Schizophrenia.com

For those who have worked, what types of jobs have you held?

School and Work
#1

@Jake 's thread about the hardest jobs we’ve worked got me thinking of the jobs I’ve had over the years. I started my first actual job in May of 1996, when I was 16, so I have 24 years of work history, minus the year I didn’t work when I was in med school.

But yeah, these are the jobs I can think of, starting with my first job.

  1. Grocery bagger
  2. Stock clerk
  3. Factory/assembly (summer 1998)
  4. Federal Work-Study worker, typing a professor’s notes
  5. Proofreading a thesis, or maybe it was a dissertation
  6. Auto parts warehouse worker (summer 1999)
  7. Dishroom/catering/bartending (2nd and 3rd year of college, a little into 4th year)
  8. Paper mill (summer 2000)
  9. Clerk at a funky, cool variety store (4th year college)
  10. Security guard (first job post-med school year)
  11. 7-eleven clerk
  12. Graduate teaching assistant (for 4 semesters of grad school)
  13. Shitty job for which I’m not sure of a title, working at a printing press facility
  14. Lab tech at Johns Hopkins (first job post-grad school, failed miserably)
  15. Associate scientist (lab tech, really, failed miserably)
  16. Back to the same 7-eleven
  17. Different factory/assembly job
  18. Lab in milk processing facility (failed miserably, quit while in a psych unit)
  19. Teaching at a community college (started August 2010, still teaching there)
  20. Seasonal employee at a Kohl’s-like department store, was treated like ■■■■ (quit while I was in a psych unit)
  21. Sunoco gas station
  22. A different 7-eleven, this one with gas pumps
  23. Retail pharmacy tech, worked there for 2.5 years
  24. Hospital inpatient pharmacy tech
  25. Foundry, working in “rough grinding” (very physical) and “clay” (less physical) departments.
  26. Back to the same Sunoco station as before
  27. Back to the 7-eleven that had gas pumps, quit because it freaked me out too much. I worked there only because the Sunoco station was closed for remodeling
  28. Back to Sunoco station
  29. Taught at a different community college in 2019, failed miserably

Holy hell, 29 jobs. Granted, a few of them repeated, like the 7-elevens and the Sunoco station.

My teaching job that I have held for nearly 10 years is the longest I’ve held a job, and I plan on sticking with that job for years to come.

How about y’all? What jobs have you worked?

8 Likes
#2

Park employee
Burger King crew member
McDonald crew member
Five guys crew member
Imperial war musuem sales assistant
Barista at a local cafe bar

2 Likes
#3

Fair Ground supervisor
Electricians mate
Labourer
electrical Technician
Double Glazer
Sign fitter
Retail assistant
Landscaper
Insight Analyst

2 Likes
#4

Hence I am only 26 years old and started working from 16 years old. Due to SZ I’ve lost so far 1.5 year of working and would be able to hold on for some jobs longer

1 Like
#5

You have a good memory.

1 Like
#6

Babysitter
Daycare assistant (held that job for a long time and really liked it)
Health store clerk
Phone sales person (quit after three days)
Summerjob raking grass on communal lawns
Volunteer at a social group
Sales assistant at a convenienve store/kiosk
Customer service agent with Norton

No particular order

2 Likes
#7

I hadn’t even thought of volunteer jobs. I volunteered in a nursing home for a year, my last year of undergrad.

#8

I’ve also worked in a nursin home, but it was more like an internship so I don’t count it

1 Like
#9

My jobs that I worked at are

maintenance worker for a public pool
Delivery driver for Papa John’s
Delivery driver for Dominos
Delivery driver for Pizza America
Working for a university club with golf course
bagging groceries for Food Lion
Working maintenance for a warehouse
cleaning churches
Worked for an ice cream restaurant

My favorite job out of these is bagging groceries

2 Likes
#10

Outpatient ward clerk
Outpatient mental health administrator
Mental Health Unit inpatient ward clerk
Referrals faciliation administrator
IT Confuration Administrator
Medical Records Administrator
Data Entry Administrator

Mostly admin work

2 Likes
#11

Most of my jobs were in the military.

I mowed lawns in high school and worked at Dairy Queen flipping burgers.

Then I joined the Navy and was a storekeeper. Now it’s called logistical specialists. I got out after two years and went to college.

Then I sold cars for a while and became a store manager at a video arcade.

Then I joined the Marine Corps. I was a helicopter pilot and a transport airplane pilot. I had many ground jobs.

I was mostly an operations officer but also an aviation safety officer, maintenance officer and even had a tour in command.

I was in charge of all kinds of operations. I was the operations officer for a helicopter squadron, an assistant airfield manager, a harbor operations officer, a future plans and exercise officer. I was in charge of non-combatant evacuation operations overseas. I planned counter narcotics, anti alien smuggling, anti human trafficking and anti terrorism operations. I did two tours in Iraq as a combat helicopter pilot.

I did my last four years in the Marine Corps schizophrenic and got fired several times. It was tough.

Since I got out of the Marine Corps I have worked as a career counselor for soldiers getting out of the army.

Then I went and designed exercises for the Marine Corps as a contractor.

Then I became an assistant manager at Walmart.

I didn’t last too long at any of those.

Then went on SSDI and shortly thereafter got stable and went back to school and became an aircraft mechanic.

After I graduated I went to work as an aircraft mechanic but that didn’t pay too much so I went back to work doing contract work as an aviation subject matter expert for the Marines doing exercises.

Then I went to work for the government as a Census Field manager and now as a revenue Officer with the IRS.

I went off of SSDI last year. I can get it back until June of 2022 if I get fired or out of work without having to apply again.

I have turned down a lot of good jobs out of state in the last year.

2 Likes
#12

Nothing. Just waiter in a restaurant when i was 15 years old. And I gathered the money and bought an electric guitar. Since then I haven’t earned any money

1 Like
#13

These were from ages 17 until I got sick at 19.

Dishwasher (my first job at 17)
Cook.
Steam cleaned carpets.
Busboy.
Stock boy at J. C. Penny’s.
Gas Station.
Telephone solicitor.
Driver.
Silk screener
Shipping & Receiving clerk/production worker at a tobacco company
Another dishwasher job.
Pot washer at a retirement home
Another driving job.
Another gas station
Delivering magazines.
Steam cleaning carpets again
Security gaurd
Another dishwashing job
Temp job for a couple days at an electronic company
None of them lasted more than three months. I got fired from several of them.

After I got sick I didn’t work again until I was 23 and I got a job as a maintenance man at a hot tub joint for four years
Then a job at a fast food joint
Prep cook.
Recycler
Warehouse
Recycler/furniture mover HP
Unloading trucks at Sears four years
Construction
Production worker at a different HP
Park Ranger two years
Montgomery wards stockperson
Montgomery wards again custodian
Assembly/Janitor
Macy’s
Target stockperson
Kohl’s stockperson three years
Which brings me up to my current job as a janitor, seven years.

2 Likes
#14

I worked at over 15 jobs and I am now 30 y.o., I don’t remember all.

Supermarket placing merchandise at 14 y.o, 18-20 y.o.
Selling cloths 15-18 y.o.
BestBuy Selling computers 17-18 y.o.
Physiotherapist 20-21 y.o.
Credit card debt collector on phone
Video games tester at Keywords Studios
Accountant technician
Installing satellites and IPTV
Repairing computers

The best job was physiothrapist 32$/h.
Money still didn’t motivate me.

2 Likes
#15

Alright, have been working since 16 except when in college (well I worked in college on weekends) or unemployed.

I actually started with farm work around 3rd grade, by helping plant, water, and sell Mum’s for a while.

I have helped with bailing and know I don’t much care for hot barns.

While in Junior high in the summer I detasselled and derouged corn.

My first real job was as a proof operator at a bank in highschool at 16.

My first job in college was as a lab analyst in a water treatment plant, did that when I was around 20.

I was also a lab assistant for a general chemistry class for a semester when I was 21.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry I became a lab technician doing vitamin analysis using HPLCs for infant formula. I did that for a little under 2 years.

My next job was as a drug product chemist at a generic pharmaceutical company. I did that for only 7 months before being let go.

My next job was a contractor as QC Chemist at a pharmaceutical company that made rare disease treatments. I worked there doing alot of different things before being told one day that I wouldn’t be coming in tomorrow, I wasn’t fired but they ended the contract, probably found a fresh grad who was cheaper.

I then was part of an inventory project as a contractor at the pharmaceutical company I am still a contractor with, now in a different company and role. This was when I was 26.

I started my last role as a laboratory instrument services technician and did that for about 3 years. I was 30 when my contract was ended by the pharmaceutical company and given to the competitor I am currently working for.

Now I am still a laboratory instrument services technician at the same pharmaceutical company I have been at for 4 years with a new contract company and I get to be on-site in the midst of COVID-19 testing as an essential employee who has done nothing but online training since last Monday which was my start date.

3 Likes
#16
  1. Private maid
  2. Fry person at McDonalds
  3. Dough room person at Valentino’s Pizza
  4. Worked as a hot presser at a laundromat
  5. Counter girl at McDonalds
  6. KFC’s
  7. telemarketer at Dial America Marketing
  8. Counter person at a hamburger joint
  9. Nurse assistant at a nursing home
  10. telemarketer
  11. RN at a nursing home
  12. RN at a long term care county hospital on a geropsychiatric unit
  13. USAF RN at an AF base hospital on a surgical unit
  14. RN at a geriatric hospital in Sun City, AZ on a pulmonary unit
  15. RN at a general hospital in northern AZ on a telemetry unit
  16. RN at a nursing home in northern AZ
  17. Telemarketer at NMS
  18. Telemarketer at Dial America Marketing
  19. Pizza waitress
  20. telemarketer at home security sales company

These are all the jobs I’ve ever held. My favorite job was working as an RN on the telemetry unit in a general hospital. The easiest job I ever held was working as a fry girl for McDonalds.

I worked for about 22 years. I could never hold a job very long.

3 Likes
#17

Assistant to a disabled psychiatrist,

Kitchen worker in a hospital,

Dental Assistant,

Surgical Assistant,

Writer.

I held all those jobs for a long time, so I haven’t really a lot of jobs to list.

Now I don’t work and write on my own material.

My favorite job was being a surgical assistant,

It was fun, fast paced and I made a ton of money.

2 Likes
#18

Me I was able to hold jobs before 18 y.o. before my SZ symptoms appeared. Negative symptoms made my jobs instable, without them I would be working as a physiotherapist at a salary much higher than 32$/h because it goes up with experience :slightly_frowning_face:

#19

Physiotherapists who open clinics easily make 45-65$/h here. More than pharmacists. My parents wanted to open me a physiotherapy clinic.

#20

…and I was just informed that I will be working on stuff used to process COVID-19 samples. FML. Really don’t feel like doing this but I guess it’s noble.