In middle school/high school, I refereed sports games. My Jr year summer when I got a car I didnt have a job I can remember, I remember just hanging out with my buddy almost 24/7.
In college, I worked at a sub shop at nights because my roommate was a manager there. So I would just work 6-10PM on fri/sats and hangout/pregame there before going out.
In grad school I worked at the library/gym at the night shifts on fri and sat (because there was zero expectations of me to know anything, and they just needed someone to sit there and scan people in/scan books.
Pretty much since I was 13 starting out with seasonal (lawn mowing, snow shoveling), then a paper route until I was 16, then worked in two grocery stores until I graduated high school. First job out of high school was at a pulp mill (loved it and made a ton of money until the Spotted Owl crap shut us down), then joined the Marine Corps (spent 22 years), and have one job since I retired from the Marine Corps, cyber-security for a consulting firm.
Longest period ever of not working is now which was oct till now hopefully will be less than a year though I started a masters in June so it was strictly 6 months of not working
I planned on not working for ski season so till May 7th
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With the exception of a four-week stretch about 20 years ago when the bank I was working for went through a merger and my group got outsourced (I got a decent severance package but then got hired back by a different group within the same bank), I think I’ve always had some type of job going back to when I was 10 and had a paper route.
Oh man. I forgot about the paper route I used to have. Good ole black hands.
My entire family would sit around the TV and roll up the papers. Then we would force our mom to drive us around the further away areas, and we would walk/run the rest.
I started hoeing soybeans and strawberries, picking strawberries & apples, trimming trees, etc. for pay around the time I was 5. We had a pretty big fruit operation so there was always work to be done. Went to work at McD’s when I was 16 mostly to get away from having to work so much on the family farm, took a couple months each school year for sports but other than that worked through high school. Had about 6 weeks after starting college without a job but that was it. Ohio State forbids first year law students from working. But since I am addicted to eating I ignored that and worked. Even when times are crappy there are still really crappy jobs to be had.
So yeah, for the last 47 years I have been working pretty much straight through.
Had ad hoc summer jobs in high school, didn’t work during school year.
First ‘real’ job was summer after high school.
Worked 15-20 hrs/week during college, full time in the summers. Except for my junior year abroad, no job then.
Took a year off to travel after college, didn’t work any steady jobs then.
Full time job for a year+ before law school. Worked a bit during law school but not tons; no job during semester abroad during law school; had summer jobs.
No job during summer after law school while I prepped for the bar exam, and no job for the month between taking the bar and starting at my first firm.
My parents wouldn’t let me do it on school days. So if do two rounds on a Sunday eventually being promoted to putting all the papers together from 4.30am and then covering anyone that didn’t show up
Started work when I was 14. Always worked one job and sometimes 2. You do what you must to succeed. Finally retired at 60 after 46 years of employment.
After my PhD defense, I cleaned up my lab space and flew to Germany to start my post doc a week later. My friend took three months off and drove around Australia, living out of a van with her husband and then joined me at the institute. I’m so envious now. I wish I had taken more time to have fun.
I always worked at my parents’ factory when i was a kid, mowed their lawns etc. Then after university had turned me into a useless pothead and i had become a surf bum i spent the best part of 5 years travelling the world doing the absolute minimum of work, except where i’d pitch up in a city.
I was 30 before i got a “proper” job, gave up surfing, became a workaholic, then an alcoholic due to too much work stress, then bounced out the other side of that, found a niche, skilled up and still work 50 weeks a year but i care less about it now, earn 3 times as much and make a point of playing as much as possible.
Glad I spent all those years going around the world. I am 1000 times better for it.
Didn’t work during the school year in high school. Always worked summers. From ~19 on, I always worked full-time, 20-30 hours a week while doing undergrad and grad school and during the first 2-3 years as a parent.
Took a self-imposed sabbatical at age 27, lasted just over 350 days, pissed away all my savings. Best. Decision. Ever.
Found a much better job that I loved, which ultimately led to me becoming self-employed. Met my future wife and was able to start a long-distance relationship because I had freedom to travel. Since I had a much lower cost of living at the time, the amount of money I burned up is relatively insignificant now.
Lets see:
from 16 to 23 I worked in a grocery store, work study, or as an architect. There was half a semester I tried to go it just on financial aid, but I ended up getting a nice cushy work study job after a couple months.
The 9.11 happened and the construction industry crashed, and michigan’s economy. Then my dad died.
At 26 I was a grad assistant.
At 28 I moved to California and worked.
6 years later, I was laid off and took my time finding something and moved the entire length of the country.
a year later, I spent 9 months looking for a new job when that firm went belly up.
I did once lose a job when I was in an HR role, 4 of us in the role. This was when the economy tanked, and my last project in that role was working with managers to reduce head count to get to the budget we were told to cut. Shortly afterwards, I found out my role was cut and we went down to one person, the one who stayed being the best choice. So I had two choices: accept severance in a terrible economy or move back into one of those positions I had to reduce, with no salary loss. I chose door #2 and also found out they valued me & had me cut a little deeper than the minimum requirement so they could save me.
Have always worked when I have wanted to since then.
Took a year off after university and travelled
Took two and a half-ish years off in my twenties to travel (worked a little when I needed to)
Took another 8 months off for a honeymoon
Took another year and a half when I sold my restaurants
All of the above was self-funded. Now I will probably work in my current store until I die, but I feel like I’ve already had a a few great retirements earlier so I am ok with it, especially since I am loving this business and it’s pretty low stress. I could probably sell everything tomorrow and retire again (I am 51) but it would certainly wouldn’t be a luxurious retirement.
Yes since i started washing dishes as a 14-year old. After that carpet cleaner, lifeguard, camp counselor, waiter, and sometime after that real life work started.
to putting all the papers together from 4.30am and then covering anyone that didn’t show up