Job History

If you don’t know what you want, it’s important to know what you DON’T want.

I thought I might document this list because I had always felt disappointed with my life, regarding job and career choices.  Generally unfulfilled, unsatisfied and hating all of my jobs.  In fact my mum always used to say “I wish you could just find a job that you liked”.  I know one of my pet hates is mundane and repetitiveness, and I also find it difficult to accept orders from bosses that I have no respect for, or I believe are incompetent.

Looking at where I am now, and what I am about to achieve, I thought to have a path of how I got here, my serve as some kind of cleansing purpose, or maybe to document that I took a lot of wrongs before getting it right.
This is completely different from my academic route where I studied Art.  I have;

• BTEC First Diploma in Art & Design
• BTEC National Diploma in Art & Design
• HND 3D Design/Model making, but after the first year, I changed it to;
• HND Design Crafts, and specialised in Ceramic Sculpture.

So from 15 years of age onwards, these are all of my jobs.  Some overlapped the others where I had 2 or 3 jobs on the go.  Sometimes, I kept these jobs whilst I was studying as well.

• Paper-boy (2 months) – This was my first job.  I remember I got £2 a day. It was okay, but the bike was too big for me and I fell off on more than one occasion, and once into the nettles.  I also tried to short cut my round after I had been doing it for a while, but I ended up messing the round-up.  Note:  Short cuts don’t work.
• Cleaner (1 day) – Helping my mother with her company for a day.  It was a real hard graft.  It was a deep clean in a house.  Literally a toothbrush job to the very surface.
• Telesales (8 months) – Local newspaper delivery subscriptions (8 months).  Not bad.  My first office job, but I didn’t like the boss, or his subordinate.  But the job was not bad.  The people were friendly enough.  It was hard ringing people up in the evening, and some of the abuse I got.  It was hard to take.  I was only 16 as well
• Burger King (4 years) –  Not bad.  Got me through college and university.  I made a lot of friends here.  We had some stories and good times.  I would normally just work Saturdays.  Sometimes I would go into work in the evenings and help them close down.  It was all just a little extra money.
• Cleaner (6 months) – Not bad, but I hated doing it. It was a 6:00 am to 8:00 am position.  I wanted to drink and have fun at Uni, and more often than not, I had to go to work on a few hours sleep.  Started off with a daily morning shift, but then I would do the evening shift as well, in an effort to get more money.  In the first year of Uni, it was like a party, but in the second year, it was a hard graft.
• Burger King (8 months) – I went here full time after university was over.  Had a lot of fun here, but now that I was full time, I noticed the pay was terrible and I was getting a bit to old for it.  It was a lot of young people here.
• Cafe Select (5 months) – I transferred to Cafe Select from Burger King, because it was the same management.  It was an early rising job as well.  But there was a lot more interaction with the customers, which I liked.  They were not quite as rude as the clientèle that frequented Burger King.  I enjoyed the “I’m in charge” feeling about it, but I guess after a while, it started to grate on me a bit.
• Window Cleaner (5 weeks) – A job working ‘the lads’.  I liked being out and about, but I was too short to be a window cleaner.  I had to carry a crate with me everywhere and stand on it, just so I could reach the ground floor windows.  And as for the top windows?  Don’t get me started…..I am scared of heights.  The ladders were really heavy for me, and really dug into my rather thin frame.  My boss and I mutually agreed that I should knock it on the head.
• Drainage Engineer (6 months) – A shit job – literally.  bad hours, bad pay, going down drains all day, putting miniature camera’s down water pipes to check their conditions.  More often than not, it was an early rise and a late ride home.  I was normally really cold and tired all the time.  The people I worked with were okay, I guess, but I did not click with them.  I think it might have been the age gap.
• Drainage Engineer (6 months).  One of the jobs was a night shift job.
• Temporary Worker (3 days) – Making cardboard boxes for cakes and donuts.
• Youth Art Co-ordinator (6 months).  This was actually a really good position.  I enjoyed it a lot, but it was only a part-time role, and I did not drive at the time.
• Cleaner (4 months) – This was a cleaning contract for a local car dealership.
• Pensions Administrator (3 years) – I worked for a big company. It was my first office role. I made some good close friendships here. I had no interest in the role.
  Note: Whilst I was working as a pension administrator, I went back to adult education college to study counseling.

TRAVELLING: I spent 7 months backpacking around the world – the USA, FIJI, New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand. Whilst I was away, I did some labour work.

• Labourer (1 week) (whilst traveling through Australia – Stripping bathrooms)
• Labourer (1 month) (Cleaning plastic chairs with this stuff that stripped the skin off my hands.  Had to clean over 2000 chairs – whilst traveling through Australia)
  
• Postman (1 month) – Not a fan of this job. I had no car or driving license at the time, and carrying all those bags on my shoulder was hard work for me.
• Cold Room Assistant (10 months) – I was putting dead fish into boxes for restaurants. 11.5 hours a day.  Up at 4:30.  The temperature was about 2 degrees. My pay was messed up for the first 4 months.  The bosses were idiots, and later on- crooks.  Just a big no-no. I wrote a lot of poetry in this time. Most of it was depressing.
• Barman (3 years) – I was still drinking at the time. I turned from client to employee at the only pub I liked. I worked here for years alongside several other jobs
• Pizza Delivery Driver – Local delivery driver. I liked lots of tips.

It was around this time that I went back to adult education college to study web design. During this time of studying, I did the following.

• Warehouse Worker (1 week) – Putting boxes into the back of a lorry.  Also conveyor belt work.
• Database Administration. (4 months) – I had a temp job working with a few former colleagues from Aon, at a new place.  It was database administration.  It was cool working with friends again, but the work was very dull.  On more than one occasion, I probably fell asleep at my desk.
• Pizza Delivery Driver – Domino’s Pizza.
• Warehouse worker, whilst I was studying.  I had several positions in warehouses—the kind of job that had a high turnover of staff.  I wouldn’t say I liked both of them.  Both of them collectively lasted a month.
• Warehouse worker (1 month).  This time the people were not so bad. It was working for a company that made mobility chairs and baths.
  

After I finished the course, I was saddled with a lot of debt, but I could now begin something somewhat fulfilling – Digital Career

• Web Content Editor (10 months) – This was awful pay, and a long trek into London every day.
• Web Content Editor (9 months) – This was great. Worked for a local company, loved my boss. It was three days a week, and I was contracting, so the money was good. Was also still time the people were not so bad. It was working for a company that made mobility chairs and baths.
• Web Content Editor (1 month) – Worked in a barn. It a long drive, but a lovely location. In the middle of nowhere.
• Web Designer (3 months) – Working for a local web design agency company in Fleet.
• Web Content Editor (1 month) – This was editing the help and support pages for an international telecommunications company.
• Ecommerce Manager (5 years) – My longest full-time job. After the first 3 years, the final 2 coasted somewhat, and I felt that some things had gone stale with my role.
  
  The boss was a self-made millionaire who sold the company on the same day that I handed my notice in. The new owners made my position redundant 4 months after I left and outsourced to an agency.

Travelling: At this point, I was travelling around Mexico and Latin America.

• Freelance Digital Marketing Consultant (6 years) – Ongoing
  
  Now I can say after all of the above, that I am self-employed and loving it.

Over the last 15 years, I have designed 100’s of websites. Some of them are for me, some for others.

I managed and written for a small section of websites.

I have worked on

• Ecommerce websites
• Information websites
• Service-based websites
• Portfolio websites

Including some of the following:

• 1 poetry website
• 1 digital design agency website
• 1 search engine optimisation website
• 1 custom t-shirt website
• 1 Mexican travel website
• 1 free information website about astrology
• 1 astrology consultation website
• 1 website about the meaning of dreams
• 1 website about things made from coconut
• 1 website about Eco Homes

Summary

My one take would be to remember that nothing in this life is permanent.

I certainly value all of the lessons that this journey has taught me.

Note: It makes my time in sewers and freezing in the freezer, putting fish into boxes, seem so worth it now.