In a previous life

[Bledlow]

Petrol station shop assistant
Shelf stacker for Sainsburys
Building labourer
Ward orderly at National Spinal Injuries centre
Costing clerk for a manufacturer of mining machinery
Warehouseman in a record sleeve warehouse
Ditto in a tile warehouse
Machine operator in glue factory
School lab assistant
Packer in cheese factory
Bank messenger (Bank of Tokyo International)
Fruit juice bottling operative for Schweppes
Quality control lab tech in same fruit juice bottling plant (I knew the degree would come in handy one day)
Building labourer
Timber yard sales assistant
Dogsbody in record pressing factory

Oh yeah - and more years than I care to remember in software development & support, in four countries - but mostly in Berkshire.

[Kathy]

Oh, I hadn't realised that pre-graduation jobs counted! In which case add to mine:

assistant papergirl
Librarian
Council Office Administrative Assistant
Actuarial Student

[annie]

Not sure the first few are in exactly the right order but.....

Stable girl at a stud
Groom
Behind the Deli counter in Tesco, left when a young gentleman offered to spread the Taramasalata across my breasts and lick it off
General dogsbody, nanny
Babysitting by the bucket load
Dental Receptionist/Office Manager
Technical Drawer
Livestock Marketing
Personnel Officer
Mergers and Acquisitions
Quality Systems Manager

Now mother, governor and Pixie

Edit: I was also a waitress, well a sort of upmarket waitress.  I wore a nice little outfit with a little pinny and a cute hat.  I waited at garden parties for the rich folk.

[nicknack]

Labourer for a builder.
Fruit picker.
Film processor and printer.
Furniture porter (at Harrods)
Geology field assistant.
Cartographer.
Roadie.
Hire and supply of PA equipment.
Photographic technologist.
Music teacher.
Musician.

[cc93]

Behind the Deli counter in Tesco, left when a young gentleman offered to spread the Taramasalata across my breasts and lick it off

Did you return once he had finished?

 

[simonp]

Programmer (summer work whilst at school/uni) x 3
Software Engineer x 4

[artyfaharty]

During Education
Chicken process plant operative (it was sposed to toughen me up after boarding school), went home on the bus every day stinking.
Washer upperer several places, all grim as feck
Barman, the worst pub in Chatham (collection of used knickers over the bar, you get the picture)
Health Food shop worker,
Demolition
Chef
Post Education
Paste up artist
Graphic Designer/Illustrator
Studio Manager (made my hair fall out)
IT Manager
Could might be anything next

[annie]

Behind the Deli counter in Tesco, left when a young gentleman offered to spread the Taramasalata across my breasts and lick it off

Did you return once he had finished?

 

Finished, I don't recall him ever starting.  At that stage I wasn't into boys/men. 

[teethgrinder]

Paperboy
Market trader's dogsbody selling rollerblinds
Various temp warehouse work
Assembler/packer/machine shop
Precision machine setter and operator making semiconductor wafers (chips)
Voluntary redundancy for 5 months, went touring
The bloke on the saw*/warehouse


What next?

Hopefully retirement. The sooner the better.


*Only had the saw** for 7 months and I'm about the only person in the building who can use it without looking at the manual.
**Bloody Italian engineering

[andrewc]

Wasn't allowed a paper round or similar (all those perverts..)
6th form - failed Maths, Physics & Chem
Tech College - failed Physics & Chem again..
Dole
Joined Guardian Royal Exchange Insurance as a temp. Responsible for the big Certificate Printer, Burster and filing! Progressed to clerk in Motor Dept, offered full time job but already had offer from BT.

Joined BT, the bastards lied to me!  They said I'd be doing a _little_ bit of Telesales.  I was phoning every Tom, Dick & Harriet in Liverpool trying to flog them stuff. Moved into desk sales/account manager support. Then organising mailshots, promotions, local trade shows etc. Big re-org, job gone. Team in Manchester want a database set up. Never done that, read DB4 manual, blag through interview. Spend 6 months in Manchester (awful commute) then back to a crap job in the Pool again. Argue with senior manager, am told to reconsider my future. Get a better job in different BT dept next week    .  New job is launch centre for new products, mainly data stuff.  Baby them through launch then roll out nationally. Good fun while it lasts but it degenerates into order entry work.  Ask if I can look after the office LAN, get new job as assistant Sys Admin & more money!  Do every MS course they'll pay for. On a course when I get a call and am told the jobs gone.  Re-skill as IP network engineer, blag exams to CCNP.  Am now The Man to come to for help/support/troubleshooting for _1_ BT product, starting to get nervous again... too many jobs going at the moment..

[Chris N]

Milkman
Shop assistant
Bike shop mechanic
Barman
Draughtsman
Design Engineer /

[PaulF]

In no particular order

Dogs body in factories making Computer Stands & Taillifts
Christmas Postman
Pickfords removals
barman
Ski Bar Manager
Trainee Navigator in RAF
Data Entry clerk
Processed Insurance claims
Graduate Trainee at Midland as was
Business Consultant
Project Manager
Pre-sales consultant
Windsurf Instructor
Camp Counsellor in USA summer camp
Tested water purification systems
Water purification research monkey
Delivery Driver (yes I was WVM)

Also have a degree in Comical Engineering (not a very good one)

[clarion]

I forgot I was briefly a warehouseman for a biig department store.  That was actually fun.  I got to wander round all the 'backstage' bits of the shop.  An amazing warren it was.

I don't like taramasalata. 

[tiermat]

Again in no particular order:

Trainee chef
Trainee draughtsman
Carpet salesman
Fish fryer/chip maker
Frozen food production line operative
Printer repair engineer
Field service engineer
Implementation engineer
1st line support
2nd line support
3rd line support
Sysadmin (windows )
IT Manager
Sysadmin (Linux )
ditto
ditto
ditto ad nauseum, still doing that now, the only things that have changed are:
1) The amount I get paid
2) I now get to work on the really interesting stuff, not just boring commercial stuff!!!

[Gandalf]

Provisions Assistant at the CO-OP
Trainee Manager at the CO-OP
Assistant Manager of Fish & Chip shop
Postman
Motorcycle Salesman (Pride & Clarke, London)
Relief Manager in the Off Licence Game
Baker
Part time gardening round
BT Telecomms Technician
Openreach Coach/Trainer/ Senior Field Tech

[FatBloke]

Mine's a bit brief.
Whilst at school:-

Demolition
Plant packer and wrapper
Tractor Driver

then

Computer Programmer
Bar manager

next

Parasite   


ps. I can't stand taramasalata!  Would humous do?   

[TheLurker]

<edit>The obligatory paper round(s)</edit>
Delivery driver for tyre company.
Delivery driver / porter for Jenners.  I was that brown (then blue) van man.
Cashier in a Bookies (William Hill).
Odd waiting (at table) jobs intermingled with the above.

And for nigh on 25 years since a variety of code monkey jobs.

[annie]

Mine's a bit brief.
Whilst at school:-

Demolition
Plant packer and wrapper
Tractor Driver

then

Computer Programmer
Bar manager

next

Parasite   


ps. I can't stand taramasalata!  Would humous do?   

Now you're talking

[matthew]

Mine is also short

Whilst at school

Paper Boy - 5years 6 days a week (christmas tips were very good)
6 weeks computer programming @ ISP

Uni summer jobs

2 x packing artists paints (Sleeping smilee)

Post graduation: (Chem Eng)

PHD student / Researcher - uncompleted
Design engineer (water industry - civil eng)

About to move to design engineer (Process department)

[Nienke]

I've hardly done anything! Only summer jobs:

Secretary 
Catering dogsbody 
Sand sculpturer 
Oh and I did some English proofreading for my Dutch auntie the other week

The PhD is really nearly done now...

[PhilO]

I've hardly done anything! Only summer jobs:

Secretary 
Catering dogsbody 
Sand sculpturer 
Oh and I did some English proofreading for my Dutch auntie the other week

The PhD is really nearly done now...

You can get paid for building sand castles? 

[Greenbank]

Paperboy
Kitchen Porter
Grill Chef (including mystery drinker duties for Whitbread)
Data Entry (Temping)
Tech Support/QA/Consulting/Development (prefer to be in an office than on endless aeroplanes visiting angry customers and staying in identical hotels waking up not knowing where the hell I am)

Lived in the US for 18 months with time on the East coast (SF), West coast (NY) and smack bang in the middle (KS/MO).

[Nienke]

You can get paid for building sand castles? 

Yup. There's this company in the Netherlands that builds a number of 'sand sculpture parks' on the beaches in Germany / Netherlands / Belgium every summer, and then the tourists pay to get in and look at the sculptures. Absolutely terriffic job, although it's harder work than you might think (esp when the weather is rubbish), deadlines are strict and a lot of shovelling and lugging about of mud is involved.

[numbnuts]

Paper boy
Store man
Apprentice Blacksmith
Blacksmith
Door to door salesman
Oyster farmer
Kitchen porter
Blacksmith as shot master (explosives engineer in Oz)
Self employed Blacksmith (wrought iron work)
Blacksmith ship yard
Builders mate 1st and 2nd fixing
Full time security guard
Part time security guard
Blacksmith/GRP building warships
Retired at 38 due to accident

[woollypigs]

While at school and before :

Slave for parents (did any work they couldn't be arsed to do e.g washing up, cleaning, helping with gardening and the odd DIY jobs in the house)
Paper boy

After and doing school/uni/etc.
Electrician Apprentice (half school half in work placement)
Mechanical Engineer technical drawer (the UK version is somewhere between HND and a engineer, half school half in work placement) got my degree and worked only for 3 months as an engineer.
Various spells on various course while unemployed
Travelled my but off and arrived in the UK, gave HND Technical Illustration a shot in Blackpool and ended up in London.
Fresh produce white delivery van man
Technical drawer for a sign company
Web designer
Got a job offer in Paris for a Web producer position that I could not say no to.
Got head hunted to a nice upstart company to lead their Web design department.
Bobble burst and I tried out the unemployment service in France for a while.
Handy man on a camp site in France, doing anything from painting to cooking in the camp sites snack.
Photographer and web designer for an estate agent in London.
Freelance Web designer.
Sandwich delivery by bicycle delivery boy
Cycle instructor.

And there bound to be a few odd jobs I have forgotten in there too.