided to look within retail. A large department store in the mall called ZCMI was looking for makeup artists to work their counters. I told them of my limited experience in this area, but they took me on anyway. The line I worked was called "Roberto Bejon". This crazy Italian guy (Roberto himself) came into the store to train me on his product line. He worked with me for weeks to learn the techniques in make up application. I enjoyed most of my time there, but the main problem was that I had to be on my feet all day long. Man I was always in pain by the end of my shift!

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The second year I decided to find a job. The first week of school, I found out that the music department was putting together a MIDI lab (computers and keyboards together). I happened to take several courses in High School that used the exact programs that the college was using. I volunteered my services in the setting up of the lab because he looked stressed out and frustrated with trying to figure out the process that I already knew. The professor hired me to be the MIDI lab specialist and one of three tutors available for drop in tutoring... (the other two were my dear friends Dana and Heather).... I loved that job...

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The summer following my second year I was engaged to Sultry Husband. I knew that I needed to earn as much as I possibly could before our marriage in late July. I pulled some strings with the former employer at the hair school. She suggested I look up the high manager of Hair Cuts Plus, whom my sisters all knew anyway so there was another angle to get the job. As soon as I mentioned my last name on the phone to the high manager she hired me. Without knowing which location I would even go into. She found two locations that needed a receptionist. Between the two places I ended up working 6 days a week. It was insane, but great money! Not to mention free acrylic nails for my wedding ;-)

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Since our marriage, I have worked in some weird places, and some not so weird places. My favorite is in my home, working as a mom. Followed closely by teaching students out of my home. Right now I have enough students that I will be putting any others onto a waiting list. My schedule is just too full! What a fantastic problem!

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Last night at symphony practice, my director mentioned that we are having issues because of our size. We need a cello section, yet the only person who plays has not shown up for the past two concerts. He asked our Bass clarinet if she could read a cello part... To which she said absolutely not. She does not know how to transpose for her instrument. I do. Therefore, my latest position is that of Official Symphony Orchestrator. I will be changing parts around from time to time to fit our instrumentation. I am so excited! I finally get to use some of my orchestration skills that I learned in school! Yay for jobs falling in your lap... They have definitely been my favorite.

Posted by April_Mommy :: 10:36 PM :: 6 comments