April 27, 2007

Filling In For Lefty's Friday Three Questions

Due to a loss in his immediate family, Lefty Brown has decided to take a short sabbatical from his blog. However, since one of the features of his blog is the Friday Three Questions, he has asked me to fill in and ask the "Friday Three".

Being that I was just canned from what should have been a long term temp assignment (long story short - they wanted someone who could stay, and I've had interview requests coming. It just wasn't meant to be), my questions are going to be about the wacky world of work. (My answers are in red)
  1. What was the first job that you ever had - that is, your first encounter with the "real world". Paper routes count. My first job was working for a warehouse that filled orders for hardware stores. I was just out of my first year of college, and began earning some really good money - $20/hour, which even in 1986, was good money. Good enough for me to buy my own 13 inch television.
  2. Have you had some extreme changes in your career, moving out of your primary area of interest and into a cool niche, and if so, what attracts you to it? I began as a substance abuse counselor, and ended up doing community work, as well as my current interest of policy and advocacy. I also moved from treatment to prevention, and have more of an overall public health focus. What attracts me to administration (i.e., being a "desk jockey"), is that as a counselor, I focus on one person for an hour, but as an administrator, I can insure that they get the best possible treatment.
  3. Are you doing what you wanted to do as a kid when you grew up? Does this question make sense? I always had dreams of being a writer, which is part of the reason why I blog, and I've written grants, so kinda sorta. I have a draft of the Great American Novel on my laptop - however, it's missing one vital ingredient. Verbs.


Feel free to chime on in!

4 comments:

Lefty said...

1. Other than mowing lawns or babysitting, I was a movie reviewer for a local paper when I was a sophomore in High school. I wish I kept some of those reviews, because I'm sure they stunk to high heaven. I think I gave Predator a really good review.

2. Nope. I do hang on to the dream of someday writing comic books, but finding an artist willing to work for cheap proves a challenge in itself.

3. No. Up until my junior year in high shcool I was convinced I was going to follow in George Lucas' footsteps, go to USC, and become a director.

Thanks Gordon!

Adam said...

1. My first job was working in my dad and uncle's cabinet shop. I don't know at what age I started but I remember playing in and around the shop when I five or six. I probably started helping with less dangerous aspects when I was seven or eight.

2. I had planned on becoming an engineer and majored in Applied Mathematics in college (due to an adivisor claiming a pre-engineering program was about to start who then left the school). I eventually returned to woodworking and love it; want to make a career of it.

3. When I was younger I wanted to be a landscape architect. I love working outside and gardening and it totally fit with my technical thought processes. I don't feel I missed the mark too much. I'm still working with plants, just farther along in their life cycle.

Roger Owen Green said...

I NEED to do a piece on work, next month.

1. Anyway, yeah, I had a paper route, the Binfghhamton Press. It was an evening paper 6 days a week, but then the Sunday morning paper. Must have been a couple years.
2. From comic books to libraries, with some side trips.
3. I wanted to be a minister or a lawyer. How am I doing?

Julie said...

1. My first job was at a Pizza place. I think you heard that story....

2. I worked as an office manager for a long time for a leasing company- and now I am QI Coordinator at a hospital for the Stroke Program. I love the changes we see in patient care and the outcomes getting better.

3. When I was a kid I wanted to be a hairdresser. I went to beauty school, but I dropped out cause I was no good at cutting hair. I later realized that I needed glasses and that was probably the reason I could not cut a straight line. I'm a beauty school drop out.