OT: Jobs worked while in college

Worked at:

A Hunt Club (trash & gofer)
A Landcaping Company (mostly lawn mowing)
A Pizza Place (prep & delivery)
A Gas Station
A Printing Company (Darkroom/Bindery)
A Domestic Automible Company (Accounts payable)
A Cable Company (cameraman/producer/)
A Film Production Company (Cinematographer)
A Bar/Restaurant (dishwasher/bouncer)
A Hospital (Security Guard)
A Convenience Store
An Art Gallery
A Home Remodeling Company
A Clothing/Gift Store
A Property Management Company (Lumberjack, Handyman)
An Art Center (Software/Art Instructor)

Yes these were primarily summer, no they are not in order.

Bonus Info:  One of these businesses was a money laundering front for a Detroit Mob family.
Occasionaly, after work, out of nowhere I was given a gun and told that I would be assisting with "pick-ups".  

This was a weekly route of driving to the over 2 dozen other semi-legitimate businesses that comprised the laundering part of the busines.  It usually took place between 6pm & midnight and would take anywhere from 2-4 hours.  It was stressful to say the least and there was really no option to politely decline.  

This wasn't "collections" as these busnesses were all owned by the family, but occasionally there was a cousin or 2 that would be in charge of a particular place that thought nobody would notice if they blew all their profit on coke.   It was noticed.

I have no idea why I was selected for this job, the friend I worked with lloked like a member of the family, but I stuck out like a sore thumb.  I was never really sure if my role was bodyguard, enforcer, smart-looking accountant-kid, or just a sacrificial lamb?

It was probably the latter, and by the time the summer was ending I was getting nervous so I just called & told them that I had to get back to school early & had to quit.  Never showed up to get my last $.

 

Little Caesars--making pizzas, answering phones, working the cash register....it was a great easy college job

Sam's Club---cashier. Another fun college job. A lot of young people worked there which made it cool.

Fitness Center--- this was for my Exercise Science major at WMU. My least favorite job of the three.

ski resort bus boy

Farmer Peet factory worker (meat packing company later owned by Denny McClain)

postal worker

city parks worker (mainly mowing)

volunteer - UM Tutorial Project

forest fire fighter in the Cascades

At McDonald's. My friend worked on the grill we called him "lil bun flip" Awful job by the way.

I worked two summers in Ann Arbor ('86 & '87) as a paid draftsman at Hobbs & Black, the architecture firm in the old stone church on the corner of State & Huron. They had just moved into the space during the preceding year after a major retrofit of the building, so everything was new and innovative in an architectural sense, and it was getting written up in the papers and architecture trades and all that shit. The firm had just put the finishing touches on One North Main, which was the biggest job it had done at the time, so things were really bustling there.

I wasn't an architecture student (I was studying electrical engineering) but had worked summers for my father at his architecture firm over the summers and after school since high school. My drafting skills were solid and my lettering was (and still is) professional grade, so I was hired pretty-much on the spot after showing them a few blueprints of drawings I'd done. It's a lost art now that everything has gone digital. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I was making somewhere between $10-$15 an hour, and four months at full-time plus O/T would pretty much cover my tuition for the year.

It was a great experience working there at the time. Several of the architects would seek me out to do their drawings or letter stuff for them to the envy of the other students there who were in the architecture school. Still, they would look to me for tips on drawing and lettering technique and I was more than happy to share with them what I could. The atmosphere was very collegial. We all sort of bonded working on a scale model of the WCC campus over a few weeks that called for a lot of late nights and O/T pay. We would hang out and hit the bars or UClub, or outdoor films at the Power Center in the evenings. I can still remember working on drawings for Galleria on South U. (where Pinball Pete's is now), doing details for the stairwells and the long half-round skylights over the atrium.

 

Bottom of the barrel jobs - because that was all that was available in northern PA during a recession - to get money for undergrad college.

Worked at a McDonalds, on the graveyard shift at a 24 hour diner, and as a Chimney Sweep.  

Fell off a roof doing the Chimney Sweep stuff. 

Went to grad school at Michigan . . . the opportunities that provided literally changed my life.  My very next job was at the headquarters of a Fortune 500 company.  Quite a step up.

Go Blue!

 

 

 

LSA Instructional Support Services - rented out A/V stuff to people mainly - was pretty boring.

I was a janitor, and not a very good one, while going to law school. The people whose offices I cleaned spoke to me like they thought I had a learning disability. I'll always remember being amazed by the unknown woman who was apparently unable to get all the way down onto the toilet in time and sprayed shit four feet up the wall. Good times. Years later, I managed to repeat her accomplishment in my own work bathroom. Unlike her, I nobly cleaned up after myself.

I worked at the Bivouac selling outdoor equipment.  The highlight was probably spending an hour with President Bollinger helping him get ready for a weeklong trip to Yosemite.  That and the drinking during Thursday evening shifts.

I worked at a go-kart track, mini-golf course and batting cage business. The job was awesome.  I was never hit by a cart on the track while clearing crashes but most of my co-workers weren't so lucky. We always had a major laugh after shift watchng the security video.

Worked graveyards while at WMU and it was pretty cool. Lots of old buildings to secure. Bad stories from the workers of people getting killed through paper machine rollers, hi-lo, acid vats. In the 70s one guys Afro got pulled up in the static of a dryer roller and he was mush once he came out the other side. Once watched a local frat fill up the reception hall across the street and a massive fight broke out. Probably about 300 people in parking lot and middle of the street, I thought a gun was pulled because people screamed and scattered. A fight poured into the front lawn of the mill. Kzoo cops and all local townships on hand + paddy wagon, pepper spray and probably a little gas.I found a gold chain on the ground in the aftermath. I picked up the old Art Bell show while working that shift to keep me awake. Probably not the best to listen to while working in creepy old buildings. The night of his annual ghost to ghost am show I didn't have the nerve to make my rounds. So I sat in the guard shack and falsified my logs. I looked to the window on my right where a fence ran about a foot away from the Shack and saw a mans transparent face right there. I nearly crapped my polyester pants. Turned out to be the reflection of a lost trucker who walked up the the window on my left his transparent reflection seen to my right. It was a good job, I used the patrol car to really learn how to drive on ice and snow. I tore that thing up, got stuck a few times. Best way to learn.

made a good amount of coin.

West Quad Cafeteria 1986-1990. Rocked the Hairnet and Apron. Promoted to Student Coordinator. Made up fake names like "Bochum", labelled food. I laughed to my self as friends, would point at food, and say, "I'll try some Bochum". (A German Song about a German City, by Herbert Gronemeyer, my TA Denk, referred to as Germany's Bruce Springsteen)....As Student Coordinator, I scheduled everyone. I frequently scheduled myself at the door, to give long service employee Milo a break. ( I would frequently sing "Let Milo Open the Door" each time we opened. ). I also would sometimes flirt shamelessly with hot chicks and not swipe their card, and look charmingly at them, and say to them, I didn't swipe it, feel free to go to South Quad basement and enjoy Entre Plus. Also served as Waiter at Chi Chis. I wore a size medium ruffled Mexican shirt. My friends would come in eat free chips n salsa, make sing "Happy Birthday, backwards" then they'd hot lunch it and bolt.

I painted apartments one summer, worked as a janitor, worked in a library, and did some editing work.

Had so many jobs while at UM-Flint, both good and bad:

Sold ladies' shoes (bad); Student assistant in Math Dept. (bad); Worked in the security office in a hospital (Awesome); Bookstore (bad); Food service (really bad); Toys R Us at Christmas ("Oh Dear God Get Me Out of Here!" bad.)

No great stories, except the one time I was selling shoes, and knelt down in front of this chunky middle-aged woman in the too-tight skirt who insisted on trying on a shoe that was two sizes too small. (I'll never understand why they do that.) While trying to force this patent-leather pump on her hoof, I accidentally glanced up to see ... nope. No underwear.

And please understand: I'm not talking about Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct." This was more like feet-in-the-stirrups, nurse in the room, "Well, your chlamydia is clearing up nicely."

I eventually got fired for being a lousy salesman, which I was. It was one of those jobs I was actually glad to lose.