Serious Jobs and the consequences thereof

[Ides_of_March]

So this will be geared more towards the older branch of the smogon community, but for those of us who are either in or out of college we usually have obligations that we must meet on a day to day, month to month basis. Bills, debt, alimony, and other such consequences of getting old tend to be at the front of our minds. Especially if one is not in the ideal situation they had in their head when they pursued their education (if they pursued it at all).

Point being, many of us are in the workforce. Many of us have graduated from various classes in the workforce to better places within it, and in doing so have learned a great deal about our strengths, flaws, and those of other people.

So I pose a question to ye elders of the pokemon community: What jobs have you worked (loved or hated) that you learned something from that you'll carry with you for the rest of your life, and where do you see those lessons taking you?

Personally, I worked for Walmart for two years in a small redneck town where they still held KKK rallies on occasion (I was not a participant). To sum it up, I'll quote Jay from "Clerks." "You know? This job wouldn't be so bad....if it weren't for the fucking customers..." I learned a great deal of patience both with the ignorance of the population and my coworkers. But that patience, ability to handle stress, and hold my tongue has carried over to my job now as a nurse's assistant where I primarily take care of people with dementia and alzheimers. Surprisingly enough, the latter position is much easier to deal with and more ideal than being berated by an alcoholic who is livid over not being able to purchase his beer before noon on Sunday.

I will probably carry that and other experiences with me beyond grad school into the field of what one could call "real" work. And with that, what are your stories, dear friends?

 

[Yuri]

My first actual work was as an intern in a small security company when I was 17. That was in 2006-7. I'd help with installing and maintenance of security cameras, access control and stuff like that. It only lasted
about 3 months but it was cool I guess. Boss was as asshole. Important lessons I learned from it were a) coffee is life, b) knowing my way around downtown, c) if there's nothing for you to do, go after
something to do or they don't need you, d) coffee really is life.

Some time later I started working at a call center. The first day of work was decidedly the worst day of my life. You have no idea how scary it is to put a headset on and answer calls from people with problems you have to solve and how quickly 3 months of training disappear from your head. The job itself was terrible but I was lucky enough to meet awesome people and had the best boss ever. A shame I got detached from most of them. This is where I became a time freak: one of the goals of each team was being logged on, logged off and resting at the scheduled times (known as adherence) and my boss was very strict about it. In fact, he was such a cool guy and did so much for the well being of his team (would give everyone a free rest when influx of calls permitted, would give honest feedback, etc) that you felt BAD for being late/messing up. Some time into the job I passed to another area but atrittion with the crowd of the other shift is what I think led to my dismissal.

Months later I was kind of forced to work in a call center AGAIN but this time wasn't so bad as callers where vendors instead of clients. It was far from home so I had to get used getting up damn early (4:30 a.m.) which is a habit I still carry. I can brag about the supervisors being impressed with how well I handled the first day considering everyone was scared shitless. I was literally chilling in my chair. I told them later that I had already had my first day at a call center so it was cruise control for me.

I left that job to give english classes in a language course. It was one of the most fantastic experiences in my life and is certainly a profession I aspire to. I cannot begin to describe the feeling of explaining something to someone and seeing their face light up as they get it or seeing people's progress through time. I became aware of quite a few things about myself there, most prominently how incredibly intolerant I am to people who don't understand something I think is simple and how my countenance betrays my best efforts to hide it. Solution: be the biggest, most obnoxious clown possible. I won't take on a condescending face if I am with a silly grin already.

I hopped to an internship on a Industrial Property company since it was for engineering (my major). Dannemann Siemsen, some of you may have heard of it as it is the biggest in Latin America. Didn't stay very long as they made some excuse of little work for english language while there was a lot to be done in german but it was a good experience in an actual office and I had to learn how to dress properly for one. My boss was kind enough to put a good word for me to other similar companies and like 2 weeks later I was in another internship. Been there for almost two years now, being promoted to trainee mid October (fuck yeah 4 digits paycheck). The experience is teaching me how to write official letters to clients and government institutions, while expanding my knowledge of various areas' lingo.

 

[TaiCrunch]

My first "real" job was as a lifeguard to help pay my way through school. We were just a bunch of high school kids hanging out at a pool for less than minimum wage so it was perfect for summer. I ended up staying all through college after getting a bunch of pay raises and extra certifications as a swim lesson instructor and a lifeguard trainer. When I was there I found out how much I like working with kids and how much I hate working with teenagers. I got my degree in communications--which I love--but I'm really considering going back to school for elementary education because of how much I liked it there.

During college I needed a year-round job to help pay for what my lifeguard job couldn't. So I started working at the first place that would hire me: Kohl's. It was my first experience with retail and it was pretty much the same as what Ides_of_March described. The main thing I took away from it was becoming more outgoing. I have a stutter that I've always been self-conscious about so I never really went out of my way to talk to anyone that wasn't a close friend, but being forced to talk to everyone in my line of sight really brought me out of my shell. I got much more comfortable with myself and I've been able to better manage my stutter. But I had enough of retail after a few years so I jumped at the chance to leave when I found out my summer job would be opening a year-round facility.

I graduated with no promising job prospects and fell into a deep depression after realizing I may have to stay at the pool. I knew I had to get out one way or another and ended up settling for a job at a call center. Needless to say I was terrified of the job but figured I'd deal with it until I can find something else. But once I started working I ended up actually being really good at it, even with my stutter (and I've ended up managing it even better, yay!). I've been learning more in the past seven months here than I have in years anywhere else. Things like managing stress, problem solving, effective communication (getting my money's worth from my degree, I guess), and I even get to brush on on my writing skills every now and then. I definitely don't plan on being here long-term but I'm getting the most of my time here, making a name for myself working on job skills and getting good references.

 

[Acklow]

I've been working for the past two years ever since I dropped out of college and I must say it has been one of the best decisions in my life surprisingly enough. Although I learned a lot in college and gained a large group of friends, I can say that nothing would equal the experiences I have had in the working field. I initially started off working as a finance specialist at one of the dealerships my dad used to work for, churning out customer info and working with banks. It wasn't an amazing job but I sure learned a hella lot about credit scores and what it means to have good credit. You would be surprised at how many people applied for a new car loan who had loads of debt either from student loans or from other obligations and then they would get turned down due to poor credit or insufficient cash down. It made me quickly appreciate the fact that all I would have to ever pay off in loans would be my one 5k loan I pulled from the government to pay for half a semester's worth of school.

After that I did a little bit of car sales. Contrary to popular belief, car sales isn't all that bad. In fact, because our dealership was one-price, it meant that selling a vehicle to a customer was much easier since you didn't have to be great at negotiations and it removed a large amount of pressure when trying to reach any sales goals. It was a lot of fun because eventually it became a job where you met people and talked about cars and life. Got to meet some strange but really cool people that way.

I transitioned from that directly into the home exteriors business with my uncle and sold a some roofs. He invited me to do so while I was still selling cars, mainly because he was starting up his own business (he had a huge success doing sales for another business, so much so he made practically 300k/year doing so). I initially did a little of that but noticed that I wasn't faring as well as he had said I should be and so he asked if I wanted to work on the office side of things, which is where I am now. I work as the administrative support manager for our company, making a decent amount of money (as much as anyone with a regular college degree) and I have quite a few things under my name (a nice iMac desktop, a 2010 Mazda, etc).

If anything I think that this current time is great and I've learned a whole lot, from managing credit to managing money to customer support and quality control. I've managed sales people and I have trained quite a few as well, and at the age of 21 that's quite a feat for someone with no business, sales, or management degree. I appreciate all of my roots and everyday I feel extremely blessed to be where I am. I am planning on going back to school soon, and I will be paying it all with my own money that I saved up myself. I won't be relying on anyone else for it and that's what makes me proud the most: the fact that I know I can be financially independent.

 

[Shinryu]

My first "job" was counting inventory for a company inside Walmarts with a varied assortment of druggies and other idiots (to give you an idea of my daily view, those pictures from People of Walmart are NOT exaggerations). Hated just about every second of it, ditched it the first chance I got. Now I do accounting for the local state government (accounting being what I went through college for), which I count as my first real job, and I do really enjoy it.

As for lessons? Well, one takeaway I guess is no matter how hectic it can get in the office sometimes, NOTHING is ever as bad as standing on your feet counting fucking inventory for dumbshits for 8-12 hours a day with a 1 hr break. I doubt Walmart ever got an accurate inventory considering everyone just cut corners and gave general estimates since performance was tied to stupid things like how fast you move, which was all irrelevant anyways as the price of the items you counted was the biggest booster, and the managers had their pet favorites counting the high price things so that their performance was always inflated to look good.

 

[Calm_Mind_Latias]

From reading blogs such as Half Sigma and Lion of the Blogosphere, I am glad that I did never had a Wal-Mart type of job. I did some work writing grant proposals for academic biological labs though. I often delved in scientific papers concerning the relevant research, which I could understand quite well, in order to understand the relevant research, and had to explain the merits (more specifically why the research should be funded compared to other proposals) of the research. I did not interact with others though, although I sometimes talked to the PI personally.

I never had a sustained passion to do laboratory research, whether as a lab technician or a grad student; I just did not exhibit the slightest bit of competence performing even the most basic procedures when I was not supervised by my peers.

I think the lesson I learned as an adult, even while I was an innocent adolescent, was that the adult world couldn't care less about you. This is one of the reasons why I immersed myself in the Pokemon anime as a college student.

 

[SynysterCola]

My current job as a system administrator has taught me one thing - perception matters. While everyone on my team knows me and my quirks and can vouch for me, all it takes is some stranger to go mention to your manager that you look like some lost intern and suddenly your every action is magnified hundred-fold.

 

[MrIndigo]

I've found my job is full of impostor syndrome.

I spent most of my first year blindly guessing at the right answer to things, and feeling like I had no idea what I was doing.

But as it happened, I kept turning out to be right (or at least, my bosses would come to the same conclusions as me).