Jellies that went to college: What was your first job after graduation?

I delivered pizzas for a while than I became a security guard.

After graduation I landed a job I lasted about a week at. I was tasked with justifying destroying the wetlands here. It was all bullshit and made up numbers to make sure the company that paid me got the land they wanted. I quit.

That was the only job that attempted to use my degree.

My degree is in Economics… My money comes from computers.

Building swimming pools, ended the summer as a supervisor with 6 people working for me.
Most people that graduated that year were still looking for a job in the fall.

I worked at a collections agency briefly, then several years of medical admin and billing. The pay has varied between terrible and middling. I have never had a job that uses my degree, mostly because jobs that actually use my degree (philosophy) are not available to people who do not have a graduate degree in the field. So that’s what I am working on now.

As I’ve never been shy of admitting, I did not graduate college. I quit after my 3rd year at an engineering university – for various reasons, one of which was that I couldn’t graduate in the next year, and didn’t want the degree anyway.

My first job after leaving was working at a motel / marina (doing painting, light maintenance and occasional deep cleaning of the rooms, yard work and washing boats for sale, mostly) for the first part of the summer after I left, followed by my start in my current industry as a “number dummy”: timekeeper / payroll clerk on a construction site.

Not only did I make $5 per hour (not an awful first job then), but I also made an additional $5 per diem, tax free, seven days a week as long as I was at the jobsite. I was almost able to live on the per diem (which was the point of a per diem in the first place) and bank my salary. Ah, the good old days.

I was an agricultural lender in a bank. I made loans to farmers.

Bookmobile clerk. I made $5,000 a year then got my Master’s in Library Science and got a job paying $9,000 a year.

I went straight into a graduate degree, but in between, I did a summer of fieldwork for my undergrad supervisor. Part of that was salaried, but it was also partly covered by scholarship, so I’m not sure that counts.

@janbb Bookmobiles are awesome!

Business Management degree, worked in retail in the office for 3 years.
@janbb The bookmobile was one of my best childhood memories.

History degree. Stockbroker for a big financial firm.

With my odd B.A. in astronomy, I marched up the street to the Harvard/Smithsonian Observatory in Cambridge, where I was living, and got hired as an astronomical research assistant. My boss was Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a serious astronomer who was also the technical consultant for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In addition, he was the scientific consultant for the Air Force for Project Blue Book. This was the official Air Force’s investigation into UFO reporting at the time…1958.

Boy, did I love that job…on and off for seven years, full-time and part-time and accentuated by the birth of my two kids. They let me work any hours I wanted…It was called WAE…“when actually employed”...so I could come and go at any hour of the day or night and find people in the building.

I was paid $4,500 a year and thrilled to get that.

@gailcalled That is awesome

I worked the summer as a Senior Camp Counselor and Lifeguard at a camp on an island off of Montreal, Canada. (St. Anne de Bellevue)

Fun stuff included a few 3–4 day canoe trips and camping on the St. Lawrence River. Plenty of sunburn and constipation followed but we had a blast. These were huge canoes seating 8–12 people apiece (just try steering or turning those things, ha ha). Quite an adventure.

I started teaching 3rd Grade in Sept. at a small private school in Bklyn., N. Y. Loved it.

It was through my summer jobs at camps during all my college summers that had me realizing that I really enjoyed kids of that age group (rather than High School for which I was trained.)

And IMHO that’s still the best age group. Unlike younger grades, they can do more things independently and yet aren’t yet at that obnoxious middle school “snotty” stage where they’re becoming jaded and a bit cynical.

At 8–9 yrs. they still have enough of the magic of childhood left within them. It’s a fun age group to deal with.

After I finished my BA, I went for my MA. I kept my job at my university’s Writing Center, was promoted to a consultant position, and then worked as a Teaching Associate during my second year of graduate study. Upon completing my MA, I was accepted to teach part-time at a community college as an English Adjunct in fall.

The pay is okay, and the staff has been very warm and welcoming to all of the new adjuncts. However, I am looking into PhD programs as my end-goal is to teach Literature at the university level. If I get accepted into a program for next fall, I will terminate my contract in summer and prepare to move.

I found a job designing ventilation fans and other small systems for big airplanes. Then they relegated me to ordering parts (that other companies had already designed), so I took off to grad school.

Physician.

After I graduated with a BA degree (in Zoology) I quickly ran off to “join the circus”. Or so I told my family and friends. Actually I joined the U.S. Army and worked as a Med Tech in medical center Labs and medical research labs for 18 years. The pay was adequate. I’ve been working in civilian hospital labs for over 18 years now and they pay me more than I’m worth. HA!.

My profession required a Master’s then (it is an entry-level doctorate now), and a one-year fellowship before full certification. Because I had a one-year-old, I wanted to do a part-time fellowship. It took me a while to find such a placement, and I worked in that hospital for 2 years.

After graduating with a B.Com degree (Taxation) I did DCFA (Diploma in Computerized Financial accounting). I took classes for some students there, just an year. Then I took up the career of Homemaking and Motherhood!

@Smitha So you went to school for the easy stuff and then went after the tough stuff? Cool.

@Adirondackwannabe Definitely it’s one of the most challenging, yet rewarding experiences of my life. There is a great satisfaction and value to homemaking.

My current one, a teacher assistant in a special needs classroom. My undergrad is in communication disorders (I need a grad degree to practice which I have applied for).

After I got my degree I stayed on in the job I was in, Night Clerk at a hotel doing the reconciliation. After a few months it was time to move back to San Francisco to get a “real” job.

Ten days after I moved I was hired at an entry level job at the stock exchange. I have been there ever since, well over thirty years. I worked my way up to Senior VP, head of Operations, reporting to the Chairman. And after a few takeovers and mergers, I am still in a senior executive position.

^^ Can we PM you for hot end-of-the-year tips?

Corporate travel agent.

Since this has turned deviant, should it be “Jellies who went to…”?

See http://www.fluther.com/167095/how-much-does-poor-grammar-online-bother-you/#quip2863423

vv And you do have a nice nose.

@livelaughlove21 – congrats on the job

I used to be a shop assistant.