Funny you should start this topic right now! My boss (payroll manager) left a couple of weeks ago, and I applied for the position, partly because I felt like everyone expected me to.

In my current position I spend about 75% of my time on payroll and 25% on several other things (mostly working for the company's charitable foundations). I enjoy the 25% things a lot more than the payroll.

There were only two candidates who made it to the interview stage (I was one of them). My second interview was Friday afternoon with the assistant finance director, and he mentioned that there are other financial duties like the foundation work that could come my way if I didn't get the manager position.

I spent the weekend soul-searching and decided to stay in my current role and in a few months transition into the other financial roles. It means not getting a big raise, and not moving from hourly to salary, but I think it was the right choice for me. I found after much thought that I don't want to move into the area of managing people. I've had a little experience with it and I didn't like it.

I think the finance director was pretty surprised when I told him I'd like to stay in the current position, but I explained why and he understood and thanked me for my honesty. So I'm looking forward to training people to take on the payroll I do so I can move on to the other financial roles.

Donna

msmeow, it sounds like good things are ahead of you and kudos to you for knowing what you really want! It would be hard to not take the raise!

I remember being offered a transfer to another city, it was a promotion with more money and the chance to climb the corporate ladder faster. The offer came from HO.

I didn't really want the job but felt that I had to take it because....like, who wouldn't.

My at the time manager, had a very frank discussion with me and said that it's okay if you don't want to head to the top, not everybody wants to for any number of reasons. And as he pointed out, I hated office politics and I loved dealing with the clients and at some point you leave the clients and become immersed in corporate politics. I turned down the transfer.

I was always grateful for his insights and his guidance. Knowing those two things shaped other choices in my life.

The third day in a row I came home, changed out of my office clothes and poured myself a tumbler of vodka and headed to he pool, I knew practicing law was not for me. I had the best situation anyone could ask for in big law, but so totally not suited to my personality, strange disconnect, since I was a top law student.

I went on to work in politics and journalism and was always happy in those pursuits. The money was not nearly as good, but sanity is priceless.

PS I am not a drinker, even back then, much the less a down vodka on your own kinda drinker.

Doing free-lance fashion design in San Francisco was a big changer for me. I had just graduated from university with a degree in German and English, hoping perhaps to become a writer, but I felt that I did not have enough life experience for that when I was 22 or 23.

Anyway, I had taught myself to sew, somehow got a sewing machine, and then also taught myself pattern drafting. I had taken drafting in high school and learned that I was very good at orthographic projection, and I found out also that I was very good at translating clothing designs from 2-D sketches into patterns for construction. Since I had no formal training, I had no rules that I had to follow, and so I came up with some rather innovative and unusual designs, which I might not have done if I had had rules to follow.

At a certain point, I decided I wanted to get formal design training so that I could go into interior design or furniture design, and so I went to a different university and got a design degree. Although I had thought that I wanted to do interior design (and I've done some of that), I always felt that my passion was for furniture design and was lucky to get a job at a custom furniture company in Los Angeles, where I worked for 30 years before retiring.

Now it seems that I need to go back to work, and I'm not sure how to go about that at this stage of my life. I'm hoping to do free-lance work again, but I need to get the right connections for that.

My first job out of college was working in the Public Relations department of an international investment bank headquartered on Wall Street. There were only three of us and I was new and completely green. My boss was amazing. he gave me such autonomy and responsibility and it was a baptism by fire. Any mistakes I made were seen as learning curves and any awards we earned (voted best PR on Wall Street during my 2nd year, due to amazing boss) same amazing boss generously shared the credit. I learned to respect all deadlines and to share the credit whenever possible. I also learned to write speeches, ads and how to write the same damn congratulatory note (from our CEO) sixty different ways. We called them the happy/glad letters. Could have been called the hearty/heartfelt/ sincere congratulations letters.

Longwood hired me as a tour guide. Even though I've always enjoyed public speaking, I didn't have any formal training or history in it when I applied to Longwood. Once they hired me, I read a ton to get up to speed on the history of the gardens. However, once I knew the material I felt like I had arrived home. It was all worth it. I love what I do--sharing history, making connections, and making people laugh and smile. And to think, they pay me to do it.

Still pinching myself.

Great question.

Summer jobs at a theme park taught me a lot about customer service. Solve people’s problems before they are aware they HAVE a problem. If the problem does arise, the the answer is never ”no”, it’s ”no, but here’s a good alternative, come on and I’ll get you started on it”. Came in handy as a hotel desk clerk and reservationist during college, as a technical writer, and as a daughter of a person with dementia.

In answer to the title question: all of them!

After reading through all your personal stories-and I've loved reading them...thank you...this morning, it got me thinking about my DS current summer job. My son left for work early this morning and I am thinking this job-actually his first real job-is really going to make a difference in his future.

I grew up in the country, and all the kids around knew how to operate farm machinery, bale hay, etc. We live in town now. My son grew up on 2.5 acres and then, of course, moved into town with us these last few years. It has always bothered me that he didn't get the experience of physical hard work.

Anyway, he took a job for the summer a few months ago, and works at a huge landscape nursery outside of town, where they grow their own trees and shrubs and make their own potting soil, make drip lines for hundreds of trees, etc., and has learned to operate farm machinery now...and it just warms my heart. It really has seemed to turn him into a "man" and I see the change in him, knowing how to do something meaningful besides the same ol', same ol' things and jobs his friends do around town and me, knowing he has had it pretty darn easy. That is the part that has always bothered me about living in the city-the "pretty darn easy" part.

He also has to work with customers. He loads pots and countless bags of mulch and trees and anything else they sell. This company is HUGE on customer service and expects their customers to leave happy. He comes home VERY dirty and tired from a hard days work. I have always felt he NEEDED this experience and missed out on a big part of "my way of life" growing up that was so important to me, and especially the guys I grew up with.

He will going to college after next year, but these are skills and life skills most college kids won't have or get to experience. I knew him taking this job this summer, would keep him from having time to study for additional SAT's and the like, but I am really glad he chose (and we agreed) this path for the summer instead. I think he has subconciously, found out that he has the grit and character for what it takes to work hard and make a great employee-these people/owners are tough and expect you to work hard. He wakes up early every morning and gets off one day a week. (Starting July 1, he'll get two days off a week) He actually really loves it and gets to work with two other good rural, hard-working young men from the area. He comes home and tells us stories from a couple of the older farmers that help run the place. I don't know why I felt impelled to write this, but I have truly wanted to him to be a very well-rounded young man, and although he has a lot to learn in life, this summer job has been a game changer for his outlook on life. I can tell.

A good mentor is not easy to find. I'm glad you had that experience.

I've been thinking about mentors a lot lately, as my girls, like your son, are at the age of starting first jobs (not careers - yet).

I've had good mentors, but I've also had lousy mentors. My first teaching partner was awesome, but in my second year of teaching, I had a partner who was extremely competitive and worked hard to make sure I failed as she seemed to feel my success would make her look bad. Unfortunately, it took years for me to come out from under that negative experience. I made sure to step in and help when she got another young, impressionable partner.

Like you, I grew up on a (hobby) farm and regret my kids didn't have that experience. I try not to dwell on it and know that I've given them lots of other great experiences that come from city living, but I do wish they were able to have that chance to dig in a real garden and be responsible for animals.

I started working in professional services in the medical software field in the mid-80s BPC - before PCs. I worked for one company that went out of business shortly after I started and another owned/managed by a nut case. Then I went to work for a startup founded and led by a most amazing leader and business person. I didn't have much experience at that time and was given a fabulous opportunity to travel and work with hospitals throughout the US and one in Singapore. I developed great adaptability and confidence working with buggy software - never knew what I would encounter at the next customer site. I love software and medicine and was truly blessed to fall into something that was such a perfect fit for me. Being in a small, entrepreneurial company also offered me the chance to become a manager, and the leader of our company was a wonderful teacher and role model for me, being new to that role. I went on to advance to a senior executive level position in the same field before I retired and I think, and have been told by quite a few people who worked with me, that I was a great leader and the best manager they ever had. I know I changed some people's lives by seeing what they were capable of and believing they could do bigger and better things than they, themselves believed. Maybe I inherently had some of what it took to do that but I give great credit to the leadership and experience I had at that company starting back in 1989. In any case I feel so fortunate to have had such an enjoyable and fulfilling career that pretty much started with that company.

I left college winter term worked full time in a mall department store. Talk about BORING. It was all I needed to convince myself back to school was the only thing that would save me!!

I grew up on a very large farm in central Texas and was forced to work in the fields every summer, which I hated. From the time I was fourteen, I was forced to drive a tractor in the fields, and this caused me severe depression and suicidal thoughts, but I got through it by telling myself that it was a temporary situation and that I must be patient. I do not believe in any way that farm work or physical labor is necessary to make a boy into a man - that is a very outdated concept IMO.

When I was working in the fields, I fantasized constantly about being somewhere else. The depression I went through every summer affected my appetite, and so I ate very little and remained very thin. I wrote a lot of poetry during this period of my life, to describe the anguish that I felt, and one English teacher that I had very much appreciated this and had several of my poems published in student magazines.

I ended up hating my father because of being forced to work in the fields. I was happy to work, but I wished that he owned a delicatessen or dress shop instead of a farm. I loved helping my mother in the kitchen, I loved cooking and also wanted to sew and make clothes, but I was forbidden to use the sewing machine.

@Lars I am so sorry that you went through that time in your life. But you overcame it and went on to do what YOU wanted to do. It made you stronger. I know those times must have been very hard for you but you should be proud that you made it through and made your own life choices. I hope that your father was able to realize he was wrong and that you were able to repair your relationship. Thank you for sharing.

Different than some replies, but when I was a tween, I took over cooking our family dinners during the week. For this, I was paid $10 allowance, a big deal! I often got to plan what we would eat, not always, and would spend hours pouring over recipes in the Betty Crocker cookbook.

I already was an enthusiastic cook, my mother was a good cook, but at 12 I was frying chicken, mashing potatoes, making cobbler and such.

Many mishaps as I liked to "experiment" but overall

washing all the dishes while the family was outside playing/ chatting with neighbors on a sunny evening was a good thing for me and I have always loved to cook and am good at it, which has served me well all my life.

Not my experience but my husband’s: In high school, he reluctantly took an after school and weekend job. He was exposed to positive, optimistic, and encouraging people for the first time. He realized he didn't have to continue in the same pessimistic way his family functioned. He continued at that job through his college years. In that job, he met a customer that offered him an opportunity that became his career of over 40 years. He says working that after school job changed his attitude and life.

my first "real" office job was both beneficial and detrimental to my career.

The detriment: it was 2000 in Seattle during the dotcom boom. we all had this impression that office environments were changing and that it was ok to be much more casual both in dress and attitude. (I worked the front desk at an architecture firm, and they let me have a facial piercing because it was "edgy", LOL). Unfortunately, I took it too far and was actually fired a couple times. years down the line I landed a really amazing gig in a super fancy downtown office, and I majorly reigned the attitude in. I had more success there than any other place, and finally built up a solid reputation that has been going strong ever since.

The benefit: I was just out of art school and I had no idea what I wanted to do. I hated my job as an admin assistant at that architecture firm, but the interior design and marketing departments each took me under their wings and started giving me graphic design tasks. I realized that was what I wanted to do for my career and was able to take it from there. our office was right across the hall from an ad agency, where I made friends and was eventually given my first junior design role.

I had such bad times at that architecture firm, but so many amazing memories and experiences too!

I have enjoyed most of my jobs and/or the industry they were in, my experience in Mortgage banking gave me a better than average understanding the circle of lending. It’s come in handy many times. The boss at another company I worked for had worked her way up from reception to eventually VP of HR. We didn’t always land on the same page but I learned a lot from her. But my most favorite job and the one I learned my most valued lessons from was working as an Independent Living counsler. My friend was a psycologist and worked at a large charity. She hired me to teach intellectually disabled adults how to live independently on their own. It was without a doubt the most rewarding and insightful job I’ve ever had and I learned so many life lessons while doing it. .

I would have to say the person that influenced my work life the most was a teacher that I worked with. When I was going to school at nite to get my teaching degree, I worked in the day for a science teacher as his paraprofessional in the classroom. He was bigger than life. He came in like walking on stage and put on a performance every day for the kids. Nothing got in the way of that. He made sure the kids knew how much he enjoyed them. He built real relationships with them and they learned so much from him. He was my all time role model, and I became a good friend outside of school He taught me how to love my job, my life work. A couple of years later, in the early 90's this dim witted school district took him out of the classroom due to "complaints" from a couple of parents. They put him in offices as a teacher advisor. Then did not rehire him. He went on to work with old people and brought the same joy to his life. He is gay. He taught me a lot then too.