Make a list of all the jobs you’ve had, from allowance to adulthood. Reach as far back as you can remember. How long did each job last, how much did you make? What age were you? What were the spaces, smells, and textures like in your work environment.
Is there a job you’ve always wanted to try and never have? Astronaut? Physicist? Teacher? Electrician? Backhoe operator? Whose job would you love to steal.
Tell me the weirdest job, the most fun, the strangest, the one that paid you the most. If you had the opportunity not to work, would you stop altogether and write or do your art? What’s keeping you from pursuing your creative dreams?
Are you or were you ever a workaholic? How do you strive for balance? When you have time off, what do you do? Did you have to work to put yourself through school? Or did your parents take care of that.
Our work history tells us a lot about our relationship to money, work, scarcity, and abundance. How have these relationships changed for you as you’ve gotten older or matured? How have they stayed the same?
- Do a post of your Job List
- Grab a couple of jobs, and do a 10 minute Writing Practice on one of these:
What I loved about this job…
What I hated about this job…
- Mold any emotional, intellectual, and social information you glean from the Job List and Practices into a short post.
Have fun with it. Let it be wild.
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
http://pressposts.com/Art/WRITING-TOPIC–JOB-WHAT-JOB/
Submited post on PressPosts.com – “WRITING TOPIC – JOB! WHAT JOB?”
LikeLike
I used Excel this morning to make a list. At least 24, probably 25, paying jobs since childhood.
LikeLike
What a great topic! And I love how you structured the exercise associated with it.
An Excel spreadsheet, mm? That’s some serious jobs!
LikeLike
I’ve had some stupid jobs. One of the worse was a construction job with an independent contractor at the Tyrone open-pit copper mine. I was a laborer and my job was to loosen stuck valves on one of the tailing dams. The my tools consisted of a bucket of diesel fuel, a giant spanner, and a 20 lb sledge hammer. It was in January when daytime temps might be in the 40’s and hard blowing wind making the chill factor in the 20’s. Unpleasant conditions for a New Mexican. My “uniform” consisted of: blue jeans, T-shirt, a classic US Army field jacket (that I ruined on this stupid job), boots, gloves, and a hardhat.
I’d walk down the line, pour about a pint of diesel into the top of the valve, walk to the next valve about 20 yards and do the same thing. I’d do this to about 3 or 4 valves, then walk back to the first one, put the spanner on the big nut, and hammer the piss out of it with the 20 lb. sledge. It might take 10 or 20 hard blows to knock the valve loose. After it was turning, I’d walk to the next one and repeat the procedure. There were at least 50 valves to loosen.
I decided this job sucked so much after the first day, I didn’t show up for the second day. I wanted nothing to do with that kind of work. Besides, the foreman was a jerk and the pay wasn’t worth it. I figured I could find a better job down the line.
But believe it or not, this isn’t the job that made me want to go back to college to finish a degree. That was another stupid job after this one…
LikeLike
MM: Interesting that you worked at the Tyrone open-pit copper mine. I just watched the Niki Caro film North Country last weekend about the mines up near Eveleth (our neighbor is from Eveleth) and Virginia, Minnesota. (Part of the film was shot in New Mexico.)
I sure respect the people who had to make a living that way because there were so few good paying jobs around. But I sure wouldn’t want to work in that industry.
Your Excel spreadsheet is impressive. You could then sort by category. 8)
LikeLike
And then you can get a job being an excel spreadsheet specialist – they’re called data analysts. (NOT!)
LikeLike
[…] all the jobs I’ve had in my life, which is the first step in this week’s topic post (Job! What Job?). I thought I had a lot more jobs than this. I guess I’m more stable than I […]
LikeLike
[…] -from Topic post, Job! What Job? […]
LikeLike
[…] Topic post Job! What Job?; writing practice on one of the jobs from this […]
LikeLike
[…] Topic post, Job! What Job?; companion writing practice to this […]
LikeLike
[…] -from Topic post, Job! What Job? […]
LikeLike
[…] -from Topic post, Job! What Job? […]
LikeLike
[…] -from Topic post, Job! What Job? […]
LikeLike
[…] -related to post: WRITING TOPIC – JOB! WHAT JOB? […]
LikeLike
[…] by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex, and work. Especially work. People love to read about work. God knows why, but they do….What you need to remember is that there’s a difference […]
LikeLike