The Worst Jobs Can Be The Best Teachers

My son starts his very first summer job tomorrow. He’ll be doing light maintenance and clean-up at our local beach and park.  And he is psyched because it means he’ll be earning his very own money.  I remember my very first summer job and that same feeling of exhilaration. Someone valued what few skills I had. And the paycheck was amazing…for a 15-year old. I earned a whopping 95-cents an hour, and I was thrilled. We lived in Germany where my father was an Air Force dentist on the American base. I worked as a junior secretary at the fire station.  Even though it was on the U.S. Air Force Base, it was staffed by German firefighters, so I got to practice my German and learn more about our host country first hand. My favorite cultural lesson? White chocolate! The fire chief was surprised I had never tried it before. It became my favorite confection, and still is.

Throughout my high school and college years, I had many summer jobs. Some were better than others. Because I could type, I usually found work in office settings through a temp agency. Most jobs were mediocre at best, but the pay was decent, and the work was easy. There were a couple of nightmare jobs though. But in some ways, those were the best because they taught me important lessons. Two gigs, in particular, come to mind.

One summer, I was assigned to an office within an airplane hangar. All I had to do was answer the phones, do some light typing and file documents. But to get to the office each morning, I had to walk through a hangar filled with airplane mechanics. The dress code of the day was a dress or skirt for the ladies in the office. Well, you can imagine the scene. So what did I learn from that experience? For one thing, I learned that a person can use a power drill to make a whistling noise. And I learned a few unflattering, choice phrases in Spanish. But most important, I learned that my self-esteem is pretty high. I don’t need or crave unwanted attention from guys who make advances toward anything remotely female. I also figured out that having a tough skin and a sense of humor are valuable in such situations. And that it’s helpful to sometimes pretend one has a hearing problem.

My second dreadful summer job was working for an insurance company. I sat amidst a sea of tiny desks with IBM Selectric typewriters (yes, typewriters. I’m old.). My job was to fill out insurance claim forms all day long. It wouldn’t have been so bad except that all I did was type numbers. Not letters or words. Just numbers. And…the forms used carbon paper (now I’m really dating myself) in order to fill out three copies of different colored forms all at once. At the time, I typed about 90 words a minute. Words. Not numbers. My success rate at typing numbers accurately was far lower. So each time I made an error, I had to roll the forms out of the carriage and paint over the errors using liquid paper — a different color of cover-up for each form:  green, pink and goldenrod. The more mistakes I made, the more frustrated I became…and therefore, the more errors I made (or maybe it was just the liquid paper fumes…).  I lasted about three days at that job. If I hadn’t told the temp agency I couldn’t stand the work, I probably would have been fired anyway. So how did that job help me? It taught me the importance of perseverance…and when to throw in a towel. Sometimes a paycheck just isn’t worth the torture. Be true to yourself.

I hope my son enjoys his first foray into the world of employment. And if he ends up doing more cleaning up than maintaining, I hope he at least gets some good stories out of it that he can tell his kids when they start their first summer job.

Post a comment and tell me about your worst job. Consider it free therapy.

3 Comments

  1. Trace says:

    My worst job had to be insulating houses. It was hot, dirty, exhausting work. It taught me that it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life. I also worked for an air conditioning company. I did well there and I did learn lots of stuff. There I learned that I was smarter than many of the people I was working with. I also learned that I wanted to work IN air conditioning, not ON air conditioning.

  2. Barbara says:

    I remember those days — and the carbon paper . I worked at a new cable company doing airchecks for advertisers. Just writing them in… from one form I got to another. It was mind numbing but I began to understand the value of a 10 sec, 30 sec and 60 sec spot on air . I’ve done a number of different jobs so far and believe I really did learn something from them all. Sounds Pollyannaish.. but I am in some ways. It’s often about the attitude and always about what you put into it as opposed to what you think you will get out of it.

  3. Sue says:

    My first job was working at a 5 and dime store Winn’s (?)(I can’t remember the name of it). I walked in endless circles around the toy/pet department, which was my “territory” looking for people to help. Mostly, I just sold fish out of an aquarium. It was boring, boring work. I knew I definitely didn’t want to work in retail after that. However, if by some weird quirk of fate, I didn’t get that super model contract and I HAD to work retail, then I knew I could be happy selling fabric in the fabric department next to toys. They never gave me that opportunity. Well, that and that super model thing never really came through for me…who knew you had to be taller than 5’2″?! Now, I’m living the dream working in the Tooth Booth with my husband 🙂 Rock on!

Leave a Reply