SOLSC 21: All My Jobs

Last summer, I was having lunch with some friends, and they started listing all the jobs they’d had, which was not many. When I thought about all my jobs, there were so many I had to sit down and make a list.

            It started with the jobs I had while a student at Antioch College, which had an innovative at the time program of cooperative work-study, alternating time on campus with jobs anywhere in the U.S. or sometimes even abroad. Then I dropped out of college, went back to Antioch, got married and dropped out again. And then a series of grownup jobs that turned into the career of copy editor, a job I hadn’t ever heard of when I set off for college. Here’s the list.

1. Saks-34th Street, sales clerk

2. National Institutes of Health, normal control

3. Public Health Service, statistical clerk

4. private lawyers representing clients at the FCC, typist

5. 3 psychoanalysts, secretary

6. United World Federalists, secretary

7. New York Times, copy”girl”

8. Bantam Books, secretary

9. various typing temp jobs

10. Bobbs-Merrill, secretary to associate editor

11. various freelance copyediting jobs over three years

12. Village Voice, freelance, staff copy editor, copy chief, deputy managing editor

13. New York University Journalism Dept., full-time tenure track, but failed to get tenure; yet continued as an adjunct for many years

14. Network of East-West Women, an organization I helped start that supports women activists in the post-communist countries of eastern Europe

15. World Business, a short-lived publication of KPMG, the transnational accounting organization

16. various freelance copyediting jobs, over two years

17. Publishers Weekly, freelance, staff copy editor, managing editor

            Is that impressive? I don't know. I just don't know what it's like to work at one place for my whole life. There's variety here, but also a commonality. And I’ve started a series of essays describing each of these jobs, just to get down my memories and to see if there’s any pattern or lessons to be passed on. For example, there's my trajectory at the Village Voice and at Publishers Weekly.

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I’m participating in the 15th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 21 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!