The Job Thread

[Kyle L]

Welcome to the Job Thread.

In this thread, you are entitled to discuss your current occupation, or past occupations you care to share with us. I am curious to see what other people's jobs are like, cause most of us will need an occupation sooner or later. You can use my model below as a guidline to follow.

Also, you may choose not to put down any information you do not wish to share, however, I do not want this thread to turn into a "I work at a grocery store....thats it" I want it to be elaborative and descriptive. So for the record, please do not stroll in here and post like 1 or 2 sentences.

Or, to make this thread available to more people, you can also talk about jobs you have applied for, or ones you really wish to get, just be descriptive!

So you can use my job description as a way to describe yours:

Occupation: Community Pool Lifeguard
Average Pay: $9.00-$13.00 (Depends on your rank level)
Prerequisites: CPR Certification Training, First Aid Training, Lifeguard Training (All must be renewed a certain amount of years).
Average Hours: Ranges. Typically during the summer, 3 hour shifts, during the fall, 6-7 hour shifts.

Description: My local pool isn't very professional, basically a Lifeguard there means several things. A. I babysit your children B. I must clean and take care of the pool C. I must keep people safe D. I must save lives where needed.

Basically, a pool on a hot day, thats free and has lifeguards is basically a big cha-ching to parents. Why? It's basically free babysitting. It's really, really annoying sometimes, to just watch parents stroll in with their kids, let them go, and say "I'll see you at 6!". I see it as free babysitting. Now this is a factor of my job, but as we all know, kids, especially in the 10 to 14 range feel the need to be rebellious and break all rules.

So in a general outlook, I basically need to keep the kids in-line, and not all of them are bad and cause trouble, but there are some that don't think I will call the Police on them. On a good day, I will usually be pretty flexible with them and allow them to have some fun. Other days I tell myself I will never have children, and am just a total nut to them.

The typical day: So the typical day as a lifeguard at my pool begins two ways. 1: Morning shift or 2. Evening shift. In the morning shift (My favorite) you get to come to the pool at about 11:30, start setting up, and clean the pool. It's a really easy task, just takes time and patience. Once the pool is up and ready to go, we open it. The firsts guests are always lap swimmers, and we never get more than 7. They are easy to watch, never complain, and always appreciate us.

The evening/afternoon shift starts at 3, the most popular time of the day at the pool. It gets crowded on a busy day around 3 or 4ish. Most people go out and actually do something, then go to the pool later in the evening. This is when the families come. Now I got a grudge against parents that never stop complaining. I've seen it all, from the big angry moms coming up to me and swearing in my face, to the kids screaming at their parents. Things get a little testy.

To keep it short, at the end of the day it gets a lot less crowded, we close the pool, and I get to relax.

My opinion: Some days I absolutley love the job. Easy, relaxing, and great pay. Some days I want to quit on the spot. When parents constantly scream at me, and my other staffers, or they complain. It's chaos some days. All in all however, I couldn't ask for a better job really. Funny thing I notice, is that usually the dad's are nicer to me than the moms, but thats a giant general scope of it all.


So anyways, you can spill your details about your job or job's you have had. I find it interesting to hear about people's jobs.

[Carowinds 73-03]

I have currently been working for Pier 1 Imports for the past 3 years. The love of decorating and design drew me to apply there although i personall don't like Pier 1's items. They are very nice and very nicely priced just not really my taste.

The people at Pier 1 have been very nice and were all kinda like a family we know each other so well. I don't se myself leaving anytime soon but maybe in another 2-3 years.

Carowinds would be my 2nd favorite & 2nd longest job. I have worked at the park about 5 years off and on. Between 1994 & 2002 and just may return this season for weekends only.

At Pier 1 i started out at around $9 and hour and currently over $12
Carowinds has always been good to have on the side for extra play money.

[Skye]

I don't have a job right now, but university takes up most of my time now. The first term wasn't too bad but the second is a lot of difficult maths, which i'm not especially good at - i need to do a lot of work to get a reasonable grade in the summer exams.

[Coastr Crazy 72]

Going to be a waverunner mechanic over the summer working on high end waverunners. Hoping to turn pro within the next few years. Maybe win a few stock amatuer races.

[Ta2KX]

Cedar Point employee in 2004
Ride Operations
337 - Mean Streak
Red Tag - 1st year
$6.25 /hr, I did not get my bonus

Currently working on aquiring a position in ride operations at Six Flags Great Adventure.

[RLLrCoastrLover]

I do not have a job right now, when I turn 16 I do plan on working.

[Cid]

Great Thread!

Movie Theatre
Pay Rate: Starting at 6.00
Requirements: none really
Average Hours: I averaged around 28 when I started but got it up to 35-40 after I got promoted to shift lead. The better you were the more hours you got.

Description: (I got the privledge of doing everything in the theatre so I'll give a short description of each.)

Floor Staff
Doing jobs from concession, box office, to cleaning shows and tearing tickets.

Concession is almost always where a floor staff employee will start. Pretty plain and simple. A movie theatre is busy for a set of time (when the movies are starting) and then dead for a set. During the dead time while the movies are playing you prep everything for the upcoming set. You make as much popcorn as you think you need, nachoes, etc. You make sure you cups, popcorn bag, candy, and syurp bins are adequetly stocked. Then during the set you simply sell. Of course upselling whereever possible.

"would you like to get a large instead, it gets free refills!"

Box office is pretty simple. Its like concession without the prep time. In older theatres with older systems (pacer, ::shudders:: ) you have to manuelly switch the system to the next set of shows. Then its just a matter of selling the tickets, checking IDs, and laughing at kids who try to get tickets to R rated movies.

Ticket Taker/Usher. This is where the people you don't trust with money go. You tear a ticket, point to the right theatre, and clean. Not much to it.

Projectionest. The most glorified movie theatre position. Everyone want to run the projectors. Unlike portrayed in fight club a projectionist does not have to be there every minute of the movie to switch reels. A movie does come in several different reels, but upon arrival they are "built" to one big reel with trailors, and promotions which sits on the platter next to the projector.

After you have the completely built movie on the platter its ready to be ran. The platter is a big three section spool looking thing next to the projector. It makes it possible to show a movie and have it ready to show right afterwards withought having to rewind it afterwards (like oldschool classroom style projectors)

After you thread the film from the platter to the projector you thread it through a series of gates and gears which adjust everything from focus to framing. If you thread it too tightly the movie can literally rip out of the projector causeing major damage, so you have to have tension gaps near some of the gears. The reason being is because every frame of the movie is stopped in front of the bulb for a fraction of a second (1/24 i believe, maybe 1/26) while the entire reel itself never really stops.

The you thread it back to a different level of the platter where it winds up so you don't have to rewind it.

Projectionist can be a very relaxing job at a 6 or 8 plex, but once you start getting to 12-16 screens its very hectic. You almost never have a free minute. Your either starting a movie, or threading a movie.

I might do Cedar Point merch later but I'm gonna leave it at this for now

[medieval]

Lets see...
2004 Six Flags Great Adventure Employee
Front Gate Admissions-Seller
Pay Rate $6.00-??? (i dont know what it goes up to)
Hours: Depends on Age. If your 14/15, SFGadv will only let you work 7 hours a day. 16/17 Can work 8 hours a day and can work after school. All minors MUST have a 30-45 minute, uninterupted break. 18+ Hours don't matter.
*You can work their when your 14. You MUST have someone from your family working their. I think its something new they did.

Tag colors: 14/15 Yellow with a black letters
16/17 White with a green letters
18+ White with black letters
Gold Tags: Service Superstar. Have done an exclent at their job.
*A tag can also say lead or supervisor under it*
Red-Lead
Blue-Position as a Supervisor

What I do: I worked in admissions. I was a seller. So I sold tickets to all of the guests. After a while you get used to making the bills and knowing what to hit on the keypad. All I really need to know how to do it count money and know to give change.
What I did during the day was just sit in a booth with a/c and sold tickets. Its not hard. And sometimes it can be fun depending on who your in a booth with. I met a couple of friends working their and I enjoyed myself.

Guests: Of corse, like every park, we have our share of grumpy guests. I got them a few times. You just have to learn to deal with it and try not to snap back at them. Just try to clam them down and explain everything to them.

Other places in admissions: 2 other spots in admissions you can do it ticket taking or processing season passes. The season passes are the eaisest. But it gets boring after a while. I did it around 4 or 5 times. Takings I did only 3 times I believe. Its not hard to rip a ticket and scan it.


I got my rehire papers a week or so back so I am going back for 2005. It will be my second year and I cant wait to go back. I just need to fill out a few more things and I can go hand them in.

*Ta2KX-Contact me if you need help getting a job in rides. I might be able to help you.*[url="member.php?u=3371"]
[/url]

[pipesdrums]

Well, I have had a few jobs but I am not currently employed.

My first real job was a summer job at Town and Country BMW working for my dads supervisor. I did minor body work but mainly I washed cars that had just been freshly painted. I also waxed and buffed cars.
I was paid a flat rate of $500 a week, which wasn't bad considering I was only 15, heh.
I really liked that job because I was around nice cars everyday and I am a car buff, so it was like heaven for me.

My second job was working for Canadian Tire for almost 2 years. It was an okay job. I didn't like my supervisors much, but when they weren't around my job was really easy.
I started out getting paid $6.85/hr and after I had worked there for a year I got a raise to $7.35/hr.

My third job was at FeatherLite Ladders assembling ladders and doing quality control checks. This was quite a fun job, but also a bit repetitive. It was nice not to have to dress up to goto work and my coworkers were a hoot to work with everyday. My work team had an F-up list were who ever makes a mistake and doesn't realize it has to pay a dollar into a jar and then at the end of the week we took all that money and bought lottary tickets for our team. Sadly we never won a jackpot, only more free tickets :( At this job I was paid $10.00/hr.

My last job was working at Effem Foods, which is a chocolate factory where they make Snickers, Mars, 3 Musketeers and the Milky Way bar.
This job was simply AMAZING! All I did all day was sweep up barrels of chocolate and watch all the robots do everything automatically. This job is the one that inspired to apply for college to become an Electical Engineer that specializes in automated systems.
I was paid $11.50/hr sweeping up chocolate :D

[Andrew P]

Where to start...

Age 13-15, I had a paper route. 40 customers. I don't recall much about it, but that I could finish it in 10 minutes on my bike.

Age 16-18, Caddy. Slavery at its best. Maybe not. Assigned job? Carry golf bags for rich members and hope to get paid well. At Sylvania Country Club, there were 4 classifications of caddies. Apprentice ($8/18 holes) once you received 10 'Excellent' ratings, you moved to 'B' Caddy. 'B' ($10/18 holes). Again, once you received 10 Excellent ratings, might I add on consecutive outings as well, same as previous, then you were promoted to 'A' caddy. I became an "A" caddy on my second season at SCC. Payrate was $12/18 holes. Captain was the best you could do and only the elite got that. Since I didn't, no need to worry about pay rate. I made $1000 in my third and final summer caddying. My best tip for 18 holes was $20.

Age 19-22 (Only during breaks from college) Meijer employee in Sporting Goods/Automotive. This was my first "real" job. You know, the kind that Uncle Sam robs you in...

While in college, I worked for 2 semesters at the campus bowling alley. Wage was minimum wage and my topmost priority was oiling the lanes and cleaning the pool tables.

May 2000 - June 2001 -- Factory at Cardinal packagaing. I was a packer for 3 months, then went for the Material Handler position. went from $8/hr to $9.50/hr. Transported finished product from the floor to the warehouse.

July 2001 - Present -- Factory at Mid-America Packaging. Started out at $9/hr as a stacker/inspector. Presently a feeder making $12.50/hr (nearly broke 30K in earnings last year). My job is to inspect the tubes that come from tubing, feed them in the machine, and assist the operator in any way possible.

[MilhouseTheKing]

Worked at Borders as a cashier for a few months, made 6.25 an hour and it was the easiest job ever. I played phish over the stereo and mocked peoples book and music choices under my breath all day. I was really friendly to them though :)

[Wes]

Occupation: Implementation Coordinator - Bank of America
Average Pay: Salary, but not that much, lol.
Prerequisites: Microsoft Office, Customer Service skills, office skills.
Average Hours: 40hrs.

Description: This is a new department for me (been there about 6 months)

I assist business customers with setting up their credit card program. Most of these are small businesses and are pretty simple. But some can be more complex.

Basically I have a phone call with the customer, go over their application and ask how they want the program set up. Then I setup the cards for them, most of that part is automated. The only data entry is to set up their billing account.

It's a job that while repetitive in a sense, is never really. I never know who I'll be talking to next and I work with customers all over the country. Which has been really cool to see how different and at the same time alike we all really are.

The typical day: Make a few calls (each usually takes 10-15 minutes each). Set up the card programs when I receive their paperwork back. Then we have to log all this in 2 databases (yeah) and that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Every now and then you have a weird request and you have to do some research on it, but most setups are pretty easy.

I have no desire to be in management, my goal is to be a writer some day, so I just want a job right now where I can do my job and go home at the end of 8 hours. Management is not all it's cracked up to be, besides more money you have to deal with crazy people every day and that's not my thing.

I've been with the bank 13 years now and it's a good company to work for, although banks are not too keen on paying the best. But our benefits are awesome.

I only have about 1.5 years and I'll be fully vested for retirement. So basically I could leave in two years and when I reach retirement, I'd have all the benefits.

[magnumxl2005]

[QUOTE=RLLrCoastrLover]I do not have a job right now, when I turn 16 I do plan on working.[/QUOTE]
Same here.

[RCTfan]

Current Job: The Living Seas at Walt Disney World as an Intern
Pay Rate: $6.25

The job has different stations. The first is greeter where you welcome guest, direct people where they want to go, and let people know eating and drinking isn't allowed. This spot is outside the attraction.

The second is Photocell, which is the queue line, preshow room, and the theater room. You have to spiel to the line to let them know of any rules (IE no drinking, eating, etc). Once they are in the preshow room, you let them know about standing only within the red circle. Once they are in the theater room, your spiel describes the movie.

The next station is Hydrolators, which are underwater elevators. For the most part, you spiel to them about the Hydrolators and exiting them. Then you open and close the doors that send them down.

The best spot is at Turtle Talk, their new show. Its a live interactive presentation featuring Crush from Finding Nemo. Crush will ask questions to the audience and visa versa. Its an EXCELLENT show and a must see for everyone.

I LOVE working there. I'll be down here in Orlando from January until May. In February I'm going to audition to become a character. Should I get it, I'm going to try to extend into August.

[RllrCoasterFan]

I have to get a job when I turn sixteen...my dad says it is the only way I will get a car cause he ain't paying for my first car. I doubt this will actually happen but I am loooking forward to working...sort of...the extra money will be nice for the first year or so until I have to start actually supporting myself on my pay. But until then...who knows I will probably get a job at Best Buy or some place like that as I don't want to wait tables at all.