Unemployed

After a zillion posts solely relating to my experience on Jeopardy, I thought I'd finally start to broaden the tags I can use in this blog by starting to write about that little thing called the rest of my life. Contrary to popular belief, I don't just spend my time wandering around the city asking people if they watched Jeopardy in mid-June.

For example, this past Friday I officially quit my job.

I decided that finishing up in June would leave me with enough time to totally get out of working mode for the transition to grad school. Although it was sad to leave my longest tenure at any one job, it was also kind of cool to think about how I won't have to show up early in the morning at the same office every day.

I've got ~2 years off from work for now, although it's not like I won't be working in business school (but at least the dress will be a little more relaxed), but still these two years may be the last time I have without work until I retire (or marry into a mega-rich tax bracket, which I'm not opposed to)

Hopefully I'll have some fun

But leaving my job has made me think about all the jobs I've had over the years (it's not THAT many, but still). I think they've all taught me something or other.

Job 1 - Supermarket Utility Clerk - High School
Responsibilities: Bag groceries, collect carts, clean floors
Pay: Minimum Wage
Lessons learned: Don't work for minimum wage. Unions suck ($45 out of every paycheck at minimum wage, weak). Customers aren't always right. Don't get a menial job in the same town where you go to high school.

Job 2 - Telemarketer - College
Responsibilities: Sell 'business newsletters' via cold-calling
Pay: Minimum Wage (as a result of not meeting sales quotas)
Lessons learned: I'm not the type of person who can screw people out of money via a seemingly crooked newsletter scam.

Job 3 - Summer Financial Analyst - College
Responsibilities: 'Data Processing'
Pay: $10.50 an hour
Lessons learned: When you're getting paid hourly, but can do the daily jobs in less than one hour, bring a book to read or something

Job 4 - Finance Specialist, Major Coporation
Responsibilities: Learn and grow to be a future leader with a major corporation
Pay: Thankfully more than $10.50/hour
Lessons learned: Politics Definitely Matter

Job 5 - Private Equity Analyst, Small Firm
Responsibilities: Write research reports
Pay: Yes
Lessons learned: There is a lot of money out there, and I don't have most of it