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#firstfifteenjobs

By August 7, 2016No Comments

I’ve really enjoyed the #firstsevenjobs hashtag on Twitter. My friend Jess decided to throw up her first 30 jobs. I haven’t had that many. But I’ve had a few. Starting when I was 12. Because, in my house, you didn’t sit around. You worked.

  1. Otolaryngology Clinic Assistant
    My first summer job was at age 12 at the University of Maryland Medical System. I worked as a volunteer (full time) in the ENT clinic. Essentially, I was an errand boy. But it was fun. I’d take blood to the lab, transport patients, wrap and autoclave minor surgical trays, etc.
  2. Operating Room Assistant
    During my second summer at UMMS, I was a full time volunteer in the OR. I got to wear scrubs every day. I thought that I was the coolest. More errand-y stuff: taking samples to labs, transporting patients, picking up supplies, etc.
  3. Commercial Crabber
    After two summers working for free, I had to make money. My older sister’s boyfriend’s family owned a crab shack. I spent the summer working on their boat. I got picked up at 3:30am and dropped off at 7:30pm. It was brutal. But it definitely taught me the value of hard work. There was no slouching on the crab boat.
  4. Sub Shop Worker
    This one lasted for like 2 days. I hated it. So not for me.
  5. Animal Husbandry Tech
    Over the next 3 summers, I worked taking care of Rhesus monkeys in an obesity and diabetes research lab. Much of the work consisted of cleaning pans…which essentially is shoveling monkey shit into drains in the floor of the space. I also fed them. Assisted in procedures, Etc.
  6. Lab Tech
    After 3 summers shoveling shit, I got a promotion of sorts. I did my own research (for my senior honors thesis at Roanoke) on phosphorylation of glycogen synthase in the aforementioned Rhesus monkeys as a Juvenile Diabetes Foundation student fellow. I got a posted at FASEB out of it.
  7. Admissions Tour Guide
    To make money in college I worked two days a week giving tours of the campus. It was a pretty cool job. I enjoyed it. Except for the time between tours…which consisted of sitting at a long table stuffing envelopes. That wasn’t so fun. Especially hung over. Which was often.
  8. Pediatric Endocrinology Assistant
    After graduation from college and before grad school, I spent a year doing whatever the head of pediatric endocrinology wanted me to do. On clinic days, I shadowed her and pretended to be a medical student. On non-clinic days, I designed and developed a medical records database system for the division.
  9. Graduate Research Assistant
    In grad school, I got a GA…which essentially paid a small stipend to support me while I did my doctoral research. I studied the effects of the Trp-64-Arg polymorphism on the physiology of the Beta-3 Adrenergic receptor in CHO cells. I wasn’t very good at bench research. At all.
  10. Freelance Designer and Developer
    During grad school, I made extra cash by designing logos, club fliers, websites, etc. It was this side hustle that eventually set me on my current path.
  11. Web Designer
    I secured my first real design job before leaving grad school with my Masters. No way I was getting that Ph.D. I sucked. But I was good at design. God bless Morton Jackson for hiring me.
  12. Art Director
    I was promoted at Gr.8 within a year.
  13. Founding Partner
    I left Gr.8 after about 18 months to start my own interactive design firm with three other guys. At no|inc, I led creative, design, biz dev and legal.
  14. Executive Creative Director
    I was responsible for all creative.
  15. Designer
    Who I am now. Designer with a capital D. I help my clients think through design problems.

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