Jobs that I had

I started working when I was about 14 or 15, as an assistant to the teacher at the English lab of my language school back home. The list of jobs, placements, volunteering activities and other things of the such that I had until I moved out of Brazil would be enough for a whole post, but today I’d rather go straight to the one’s I’ve done since I came to Europe, the “juicy bits”. I know for a fact that not that many people with degrees back in Fortaleza would be willing to do some of those, but to me it was all good. I mean, of course it was not all good, but hey, you live, you learn, so I don’t regret those experiences – mostly because they really helped my tight budget. At the end of the day, it was also about exercising something that most people forget: humbleness, which of course should not be mistaken with “enjoying being humiliated”. A humble person simply does not have an arrogant attitude towards life. I did refuse stuff that I wouldn’t do in any circumstances (I even got offers such as being a “glamour girl” and being a drug dealer). But oh well, I digress, those are also subjects for other posts.

So here is the list (though I’m pretty sure I’ll forget something), trying to go on chronologically:

1- Enumerator: I had to go to rooms at my university back in Nottingham and count how many people were there. Apparently, the point of that was so the uni would know if the rooms were being well used.

2- Student host: Basically, our “team” would work with kids and teens doing activities that would give them a taste of what academic life was like. Sometimes they would come to the university, but mostly we went to the schools. The point of that was to encourage them to carry on studying after finishing school. The activities varied from a range. Sometimes I had to show them around the campus (I did that exclusively for another job as well, but that was for people who were already applying to universities, for the “open days”). Sometimes we also had to do presentations. I actually truly loved that job.

3- Then I started a “career” in catering. I worked for a hotel, than at an Ice Arena (which was somewhat alright because I even got to watch a Green Day gig there once), then a Spicy chicken restaurant in London, then for a cool catering company that every now and then did some posh events, in places like the Royal Albert Hall. I was once at one that had in their guest list Margaret Thatcher and Tina Turner (I must say at this point that I’m not a big fan of the “baroness” though). I confess that I was never too skilful for those, but the good thing is that a person can observe how arrogant customers can be, so then you understand better the side of those who are behind the bars, and hence you become a nicer client, to say the least.

4- Promoting: for a while it was newspapers. Then, once I moved to Barcelona, it was a recurring music concert. I didn’t last too long on those jobs. The offers were unstable, and working on the streets, subject to shitty weather and the abuse of the people ain’t that good.

5- Charity fund-raising: I lived in High Wycombe for about a month, and there I would go knocking on doors, asking people for their bank details so we could make direct debits from their accounts to help a somewhat famous charity. Yes, laugh all you want, who goes asking people they never met before for their bank details!? I did suffer a lot of abuse from the people doing that. So I didn’t have what it takes for this one either. At first I thought I was doing something nice, but at the end of the day it was a sales job. Then I worked for a while for another charity, this time selling childish badges door-to-door as well. It wasn’t that much better either.

6- I once had the silly responsibility (nonetheless important for the people who hired me) of forwarding to Scotland the letters that first had gone to an old couple’s address in London. I didn’t get much money from that, but I felt helpful, and I must say that I always thought that it is such a nice thing that you can forward letters in the UK!

7- I had a couple of placements in the, let’s say, “media industry” in the UK. No money made out of that, though they were somewhat fun. I suppose those experiences look good on my CV now.

8- Working at an “amusement house”: honestly, I felt like a drug dealer. Possibly the worst job I ever had. Lucky me it only lasted a week – no, I didn’t actually quit, nor was I dramatically fired, they simply decided that after all my availability didn’t match up with their needs. Anyhow, I didn’t imagine that at first, but it was terrible to watch all those people on pensions or retired loose their money gambling. My tasks pretty much consisted on being nice and smiley to them, making sure all was fine, and that they always had tea or coffee and snacks. Certainly not the job I had in mind when I graduated in journalism and carried on studying cinema for my postgrads.

9-Taking care of exhibition rooms for a local cultural centre: basically greeting people, counting them, asking what they thought about it afterwards, checking if all the pieces were in the right place, and making sure no one crazy would somehow “harm” the exhibits. A bit boring, but at least I had sometime to do my course reading.

That’s as far as I can remember for now… all of this just to say that I’m currently unemployed. Does anyone out there have any offers to make?